It pains me to say this, but you don’t really need to read this review. Simply go to www.penny-arcade.com/comic/, read a couple strips, and see if they make you laugh. If they do, it’s a safe bet you’ll like On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1. If not, then this isn’t the game for you. And be warned, the game may look cute, but it definitely earns its M rating, and the comics make liberal use of adult language. But here’s a little more information to help you make your decision.

In 1922, something sinister lies beneath the surface of the city of New Arcadia. As the game begins, you have just finished raking your lawn. Taking a moment to admire your handiwork, your house is suddenly destroyed by the careless tread of a giant robot. Two young men run past you in pursuit of the giant machine. The narrator informs you there will be no time for windsurfing today. Determined to avenge the loss of your house, you take your rake and head off.

In your adventures, you’ll come across a wide variety of strange characters and interesting enemies. You’ll meet a garbage man with a jar full of teeth, a urologist who studies the effects of peeing on various things, and a vapid and slightly sinister man running the entrance of a boardwalk. And these are the people who are working with you! Your enemies include a cult of mimes, trash with teeth, drunk and violent hobos, and tiny diabolic juicing machines (known in polite company as Fruit F’rs) that force themselves upon innocent produce.

On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1 (hereafter referred to as Precipice) is a role-playing game utilizing an active-time battle system. This means that the enemies are constantly attacking you while you fight. They don’t wait for their turn. Each battle starts with an automatic d20 roll for initiative, with the winner going first. You have three action rings that slowly fill, giving you three different options during battle. You can use an item, attack or special attack. Each ring takes a longer time to recharge, so you can use an item first, wait to use your attack or wait longer to use your special attack.

Items play an important role in Precipice. For me, items in an RPG have always been something that you hoard, saving them and using them judiciously so as to always have them around when necessary. It took me awhile to realize that is not the case in Precipice. Items can be found in abundance, and their use makes things much easier. In addition to the standard health and revival items, there are an assortment of buff and de-buff items. For example, Lightnin’ Juice increases the speed your action ring fills, while the Sloth version decreases the speed of your opponents. Other items affect speed and strength and so on. My favorite item however is by far the orange. Tossed into the back of the battlefield, the orange provides the perfect distraction for the Fruit F’rs, preventing them from attacking as they sate their terrible appetites.

The three main playable characters are Gabe, Tycho and you. Gabe uses his fists, Tycho packs a tommy-gun and you have ... your rake. As you defeat the Fruit F’rs, you gather spare parts to use in upgrading your team’s weapons. This makes your special attacks stronger. Your special attacks involve playing a brief minigame to determine the strength of the attack. These games are fairly simple but can be a bit tense as it draws your attention fully away from the battle. Each character has their own game, and as you upgrade, the games become slightly more difficult. If two or more players are ready at once, they can perform a tag-team maneuver that uses both their special moves and inflicts even more damage. If an opponent is killed with a special move, you receive an overkill bonus, a permanent damage bonus. I thought this added an interesting tactical level as you try to set up certain characters to use their special moves to gain the bonus.

In addition to the three main characters, there are three support characters as well. These characters have their own action ring (with only one level), and once it is full, you can use them to attack your enemies. My personal favorite is T. Kemper, a small cat that you picked up along the way. His attack, Grooming (or Dooming), has a 1 in 2,104,294 chance of coughing up a devastating hairball. The rest of the time, enemies only take one point of damage as he licks himself.

The most interesting part of combat is the blocking system. Whenever an enemy attacks, if you pull the trigger at the right moment you can perform a block. The closer you are to the right moment, the better the block will be. This will result in a failure, a partial block, a full block or a counterattack. This is where the added difficulty of an active-time battle system really comes into play. It’s much harder to make your action decisions when you are constantly on the lookout for enemy attacks to block. With all the different things going on at once, I sometimes had to abandon any hope of blocking at all just to focus on the task at hand. I still think this is a fantastic addition though.

My favorite part of Precipice is by far the writing. New Arcadia is a strange and unsettling place. I found myself talking to everyone and looking at everything just to see what sort of strange and surreal place it is. Paint stores are actually just painted storefronts. The newest cars are equipped with a tank for fuel and a separate tank for meringue. Kerosene pumps resemble fire hydrants, and all of your neighbors seem a bit off. Every little thing I could examine helped bring this strange place to life.

I thought On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1 was lots of fun and hilarious to play. Then again, I find Penny Arcade a lot of fun and hilarious. Check out one of them, and if you like it, check out the other one. They make for a perfect pair.