![]() They require no more skill to use than the existing fantasy weapons though and don’t make as much of a difference as you’d think.The same can be said for the new co-op character, with Steve the ninja joining Sparkles the wizard but making little appreciable difference in practise. This includes weapons, with bazookas, shotguns and other ammo-limited armaments. These often incorporate the existing graphic adventure elements, particularly the dialogue choices, into the battle and hint at the considerably more interesting game that DeathSpank could eventually become.There is more variety in the setting this time too, with plenty of time for pirates, a visit to the North pole, dinosaurs and even some contemporary and sci-fi elements. The only thing that really stops it is the overcomplicated quest structure that can leave you with half a dozen or more open at one time and little indication as to how you should continue with them.The game does at least seem to perceive the problems with the combat, with some much more interesting boss battles than the first time round. You can assign a different weapon to each of the four face buttons but all you’re doing is mindlessly button-bashing, only stopping occasionally to use your Justice ability when its special bar has filled up.To be fair this isn’t really any different from Diablo and its clones, but the game simplifies all the role-playing elements to such a degree that it may as well be a scrolling beat ’em-up for all the difference it makes. These aren’t particularly taxing by graphic adventure standards but they’re substantially more interesting than being told to go out and kill X number of enemies.Unfortunately that still goes on though, and the game’s core combat is no more interesting than it was last time. Although there are still plenty of fetch quests to get bogged down in there’s also a greater number of proper puzzles. Sad to say not an awful lot has changed in this regard, but the actual storytelling has improved – with more of a focus on Monkey Island style dialogue trees.These extended conversations require you to pay careful attention to what everyone is saying, as you try to trick them into revealing passwords and the like. The original was actually relatively mirth free, with a disappointing reliance on scatological humour and the inherent comedy value of chickens with lips. It can rather neatly be summarised as Diablo with jokes, which means it’s an action role-player cum dungeon crawler whose relentless monster bashing is augmented by one of gaming’s best writers of comedy dialogue.Or at least that was the idea. Apparently this was simply because the original game was too big to be released as one download – and yet this second part still manages to make some useful improvements on the first.DeathSpank emanates from the mind of Ron Gilbert, one of the joint creators of The Secret Of Monkey Island. The original DeathSpank was only released in July and yet here is the follow-up just two months later. We’re still not sure whether to call this a sequel or not. ![]() ![]() DeathSpank: Thongs Of Virtue (360) – the world’s quickest sequel
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