I just finished up the PC version of Deathspank (game #1 of 2) and I thought it was good! Gameplay was a little repetitive, but the writing/art/music kept it fun. Plus it was pretty short so it didn't overstay it's welcome (took me about 8 hours for everything). I thought there was a bit too many quests though, especially since a good chunk of them are pretty fetchy.
The writing and voice acting were AWESOME. The actor who plays Deathspank was perfect and a lot of the other characters had great delivery as well. The dialogue was generally funny with a good amount of really LOL lines spread throughout. Loved the music and the art style with the 2d houses was great as well. I think the Orphans and their dialogue was the best. "I want a ....cell phone!" lolololol
I loved the way the game progressed. The world map with tons and tons of locations that were all varied and unique made it feel closer to a traditional rpg in progression than a dungeon crawler diablo-type. I loved how everything was close together and the game was generally fast paced so you kept running across new and cool locations. Good times!
My biggest complaint outside of the gameplay being kind of repetitive and a bit shallow is that at ~80% in the game I crossed over past the haunted forest and was greeted by a weapon seller. Since I had around 80 billion dollars or something because there was nothing to buy the whole game until then and since I was lvl.18 with +2 armor/weapon equip I bought the entire lvl.20 armor set, lvl.20 crossbow, lvl.20 katana. Unfortunately this made the last 20% of the game/map exploration not a loot game because nothing I picked up was ever better than that stuff. On top of that I hit lvl.20 before I got to the end, so I stopped gaining any exp. So without the loot aspect or the leveling up aspect, the game got a little boring at the very end. Especially because after I'd explored the whole map I was just running around doing the last dozen or so sidequests left, and when they're mainly fetch quests without the promise of better equip or xp to increase your level they start feeling more like chores than fun quests. Which is why I think the game has a few dozen too many quests; could've been trimmed down slightly for better pacing.
Was also kind of surprised how easy the achievements are to get. I think this is the first game in 3-4 years I've gotten 100% achievements ^^; But hey, it's nice to be able to get them all without having to do unfun grinding so I applaud this direction.
Overall I had a fun time up until that last hour or so when I hit max level, best equip. The end wasn't bad, it just by that time it felt a bit of "ok, let's finish this thing". I really liked how the team tried to mix some adventure gaming into the title with items that you had to use and a few puzzles you had to solve. I felt like the game was a mix of a traditional rpg (world exploration & dungeons) x diablo (combat & loot) x adventure game (puzzles & dialogue). It was a nice mix and really made it stand out as a unique game.
The ending...was a bit sudden... ^^; Does anything carryover to the next game? I have like a billion dollars in money still. Hope they release the next part on PC as well. Would be a shame if the first didn't sell enough to justify bringing the second or something.
Reading the last page of this thread, so the consensus on the 2nd game is that it's worse? :\ I'm all ready to explore another cool world map will be a shame if it's a step back.
