DeathSpank

Somebody on the internet suggested that Ron Gilbert made DeathSpank because he really wanted there to be a game called DeathSpank. It was possibly Ron Gilbert. Well, mission accomplished.

That really should be enough for you to go buy this game, i.e. there’s a game called DeathSpank and Ron Gilbert, the creator of the Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion franchises made it. However, on the off chance it isn’t, let’s make a review! *Ed Wood smile*

The game opens with an animated cut-scene that informs the player of the style of the gameplay proper, perhaps best referred to as a Rocky & Bullwinkle pop-up book. This is because most of the scenery is made of flat textured elements with a fairly sharp fall-off as you run toward or away from the camera. It really is like watching someone open the best pop-up book you ever saw.

Being polygonal, the characters themselves, goodies and baddies alike, are suitably square-jawed or scrawny, with DeathSpank seeing some nice progression as you improve your weapons and armour throughout the game. Although, just watching DeathSpank run and eat at the same time is comically satisfying.

And yes, the voice acting is spot on, with each character being exactly as much of a stereotype as the game demands. DeathSpank himself comes across more or less perfect facsimile of Captain Qwark from the Ratchet & Clank series. The ‘less’ part being that he actively seeks danger.

The dialogue isn’t raucously funny, but it’s highly likely to raise a giggle. Things like “Greetings, non player character!”, followed by “Oh hi there, main protagonist”. Any child of the 80′s will correctly guess the response to “I hear you need a hero?”, and guess which way the quest-chain goes with an orphan called Annie.

The gameplay itself is quite similar to Rogue descendants like the Diablo series; you hit stuff a lot, it dies. Sometimes when stuff dies, you can pick up its loot. Said ‘loot’ can simply be money, but it can also be other things, with armour and weapons at the high end of the game’s usefulness spectrum. You’ll get plenty of quests as you play through the game too, and a few of those will reference the ridiculousness of fetch-quests just as it’s giving you one… Behave!

DeathSpank also has co-op play. Purely as a support role, a second player can drop in or out at will. They’ll play as Sparky the Wizard, both serving as an aping of healer classes in MMO games and a pretty damn useful friend to have around. It’s just a shame this is for local play only, with no support for online co-op.

Overall, If you want to look at DeathSpank on its technical merits as a game and judge the competence of its graphics and audio, it still comes out ahead of a significant number of the heavy hitters on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

So the dialogue and voice-acting are maple syrup to the gameplay’s pancakes and the only real shortcoming of the game is it’s all over fairly quickly.

That possibly has more to do with the fact that you’ll be compelled to sit and play until it’s done.