Quick Look: DeathSpank

Was interested in this as well but when I heard the cap was 20 and you didn't get any magic or summons(rare) I was disappointed. I love Diablo and Torchlight for the loot but I also love them for allowing me to summon an army of crows, wolves, golems, imps,etc. And spells that did big AoEs or let me cast giant flaming boulders were great. I don't enjoy just making up combos of the weapons to just fill a justice meter faster. I hope to win this through 6 something contests I'm entered in so I can try it and hopefully change my tune. I don't want to make room on my tiny 20 GB harddrive for a demo that some have already said is disappointing. I really want to like but its just not hitting my Diablo wants. I'm not going to make any comments on the humor since I don't know if it will be more funny than the 2 or something dialogue moments we saw.

Music reminds me of Six String Samurai.

This game makes me want to play Torchlight from some odd reason...

Played it for a few hours now and really, the QL doesn't do the game justice.
 
I also had these thoughts like "this is not bad, but kinda lame" when I started to play but things really get more interesting later on. Combat gets more evolved, quests are funny and some even have serious adventure quality with combining stuff etc.

You only need to kill 100 chickens for the achievement.

Why post the same QL from a couple weeks ago?

That is weird.  The streaming is a new video.

Actualy, the game is very nice.
I dunno why they were so unenthusiastic..

The demo bored me so bad that I couldn't finish it.
 
edit: WTF Streaming Low and Progressive Low are two completely different videos for this game. Progressive Low is the one with Brad and the dudes from EA. The Streaming Low is with Jeff and Brad.

It's a nice game, nothing great and until limbo / starcraft II comes out it gives a nice side game when I have a bored 10-20mins to kill. I do like the art style a lot.

It works on medium quality streaming for me.

Cynical game journos are cynical. ;)
 
I'm about 75% through the game now, and I really want to like DeathSpank, but I feel it just doesn't have enough depth to really grip me. Switching up the melee attacks to build up the Justice meter faster is about as complex as it gets. Blocking  is vital for tougher monsters that 1HKO, but alternating between block and attack to slowly chip away their hitpoints gets old pretty fast. Humour in dialogues is mostly bland especially with the longwinded ones. But then there's the nicely done cutscenes, item descriptions, quests, Sally the Stable Girl  and whatnot. DeathSpank is fun hack'n'slash for the price, but the lack of depth, difficulty and character building makes it simply feel outdated.

"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?"

Always appreciate the humour these guys bring to the table in their videos, but from the sounds of the comments, they didn't really do a proper job of "quickly looking" at what this game has to offer.  It seems like the ability to combine items would be a pretty big part of the game, and there was no mention of it. 
 
I assume the review will pick up on these things, as Brad will be finished the game by then.  I just don't really get the point of bringing Jeff in to co-pilot this video, when he clearly wasn't interested in what he was seeing from the beginning. 
 
- Scott

Infinite Quicklooks !

Greens and Purps ahoy. + Item Rarity
Looking forward to giving this a try, even though it's the game that denied the world Rain Slick Precipice 3.
Take that however you like I suppose.

Absolutely love this game, its great to get lost in and just hack away, love the art style and environments, I enjoy doing the side quests, and the conversations and dialog are something to enjoy. I didn't play the demo so I can't speak in terms of that. But this was a wonderful purchase and I'm glad I only payed 15 dollars for it. Im close to 7 hours and about half through.

Game looks alright, it seems like there is some combo potential with that stun hammer Brad had and his other weapons. Deathspank was supposed to be the dumbest name Ron Gilbert could come up with, so it makes sense that you might think it's lame. I don't think the main character's voice is all that cliché. I haven't heard a hero voiced like that in any serious fantasy in a while. Most games tend to go the dark route, which is what I thought the death in death spank would imply. I was expecting a very dark broody character, and I was pleasantly surprised when it was the superhero style voice. That's such a hit or miss proposition though, either you'll find it funny or you won't, but it's not like they failed to create the voice they wanted. That aspect doesn't really sound like something you can critique.

@habster3:

  
I've heard play times of 8-15 hours, depending on how completionist you are, and how deep you go into the dialogue trees (don't neglect the non core speach options, some of the best humor is there), so for 15 bucks, that's pretty long.
@Detrian: in the Bombcast Jeff said he wasn't digging RDR. He later changed his mind.    

" @elcalavera: I'm just saying that it's really annoying when the developers lie about the length of their game in order to entice people into buying them. "

Wow, Jeff's been pretty down on everything here lately. I personally think DeathSpank is a great game.

I am surprised by some of the comments on here, and reactions from the giantbomb crew regarding this game, I mean seemed like they really liked torchlight and this game is very similar to that and $5 cheaper. Ehh whatever, I love this game, great value for a $15 game, I personally think it is the best xbox live arcade title.

Ok I'll agree with some of the above. Having Jeff step in and bring an immediate negative feeling to the whole thing dropped my interests big time. Brad is clearly pretty into it but was totally shot down a bit by Jeff there. Usually I find Jeff's opinion blunt, correct and absolutely fuckin' hilarious but he could've at least let the game sink in before ragging on it. 
 
Ah well, keep it up guys. QL's are the main reason I keep checkin out the Bomb.

It definitely bugs me that it doesn't seem to bother Jeff and Brad at all that the average length of games is shortening, especially considering the prices on those games continue to rise. That's far and away my biggest complaint with this generation of games. 
 
I would be more than willing for graphical fidelity to take a hit if it meant developers could spend less time making the game look pretty and more time making it long enough to justify the price.

I didn't find Jeff to be that much down on this one. Maybe kind of indifferent. It's not like he's saying the game is shit. 
The humor seems ok from what I've played, but I think it's fair to expect the best from Ron Gilbert, and I don't think it's his best work. I hope it gets better later (The bag of orphans is already way funnier than the stuff I've seen in the first part of the game).

Played the demo right up until the timer ran out and enjoyed every minute of it. I agree with Jeff regarding the title name and I honestly found myself skipping through most of the dialog. Unlike others, I enjoyed the 2D mixed with the 3D and I thought the character and monster models were pretty kick ass. I am digging the cartoon vibe but only the looks of it. I'm just not into the story or what characters have to say. I just skip it all then go monster slaying and looting. Take that as you will.

Deja Vu.

Hey everybody, progressive and streaming versions should now be showing the same video (the QL with just Brad and Jeff).  Please PM me if anyone notices the QLEX showing up again.

" I didn't find Jeff to be that much down on this one. Maybe kind of indifferent. It's not like he's saying the game is shit.

Game seems like it's trying too hard to be funny.

I wouldn't say it looks bad, more middle of the road. Nothing seems to stand out and make me want this game.

Yeah, I'd kind of rather just keep playing Torchlight.

I might wait for the PC version

Some of you guys must be watching a different video than me - this looks like an absolute riot.  A delusional hero supremely confident in his own righteousness with a chicken cannon?  More games need to be like this.

Yeah, this super-broad "random" humor has never done anything for me, especially when it's worked into absolutely everything. Think I'll stick with Torchlight, even though it's not as deep as this.

I sometimes just wish Jeff wouldn't do anything other than FPS'es, even though he didn't even do Singularity justice. 
 
Jeff, if you even read this; you've been a real bummer in pretty much every QL for a while, maybe take a break if you don't feel up to them? It's been bumming everybody out for a while man.

" Wow, Jeff's been pretty down on everything here lately. I personally think DeathSpank is a great game. "

this game looks dumb...and as someone said..only makes me want to finish torchlight finally.

Think I'll stick to Torchlight for my action rpg fix.

I don't  "get it", I don't get this game. Like, why? I'd rather play Diablo 3 when it comes out or Diablo 2

" @SynisterSpacer said:

" Wow, Jeff's been pretty down on everything here lately. I personally think DeathSpank is a great game. "

Granted the titlle is stupid and all they have ever talked about this game is the Ron Gillbert is involved with it and not about the game itself so its understandable that hes a bit sceptic. And Duke Nukem MP is a shitty game by todays standards(personaly though it was shitty back then too). He was really into K&L so I don't really see anything strange about how Jeff has been reacting to the games lately. "

I'm still surprised DeathSpank wasn't part of summer of arcade, but I guess since it is multiplatform that would be why.

GETTING IT.

"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.