20 Jul, 2010
“Prepare to be justiceded!” – DeathSpank, Hero to the Downtrodden, Vanquisher of Evil and Defender of Justice
From the moment I heard about DeathSpank, I knew I had to play it. Maybe it was the name (still makes me chuckle) or maybe it was hearing about bizarre quests to collect unicorn poop – whatever the reason, I’m glad I downloaded it.
Before we go any further, if you’re looking for a serious game with an immersive storyline and nifty controls, look somewhere else. If you’re looking for a fun playing experience that occasionally makes you laugh out loud or do a double-take to check what that last quest was (You want me to collect turtle gonads?!?) then read on!
DeathSpank is an action rpg by game designer, Ron Gilbert and was developed by Hothead Games. It has been likened to a cross between Monkey Island and Diablos but, being as I’ve played neither of those games, you’ll just have to take their word for it. What it does remind me of is Toejam and Earl from the Sega Megadrive days. (Now I feel old!)
From the start, the game is what I expected it to be; fun with not a whole lot of thinking involved. The graphics are suitably dumbed down – characters in 3D, scenery in 2D – and sets the scene for the game to be not taken at all seriously (in a good way). The voice acting is super cheesy and totally over the top which adds to humour.
The battle system is pretty straightforward. As I mentioned, it’s an action rpg, but you could also easily class it as a thoughtful button-masher. I say thoughtful because you do have to think about healing every now and again. You can assign a weapon to each button on the controller (delightful names such as Fist of Bashing and Demon Poop Hammer) and likewise, you can assign weapons or healing items to the corresponding direction on your D-pad.
Oh, and you can teleport around the “world” in Outhouses. They also serve as checkpoints. If that’s not awesome, I don’t know what is!
To be honest, for me, the story is pretty inconsequential. The hero, DeathSpank, is on a mission to retrieve “the artifact” because “it holds power beyond imagination and must be kept safe”. That’s a good enough reason as any, I suppose!
As most RPGs do, the game is filled with sidequests. Unlike other RPGs, these sidequests are fun, simply because you’re dying to know what you’ll be asked to do next! I won’t ruin your fun by giving you a list, but suffice it to say that one of the quests involves finding a poster that says “Keep on Trucking” on it to keep a talking tree in an enchanted forest motivated. Err, yes.
Would I recommend this game? Definitely! It’s fun and addictive and humorous! Well worth checking out.
DeathSpank is available on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 now.
[rating:4.5]
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