By this point, every gamer has probably at least heard of the Penny Arcade webcomic created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Between the comic itself, their Child’s Play charity, and both PAX East and PAX Prime, these two icons have been said to be the face of gamers today. It’s difficult to say whether this is true or not, but there’s no denying their golden touch. It seems like everything they create is massively successful…with one exception:their video game. Now that’s not to say that the first two episodes of On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness were failures, but the project languished after the second episode’s release and was eventually presumed dead by everyone including its creators. However, the series was rescued by the developers at Zeboyd Games and given a major facelift. It’s now been four years since the last title was released; does Episode 3 live up to what came before?

 

Episode 3 picks up a week after the events of the second game with Gabe and Tycho in possession of a powerful and ancient tome called the Necrowombicon. This book was responsible for the resurrection of the two ancient gods they defeated in the previous games, though they are unable to read it. While putting down the remnants of a mime cult, the book is stolen by Dr. Blood and they must track him down while also dealing with the growing evil in the city of New Arcadia. The writing in the game is simply hilarious with plenty of jokes that fans and non-fans can both enjoy. References are constantly being made to the comic as well as gaming tropes at large. Holkins’ witty writing will keep players entertained throughout, but it often lags in the storytelling department. Many times throughout the eight hour quest, I actually lost track of what my end goal was mainly because the writing would begin rambling in order to tell more jokes. The plot does pick up significantly in the last hour, but it almost comes too late. Still, fans will appreciate what’s there and the all too familiar style of the comics.