DeathSpank Reviews

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Written by Brother None on July 21st, 2010

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If you have a sense of humor and absolutely loved Diablo II for its extenstive hacking, slashing and looting, DeathSpank will be perfect for you. The gameplay is satisfying and any monotony brought on by button spamming is broken up by a basic combo system, special abilities specific to weapons and a vast array of hilarious tools of destruction. Some have complained about the redundant fetch questing nature of the title, but the loot alone is enough of a drug to keep a lot of traditional, Western RPG gamers happy for a long time.

Graphically this title looks really good, especially when you consider it's a download game. While the style is somewhere between cell shading and aPaper Mario style - all the structures look like pop-ups in a play and have no depth - it works with the feel and writing for the game. Audio spared no expense either with a playful background track and completevoice-overs for every character. It would be easy to justify a text only game, but thankfully all of the actors, especially Deathspank's similarity to cartoon hero The Tick, deliver the lines with perfect comedic timing. Multiplayer was present in the game, but since there can be only one Deathspank, additional players assume the role of mage sidekick Sparkles, who is hardly as fun to play. Another big flaw is that the multiplayer is confined to local only, which is one of my biggest gripes about somewhat similar action RPG Trine, and makes me wonder why it was even integrated at all. Seriously, these days there's no reason that online multiplayer isn't possible, especially since I first played the demo for this game back at PAX '09.

At the end of the day, Deathspank is a shallow, simplistic, repetitive and easy game sporting very week A.I. It's also a very clever game filled with witty writing, amusing dialogue and some top-notch voice acting. In short, Deathspank manages to be an excellent little budget game and you'll certainly get your fifteen dollars worth out of it. It's also proof that quality writing (if not a quality story) can take a mediocre care and push it up to the next level. Deathspank certainly won't be winning any awards from us, but as both a budget game and a DLC title, it's a fun short little RPG for people who want something other than a RPG on their PS3 other than a Nippon Ichi title, Dragon Age, or Fallout 3.

For $15 DeathSpank is a hell of a good deal in gaming. Hilarious dialogue, fun combat and lovely visuals; DeathSpank is a damn fine game. One features that I was frustrated to not see included was the addition of online coop. DeathSpank basically begs to be played with friend over Live or PSN. Sadly all Hothead added was a local coop where you get to play as Sparkles the wizard (who is pretty much just a support character), and he's no bloody DeathSpank!

Graphically, DeathSpank has a very distinct art style that is almost storybook-like. The camera's perspective combined with the world curvature, quasi-2D architecture & features and rotating landscape make for inspired visuals and a great gaming experience. The graphics may seem busy in screenshots but during play everything is sharp & well-defined. Character and monster animations are solid. Each region has its own unique feel, and while some are standard fantasy tropes others are balls-out crazy (like the realm of unicorns, leprechauns and wild gingerbread men).

However, it's the audio that gets the top prize. The music loops pretty much constantly between 3 tracks, and at no point did I find it annoying; in fact at several points this week I have been humming along to it without warning. The dialogue too, is exceptionally well-polished. If there is any advice to give, I would go through all available conversation choices, as you'll never know quite what will be discussed next. It is genuinely funny, from my initial tears at Deathspank's horror at a '˜magic seal' being used to defend '˜the Artifact' he is searching for, to the entire population's hatred of orphans.

What DeathSpank accomplishes is ultimately good. Through all of its failings shines a sort of game that we don't get to see often, one that is unrepentantly silly and genuinely funny. But at the same time, it's not entirely competent as a gameplay experience, and there's so much room for improvement that it's hard to exit the experience without feeling more than a tinge of disappointment. Though Gilbert has already departed Hothead Games, there may be a future for DeathSpank, and if that future comes to pass, it may surpass the (good) game offered here and give us something truly great.

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!

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