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http://gryphonosiris.blogspot.com/2010/08/deathspank-good-bad-and-thong.html
Deathspank: The Good, the Bad, and the Thong
I fully admit to being an old school gamer from the days before Doom 1 was released in 1993. Games from the golden age of Lucas Arts Such as Sam and Max, The Monkey Island series, Loom, Full Throttle, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis were the bread and butter of my core gaming experience in high school and elementary school. With that said, Deathspank comes from Hothead games, known most recently for the 2 Penny Arcade games, and Ron Gilbert, the wacky mind behind The Secret of Monkey Island. It is a top view Brawler in the tradition of Diablo with an over the top level of cartoon logic twisted humor. The question is: does it pull off the look, or fail with an atomic wedgie?
SYNOPSIS
You Are Deathspank! Mighty Purple Thong wearing hero, Champion to the people, righter of wrongs, punisher of evil do-ers, and biggest self-absorbed ham this side of an American Idol contest. When a prophecy tells you that you must recover an ancient artifact call ?The Artifact? you embark of a heroic journey of pummeling bad-guys, out houses, demon poop, and many, many orphans.
THE GOOD
Considering who this game is from, it?s a given that the humor on in borders somewhere between wacky and wet your pants funny. The voice of Deathspank himself sounds like The Tick from the Fox cartoon series (bloated ego included) and the conversations between characters in game are just laugh out loud funny in the level of sheer random insanity of what people say. This can range from an old adventurer who regularly breaks the 4th wall talking about RPG stats and quest logs to the farmer who needs you to literally beat the crap out of demons to fertilize his farm.
Combat in the game is classic brawler style with the four thumb pad buttons being assigned to a specific weapon, and the D-pad with support items such as potions, ?bomb? weapons, and food items to recharge heath. In classic brawler fashion you regularly receive tons of weapon, armor and support items from random drops from slain enemies, as well as leveling your character from greater attack power, speed, money drops, and other stats. Health is regained either from potions you can find/buy or by eating foods also found/bought in the game. These include things such as fries, cheese burgers, pizza, Root beer, nachos? Hmmm?. Sounds like my fridge actually? creepy. Ahem, moving on, when using these you will hear Deathspank scarf down his snack, and if you area attacked or attack in that time you will only get a partial restoration of health.
Save points in game are in the form of outhouses across the world? yes, outhouses. They also act as a quick transportation system as well, but I don?t think I really want to know how that works. Dying in battle restores you to the nearest outhouse with ? of full health, normally far enough from enemies that you can take a moment to sneak a snack or two and rethink the strategy that got you pummeled like a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. There is a block system in the game; however it?s only really effective when facing off with single enemies rather than a mob of them. Some weapons are also capable of doing special attacks when your Justice meter is fully charged such as a spin attack, ground smash, chain lighting and so on.
THE BAD
First off, I?ll say that if you aren?t a fan of Diablo, brawler games, or strange humor this game will be lost on you on most levels. At its core these are the three biggest features of the game itself and its main selling point. Along with this is that like with any RPG or dungeon crawler game there is a lot of fetch quests to be found for every random villager and stranger you come across. These range from just kill a certain number of enemies, to figure out how to make a unicorn poop rainbows (no joke).
Enemies can sometimes also vary from being underpowered to painfully overpowered, requiring you to level accordingly in order to proceed. Exploration is a large component of the game, however for the most part it feels like a very linear path that regularly has you traverses the entire map to go back to the main village in order complete quests or pick new ones up. There are also no markers on the main map menu to show locations, only on the close up map for the specific area you are currently in.
THE UGLY
Well, besides the fact that Deathspank wears a Thong, and the Villian?s name is Lord Von Prong, nothing really bad him, some metaphorical and literal toilet humor, but nothing really bad.
CONCLUSION
Death Spank is a solid brawler game with ridiculously funny humor, great voice acting and a twisted sense of logic that only a cartoon could have. I personally liked it, however it may not be for everyone.
Deathspank: The Good, the Bad, and the Thong
I fully admit to being an old school gamer from the days before Doom 1 was released in 1993. Games from the golden age of Lucas Arts Such as Sam and Max, The Monkey Island series, Loom, Full Throttle, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis were the bread and butter of my core gaming experience in high school and elementary school. With that said, Deathspank comes from Hothead games, known most recently for the 2 Penny Arcade games, and Ron Gilbert, the wacky mind behind The Secret of Monkey Island. It is a top view Brawler in the tradition of Diablo with an over the top level of cartoon logic twisted humor. The question is: does it pull off the look, or fail with an atomic wedgie?
SYNOPSIS
You Are Deathspank! Mighty Purple Thong wearing hero, Champion to the people, righter of wrongs, punisher of evil do-ers, and biggest self-absorbed ham this side of an American Idol contest. When a prophecy tells you that you must recover an ancient artifact call ?The Artifact? you embark of a heroic journey of pummeling bad-guys, out houses, demon poop, and many, many orphans.
THE GOOD
Considering who this game is from, it?s a given that the humor on in borders somewhere between wacky and wet your pants funny. The voice of Deathspank himself sounds like The Tick from the Fox cartoon series (bloated ego included) and the conversations between characters in game are just laugh out loud funny in the level of sheer random insanity of what people say. This can range from an old adventurer who regularly breaks the 4th wall talking about RPG stats and quest logs to the farmer who needs you to literally beat the crap out of demons to fertilize his farm.
Combat in the game is classic brawler style with the four thumb pad buttons being assigned to a specific weapon, and the D-pad with support items such as potions, ?bomb? weapons, and food items to recharge heath. In classic brawler fashion you regularly receive tons of weapon, armor and support items from random drops from slain enemies, as well as leveling your character from greater attack power, speed, money drops, and other stats. Health is regained either from potions you can find/buy or by eating foods also found/bought in the game. These include things such as fries, cheese burgers, pizza, Root beer, nachos? Hmmm?. Sounds like my fridge actually? creepy. Ahem, moving on, when using these you will hear Deathspank scarf down his snack, and if you area attacked or attack in that time you will only get a partial restoration of health.
Save points in game are in the form of outhouses across the world? yes, outhouses. They also act as a quick transportation system as well, but I don?t think I really want to know how that works. Dying in battle restores you to the nearest outhouse with ? of full health, normally far enough from enemies that you can take a moment to sneak a snack or two and rethink the strategy that got you pummeled like a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. There is a block system in the game; however it?s only really effective when facing off with single enemies rather than a mob of them. Some weapons are also capable of doing special attacks when your Justice meter is fully charged such as a spin attack, ground smash, chain lighting and so on.
THE BAD
First off, I?ll say that if you aren?t a fan of Diablo, brawler games, or strange humor this game will be lost on you on most levels. At its core these are the three biggest features of the game itself and its main selling point. Along with this is that like with any RPG or dungeon crawler game there is a lot of fetch quests to be found for every random villager and stranger you come across. These range from just kill a certain number of enemies, to figure out how to make a unicorn poop rainbows (no joke).
Enemies can sometimes also vary from being underpowered to painfully overpowered, requiring you to level accordingly in order to proceed. Exploration is a large component of the game, however for the most part it feels like a very linear path that regularly has you traverses the entire map to go back to the main village in order complete quests or pick new ones up. There are also no markers on the main map menu to show locations, only on the close up map for the specific area you are currently in.
THE UGLY
Well, besides the fact that Deathspank wears a Thong, and the Villian?s name is Lord Von Prong, nothing really bad him, some metaphorical and literal toilet humor, but nothing really bad.
CONCLUSION
Death Spank is a solid brawler game with ridiculously funny humor, great voice acting and a twisted sense of logic that only a cartoon could have. I personally liked it, however it may not be for everyone.
