The Baconing

DeathSpank is back for his third adventure just shy of fourteen months since he first saw the day of light, and one has to ask whether this piece of delicious bacon is worth the royal sum of 1200 Microsoft points 15 dollars or equivalent. Have we already grown tired of DeathSpank?

Well, some may have grown tired of him, and in many ways this is the one major shortcoming of The Baconing. Most things are just as they were in the previous titles, your standard action-RPG trek spiced up by humorous dialogue and a world unlike your typical cliché ridden fantasy romps. Our hero DeathSpank made an oopsie last time around when he went ahead and put on all thongs of virtue at once, and thus he spawned the evil (but rather handsome) giant clone of himself - Anti-Spank. Now DeathSpank must traverse the lands in search of the holy bacon fires, the only means of which he can rid the world of the thongs. Along the way you'll meet corrupt politicians, obnoxious princesses and the occasional obsessive compulsive adept.

While I've previously taken a casual interest in DeathSpank this is actually the first time I've sat down with a game in the series and given it some serious time. What The Baconing has that most action-RPG's lack is not just the humour, but the occasional puzzle to force you to use your little grey cells. Now, don't worry, it's not rocket science, but lacking some prior knowledge I found myself in a bind a couple of times. Most quests and side quests are simple matters of defeating a beast and bringing a trophy back to the quest giver, but there are exceptions and this is when The Baconing truly... glistens.

Now, I did do my homework, and it seems The Baconing follows along the lines of its predecessor and makes use of the same systems. There is, naturally, delicious co-operative play and at any time a second player can drop in (local). This is a massive plus and something more games should offer. One area where The Baconing falls flat on its behind, however, is items and more importantly item management - it's hard to get a good overview and even when you tick on the automatic "best gear" feature, you're still going to find yourself spending time grinding up useless items for change. While there are a bunch of really useful, and fun weapons to equip, some also fall short and only appear good for comic relief if anything. And well, that's something I guess.

The writing in The Baconing is really strong, and I found myself chuckling a good number of times both thanks to silly dialogue and ridiculous monsters. It's easy to tell this is a labour of love, but even if it's fun to do things a little wrong talk to NPC's out of order to get various hilarious responses, the manner in which the story is told never really changes gears and I find myself skipping dialogue options purely because of the rather stale structure. There is a lot of repetitive humour as well, which may not be everyone's cup of tea, but idiots such as myself laugh even harder at the fifth awkward orphan joke than the first one.

The combat is not immensely varied, but then again this is an action-RPG and with its vast number of weapons, potions and grenades, there are tons of options for you to spice up your experience. You're going to repeat a lot of blocking, shield bash, then range attacks - at least that's how I tackled most difficult situations in the game, well at least the ones that didn't require me to think.

The Baconing is a proven concept, but I think Hothead Games should take a step back and perhaps try and reinvent DeathSpank for his next appearance. At times the game even pokes fun at itself referencing quest lines and the likes, and as you may know there is a grain of truth hidden somewhere within each joke. The Baconing is at its core a good game, and at that a game with a deliciously wonderful title at that, buy it if you're in need of a good co-operative action-RPG romp, but if you've played the previous games and don't feel the hunger for more of the same you should stay away.