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A Short but Hilarious Adventure
The first episode of the Penny Arcade Adventures is a very brief but hilarious romp, featuring steampunk, bum fights, and mimes most eldritch.
Penny Arcade Adventures tells the story of Carl, a man living in the 1920's era town of New Arcadia. After Carl's house is crushed by a giant robot, he joins Tycho and Gabriel on their haphazard and hilarious quest to save the world. Along the way, you'll meet 1920's versions of popular characters from the Penny Arcade web comic, such as Anne Claire, Tycho's niece, and the infamous Fruit Fucker robots.
This game is hilarious. It goes without saying that you need to be a fan of the particular Penny Arcade style of humor, but if you are this game will have you in stitches. It's quite rare to run across a game that manages to be genuinely funny, but this game delivers in spades. From the crazy bum doctor obsessed with urinating on things to the old hotel aptly named “The Shit Hole,” the laughs never stop. The enemies are both creative and hilarious, ranging from bums, to barbershop quartets that assault you with their music, to mimes that wound you with their imaginary weapons.
The biggest downside of this game is its length. I finished this episode in about five hours, and I did every single side quest and found every item. If I hadn't been going for completion, I probably could have reached the end in around three and a half to four hours. That's not very much game for eight bucks, especially when you consider that there is zero replay value, unless you want to try the game's insane mode.
While this game is very short, there is a solid RPG there with some great mechanics. The little minigames you are forced to do for characters' special moves provide a good amount of interaction to keep you invested in the games turn-based battles, which can sometimes be rather long. There is also a basic level of item and resource gathering. PAA does a really good job of providing enough depth to the RPG systems to keep you entertained without spending most of your brief stay in its world wrestling with them.
If you're a huge fan of Penny Arcade the web comic or enjoy a good laugh, then this title is definitely worth picking up. However, if you want an in-depth turn-based RPG that provides several hours of entertainment, then you should probably just move on. There isn't much here, but what's here is good.
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System: |
PC
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| Genre: |
RPG
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| Experience: |
Finished the game
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