DeathSpank Reviews

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Written by Brother None on July 17th, 2010

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There's an enormous amount of loot to be pilfered as well, as you'd expect of any game styling itself on Diablo and much of the game's addiction comes from trying to pillage as much as you possibly can and, if you find yourself with a full satchel, you can grind down superfluous paraphernalia into glittering gold. Occasionally the game will hearken back to the heady days of 2D adventuring and you'll be required to combine a few items to solve puzzles, a mechanic that makes a welcome return (leading to a handful of '˜I haven't done that in years' moments) and one that could have been pushed a little further I feel.

You see herein the problem with DeathSpank: it's all mouth and no trousers. Everything looks utterly grand for the first hour or so but then the misty eyed gratitude that an original game like this even exists at the moment begins to fade. The voices begin to grate a little, the humour becomes somewhat predictable and the laughs begin to subside. Worse still, the enemies begin attacking you in hordes and a number of little niggling issues with the inventory system and the combat mechanics suddenly become less of a mild irritation and more of a noticeable impediment. Examples of this include the ability to only carry five of any one type of potion and the alarming ease with which it is possible to accidentally activate your Justice Attack in the heat of battle and waste it on a retarded chicken rather than the demon boss standing two feet away. Moreover, as the numbers of your adversaries increase you find yourself more often than not slipping into hit and run cycles with all but individual enemies.

DeathSpank (the game) emerged from creator Ron Gilbert's fondness of hack-and-loot offerings such as Diablo and its ilk. As such, it features lots of hacking (and shooting) using myriad weapons (and protected by equally diverse armor and support items) that make up the loony loot that said combat results in.

I share Gilbert's appreciation for the genre, so it was plain to see where it had manifest. There's a lot of loot, and even the most basic of items embodies the charm that permeates the game. DeathSpank's lowly health-restoring chicken leg is, logically, produced from killing chickens -- but not just any chickens, "stoopid" and "vicious" ones. You may very well find yourself using chickens as a weapon, too, firing off volleys of summoned chickens to mob your enemies.

The game is clearly aware of the dangers of devolving into a mindless button-basher, but it still doesn't entirely avoid that fate. Many of the weapons and items are largely unnecessary and you'll soon learn to stick with just a few favourites. There are some useful time savers though, such as a portable grinder to turn unwanted loot into gold.

This game has received a lot of hype and praise and at this point I have to agree with it. The one down side is that the story did not grab me like other games have, but like as I mentioned above, I was having so much fun playing that the story didn't matter. (That's what games are for anyway right?) To quote Death Spank (If you buy only one game this year, you don't buy enough games,) but if you do only buy one game or are on a budget I suggest you check out Death Spank.

The game's combat system is simplistic, but frenetic and enjoyable all the same. Like other hack'n'slash games of its ilk, DeathSpank wades through hordes of foes, slashing wildly until everything lays dead at his feet. DeathSpank can equip up to four weapons at a time, each one mapped to one of the four face buttons on the controller. Although the game doesn't have any magic per se, there are several different types of weapons that allows for a fair bit of customization. There are basic physical weapons like swords and clubs, but there are also elemental weapons which deal additional fire, ice, nature, or undeath damage. There are also crossbows, which allow DeathSpank to fight from a distance. Finally, there are justice weapons, which normally deal plain physical damage, but under special conditions, unleash a unique attack.

In addition to the typical elements an action-RPG needs to succeed, DeathSpank is fortified with classic adventure-style puzzles that press you to find creative solutions without being too obtuse or frustrating. But like the hero, the game doesn't take itself too seriously and expects that the player do the same. Even though it has many different weapon types and intricacies like elemental damage and resistance, combat leans more toward playability than depth. The action can be somewhat spammy, but it's easy to get into the zone, and you'll still derive some challenge out of the default difficulty level. As a bonus, a friend can join as a wizardly sidekick to provide healing and extra magical firepower.

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