On the Rain-Sixth Game Beated of the Year Precipice of Darkness

Plus members got a hot deal on the two Penny Arcade games. I think I got both for 3 bucks. Three bucks for 2 games is a fantastic deal. Especially when the game are good.

This is a good game.

It was good way back when I bought and played it on the Mac. It ain't quite as good an experience on the PS3, but still a fun experience. The wandering around of the environment is a little wonky, it really emphasizes how much spring back the analogue sticks have. My character often ended up facing the exact wrong way whenever I let go of the stick. Annoying. I learned to not just release the stick, but ease off it.

Once you get into battle, that control problem goes away. The battles are great. Turn-based but augmented with timing based button presses. You can block, partial block or counterattack depending on your timing with the block buttion, that kind of stuff. It keeps you interested in the battles without becoming an annoying real time clusterfuck like Dragon's Age. Man, I really dislike that game.

The battles are a high point, the only thing that eclipses them is the writing. It funny, clever, witty and profane. The writing is so good that I found myself clicking on everything just to read their descriptions.

Even with all that reading, this is not that long an experience. I beat it in just over a day. But there is a nice blend of enemies and environments, the whole thing flew by. Which is not to say that it was easy. This game assumes you know how to game. The enemies hit hard and often. There are no random encounters, but you can't sneak around enemies either. You will see them and either walk right up to them or try to sneak around them and have them attack you anyways. And the battles are real time, dudes will hit hard and often once the battles start. You'd best be doing the same.

This game is not just for the Penny Arcade faithful. It looks.. okay, sounds... okay, plays pretty good and reads great. It is a good game. It is a game well worth playing. Play it.