Deathspank Review

Deathspank is a hero destined to acquire the mysterious artifact known simply as ‘The Artifact’. This adventure has him saving orphans, fighting unicorns, aiding an old hero gain a few experience points, and many tin cans to collect. Deathspank is basically a satirical take on the RPG genre with the game’s characters mocking typical RPG cliche’s throughout the game. The game is full of loot to collect, monsters to slay, and brilliant writing. I’ve been following this game for a few years now and it doesn’t disappoint.

Deathspank
Developer: Hothead Games
Price: $15.00
Platform: PS3 (reviewed) & 360

The dialog in this game is probably my favorite aspect out of everything. I couldn’t wait to see what NPC I could speak with next to see what humorous conversations Deathspank would partake in. You’ll be presented with different conversation options when talking and some have nothing to do with the original conversations at all. One orphan you find teaches Deathspank the proper way to persuade a young child to go into his bag with candy.

In the middle of your health bar you’ll notice a demon face that slowly fills purple with each hit you land on opponents. This is the Justice Meter and once full will allow you to unleash a weapon’s signature attack from stunning all enemies around you to sending you into a spinning craze slashing all enemies you get in your way. There’s also a leveling system with the cap being set at 20. Each time you level up you’re presented with your choice of 6 hero cards that alternate in groups of 3 with each level. This give you various upgrades like increasing your block time, increasing your attack, or allowing you to wear higher level armor. As with any typical RPG you’ll have numerous side-quests to perform throughout the game and are humorously titled ‘Unimportant Things I Need to Do’. They all follow the typical slay this/fetch that style, but here are a few that you may need to take a bit to think about how to complete. An early quest tasks you with acquiring red demon horns but the nearby demons only drop white demon horns. To complete this you’ll have to buy red paint to paint them or as I’ve been told can use cherries to color them red as well. I would have liked to see more of these kind of quests but each quest is more ridiculous than the last from tasking you to find poop to clearing out a monastery of loud monks so there’s definitely some variety to be had.

As you can expect from any Action RPG there’s got to be loot to collect right? Well Deathspank is full of weapons, armors, and items to collect and use humorously on your enemies. You’ll find things like a chicken cannon, crossbows that rain meteors, poop hammers, bling armor, and many more. You can assign each of these items to one of the face buttons or directional buttons to mix and match weapons together. My only complaint here is that the inventory can be a bit cumbersome to navigate when you want to compare which piece of armor is better. Thankfully there’s an option to have Deathspank automatically equip the best armor you acquire. A neat feature is the grinder where you place items you no longer desire to grind up for cash, but it’s not like you’re going to need it. I got through the entire game without spending any cash except when it was quest related and did fine. You’ll actually get the best weapons via loot by killing monsters or in a quest so buying weapons really isn’t a necessity unless you’re struggling. I did decide to pony up the cash right before the final boss to get the final armor set, but I was so loaded up with cash I decided to just buy tons of food because I love cheeseburgers.

The first thing you’ll notice about the game is it’s unique art style. Hothead has managed to mash-up 2D environments with 3D characters well and really gives the game a charming feeling as you slay gingerbread men and turtles. The world itself is literally round and transitioning areas always feels smooth as you can tell from the color choices used in each area are seemingly done to match the next.

If you don’t feel like dispensing justice by yourself then you can get a friend for some local drop-in/drop-out co-op where the other player takes control of Deathspank’s sidekick Sparkles the Wizard. Sparkles comes with a healing spell, flamethrower, and the ability to create a clone that runs around only to explode in a fiery explosion. All of these spells have a cool down wait after using them, but you can spam a basic purple blast. You can’t customize Sparkles(but who would seriously want to? I heard pink is in this season.) and he shares a health bar with Deathspank so players have to keep a keen eye on the health bar since you might get a quick trip to the nearest outhouse if you both aren’t careful.

The Final Word
Deathspank will confuse, amuse, and have you and your friend fighting over who has to play as Sparkles the Wizard. It’s filled with tons of ridiculous loot to collect, humorous writing, and gorgeous landscapes while capping at a good 10 hour playtime. Although one noticeable fault, besides stores being useless and the cumbersome inventory, I found was once I unlocked the full map I encountered some slight stutters every so often when walking to new areas, but it didn’t detract my enjoyment of the game at all.

– MonsterVine Rating: 5 out of 5 – Excellent