For a downloadable game that weighs in at a 'mere' 1 gigabyte, DeathSpank is a big adventure covering a large and diverse gameworld.

This is a high point for comedy in games. Drawing once again from Gilbert's past works, DeathSpank compliments its combat with these bite-sized brain teasers - quests that don't just ask you to kill a certain number of enemies, or find a certain number of items, but actually do something interesting with them. How do I make these tacos spicy? These imp horns red? These thongs. (Well, from my standpoint, at least.) Here and there, Gilbert and company sneak in a puzzle. The more you do it, the better you get at doing it, the better the loot and the better you feel about yourself as a person. Down to the core gameplay, well, it's a lot of hacking and/or slashing from start to finish. So it's a lovable (and lovely) adventure. The quests and dialogue tree-driven conversations with quest-dispensing NPCs are clever, often hilarious, and unmistakably the work of someone who helped create one of the greatest comedic adventures ever in Monkey Island. unicorn? The game world and everything in it resonates with charm created by artists, animators and Gilbert's own writing. The bad guys and, er, things that populate the game world - and, really, the game world itself - are chuckle-inducing takes on RPG and fantasy staples, from orcs and imps to dragons and the dreaded. If you choose the same card twice in a row, that stat boost gets. These include cards that make our hero move faster, deal more damage, get more loot, equip higher-level items and more. I think they're great, as is the system whereby upon leveling up, players can choose a skill card (to create a deck of six, at most). You may very well find yourself using chickens as a weapon, too, firing off volleys of summoned chickens to mob your enemies.ĭeathSpank's arsenal includes weapons that dispense 'Justice:' unique special attacks which add to the fun (and strategy) of combat. DeathSpank's lowly health-restoring chicken leg is, logically, produced from killing chickens - but not just any chickens, 'stoopid' and 'vicious' ones. There's a lot of loot, and even the most basic of items embodies the charm that permeates the game. I share Gilbert's appreciation for the genre, so it was plain to see where it had manifest. As such, it features lots of hacking (and shooting) using myriad weapons (and protected by equally diverse armor and support items) that make up the loony loot that said combat results in. %Gallery-71890% DeathSpank (the game) emerged from creator Ron Gilbert's fondness of hack-and-loot offerings such as Diablo and its ilk. His grasp on reality, on the other hand, would barely fill a football. Also know that it stars a hero, DeathSpank, who possesses enough machismo to fill a football stadium. If you haven't been following all things ' Spank, know that it's the creation of Ron Gilbert (one of the mad geniuses who brought the world the Monkey Islandseries) and Hothead Games (makers of the delightful, and also downloadable, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick-Precipice of Darkness). Oh, and a super-fun, retail-caliber yet downloadable action-RPG. Yes, it is a ridiculous name, for a ridiculous game which revels in the fact that it's ridiculous. ' DeathSpank? What a ridiculous name!' I can hear you saying it now.

Deathspank game review