Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode One

About

This adventure RPG blends point-and-click puzzle solving with turn-based combat set in a wacky 1920s-inspired world. You build a customizable character then team up with Gabe and Tycho to track down a giant robot destroying neighborhoods. Between snappy dialogue and absurd scenarios like mime cults worshipping a silent deity, the game mixes RPG progression with comic book-style cutscenes. Battles let you chain team attacks and watch exaggerated animations as you gather clues about rogue automatons and haunted apartments. The game leans hard into the absurdity of its source material with over-the-top enemy designs and dry humor. Fans of the webcomic will recognize iconic figures like Annarchy and the Fruit F*cker, while the steampunk twist on classic Penny Arcade chaos feels distinct. Though it never became a mainstream hit, the series carved a niche for itself with its dedication to the creators’ signature irreverence. The first episode’s self-contained mystery about a robot invasion and a book that only mimes can read sets up a weird but satisfying experience.

Storyline

The game begins with the narrator reading the first verse of a poem, later called The Quartet for the Dusk of Man. The player then designs a character of their choosing; with an introduction in the 1920s suburban neighborhood of the Player. A mysterious voice instructs the Player, whose home is quickly destroyed by a giant robot (a steampunk version of Fruit Fucker Prime), while smaller steampunk Fruit Fuckers attack. After a brief tutorial, the player teams up with Tycho Brahe, a scholar of Apocalyptic Studies turned detective, and his exceedingly violent partner who fought with the devil, Johnathan Gabriel, in search of information on Fruit Fucker Prime. The three meet with Tycho's mechanically gifted niece, Anne-Claire, who suggests they search New Arcadia for evidence of Fruit Fucker Prime and parts of it. Tycho, Gabe, and the player begin collecting evidence of the giant robot, while also searching for a new home for the player and running afoul of a cult of mimes. They discover the smaller Fruit Fuckers are built in a factory underneath the Shithole, an apartment building the player briefly considers renting from, and that the mimes are devotees of Yog Sethis, also known as the "Silent One". The Necrowombicon, an ancient book that has no text but can be interpreted by a mime, describes the Silent One as "a horrible deity of unending quiet", a giant mime with Cthulhu's head.