Those who have followed my writings know of my love for Diablo-esq beat-em-ups.  (In fact I have been itching for some Sacred 2 action if anyone cares to join in on the fun).  That’s why when Hothead games released DeathSpank a few weeks ago, a Diablo-like game with Monkey Island humor, downloading that bad boy was a no-brainer for me.  The DGR crews hinted at a fantastic review of this game a few weeks ago, but were side-tracked by some tomfoolery known as an anniversary show or something.  Anyhow, after successfully completing this adventure, I felt the game deserved some discussion, so I’m offering up my thoughts for you to enjoy. 

DeathSpank is the brainchild of game designer Ron Gilbert.  Best known for his witty action/adventure series Monkey Island, Gilbert had been working on DeathSpank since 2004.  The game centers around an egotistical hero known simply as “DeathSpank”, a character originally found in Gilbert’s Grumpy Gamer comics.  It was foretold that DeathSpank would be a hero to the downtrodden and that he was to possess an artifact of unimaginable power known simply as “The Artifact”.  However, this artifact has been stolen by the very evil, and also very egotistical, Lord Von Prong.  Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to recapture the artifact from Lord Von Prong, making the universe safe from evil again.  Ok, so there’s way more to the story than just this, but you get the basic picture.  

During his quest, DeathSpank acquires loot (weapons, armor, cool stuff like that) from enemies he kills, thus making him stronger and more powerful.  Aside from the thirty-three main quests in the game, you have the option of performing seventy-nine additional side missions from characters you meet along the way.  These quests don’t take too long, and most of them can be accomplished along side the main storyline.  All in all, the entire game took around 6-8 hours to complete and cost 1200 Microsoft points ($15 on PS3) to play.  The big question of course, is DeathSpank worth the $15?  Read more and decide for yourself. 

The biggest thing this game has going for it is its witty, over-the-top humor and dialogue.  DeathSpank is so into his character as a hero, that he often comes across as a pompous ass.  Fans of The Tick will recognize just how funny your clueless, ego-driven, idiot hero can be.  Each person you encounter is greeted with something that no normal person would ever say.  “Greetings non-descript person,” is one of the many examples; and the dialogue trees get even funnier from there. 

The quests you get from people you encounter are also absurd.  At one point I had to go and find a black light poster that said “Keep on Truckin” on it.  (At least this quest appeared to be absurd until I realized that I had one of those growing up).  It was then that I recognized the brilliance of Gilbert’s humor.  Even the weapons and armor you receive throughout the game are funny.  Who wouldn’t want to kill enemies using the “Giant Fist” or dawn the “Shoulders of Pointyness” in combat?   

The combat style in DeathSpank is straight beat-em-up with a few twists.  In the inventory screen, you will equip your weapons and map them to a button.  To use these weapons, simply mash the button and violent mayhem occurs.  As you kill enemies your Justice Meter will fill up and upon filling it you can perform pretty nasty justice maneuvers.  For example, your lighting rod will shoot lightning, killing enemies that are within sight.  These maneuvers are linked to individual weapons, so you need to be crafty when mapping them for your character and when you use them.  Throughout the game you will receive special runes that allow for even more jacked-up justice maneuvers when you combine certain weapon types together.  I will be honest and say that I never really found myself with the exact weapon types they were looking for when I had these runes, so I am not so sure on how awesome there are.  Needless to say, you can complete the game without using them and there are no achievements linked to them either. 

Speaking of achievements, the game has 200 and most are pretty easy to get.  There is even a menu achievement that you acquire by moving certain bars on the menu itself.  One complaint I do have with the achievements is that completing the game does not necessarily equate to receiving every achievement point.  After close to seven hours and every quest completed I finished the game with about half a level to go to reach level 20 and get every achievement.  This means that I would have to grind for about an hour or so looking for evil unicorns or some higher level things to kill, and I’m not sure that kind of grind is worth 20 points to me.

That does bring up one of DeathSpank’s shortcomings: the game itself can start to feel like a grind when you hit the higher levels.  This isn’t completely unexpected as many Diablo-like games have that same opportunity.  The thing that kept me interested despite the grind was the humor and the vast number of quests I had.  If I got bored hunting down a dragon, I could always go pound poop from a demon (yes you will pound the poop out of a demon in this game) and mix things up a bit.  

There is a co-op mode that makes it possible to play with someone else.  One character can play as Sparkles the wizard.  Sparkles can heal DeathSpank, clone himself to confuse enemies, and even throw a magic bolt with his wand…and that’s about it.  Sparkles cannot use any weapons or loot that is acquired and will die if DeathSpank dies.  I found this additional play to be rather uninventive and a cheap way to get your girlfriend or kid to join in.  However, my wife, who loves games like this, was insulted at this mode.  “Can I level up?”  “Can I use armor?”  “What’s the freaking point?”  So tread lightly if you think this is a good way to get your non-gaming significant other involved in what you do; you might just bore them to death.  The mode plays and feels like it was just thrown in there and I don’t believe it makes DeathSpank any better, and in some cases can cheapen the experience.    

Overall I have to admit that despite the grind in the game, I truly enjoyed my DeathSpank experience.  The humor and dialogue is fantastic and those in my home who were not actively playing the game, relished at the funny dialogue all the same.  During my game play I would often hear my wife or kid shout, “Oh my goodness what did he just say?”  This made the game all the more fun for me, and one I could share with those around me.  For those who don’t get into Diablo-like games or aren’t driven by witty dialogue, I would say that you might find DeathSpank a bit overpriced.  For me, however, I enjoyed my time and felt it was well worth the $15; heck I have paid way more for shorter single player experiences such as Modern Warefare 2.  So if you like to laugh and collect a lot of stuff, you really can’t go wrong with this title.  There is a free demo on Xbox Live and I believe the same is true for the PS3 version, so check that out before you buy.

Tweet

Related Posts

• Dragon Age Origins
• Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

Tags: Chicken Gun, DeathSpank, diablo, HotHead Games, Monkey Island, Ron Gilbert

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 7:30 am and is filed under Games, Videogames. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.