Written by Kristen.Maxwell | Tuesday, September 6, 2011
| Platforms: | Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, PC (Steam), Macc (App Store) |
| Publisher(s): | Valcon Games |
| Developer(s): | Hothead Games |
| Genre(s): | Action RPG |
| Release Date: | 8/31/2011 |
| ESRB Rating: | Teen |
| Buy It/Rent It/Skip It?: | Skip It |
Wrapping up the DeathSpank trilogy, The Baconing hit the download markets on Steam, the Mac App Store, Xbox Live Arcade, and PSN last week. Continuing the saga of lighthearted action-questing, Hothead Games serves up a sizzling plate of silly ? if uninspired ? hack ?n? slash adventuring.
Once again you play the role of DeathSpank, the all-brawn, no-brains dispenser of justice who bears more than a passing resemblance to The Tick, Futurama?s Zapp Brannigan, and Ratchet & Clank?s Captain Qwark. Having improperly combined the power of your magical Thongs of Virtue, you begin your quest to destroy the arcane undergarments in the Fires of Bacon.
DeathSpank is constantly surrounded by hordes of enemies
The game consists of a sizable map of interconnected levels, inhabited by legions of goons who want nothing more than to gang up on you and cut your quest short. Fortunately, you?re armed with an array of weapons, and can simultaneously wield four implements of destruction, making it easy to switch among ranged, elemental, and super-charged Justice attacks assigned to the 4 primary controller buttons. As if this were not enough, you can also collect a variety of secondary items like grenades and various types of buffing potions, all accessible through the d-pad.
With this much variety on hand, you would think that combat would be a non-stop orgy of delightful carnage. Sadly, this is where the promise of a hero named DeathSpank falls flat- the numerous weapons are hardly differentiated in their use, and apart from the Weapons of Justice, you could hardly tell which item you were attacking with at any given time. Your character is also kind of a wimp for being such a meathead, and is quickly overwhelmed by swarms of middling creatures. Although the character is completely without nuance, the gameplay requires a bit more precision and safe-playing than I would have liked. Basically, you don?t feel badass enough to have the name DeathSpank when you?re constantly trying to draw out enemies individually and running away from the hordes you should be dominating.
While the single player experience often devolves into a tedious slog, the game really turns itself around when you add a sidekick. Bob From Accounting (a man-shark who eats enemies to gain health), Steve (the tiny-unicorn-riding ninja who likes to sing his own name and can heal you with a magical rainbow), and even series stand-by Sparkles the Wizard are all much more colorful characters than Deathspank himself, and elicited more LOLs through their unscripted antics than any of the dialogue written for the main hero. In fact, after seeing these guys in action, it made me sad that I was stuck with just the big dumb oaf as player one.
Co-op also solves one of the other major shortcomings of the game: healing. Single player limits you to a handful of insta-heal potions, with the rest of your rejuvenation coming from consumable food, that takes time to chew. If you press any button or are hit during chow-time, the action is cancelled and no healing is obtained. This is especially annoying when faced with tons of enemies with long-range attacks, which happens all too frequently. But with Steve at your side, you have access to unlimited healing rainbows, restricted only by the cool-down period of his action. This mechanic works much better to keep the action going and limit the number of annoying re-spawns that otherwise plague the combat-heavy portions of the game.
Bob from accounting. He eats enemies for health.
With that all said, however, The Baconing is not a bad game. The technical aspects are completely spot on, as you would expect from the third installment of the franchise. The controls are tight, the minimally-controllable camera works well enough, and everything seems to be in the right place in the user interface and menus. The visual design, though not a huge departure from the predecessors, is charming and clean, with a cardboard-cut-out vibe that precisely matches the game?s light tone.
Unfortunately, it is exactly this light tone that is both its biggest strength and its Achilles heel. Without a strong narrative to compel you forward through the quest, the game relies on humor and gameplay to keep you going. Sadly, both of those elements feel very middle-of-the-road, and serve as a constant reminder that you could be playing something more gripping, something that makes you feel like you HAVE to beat the next boss and see the next level. Nothing in The Baconing has that kind of urgent hook, and it makes the whole thing just feel rather skippable, especially as a single player. While this would make an EXCELLENT title on a mobile device (especially on iOS), it?s not the sort of game that can seriously compete for your dedicated console session time.
But The Baconing is a passable casual experience, and one that the whole family can engage with. If enjoy your hack ?n? slash with a side of irreverence, and can wrangle a second player to join you on the couch, it?s not a terrible way to pass a hot summer day.
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Tags: Action RPG, Co-Op, DeathSpank, Hothead Games, mac, PSN, RPG, Steam, xbla, Xbox Live Arcade
Posted in PC, Reviews, Sony PSN, Xbox Live Arcade
About the Author
Kristen.Maxwell Kris is a dormant volcano of creative awesomeness. One of these days he is going to erupt into a giant explosion of compelling audio-visual masterpieces. Until that day, he bides his time as a floundering father of two boys, an insular geek, and a purveyor of crudely fabricated multimedia experiences.
Source: http://videogamewriters.com/review-the-baconing-22798
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