I promise I will never use that acronym again. Rain-slick is the first of four episodes in the Penny Arcade Adventures series. The game is developed and published by Hothead Games and was a joint effort with the folks over at Penny Arcade.
The writing and art style were obviously created by the Penny Arcade, and this results in one of the coolest looking, and funniest games I have played. The main story of the game revolves around your character's (who you create at the beginning of the game) house being stepped on by a giant robot. You soon meet up with Tycho and Gabe (who, if you read PA, you should know) and you party up to go figure out the mystery behind this robot.
The gameplay is almost like a mashup between a point-and-click adventure game and an RPG, although heavily leaning toward RPG gameplay. All movement is handled by the mouse, and most combat, except for blocking and special moves, is handled by the mouse as well. You also get "summons" including a seemingly useless cat. The combat is functional but not amazing, it is fast enough to keep from being a chore.
There are four environments to look around, but only one of them really has any extra things to do. There is a collection of NPCs in each area to give you small sub quests and once again the writing for these characters is very good.
The biggest problem with the game is that too many of the quests are just fetch missions. These start to get old quick, but since this is an episodic game it is fairly short (probably will take you about 5-6 hours.) The game wraps up how you expect for an episodic game, with a lot of questions unanswered.
Overall, if you are a fan of Penny Arcade, there is no reason for you not to at least try the game. There is a demo for every platform it is on (360, PC, Mac, Linux) so there is no excuse not to try it. If you aren't a fan of Penny Arcade, there is a lot of enjoyment here for you too but you may have to try the demo before you drop the slightly steep amount of $20 for the game.
Verdict: B
by Nicolas Perez
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