PAX 2010 Preview: DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue
by Nick Simberg on 04 September 2010, 2,258 views
"Have you ever punched a nun?!"
If you've ever played Ron Gilbert's original DeathSpank (or one of his other titles, like the Monkey Island games), you know how his humor works. Weird, over-the-top, random... these traits look to be pushed to 11 in the upcoming DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue. Yep, thongs.
I got to play the game today at PAX, and it felt very... Brave Fencer Musashi, honestly. And I mean that in the best possible way. Too many games take themselves way too seriously; it's nice to see a title with a sense of humor. First off, the thongs.
If you completed the original DeathSpank, you know that there was a cliffhanger ending. This sequel picks up right where the first game left off, and introduces the six Thongs of Virtue: the Thongs of Courage, Compassion, Peace, Generosity, Cuisine, and, Justice. Each has a different color, and each has a different bearer, a member of the Order of the Thong.
Unfortunately, the thongs, while originally meant for peaceful power, have distorted the wearers' personalities into something evil. Nuns become not-so-holy. Santa Claus becomes an evil Kringle, and his elves become demonic orcs with machine guns. DeathSpank has to collect and destroy them all (the thongs, not the elves). So he goes on combat missions and fetch quests to unravel more funny story scenes, complete with some excellent voice acting.
The game itself plays as an action game with RPG quest-y elements. You have four different weapons equipped at any given time, one on each of the A,B,X,Y buttons. Like Fable, you'll be able to switch from melee attacks to ranged just by pushing a different action button. DeathSpank has a much different aesthetic and feel than Fable, however, favoring ridiculous violence and saturday morning cartoon sensibilities.
DeathSpank's D-Day style storming of the North Pole, in particular, is violently cartoony, featuring lots of meaningless deaths of minor unnamed characters. DeathSpank, being the main character and the only one sporting the Thong of Justice (the only incorruptible thong), is always unhurt and victorious. There is one short cutscene of him relaxing, reading the newspaper on the toilet while his unimportant allies are shot down around him. It's all very irreverent.
Santa Claus is the boss of the North Pole level. How many games let you storm Santa's workshop? Even more importantly, "Have you ever punched a nun?" Since she's wearing a thong that makes her evil, you'll get your chance in this game! That's an actual quote from the Hothead Games presenter, in fact. True story.
The game features some wide-ranging environments, from a Red Dead Redemption-esque Western town with trains, saloons, and cowhands, to a Normandy-looking battlefield that brings to mind the squirrel genocide scene on the beaches in Conker's Bad Fur Day. You'll even get to take a pirate ship out for a spin on a few missions (pirates in a Ron Gilbert game? No way!). The ship sports some impressive firepower, as well.
Speaking of firepower, DeathSpank: ToV has much more variety than its predecessor. In the original, Hothead focused on parodying classic sword-and-shield types of weapons. This time, in addition to the standard stuff, you'll also have guns. You'll also apparently have the saw from Shank, another recent indie darling (they traded a DeathSpank appearance in Shank for a Shank weapon in DeathSpank - yay for indie teamwork!).
Finally, DS:ToV has drop-in/drop-out anytime co-op. Your partner has a few new ally characters to choose from, as well, including Steve, "a unicorn-riding, rainbow-summoning master of the mystic arts." Why so... weird? Two words: Ron Gilbert.
Check out a few more pics in the gallery. DeathSpank drops onto PSN on September 21 and XBLA on September 22 for $14.99/1200 MS points. True, that seems very soon after the last release (the first DeathSpank came out in July), but you'll hopefully feel better when you disover that they were being developed in parallel. It's looking to be a worthy follow-up to an often loved, often hated, and largely unappreciated indie gem.
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