The evil does not confine itself to towering terrors. Dark gods lurk on window sills, robotic minions with an unnatural love of fruit lurk in alleys, crazed hobos wander the streets looking for easy marks, and an insane cult of mimes conspire to summon their Silent God to destroy all of mankind.

That's right. Mimes.

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is a video game created by the crew that made the online comic strip Penny Arcade, and it's filled with the sort of humor that made the comic famous. The game takes place in the 1920s, and as the title implies, it's heavily inspired by doses of noir and H.P. Lovecraft. It's a straightforward computer role-playing game, with players taking control of their own customizable characters as well as their soon-to-be partners in the Startling Developments Detective Agency, Penny Arcade's signature geeks Tycho and Gabe.

The game unfolds as a classic horror investigation as the heroes set out to solve the mystery of the house-destroying robot, only to quickly stumble upon increasingly bizarre subplots as they talk with the inhabitants of the city.

Exploration is handled through a series of free-form, third-person-perspective maps, with occasional Final Fantasy-style combats breaking out. When this happens, players assume control of the individual characters, directing them to use their special powers to battle the monstrosities threatening New Arcadia. These attacks range from mundane fisticuffs to super-powered assaults. Each character has his or her own powers, which are triggered by playing a short mini-game. For example, Tycho's super machine gun blast requires a quick game of a Simon-like knockoff, while Gabe's assault requires a button-mashing race against a timer.

This being a Penny Arcade-spawned game, though, the horror is played for laughs, and mature ones at that. The game earns its M rating for strong language and graphic violence; it may look like a cartoon, but like South Park, it's not for kids.

When mimes attack

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is a niche video game, created by guys who love video games. It's clearly designed for fans of Penny Arcade: It mimics the comic's cartoonish style perfectly, and it's packed with references to the comic. Fans will appreciate the in-jokes, as well as Tycho's signature pontifications and Gabe's blunt-as-hell punchlines.

Gameplay is decidedly average, serving primarily as an homage to both pen-and-paper and computer RPGs of years past. The game's branching dialogues and side quests evoke hours spent playing games like Call of Cthulhu, Final Fantasy, Knights of the Old Republic and Dungeons & Dragons, right down to the bouncing 20-sided die that begins each combat.

Getting used to combat takes a while, because it's not immediately obvious how the power-up system works. Readying an item (like a gauze to heal wounds) takes the last amount of time, with the primary attacks taking slightly longer. The special attacks, however, take a particularly long time, so much so that I thought I'd missed a button combination or some other trigger for them. The minimal help documentation didn't help; it took a quick search of the Internet to figure out I simply wasn't waiting long enough.

Given the lengthy charge times on powers, blocking enemy attacks—which reduces the amount of damage a character takes, and doesn't reset the refresh clock—is crucial, but timing those blocks can be difficult, as it's hard to discern when a monster's launching into its attack. The mini-game mechanic used to deliver the special attacks gets repetitive, but it increases in difficulty as new powers are unlocked, and there's generally enough things happening in combat that it doesn't become a huge problem.

Occasionally clunky combat system aside, what really makes Precipice of Darkness is the dialogue. Jerry Holkins (whose Penny Arcade alter ego is Tycho) did a great job of re-creating the comic's narrative feel within the game. It's the sort of game that fans won't mind spending a lot of time reading, which isn't something that can be said of a lot of RPGs.

The game has about five to eight hours' worth of play, which seems a bit short for its $20 price tag. While it's clearly labeled as episode one in a larger series, it would have been nice to get a bigger bang from that $20 price tag.

Ultimately, Precipice is a fun, intelligent (if often exceedingly vulgar) game that fans should appreciate. Non-fans who enjoy Lovecraft and pen-and-paper games will at least want to check out the demo; those who don't get or like Penny Arcade's brand of humor should avoid it completely.