Once you've clicked on the start button the game immediately takes you to the character creation screen. There are lots of different choices for the male characters here, but sadly the ladies get a little less love. It's not because Hothead or Gabe (Mike Krahulik, the artist for Penny Arcade and subsequently this game) are sexist. No, the sad truth is that poor Mike, "Sucks at drawing girls," to paraphrase from the man himself. It's worth noting that he has reasserted his determination to do the gentler sex "up proper" for the next episode.

Whatever three-dimensional representation you end up with, your character will actually be represented in an ink-and-color form during the Penny Arcade-style animated cutscenes. This is exceptionally cool for obvious reasons, but becomes especially so when the hero (that's you) is committing daring deeds with his cohorts Gabe and Tycho. If these mythical men are your idols, then you'll be right at home during the tenure of your time with this game.

Why, exactly? Because Tycho (Jerry Holkins, otherwise known as the writer for Penny Arcade) himself spent several hours of his own -- we assume -- life in Hothead Games' Canadian stronghold hammering out every letter of every word you read in the game. The dialogue, story, attack descriptions and even item descriptions all bear his linguistic fruit. That is to say that if you regularly laugh at the Penny Arcade comics, you'll be laughing while playing this game as well.

The combat system that you'll be interacting with is decidedly old-school with a few neo-school twists. For instance, every character in the game has an equivalent to the classic Final Fantasy ATB (active time bar) that consecutively fills up three action options over a set period of time. First your character's item action opens up, then their basic attack and lastly their special attack becomes usable. This means you'll constantly be weighing whether to wait for your super attack, you standard attack or toss out some sort of item right away. Once you commit to an action the whole thing resets and starts to fill up again. It works for all intensive purposes, but those gamers who find joy in taking their battles like they take their alcohol -- slowly -- will find their expectations a bit tattered.

It's not a terrible battle system and I actually found myself quite wrapped up in it at certain times. Yet it does leave a bit more to be desired as far as depth goes. There is no magic system or distinguishing class system in the game. Every character feels a bit different, but largely similar. There are some sidekick characters such Anne-Claire that help to mix battles up a bit. They also make us wonder about the following games' sidekicks as well. It's also possible to improve your character's overall attack rating by finishing enemies with one of your special attacks, but it makes such a minor difference that maxing this stat out is mostly a goal some players can set for themselves.

The second fault I found with the game is the repeating fetch and kill quests. While I love a good hobocide as much as any other gamer there were times when I wonder where my creatively conjured quests were. Where is my mime-fight mini-game where I must do battle in some kind of silent gladiatorial fashion? These weren't things promised, but they certainly were opportunities missed. So I hope the Hothead and PA guys can work some magic for the next three games' quests, because while I vastly appreciate the pun of "taking out the trash" it couldn't hurt to inject some variety into the quests as well.

I'd also like to point out that as you progress in the game it becomes obvious that Gabe, Tycho and Hothead all started hitting a nice stride towards the end of creating this first episode. The quality level begins to rise towards the later acts and starts to shine brightly when you fight the last two "bosses" -- one of which involves the punching of a god in the face, so to speak. I fully expect the next episode to be an improved experience over this one and considering that you can transfer your character over from each episode, I'd say that the outlook is especially promising.

Your final question is probably, "But is OTRSPoD:EO worth my 20 bucks?" Which is a question I will reply to with an overall "Certainly" if you're a fan of the genre and, "Yes!" if you enjoy the PA material on a regular basis. While the game doubtlessly has its rough edges and starts out a little slow, it's also got a whole heaping of "Blood, Sweat and Tears" brand wax that gives it an overall shine.