For the most part, though, poop jokes and junior-high level double entendres are the order of the day.Īs a consequence of all of this, DeathSpank is very coherently built around its childish, brutal central character. Sometimes a little sharper satire creeps in, but there are only so many ways to demonstrate the vapidity of the fetch quest and DeathSpank uses all of them a few too many times. DeathSpank is rich with jokes about poop and underpants, from the first moment when DeathSpank mentions he can magically transport himself between outhouses. They're usually meant to be funny, and they often are, in a rather juvenile way. The quests conform to familiar archetypes: fetch this thing, solve this puzzle, defeat this many chickens, etc. Because leveling up is about fulfilling DeathSpank's picture of himself, most monsters yield an insignificant amount of experience, while main and side quests give a ton. Their stories are about fulfilling quests, and he has bought into this in his long search for an obvious MacGuffin. Role-playing games tend to focus on wiping out mobs, but DeathSpank perceives himself to be an epic hero. Killing enemies, however, does little to increase DeathSpank's level. This system consistently encourages the player to eschew strategy and simply hack away at foes until a potion is needed. If he takes too much damage, though, the penalty for death is very modest. Healing items are expensive to buy and DeathSpank can only carry a limited number. Hitting and killing enemies charges up a 'Justice Meter' that allows DeathSpank to deliver even more powerful attacks, not that he typically needs them. DeathSpank goes into battle heavily armed, never to use a shield or even a spell, and can easily win almost every battle in the game through raw, unchecked aggression. Even their inevitable gory demise never seems awful or threatening.Ī gory demise is a certainty because the game's combat displays the exuberant violence of a boy who decides that if one sword is good, two swords are better, three swords are best, and four swords are bestest. The enemy designs are universally goofy rather than threatening, even for the demons, and often consist of whimsical creature combinations like butterpigs and kangamoos. The constrained viewpoint allows the 3-D landscape to be filled with buildings and decorations that are essentially 2-D, creating a pop-up book feel to the whole thing. The world of DeathSpank looks like a child's drawing, with bright colors and designs that are often very stripped down. I regret to say I didn't find it very interesting.

That's a great achievement, but it comes with an intrinsic weakness: you can only enjoy this game as much as you enjoy this character. DeathSpank is a very coherent game built around the idea of this person, reflecting his personality in its aesthetics, its combat mechanics, and its structure. It's only appropriate that DeathSpank is named after its hero, DeathSpank, a pea-brained child in the body of a very violent man. LOW The tedious, difficult, and somewhat buggy Pippin Apple quest line. HIGH The orphan Annie quest, which is humorously referential and also cute.

Satrie games like deathspank