DeathSpank is an action role-playing game designed by Ron Gilbert, a game designer. DeathSpank is an action game developed by Gilbert that mixes the funny characters and settings of Gilbert’s earlier games with hack-and-slash, loot-heavy action gameplay. Gilbert has referred to DeathSpank as “Monkey Island meets Diablo.”
In addition to the traditional action role-playing game elements of defeating monsters and amassing an arsenal of weapons and armor, the player in DeathSpank can acquire Weapons of Justice. A “justice meter” can be filled up by using a variety of firearms in conjunction with one another to deal damage to foes. When they are fully charged, the Weapons of Justice can unleash devastating attacks that are unique to each one. All adjacent competitors are stunned when a giant boot-hammer strikes, all foes in the area are damaged by the Cleaver of Cleaving, etc. It is possible to map any controller’s face or D-pad buttons to a weapon or other items, such as a healing or buff potion or food.
Over 100 tasks are available in DeathSpank, most of which are purely optional sidequests. The conversations you have with NPCs take place within a dialog tree, much like in many older adventure games. During dialogues, the player will often have the opportunity to go off on hilarious tangents that are mostly unrelated to the gaming problems. Some of the quests require players to solve puzzles in the style of adventure games. These puzzles need players to find non-combat items worldwide, combine them, and then utilize them in particular areas or with specific individuals.
The protagonist, who goes by the name “The Artifact,” spends the first part of the story looking for a mysterious and powerful relic. The henchmen of a horrible dictator named Lord Von Prong managed to take The Artifact away from him at the very last second, just as he was getting so close to finally completing his quest. But it won’t be long before it comes to light that a Von Prong secretly covets DeathSpank’s violet Thong of Justice. He has taken orphans from the area hostage, and as a Hero to the Oppressed, DeathSpank is obligated to free them.
DeathSpank’s artistic style achieves the appearance of a pop-up storybook by combining a cylindrical “rolling world” with a large amount of pseudo-2D artwork. The earth is home to terrifying beasts, ranging from stealthy greens and chimeric bear lopes to vicious orcs (unrelated to orcs) and terrible biceps. The game also supports local cooperative play, which allows for adding a second player at any moment. They take on the role of Sparkles the Wizard, a DeathSpank companion with a predetermined set of skills.
