14 DAY TRIAL // Steam is now host to the first game in the episodic content series created by Penny Arcade. The game, which is awesomely named Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One, will cost you 13 Euros to buy, which is less than the price for it on the Xbox Live Arcade, where you have to spend 1,600 Microsoft points for it. There's also the option of getting Penny arcade Adventures from a digital distribution service called Greenhouse.
The guys from Penny Arcade, Mike 'Gabe' Krahulik and Jerry 'Tycho' Holkins, are saying that the move to Steam is justified by the big player base that the Valve games pipeline allows them to target. Another reason for the move is the fact that the Steam version of the game is featuring some exclusive stuff, in the form of achievements that will show up in your Steam account after you earn them in the game. They hope the game will gain a significant following by being so widely available through digital download.
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One allows the player to create a character and then team up with Gabe and Tycho to track and destroy a gigantic robot. It all takes place back in 1922 and the plot speaks of a wide-ranging conspiracy that is based on the power of clowns and homeless people. It's pretty funny, in the same way the comic strips that Penny Arcade creates are pretty funny.
However, the game is rather short and repetitive, and even frustrating at times. While the shortness can be excused, this being the first episode of a series that aims to deliver quick and funny games at short intervals of time, the fact that there's very little to do in the game world is not so easy to overlook.
If you'd like to see how episodic content is shaping up, outside of the Sam & Max series, go on Steam and get Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One (typing that can really make a man feel tired).