DeathSpank Review
Deathspank, a game imagined and realized by Ron Gilbert and Hot Head Games, thrusts you into the role of DeathSpank hero to the downtrodden, and adventurer extrordinaire. You will find a multitude of weapons at your disposal as you battle chickens, demons, pips, and orques. You'll be given a wide range of quests ranging from collecting felt to collecting cans. The most important quest, however, is to capture the artifact for a lady with red hair.
Graphically this game looks like it utilizes the same gaming engine as the Penny Arcade Adventure games, so if you've played that series you should to expect the same. There are a couple of times where you're going to wish you could rotate the camera, but in the end you have a pretty good view of the gaming world. You'll find yourselves in a very pink enchanted forest, a very dark haunted area, and more. A lot of the NPCs that you're going to be interact with will appear as if they have just walked off the Penny Arcade Adventure stage and then dressed for the Medieval Ages.
The dialog is definitely one of the games strong suits as it adds an entirely extra layer to the gameplay, and gives you a true view of the brain behind the Monkey Island franchise. The music is something that after a while just kind of blends in with the background, so don't expect to be blown away, but at the same time don't expect to be begging to find some external tunes to play.
The controls are going to be something that will frustrate you and excite you at every turn. I say this because you literally get to use almost every single button on the controller. You'll have multiple weapons assigned, and multiple items as well.
At first I have to say that the dialog in the game made me roll my eyes because of how over the top it was, but as the game progresses I found myself trying the options that I knew would cause interesting dialog to occur. As I stated previously you're going to be playing as DeathSpank, you spend the beginning of the game trying to get the Artifact, but something happens and you're going to have to accomplish another task before you can regain the Artifact. There's 20 levels for you to gain as you go through the game, as well as special attributes that can help you get through the game. You'll find that there is a ton of armor and weapons that will be tied to you level. I do have this bit of advise, save yourself some trouble and check the box that states best armor (there's no way to actually compare, you're going to have to remember numbers and then check what is equipped, so save yourself some pain). There are plenty of wacky side quests to keep you entertained, but if you just want to shoot through the main quest arch you'll find that there's still a decent amount of gameplay for you to get through.
This game might not be for everyone but for those looking for something to waste sometime hacking and slashing, and of course adventuring, you can't go wrong with this game. This game gets an 8.7 out of 10.
