Quick Look: DeathSpank

The comparison to Torchlight is a bit unfair imo. It's a cool, funny little game with some depth to it. Of course it's not going to be as good as Torchlight as an Hack'n'slash. 
 
@SpaceInsomniac said: 

"  Is it too much to ask for a little research before hand?   "

" The comparison to Torchlight is a bit unfair imo. It's a cool, funny little game with some depth to it. Of course it's not going to be as good as Torchlight as an Hack'n'slash. 
 
@SpaceInsomniac said: 

"  Is it too much to ask for a little research before hand?   "

I would agree with that. I know a quick look is not supposed to be a review, but at least get the basic stuff right.  "

Only 10 minutes into the QL, but already I'm sick of the humor. It's just too contrived for me to enjoy it. Pass.

This game is super addicting. Easily one of the best downloadable games to ever grace consoles.
 
I'll give you that Ron Gilbert-esque humor won't resonate with everyone, but I find it pretty funny. I'm mainly into the simple gameplay and cool visuals. Has great environment variety as well. Always feels like you're running into new areas and new enemies.
 
And lol @ people saying they'd rather go play Diablo III or Torchlight. Neither is on console and neither is a $15 downloadable game.

Just started this game and it's pretty entertaining so far. Yay for more RPGs.

Game looks like a lot of fun!

" This game is super addicting. Easily one of the best downloadable games to ever grace consoles.   I'll give you that Ron Gilbert-esque humor won't resonate with everyone, but I find it pretty funny. I'm mainly into the simple gameplay and cool visuals. Has great environment variety as well. Always feels like you're running into new areas and new enemies.  And lol @ people saying they'd rather go play Diablo III or Torchlight. Neither is on console and neither is a $15 downloadable game. "

 Charming, would love a cute diablo like game for the PC right about now.

So funny games are devoid of quality standards? It could be funny and stand up to the competition at the same time "

I was a lot more excited about this game before I watched the QL. I don't think I like these loot games much anymore

I like the game it has some funny moments but i enjoy the gameplay

Comparison to  Torchlight is fair in my opinion. Buy Torchlight if you own a PC and want a pure loot hoarding game, buy Deathspank if you want a game that focuses on presentation, or be a winner and buy both.
 
Love how people are saying the humour is trying too hard when there's hardly dialogue in the quick look. Also Brad's terrible at games "Lets head all the way around the world map rather than running by the enemies that I can't kill but weren't really killing me too quickly!"

I think the game is hilarious, but the gameplay seems to get in the way of me and the humor.

One of my favourite games this year! ^-^
The name isn't funny, but the game is.
 
Don't judge it on this Quick Look though, try a demo!

" "This game is six to eight hours long"  No, it's not.  Every review I've read says the game is much longer.  Most say 10 to 12 hours."There's an achievement for killing 2000 chickens"  No, it's 100 chickens.  And I've watched AT LEAST three other quick looks where either the wrong pricing information was given, or the staff had no idea how much the game cost.    Is it too much to ask for a little research before hand?  I know these aren't advertisements for the games or anything, but it still strikes me as completely unfair to the developers and publishers to be saying that a 12 hour game is a 6 hour game, or that an 800 point title costs 1200 points. "

The title of this game turned me off instantly.

I'm totally buying this game.

"  And lol @ people saying they'd rather go play Diablo III or Torchlight. Neither is on console and neither is a $15 downloadable game. "

got it the day it was released and its pretty good.

" @SpaceInsomniac said:

" "This game is six to eight hours long"  No, it's not.  Every review I've read says the game is much longer.  Most say 10 to 12 hours."There's an achievement for killing 2000 chickens"  No, it's 100 chickens.  And I've watched AT LEAST three other quick looks where either the wrong pricing information was given, or the staff had no idea how much the game cost.    Is it too much to ask for a little research before hand?  I know these aren't advertisements for the games or anything, but it still strikes me as completely unfair to the developers and publishers to be saying that a 12 hour game is a 6 hour game, or that an 800 point title costs 1200 points. "

   I totally agree. Giant Bomb is constantly getting their information wrong, and it's frustrating.     "

"And spells that did big AoEs or let me cast giant flaming boulders were great."

"how Brad missed the combo system idk"

" "This game is six to eight hours long"  No, it's not.  Every review I've read says the game is much longer.  Most say 10 to 12 hours."There's an achievement for killing 2000 chickens"  No, it's 100 chickens.  And I've watched AT LEAST three other quick looks where either the wrong pricing information was given, or the staff had no idea how much the game cost.    Is it too much to ask for a little research before hand?  I know these aren't advertisements for the games or anything, but it still strikes me as completely unfair to the developers and publishers to be saying that a 12 hour game is a 6 hour game, or that an 800 point title costs 1200 points. "

Looks pretty fun!  Though, that style of humor gets old for me in a hurry

Whoever spent 10-12 hours to finish this game must've done something very wrong, took me abit under 5 hours to finish it. "

 @eloj said:

" @Ares42 said:

Whoever spent 10-12 hours to finish this game must've done something very wrong, took me abit under 5 hours to finish it. "

So the less time you spend with the game, the more right you're doing it? 

 I've played for.. I dunno, four hours and I'm up to level 12. It's started getting harder, so I can easily see it taking me at the very least eight hours, probably more (since I'll do all sidequests).   "

yea looks boring and unfunny unfortunately

" I've been playing DeathSpank since it came out. It's kinda fun, but it has some incredibly bad game design decisions. Among them, despite being a game centered on loot and character progression, the armor you loot is almost worthless (+HP just means longer to wait around eating to regain health), and the character progression options are nearly meaningless, with way too few levels (capped at 20) relative to the game's actual length.
 
The game took more inspiration from MMORPGs than roguelikes, with lots of "Kill 20 spiders" type quests, and monster AI that sometimes freaks out, turns invincible, and tries to run back to its spawn point in the middle of a fight.
 

@Fjordson

said:

"  And lol @ people saying they'd rather go play Diablo III or Torchlight. Neither is on console and neither is a $15 downloadable game. "

Torchlight actually is a $20 downloadable game, though, and it was on sale for $10 or $15 in the past. And, in comparison with DeathSpank, Torchlight is a million times better. "

" @Fjordson said:

" This game is super addicting. Easily one of the best downloadable games to ever grace consoles.   I'll give you that Ron Gilbert-esque humor won't resonate with everyone, but I find it pretty funny. I'm mainly into the simple gameplay and cool visuals. Has great environment variety as well. Always feels like you're running into new areas and new enemies.  And lol @ people saying they'd rather go play Diablo III or Torchlight. Neither is on console and neither is a $15 downloadable game. "

Actually Torchlight is a 20 dollar downloadable and right now its 10 dollars on Steam. So feel free to explain how a game in the same genre that runs on anything that's significantly better than this is not an option for the average person. I would love to know why the most obvious thing to compare it to is a bad comparison, and it'd be nice if you could base your facts in reality. "

" @thebigJ_A said:

"how Brad missed the combo system idk"

Very easy to do, I didn't get the tutorial-popup about that till about one to one and a half hours into the game! It's obvious that you can attack with any of the four assigned weapons directly, but it's not at all clear from the beginning that "you shouldn't attack with the same weapon more than twice in a row". "

Eh I'll wait for it to become a deal of the week

Speaking from 5 hours of experience; this Quick Look doesn't do the game justice. Not to hyperbolize but I think this game is a riot, it does a great job of lampooning the Standard LotR/Greyhawk style fantasy. DeathSpank has much of the same style of humor as Monkey Island. (obvious to some, I know)

Doesn't seem my cup of tea, the humour doesn't really strike me as funny, and seems like it is trying too hard.  I think I'd be hard-pressed to recommend this to anyone over Torchlight (and as it is both Mac and PC available right now, most anyone should be able to play it) even at the cheaper cost than Torchlight.   
 
Maybe if it gets a Plus discount or something in the future.

For what it's worth, I love the humor in this game. But I do think you'll either hate it or love it. Sure, it might seem like it's trying to hard to be funny, but that makes it funny. One of those, it's so bad it's good type of things. I am having a blast with it at least. 

I'm with you, Jeff - DeathSpank is a shitty name for a dude, and for a name.

I have to say, I love the way this game looks. Really awesome artstyle.
 
It's a bummer that the sound is so low in these quicklooks, but from what little I can hear the music seems excellent too.

I wish Brad had played a bit longer before starting the Quicklook because he made alot of dumb assumptions that make the game look worse than it is.
 
Example, one of the reasons you have multiple weapons is so that you can combo them. The more combos you do, the more damage you do and XP you receive. Hammering on the button and swinging at the grass is the worst possible thing you could do. A little bit of experience with the game would have taught him that.
 
The way he's trying to manually lock on to every enemy is also frustrating when the character will aim at whatever enemy is closest if you just leave the trigger alone.
 
You learn about these types of mechanics 30 minutes into the game... so if he had played just a little more it might have made a better impression.

Well, if it took me 20 hours to finish it, that would only mean I spent 15 hours not doing what I was supposed to do. You can always spend more time on a game but that doesn't mean the game is that long, it just means you decided you wanted to spend more time with it. And by finish I meant 100% it. "

"Speaking from 5 hours of experience; this Quick Look doesn't do the game justice. Not to hyperbolize but I think this game is a riot, it does a great job of lampooning the Standard LotR/Greyhawk style fantasy. DeathSpank has much of the same style of humor as Monkey Island. (obvious to some, I know) "

6 to 8h campaign for an RPG? Outrageous to say the least. I think I'll probably pass this....

" Speaking from 5 hours of experience; this Quick Look doesn't do the game justice. Not to hyperbolize but I think this game is a riot, it does a great job of lampooning the Standard LotR/Greyhawk style fantasy. DeathSpank has much of the same style of humor as Monkey Island. (obvious to some, I know) "

" Notice how the creators of the game once said this would be approx. 15 hours long when it's more like 6-8? They said the same thing about Brutal Legend; notice a pattern here? "

Just looks kind of unimpressive, plain and simple

Game is damn fun and awesome looking.  Quicklook is kind of a downer though.

"Length of game = quality of game" 
 ^ 
Get real.

The environments are too messy.  With all the little poorly lit enemies running around on them it's kind of busy.

I just finished the game this morning and I loved it.  I really dug the humor and the rest of the game mechanics are fun.  Good bite size ARPG to again hold me over until Diablo 3. I know I'll be waiting a while longer still.