Penny-Arcade Aventures is a unique and hilarious game, crafted with love by its makers, best savored unhurriedly.
This RPG from the creators of the online web comic of the same name is a hilarious gag reel encompassed in a very traditional and simple game format. The game aspect itself manages to be entertaining just so, mostly keeping out of your way and not frustrating you while trying to reach the next assuredly ludicrous event. As a game itself, it may lack some substance, but playing Penny-Arcade Adventures (PAA) is really all about enjoying the crude yet lavish writing of Tycho and Gabe's singular and expressive art in a completely different format.
The adventure lasts somewhere between 10-12 hours, somewhat due to tedious backtracking and item quests, but most of it is genuinely intriguing. The background for the story is simple: Tycho and Gabe form the Startling Developments agency in the city of New Arcadia, year 1922. The third character in the story is your own creation, male or female, and is customizable at the start of the adventure with a multitude of facial features and attires. Whatever "you" look like, Gabe has drawn the appropriate artwork for the character, which must have been a great undertaking, but enhances the immersion factor beautifully. The story starts when a giant and unusual robot crushes your house, at which point Tycho and Gabe appear to investigate. The story involves the resurrection of four Gods, one per episode presumably, and a slew of irreverent NPCs, dialogues, and events.
A good part of the game is spent walking around and investigating numerous items scattered around the four areas of the game, and during these times PAA feels very much like an adventure game. However, there is combat, a turn-based active time RPG system that needs to be commended for what is not present. The boys of Penny-Arcade have made a wise decision in cutting a lot of the fat to make the combat streamlined and enjoyable. Examples of good battle design are numerous: there are temporary status effects but no status effect cures, there are only three healing items which heal for set percentages and remain useful throughout the game, there is no sign of MP/SP/CP, special attacks being enabled solely through enough patience in combat, there are none of the typical "elements" found in many RPGs, enemies having weaknesses based on either a certain character's attacks, special attacks, or even attack items, and many more examples like this. Battles tend to last a little while, simply because the system demands so in waiting long enough for your special attacks to charge, blocking the enemies' blows with a timely LT or RT press in order to buy yourself some precious time. All in all, battles are parsimonious, which makes them all the more engaging when they occur.
The sound design is mostly good, especially in combat, and the narrator's voice truly fits the vibe of the game. The music is passable, neither pleasing nor grating. The visuals, besides the hundreds of dialogue sequences with expressive still portraits beautifully drawn by Gabe, are also average for a game in 2008. Friends and foes are a little on the small side, especially in combat, where information is also hard to process due to the small fonts used.
Now, understand well that this is not a game worth playing for its game-ness; it is worth playing because it is unbelievably funny. This is the funniest game I have ever played, by far. Essentially, the spirit of the three-panel comic has been masterfully blown-up one thousand times into a long, hilarious, interactive game. Everything in this game is bloody hysterical. Every inanimate object in the game has its own little caption, written with wit and love, greatly encouraging you to scour every corner of the (smallish) areas. The "bestiary" contains some absolutely riotous descriptions of the ludicrous enemies you've decapitated, enemies like the fruit fu***r robots, the hobos (big and small), the mimes and their dark counterpart, the evil clowns, and my personal favorite, the four dill holes of the barbershop quartet. The writing is crude, with plentiful yet judicious use of cussing and italics to properly convey where the comedy uproots in the sentence, but it is all part of makes Penny-Arcade unique and successful.
If you love Penny-Arcade, or have chuckled at any of their comic strips during the guys' successful ten-year tenure on the web, or if you're simply in the mood for something completely farcical and light-hearted, you should spend the fifteen dollars, acquire this game on the platform of your choice, kick back and enjoy.