Video game number two hundred and sixteen: DeathSpank

Video game review number two hundred and sixteen in my 365 Games in 365 Days project is "DeathSpank"

I've heard some good reviews on this one, so even though it was an RPG....I decided to give it a try. After all, I'm expanding my gaming horizons and what-not.

The verdict? Hard to say.

First of all, the good: The game pokes fun at the RPG genre, even though it's all about the hunt and grind. Right off the bat, some witch has you collecting ingredients to bring back to her for a potion, but there's a liberal amount of humor in the request. For example...the first ingredient she asks for is "chicken lips", which you get by killing chickens.

DeathSpank (your hero), is fairly funny, and everyone he meets seems to ask him for favors. This usually results in you running off to pick something up and bring it back to that person. I played through 4 or 5 of these "mini-missions", and they were all pretty much the same.

And now...the bad.

Humor is not enough to save this game, it's still your basic RPG. You travel from place to place, collecting crap and bringing it back, and when you find yourself in combat, it's not what I'd call "exciting" by any means. There's a lot of button mashing, and you constantly have to take potions or eat things to keep yourself alive during a fight. I also found myself running away from larger crowds of enemies.

You have to level up your character along the way by collecting XP and cash. You can buy new weapons, armor, etc....and every time you hit a new level, you get your choice of three cards with some sort of new power up on it. Like most RPGs...the game consists of grinding through menial tasks to get to a higher level, and I've never been a big fan of that.

I'm not sure what it is, but games like this just don't engage me enough. I'm not interested in continuing on (though I did enjoy trying to find 100 chickens to kill for an achievement). For some reason...these games feel more like work than play, and as silly as this one was....it still didn't change that feeling. After only an hour or so, I already felt like I was in the grind.

Overall Score? 6/10. Slightly better than average, but I have a feeling that I'll forget this one and not come back to it. It was worth a try, but not worth continuing...for me at least.

Achievements? I really liked that 100 chicken one. :-)