![]() In the eight hours it took me to do literally everything there is in the game, I found myself amused and glued to my console, which is especially telling as the ENTIRE GAME is nothing but fetch quests, a mechanic that would normally have me belittling a game for pages on end due to the lack of originality and boredom-inducing gameplay that normally entails. In both of these respects, the game succeeds admirably. Everything is definitely designed to make you laugh and poke fun of the clichés that about in video game RPGs. You’ll be asked to go on quests that range from collecting unicorn poop to being a father to an orphan for a day before you can throw her in a sack. It’s fresh, it’s witty and it’s so bizarre, you can’t help but laugh at the all-out insanity of it. Yes the plot is non-existent, there is no character development and the ending is kind of a middle finger to whoever actually paid for the game, but the dialogue is amazing. So with all that negativity in mind, you’re probably going to be surprised that I give the story a tentative thumb’s up. It’s one of those craptastic “To be continued” endings that outright ruin games and piss off most of the people that play them. We’re taking Mystery of the Crystal Portal downright awful. There is no true plot to speak of, there is no substance and the ending of the game is so bad that it almost overshadowed all the good in the game. I am sad to say that there really isn’t any story to Deathspank save for, “Find the artifact and kill the bosses you encounter,” which really hurt the game in my opinion. Throw in some boss fights and that’s your entire plot. From there the game turns into about ten hours of fetch quests as you track down things to help you get to the artifact, and then once you get it, you immediately lose it and then have to go get it again, along with a bag you need to fill with orphans. The game actually starts in medias res with Deathspank trying to locate a powerful MacGuffin artifact, of which the abilities, powers and even the reason for why Deathspank wants this item are never explained save that a red-headed knight wants him to. Deathspank himself is an obvious homage to The Tick, except he is a fantasy character with armour and weapons instead of super powers and a moth man sidekick. How did Deathspank hold up?ĭeathspank is an odd game to be sure. So I went into Deathspank with a lot of optimism that this would be the first US made RPG in a long time to make me laugh out loud while also providing a quality gameplay experience. Now that might not mean anything to a lot of you, but for those of use that are old and grizzled gamers that still play point and click titles on their PC or have entire floors of Wizardry IV memorized, this should make your heart skip a beat as he was the creator and designer of Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island. With a little digging I learned that Ron Gilbert is the Creative Director of Hothead. I have to admit I was skeptical about any game that compares itself to both of those classics, but after seeing a preview video, I knew I had to review this. The developers, Hothead Games, keep describing it as a cross between Diablo and Monkey Island. So that we can all remember that gaming hasn’t devolved into spikey haired protagonists with a tremendous amount of self pity or graphics that only scream, “Grim and gritty.” It’s also why I make sure my staff here at Diehard GameFAN reviews games like Trinity Universe, Sam and Max, Monkey Island and Disgaea Infinite. That’s why I’m glad studios like Gust, Nippon Ichi and Telltale Games are still making games with a sense of humour. Instead we have first person shooters in drab colours (save for the occasional bit of red) and a lot of anti-heroes with attitudes. Gone are games that are as funny as they are good like Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango, and the like. ![]() If you read me regularly, then you know one of the things I bitch about is that gaming has gotten too angsty-serious and there’s just not enough comedy games these days. ![]()
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