If you all
remember in 2010, a small company known as Hothead Games released two distinct
games that are just awesome. Those two games are Deathspank and Deathspank:
Thongs of Virtue. Of course, the creator, Ron Gilbert meant those two games to
be only one huge game, but in the end, decided to make it two games. They both
rocked! Sadly, however, Ron Gilbert left Hothead Games, and is currently
working on some games at Double Fine Productions. Well then, that didn’t stop
Hothead from releasing a third game. I was curious to know what they were going
to do for the next game and the result of this is The Baconing. The guys over
at Hothead Games definitely took what was best of the first two games and
tweaked them, making this the best game in the series. However, due to some of
these tweaks, it confusingly makes it maybe the weakest entry in the series. It
isn’t a bad game, but I shouldn’t spoil what I don’t like about this game so
early in the review. Let us dive into the meaty world of The Baconing.
The story starts
us in the futuristic home of Deathspank, hero to the downtrodden! For some
reason, Deathspank is bored and needs a challenge. As he ponders this
conundrum, the world that Deathspank lives in is under attack by orcs,
machines, and someone called the Antispank is the one who is causing all this
chaos. Deathspank then quickly finds out that the Antispank was made when
Deathspank tried on all of the Thongs of Virtue at one time, and must get rid
of them by throwing the individual thongs in the Bacon Fires. Like the last two
games, you will meet many characters from the last couple of games, and the
humor is definitely better here with less jokes about poop and such. It is
still a very entertaining story with memorable characters and great humor.
The gameplay is in
that same Diablo-action/adventure formula that the last two games have shown
us. You will go around a massive and creative world completing quests, taking
down silly enemies, solving puzzles, and taking down bosses to get to the Bacon
Fires. You will have a huge assortment of weapons, armor, potions, and other
helpful items that are used to solve adventure-style puzzles. Besides the main
quest, there are side quests you can do, like get Gods out of their houses
because they aren’t paying rent, rigging an election for a massively corrupt
mayor from the last two games, and many other side quests. There are some
tweaks to this overall combat engine, which is actually pretty nice. You can
now deflect shots of arrows or ammo back at the enemies and use a shield
bash-like attack to make enemies dizzy. The puzzles here are pretty
challenging, which makes you think ahead of time what to do and what items to
have. That is pretty much it on the gameplay since it really is the same stuff
as the previous two games.
The graphics
definitely look a little cleaner and still look pretty nice, but it’s basically
the same look as in the past. It still has a very creative look to the entire
game, and it’s charming to look at due to the creative character designs. The
music has been carried over from the other games and it’s good, but well, I
will talk about it in my complaints in the next paragraph.
Since this is the
third game in the series, you would think they would have made it perfect, but
sadly, there are some major issues. The first issue I have is the music.
Instead of making some new tunes, they brought over the tunes from before, and
very little of it at that into the third game. I find that unbelievably lazy. I
mean, why not make new music? You easily had the budget to make a third game,
but not enough to make new music? The second complaint I have is probably the
biggest issue I have with this game. It feels too familiar and safe. I mean,
yeah, I would rather it still be the same Diablo-style gameplay from the past
two games, but there just isn’t enough to make it stand out from the other two
games. I remember them asking on their Facebook page what they would like to
see in a sequel and a lot of people said vehicle combat. We never got that. The
only thing they brought over from the second game is the boat riding, and there
is some serious lag in some areas with that section. I just wish they had taken
a bit more time to work on some new features for this game, like vehicle
combat. If the Maw can do that, then I think you guys at Hothead Games can do
that also.
Overall, I still
very much enjoyed the game even though I just ripped it a new one. I just think
it’s a solid game, but they played it a bit too safe to make it any different
from its past titles. I can still recommend it even though the 15-dollar price
tag might be a bit much now, since nothing new has been added to the whole
experience. I still think they will make a sequel, but I hope they put more
time into making it a step up instead of just playing it safe.
This game gets an 8 out of 10
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