Story
The search for The Artefact!
DeathSpank is a PlayStation Network title that follows the adventures of a misguided hero named DeathSpank, a character that first appeared on the pages of creator Ron Gilbert's Grumpy Gamer website as a series of animated comic books.
Conceived by Gilbert and his long-time creative collaborator, Clayton Kauzlaric, DeathSpank tells the story of the naïve, but well meaning hero on his quest to find a mysterious object known as The Artefact.
Traversing enchanted and haunted forests, your goal is to defeat hordes of enemies, collect loot, power-up and laugh yourself silly at the hilarious dialogue crafted by Gilbert, one of the minds behind the equally brilliant Tales of Monkey Island, which is available to download from PlayStation Store too.
Gameplay
Time to dispense justice
One of the first things you'll notice once you've downloaded DeathSpank from PlayStation Store is its unique art style, which features characters and a world modelled in 3D alongside scenery rendered in 2D. It's also packed full of eye-catching and vibrant colours in every level, featuring cotton candy coloured forests and gloomy haunted locations. Each area you enter in the game also features its very own distinct kind of monster to battle, including killer unicorns and Bearlopes, a bizarre bear/antelope hybrid.
As you travel the world you'll meet a series of great characters. Each encounter is met with multiple dialogue options for you to choose from in order to steer the conversation. Some are side-splittingly funny, others are completely off the wall, so it's fun to play with them and see where the conversation ends up depending on your response to each character's line. With a number of side missions to accomplish such as slaying monsters and locating special ingredients for spells and potions, DeathSpank's world is full of adventure and intrigue.
The main missions, like the side quests, involve hunting down hulking monsters and locating items dotted throughout the world. Keeping things fresh in DeathSpank is a combat system that consistently evolves the more fights you take part in. Weapons are assigned to the X, Square, Circle and Triangle buttons and include everything from swords to meat cleavers, sticks, axes, crossbows and, of course, chicken cannons. The more beasts you slay, the more your Justice Meter fills up, which then enables you to power-up each weapon for maximum damage.
Multiplayer
Spank death with a friend
Don't want to play the game on your own? Then find a friend or another player on PlayStation Network and let them take control of Sparkles the wizard, DeathSpank's sidekick in the game.
Sparkles can wield fire, clone himself and heal wounds but be careful when and where you use these powers because they need time to regenerate each time they're called upon.
Packed with hours of rib-tickling fun, colourful characters, hilarious dialogue and featuring a PlayStation Network hero unlike any other, DeathSpank is an adventure worth going on with a friend or on your own. Download it now from PlayStation Store!