Vital Stats

Genre: Action/RPG
Players: 1-2
Online: Leaderboards

Developer: Hothead Games
Publisher: EA Partners
ESRB Rating: T
Release Date: 7/14/10

Platforms

• XBLA
• PSN
• PC

In one word, DeathSpank is staid. Heck, it might as well be a platonic form: the action-RPG-est action-RPG out there. Whether this will appeal to you is largely a matter of genre allegiance, because it’s good for the polish and bad for the novelty. Either way, DeathSpank is a solid game if you’re in the market to hit things and level up.

Everybody remembers Super Mario Kart. It’s a strange way to start talking about DeathSpank, but bear with me for a second. Some imitators misapprehend what made the originals great while others are just cynical cash-ins. However they all lack the innovative spark that makes them stick in your heart. Reliable and stable are good words on a dishwasher. Games are best loved when clever and new.

So it’s hard to know what to make of DeathSpank (see, that wasn’t so long). As action-RPGs go, things don’t get much more conventional. You guide a hack-and-slash hero as he dispenses justice and bacon-related mishaps. You will kill X goblins. You will collect Y drops. You’ll deliver packages, organize your inventory, and level up. All the while veteran gamers will feel like they’ve seen and chopped it all.

Light fuse, run away.

At the same time, conventional is functional and action-RPGs aren’t overabundant these days. So it’s hard to say that playing it safe is a sin. DeathSpank runs and fights with tight controls and easily-learned mechanics. Every button on the face of your controller maps to a single assignable weapon or item. Tap one button and swing your sword. Tap another and chug a potion. There are mechanics for charged attacks and combos, but simple button mashing is the order of the day.

Even character development is a one-tap affair. Each level grants you a choice of several hero cards that enhance one of the action mechanics. The options fall along typical action tropes, like ranged over melee damage or running over blocking, but they confer meaningful advantages to whatever development path you choose.

The developers were also thoughtful enough to provide cooperative gameplay, which makes DeathSpank the closest relative to Secret of Mana in almost twenty years. Your sidekick, Sprinkles the magician, doesn’t do character development at all. However, what he loses in customization, he more than makes up in flexible drop in/drop out co-op you don’t normally see outside Left 4 Dead.

“What can I do for you, Citizen?”

The whole streamlined setup makes DeathSpank look like a pitch to casual gamers. However there are a couple of niggling hitches that don’t fit. Although the relationship between buttons and actions is thoroughly transparent, the eight action buttons, four menu keys, and camera controls are a little overwhelming at first blush. As you earn new gear, those functions will even change as you reassign them. Button assignment is a task in itself and requires winding your way through the menu system. There are four pages of menus, and navigating DeathSpank’s inventory grid is like typing a message on the Xbox Dashboard without a keyboard: arduous.

Even if you have to slog through tired genre tropes and kludgey menus to get it, the real reasons to play DeathSpank are the voice work and the writing. DeathSpank has some trouble distinguishing violence from justice, but he doesn’t let this handicap diminish his heroism. His voice fills a room, and he narrates everything he does. Take those things, a few canny orphans, and a big world filled with defenseless chickens, and comedy is virtually guaranteed.

Justice Prevails
DeathSpank is perfectly good entertainment, and it never really exceeds or falls short of that bar. The gameplay is competent but conservative. The writing is excellent but stretched across too much game. It’ll be best loved by starving genre fans, though neophyte casuals may find DeathSpank a solid introduction to Action RPGs. The only losers are the hardcore, who will probably find the game a pesky obstacle in the way of all that comedy.

What It Costs: $15

What It’s Worth:
•To The Hardcore: $10 (demo)
•To The Genre Fan: $15 (buy)
•To The Casual: $15 (demo)