Deathspank Options

[Gar]

I'm going to start doing little game reviews and stuff in here seeing as it's pretty quiet.

I picked up DeathSpank for the PS3 and I've spent a couple of hours playing it. It's a downloadable title in the store, it's selling for €12.99 (€2 cheaper than the XBox 360 version) and is well worth the price.

The developers describe it as a cross between Monkey Island and Diablo, and they pretty much got that exactly right. It's a hack-and-slash game where you level up and gain perks, and you're constantly picking up new weapons and deciding which ones to keep, which ones to equip, and which one to throw away. You get quests by talking to NPCs, but the main reason to talk to NPCs is because some of them are really funny. The game features full voice acting, and it's all pretty good quality. Some of them are a little annoying and whiny, but they're asking you to solve their piddling little problems for them so it's appropriate. The real star of the show is DeathSpank himself, who's this really playfully dark character. The voice is kind of like Captain Qwark from the Ratchet & Clank games, or The Tick from the 90's cartoons. It's weird, there's kind of a dry ironic delivery, but in a really goofy voice. The patented Ron Gilbert sarcasm is just really enhanced by the acting. It's a voice I wouldn't have imagined if I was just reading the dialogue boxes, but it works really well for the oblivious, egomaniacal hero.

There's a bit early on where you can ask a Wise Cow for combat advice. How appropriate...

So far in my playthrough, the Monkey Island aspect has only really come into play in the funny dialogue scenes and in one bit where I got mugged and had to do a little mini-quest to get a working sword so I could get the rest of my stuff back. Most of your problems can be solved with good ol' fashioned violence against a variety of colourful enemies who'll drop crap for you to pick up and see if it's better than your existing crap.

One time the crap was literal crap. An NPC wanted it for a side quest. Most of the side quests of the 'collect crap' variety, so being given a literal iteration was kind of droll and meta.

Items and equipment all have little descriptions in the inventory screen, and some of those are quite funny. There's also a little grinder in the inventory seen which you can use to grind unwanted items into the basic elements from which they are made: Cash. So that's handy because you don't need to keep trudging back to town to sell your cr...junk.

Graphics are well-animated and full of character, although if you're in a melee with a bunch of enemies it can be kind of hard to tell what's going on, and I still haven't figured out how to use the block effectively yet (I know what button it is, just not how to make the best use of it. It's not explained very clearly)

Gameplay has the same sort of repetitiveness syndrome as Diablo, but also the same compelling treasure-hunting aspect as Diablo. Aside from the block not being well explained, combat is fun and fluid and there's a good variety of weapons (all with different graphics) with which to pummel your foes. So it's pretty much a fun arcade button masher with some light RPG elements and properly funny comic relief bits. At fifteen bucks or under it's well worth the price.