An epic adventure lined with blood and steel and bacon!
Deathspank's titular hero, is on a quest. He seeks a mystical object simply called "The Artifact." How he got here or why he wants to artifact is not entirely clear but luckily the game has a fun, witty sense of humor. Deathspank himself is cocky and arrogant like Zapp Brannigan and if his voice sounds familiar, Ratchet and Clank players will recognize him as Captain Qwark. It's actually a lot of fun to stop and work your way through the dialouge trees just to hear what the characters have to say.
Gameplay is a typical hack n' slash RPG not to different from Secret of Mana. You can equip weapons and potions with various buttons and the more you fight, the more you level up. One nice feature the game has is the game to automatically equip the best armor saving you the hassle of having to stop and change armor around. As you level up, you can of course use stronger weapon and increase your damage. Also as you fight you build up a "justice meter" and it allows you to unleash a powerful melee attack though you can't save it up and sometimes end up wasting it on a weak foe.
Though early parts of the game are sort of linear, eventually the world opens up and you're free to explore the entire land, collecting treasure, completing sidequests or simply level grinding. If you're a fan of open world RPGs like the Elder Scrolls series, then this is definitely worth your time. And the ability to warp between outhouse/check points saves you a lot of backtracking.
The game has a colorful look like out of a pop up storybook or a cartoon you'd watch on Adult Swim late night though the music is limited and sometimes feels repetitive though it has some excellent voice work.
Overall, as a downloadable RPG, Deathspank is worth your time. It has a lot to do especially in terms of sidequests as well as two expansions are avaiable, "Thongs of Justice" and "The Baconing."
Final Score: 8.0