Hey, everyone! Welcome back to another episode of DLC DOMINATION! [Enter death metal song here]. Let’s take a trip down memory lane to the previous episode of DLC Domination to Deathspank, and it kicked [insert bad word here]! I mean, wow. Ron Gilbert made a great gem for the PS3 and 360 downloadable market, with awesome characters, great graphics, mindlessly fun gameplay, oh, and some of the best humor I have ever heard in a game. So, when I heard that there was a sequel coming out two months later, I was excited, but a little skeptical. I mean, I thought it was like, “ oh, umm so soon?” After doing some research, I found out that this game was being worked on during the same time as the first game, and now, we get one of the weirdest, but most awesome names of a sequel of all time. First off, it doesn’t have crazy ninja monkey pirates with jet packs, though that would have been awesome. Instead, we get a title simply called Deathspank Thongs of Virtue! Again, we have our vigilant silly-named hero Deathspank going after the mystical Thongs of Virtues that have made the land corrupt, and somehow Deathspank is pushed multiple centuries into the future. Then again, this is Ron Gilbert we are talking about so don’t be surprised, but oh my gosh, this game is awesome! It’s more on the line of Deathspank 2.0 with some added gameplay elements and more diverse quests, but we still get all the top tier humor and wit, like the last game. So, how much does this sequel rock? Well then, you will have to read on, fellow readers.
Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue takes place literally right after the first game, and is still considered a “true story”. Deathspank was captured and put into a P.O.W camp and then escapes. He finds himself in the middle of a huge war where the humans are fighting against the most evil person that only Ron Gilbert could possibly come up with. He is simply known as Santa Claus! Deathspank decides to join up with the human army and help them by getting rid of the Bearers of the Thongs that get in his way, eventually killing the business world’s most marketable character (S.C.), who wants to do nothing else but take over the world! I guess all those years of being the Coke mascot gets to you. It’s a simply silly story, but it’s so epic in its own way, that it’s enjoyable.
The gameplay in Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue is basically the same style of Diablo gameplay, but with a few tweaks here and there. You still hold 4 weapons at once and can link up weapons to make combos. There is more emphasis put on long-range weapons like machine guns, submachine guns, shotguns, pistols, revolvers, bazookas, and multiple kinds of grenades. You can still carry around hand-held weapons like swords and axes, but the guns give the gameplay a little more variety. The guns do, however, run on ammo, so be careful not to waste them. There are also different side quests this time around, instead of just doing the same fetch quests like the last game. There are a lot of returning characters that bring their style of side quests back with them, like the cave explorer who is actually afraid of going into the cave. Some of the side quests include you helping tow rich tycoons outdo each other on how rich they are, putting up French flags, killing specific monsters that only pop up for that quest, and even one of my favorites, just leaving a hermit alone. Each quest has its own witty dialogue, and it’s really fun to listen to. There is still a co-op mode where you can play as two new characters along with the wizard from the last game. Expect a good challenge if you’re not vigilant enough, but don’t worry, it isn’t the hardest game in the world, just grind until you are happy.
The graphics still look pretty good, but are mostly the same as the last game since this was originally supposed to be one huge game, but got too big so it was split into two games like Sonic 3 and Knuckles. So, basically expect a mix of 3D and 2D stuff. The music is also the same, but it is still fun to listen to with my favorite song still being the start menu song when they show Deathspank continually running. The voice acting is also still great with new and old voice actors coming back to voice the characters in the game.
However, there are some bad things here that kind of annoy me with this game. The first and major problem is that there is a glitch in the game near the end where you need to kill Rudolph, but he never appears. Good luck if you saved your game after killing all the reindeer if Rudolph didn’t show up. This means you either have to save BEFORE taking the killer walking venison, or just restart the game, which by the way takes like 10 hours or more to beat. Hothead, have you fixed this yet? I really don’t want to be forced into replaying the game, even though it’s an awesome game. I also kind of wish they didn’t have to keep the ultimate armor the same as the last game, and just make it more modern, like the outfit at the start menu. I also wish they had added vehicle combat, like riding around in a tank. Think about it. Deathspank and all of his funny lines while riding a tank? Who wouldn’t want to see that? Maybe if we can get a new game in the series, we can see vehicle combat from time to time to break up the hand-to-hand combat and ammo buying.
All and all though, this is a really good game! I would recommend buying both games since it’s only 30 bucks total, basically half the price of newer titles. I just hope Hothead makes a patch for this game because it’s really good, and I hope that they can make Deathspank into a series. It is possible, since Ron Gilbert is the creator of Deathspank. I think it’s time now to take a break from the downloadable action game and play something different in the downloadable genre.
This game gets a 9 out of 10
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