Directly afterward Deathspank is given the task to collect six holy thongs of virtue that have corrupted their wearers.īeing a tongue-in-cheek look at game design and story progression, Deathspank is rife with in-jokes and nods to other games. Of course, such a profession is intensely un-hero-like, so Deathspank leads the inmates in a massive breakout, which succeeds… kind of. The story begins with the titular hero stuck in a prison, spending his days carving potatoes. Meet Deathspank, a powerful “hero” with violent tendencies whose general incompetence and lack of mental capacity draw more comparisons with The Tick than Batman I half expected Deathspank to shout “KEEN!” OR “SPOON!” at any given moment. Maybe I’m over-analyzing things, but if this is truly the commentary Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue hopes to make, I daresay it went a bit too far. The second entry in as many months (!?), it almost seems as if the release itself is a commentary on how the game industry is so fond of milking its franchises dry.
Hothead games, responsible for the Penny Arcade Adventure games (before the series’ tragic and undignified demise), is at the helm of Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue, a game whose very essence is based on such humor.
I don’t mean the “oh the main female lead has such humongous breasts that bounce all around I wish I had such ginormous titties but I don’t because I am a loli” type of humor that’s so prevalent in games nowadays, but rather the satirical, tongue-in-cheek humor that pokes fun at the tropes and cliches of gaming that we have all come to accept.