This game is funny. That needs to be the start of any honest review of a game that is such, as so few games can manage even the most basic of comedic requirements. And yet Rain Slick is not juvenile, but a refined and intelligent romp through a steampunk dystopia populated with Tommy-gun wielding scholars and an unstoppable army of mimes. It carries a distinct witticism and style that can only come from Penny Arcade. There are belly laughs to be had throughout – and more importantly, you do not need to be a huge fan to get the humour. Rain Slick is not nearly as much fan service as you might expect, but capable of being standalone from the rest of the comic universe, with the occasional sly nod to the established canon.
Additionally the game is artistically striking, featuring a mixture of 2D art with cleverly designed 3D landscapes and characters. Player models look crisp and the environments are vivid and stylish. The rich detail in the numerous cut scenes is a major boon to the title, which draws almost completely off the art style of Penny Arcade’s comics. From the introductory movie to the main menu screen, this title practically oozes polish from every conceivable orifice.
It comes as no surprise then that the two aspects of Rain Slick that are a tremendous success are the hallmarks of Penny Arcade itself: clever and astute writing coupled with extremely polished and distinctive art. Unfortunately, those attributes aside, Rain Slick slips and falls off the titular precipice when it comes to gameplay.
From the start of the game, you create your own character in the Penny Arcade universe and embark on the yarn they have spun for you. Your house is trampled to dust within the first moments by a gigantic steam-powered robot of doom trailblazing its way to the city-centre of New Arcadia, the fictional Lovecraftian setting for the game. You very quickly meet up with Tycho and Gabe, main protagonists of the web-comic, as they pursue the mechanical beast - forming an unstoppable ménage à trois of demon-killing badass. You are aided in this quest by Startling Developments, the detective agency that they manage, tasked with investigating the paranormal and occult goings-on in the world. Equal parts X-Files and Sherlock Holmes, the agency is a hub around which the game revolves – allowing you to investigate clues, watch videos and manage your inventory and characters.
From there the rest of the game is predominantly simplistic adventure fare. Fetch quests, collection puzzles and grinding enemies is pretty much all you will be doing for the 4-6 hours the game will take to beat. The classical RPG combat has a satisfying chunkiness to it but ultimately fails to stave off repetition and boredom. The mechanics of fighting are also unrefined, requiring one too many mouse clicks than what you would instinctively assume and while the special power attacks do employ new control methods, they are so easy to max out that it would have been better to simply make them automatic.
Dialogue in Rain Slick is a primitive tool, yet carries the same sharp writing style as the rest of the game, while the case files themselves range from critically important to borderline insignificant. For example, you are incapable of entering one location without performing a ridiculous fetch quest in another, forcing you to collect X amount of item Y to pay the gatekeeper to give you item Z which lets you enter location… whatever. So far so early-90s-point and click. These are game conventions that belong in nostalgia only and feel out of place in a game that is cutting edge in so many other areas.
Apparently someone has been going around New Arcadia dropping loot chests on every single god-damn street corner. You acquire so many bandages, armour potions, speed boosts, power bracelets and flasks of ultimate evil that you quickly ignore them completely. This is compounded by the blocking system which means that, with practice, you will take next to no damage in battles - period. This is essentially Rain Slick’s biggest flaw. It is far too easy. Of course difficulty is not essential to enjoy a game, but one which is built around combat and puzzle solving is hindered a lot by being a walkover. The game even heals you back to full after every battle! It drains all challenge out of the gameplay entirely – meaning all you are left with is a repetitive grind-fest against a legion of identical enemies over and over and over…
As a complete package, Rain Slick leaves you feeling a little wanting. There is plenty of content and a superior level of polish but while the highs of this game are a triumph, the lows mar the entire experience. Hothead have promised ‘regular’ episodic content, so the problems should be fixed over time, and as an introduction it performs well - setting the scene while still holding back the really juicy parts of the adventure. It’s a solid title that still has plenty to prove.
