The Baconing

Deathspank is back for a third bout of heroic endeavours, and this time it’s person-… oh, actually it’s about his underwear. Yes, for reasons not excluding chafing, we must guide our hero through perils and the like to find specific locations of the Baconing Fire, so that Deathspank can burn the Fabled Thongs of Virtue and defeat AntiSpank.

When I switched on, it was immediately apparent that this game wasn’t going to win any awards for originality. It’s more of the same. If you enjoyed the humour of the previous two instalments, then you’re going to be giggling non stop throughout this one. There are some welcome faces from the past, as well as some newcomers to the series, and they will be there to crack you up while providing you with some extraordinary side missions.

One of the areas I found lacking was the combat system. It can be more than a little uneven, with most enemies quite easy to knock down, yet a few that will be very challenging thrown in on a whim. It can be very frustrating, especially with ranged enemies, because although you can get potions to replenish your health right away, your main source of health is food (mushrooms, steaks etc). You eat these and your health replenishes over time, but if you get hit or touch any button on the controller, it stops, and you have to try again providing you’re still alive.

The inventory system, although it takes a bit of getting used to, is quite good. It can look overwhelming, because you pick up a lot of weapons and armour, but you can just set your armour to always equip the best one, and that just leaves you to remember to get rid of the old armour every now and again. Instead of dropping unwanted items, you can ‘grind’ them for cash. This means you don’t have the feeling of waste when you drop something and you don’t have to scout around for a shop to sell it, either.

The puzzles in the game are where I think it’s at its best. Having to use your head, for example when you have to convince a group of people to give you half of a code by out-rhyming them, and playing a colour memory game with Z-I-M-O-N, this is where I think the game shines. The puzzles are well put together and again, can be a very funny experience.