DeathSpank (PS3)

Platforms and Pricing

DeathSpank is a ‘lite’ action/RPG downloadable game for both the Playstation Network and XBOX Live. I use the term ‘lite’ because as a downloadable game, you can’t go expecting a very lengthy or deep game, else it would be retail. As of this review, you can buy it for £9.99 on PSN or 1200MP on XBL – this price seems fair for such a game and you certainly get enough DeathSpank for a lifetime.

Multiplayer/Game Details

DeathSpank is primarily a single player game but it does support a co-op type mode if you have a friend handy. At any point during the game, your buddy can jump in to the game, playing as another character called ‘Sparkles’, who has his own unique abilities but ultimately feels a little flat and out of place. This character doesn’t gain experience, nor does he have his own inventory, but he does scale with the main player’s level – so he isn’t completely useless and certainly helps to make the game more entertaining.

Intro

First off, it’s probably a good point to state that (if you hadn’t guessed already) this game is very tongue and cheek. This story is no Final Fantasy, not at all, but it does have a certain charm that might keep you hooked. DeathSpank borrows greatly from other games such as Diablo and Monkey Island, almost without remorse, even namedropping specific games once in a while.

Story

The story focuses on the hero, aptly named ‘DeathSpank’, who is on a quest to find the ambiguous ‘Artifact’, which as a bit of an anti-climax, you find at the end of the first chapter. For those who have read my previous reviews, you’ll know that I don’t usually include spoilers in my posts; however, this isn’t a true spoiler as the game really has two different storylines. After finding the ‘Artifact’ you’re then asked by, none other than the town mayor, to find some missing, pesky orphans. This is your main task for the rest of the game, although there are many, MANY side-quests to take on, if you so desire.

Written by Ron Gilbert, the legendary man behind such classic games like Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion and Total Annihilation – you know that the writing should be top-notch and entertaining – but note the world ‘should’ – keep reading to find out why.

Gameplay

Have you ever played Torchlight? Or maybe Fate? If you have, then congratulations, you’ve pretty much played this game already! Okay, that was a little unfair. DeathSpank does have many unique quirks that really set it apart, unfortunately, not all the quirks are to its advantage.

Let’s begin with how the game controls. DeathSpank, as in-the character, can be controlled directly by using your controller and each button can be assigned to a weapon or item. For example, on the Playstation you could assign the up directional button to a healing potion, or the (X) button to an axe. This is a superb little mechanic which is easily customizable depending on your playing style.
Weapons are for the most part melee based, although you do get plenty of ranged weapons such as crossbows and chicken cannons, which you should always keep assigned to a button to aid combat.

Certain weapon combinations can give you special abilities, although I personally never bothered and got through the game just fine. A more adventurous player will most likely enjoy discovering these conjunctions and from listening to other friends who have played it, they provide a huge damage boost if you can pull them off.

Another way to get some bonus output is to vary your attacks! With each variation you add to your combo, if you reach a large enough combo you pull off a special attack which pushes back your enemy and stuns it, giving you time to get in a free blow!

Items are also an important part of DeathSpank. From fries to fried chicken, you’ll end up picking enough food to make an American proud! Different food gives you different benefits and functions much like food in World of Warcraft, in that food isn’t an instant heal, you have to remain eating and out of combat to restore your health gradually. You’ll also find potions that increase your strength, armour, speed and many more concoctions which provide a temporary buff that eventually wears of in a stated time frame. Once again, I rarely actually used potions (apart from healing potions) – they seemed a little useless to me, but again, some people will probably have great fun with them – so go wild!

The main focus of the gameplay is questing, and trust me when I say, there are a plethora of quests. I’d say there are at least 300 optional quests for you to complete, each offering experience and items on completion. All of the NPC’s are voice acted and although some of the voices are a little grating and almost obviously the same voice actor (I think that’s the joke) they all provide a little humour to the game.

Many of the quests are a mixture of “Go and fetch this item for me!” and “Hey, why don’t you kill this monster?” and it unfortunately becomes a little tiresome even after the first 10 or so quests. I actually found myself actively avoiding quests by the middle of the game unless the reward was some cool items or it gave the impression that it wouldn’t be so run-of-the-mill.

One quest, which stuck in my mind, is a quest given to you by a tree. This tree asks you to fetch items for it, over and over. Whether it’s the game’s way of telling you it’s self-aware or not, I’m not completely sure, but a game shouldn’t go out of its way to annoy the player. This blasted tree doesn’t ask for 5 items, no, it asks for about 10 items, all of which can be found about 50 yards away. I don’t know, it all just seems a little pointless and an example of the game putting it love with its own humour before player enjoyment. The overall humour is a little lacking in general, although some of the item descriptions are truly hilarious and a delight to read.

As you gain experience, be it from quests or killing enemies, you level up and are able to choose a ‘hero-card’. Hero-cards grant you a bonus to a particular action or stat. For example, you may get a card which increases your melee power, or one that increases your movement speed. You’ll end up picking them all up eventually, so your choices are quite irrelevant aside from making early levelling a little easier.

Levelling also helps you equip armour which requires a certain level to use. On the subject of armour, there’s loads of it to pick up, so much in fact that the game implements a ‘Choose the best armour’ option which as the name suggests, picks the best armour you’ve acquired and automatically equips it on DeathSpank, a very nice feature that should ALWAYS be left on!

While your inventory is limited, you don’t need to run to the shops to sell your items to free-up space; instead you’re given a very special item called ‘The Grinder’. This item allows you to drag other items onto it and convert them into cash, a great idea!

The enemies you fight vary considerably, from unicorns to huge giant molten elemental beasts! They all have their own specific levels, and abilities. Not only do you have your bog-standard monsters, but there are also boss-fights! For the most part, the bosses are just normal enemies with more health, requiring little additional effort or tactics. However, there are certain bosses (which I won’t go into) that require some added tactics which test your skills and may cause you to die, quite a bit.

When you do die, you lose 10% of your cash and teleport to the nearest outhouse. Yes you heard me correctly. The checkpoints are actually outhouses (there’s even an achievement for dying…), nothing like some toilet humour, huh? Said outhouses are spaced out fairly and you’ll never end up being sent too far back from your dying position. If you decide to return to where you died, you can pick up the money you lost, so it’s not a huge concern.

And that’s really all there is to DeathSpank!

Presentation

The game looks amazing with beautiful colours and some impressive scaling effects. Exploring the world feels like you’re actually running on a globe as the landscape is shown in a curvature fashion. Characters models are chunky and whilst they’re nothing to write home about, they do their job.

Voice acting as mentioned earlier is alright, mainly done by the same voice actor and it certainly shows, but for a downloadable game this long, with this many quests and NPC’s, it’s a great achievement for it all to be voice acted, so I have huge respect for the DeathSpank team.

There is music and it serves its purpose but isn’t very catchy nor is it memorable. If I recall correctly I found the music to be a little repetitive when I stated hearing the same song over and over again.

Although the world isn’t too large, the developers have done a great job in changing up the environments you’ll find yourself exploring. You’ll go through fire caverns, haunted forests and glorious castles, all of which look gorgeous and well detailed.

Longevity and Conclusion

DeathSpank is quite lengthy for a downloadable game, giving you around 6 hours of playtime if you focus on the main storyline and 20% of the optional quests. Whether or not you really feel like completing the other quests (which I strongly doubt as they all feel samey) can add or deduct maybe 3 hours.
The level cap is 20, which may seem a little low but it’s no small feat reaching that by the end of the game. I completed at level 18, and you’re then able to go back through the world and complete left-over quests at your own leisure. There aren’t any reasons to play the game twice so it really is a one-time play ‘n throw away title.
In summary, DeathSpank is a beautiful game let down by repetitive questing and lame humour. If you’re willing to look past its shortcomings, DeathSpank is certainly worth the download.