Deathspank Review - a Hack 'n Slash Comedy

Many a Deathspank review has called this, "Monkey Island meets Diablo." This is a perfect label for this game. The game comes from creator Ron Gilbert. If you don't recognize the name, well shame on you, but perhaps you may recognize some of his games: Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2 - LeChuck's Revenge all came during his time at LucasArts. He has continuously worked in the industry ever since with several different companies. Gilbert's most recent jobs apart from DeathSpank were in creative consultant roles for the Penny Arcade and Tales of Monkey Island series of games.Spanking the Undead all through the Countryside

Deathspank's titular character is a hero of equal parts ego, bravado and ridiculous weaponry. The comedic timing and branching dialog system made famous in those previously mentioned adventure games are in full effect here. The hero is so full-of himself and voice so well, that his dialog is hilarious as a result. Picture Ash from the Evil Dead movies or Captain Qwark from Ratchet & Clank; then remove all fear from those characters, rational or not, and you get Deathspank.

Deathspank is a top-down hack and slash with beautiful graphics which are mostly sprites. You only really become aware that many of the items are flat when at the extreme edges of the camera system. The textures in Deathspank have a lovely layered and painterly feel to them and particle effects (or are they well-animated sprites?) bring things like water and fire to life.Hacking Your Way Through Quests

Deathspank can have four weapons equipped at any time. Weapons in the inventory with a green tint around them have the ability to do power moves when your meter has built up enough from killing baddies or blocking their attacks. Weapons have different powers and statistics which are shown in the inventory screen. Just pounding the buttons to attack is probably not going to get you far in this game. You need to vary your weapons strikes to perform combos, which the game reminds you to do when you aren't with a funny voice clip from Deathspank.

Quests involve killing and collecting, and loot gathering which if not for the excellent art design and highly amusing dialog would feel pretty repetitive. This game seems to be crying out for on-line play but it only has local co-op in place. The secondary character is a wizard who can heal Deathspank or fire upon enemies. The character however cannot level up at all, so it might be best to trade-off control of Deathspank with a friend to "share the wealth". Perhaps the best thing about the game is the fact that the object of contention between our hero Deathspank, and the game's villain is a purple thong. Now that's funny. Add in some quality music that swiches at times between jazz, rock and gritty western themes and you have a pretty good game.

Deathspank is available only as a down-loadable game for Xbox Live or the Playstation Network and costs 1200 MS Points or $14.99 respectively. At that price I highly recommend this game, as you will get more out if than some of the summer "blockbusters" like Alpha Protocol.

Deathspank - Hothead Games
Ron Gilbert - Wikipedia