Gameplay: DeathSpank

Having recently joined the rest of the world in enjoying the incredibly well designed Torchlight - I was overjoyed to see that DeathSpank was hitting the PlayStation Network last week. DeathSpank is essentially Diablo for Monkey Island. Which is to say - it's pretty awesome.

There's more of the former than the latter in the game in terms of mechanics - so if you don't like hack and slash action RPG's, you probably won't suffer through enough to enjoy Gilbert's immense sense of humor - though it might be close. The character DeathSpank is essentially The Tick with a broadest sword and no Arthur to keep him in check. The graphics are a slick combination of 2D cartoon and 3D effects, the overall production from voice work to sound effects is pretty top notch and the RPG mechanics have been simplified to make the game extremely accessible.

Actually, if I had any complaint it would be that the game is a little too accessible. My inventory is cluttered with potions I really don't need (except for healing). There is offline 2 player co-op with the second player as DeathSpank's trusty friend Crackles ... but Crackles is essentially just a walking turret without any upgrade paths or inventory of his own. The "justice meter" mechanic is slightly flawed since the uber-attack uses the same button mashing as any other attack, leading to several unintended overkill blows. DeathSpank's inventory management is simple, but also so shallow that you eventually feel more like you're just doing spring cleaning than actually configuring.

These are minor aspects to what is otherwise a brilliant game, though - and aspects which are really just victims of a design which is trying to streamline fun and remove frustration. The goal is to have enough action RPG to get to the adventure game concepts - heavily displayed in the character conversations but also apparent in the slightly less successful puzzles which suffer from some of the same interface problems as every other adventure game puzzles, i.e. letting the user know that a random noun or verb is really what they require. This is, again, a rather small nuisance and rather easily corrected with the ingame hint system.

It's a great game, with a beautiful style and possibly the best sense of humor available for digital download right now ... highly recommend.

Game Play: The Secret of Monkey Island (iPhone) Review

Somehow, despite having played the majority of both text and graphic adventure games in existence, I missed out on the Monkey Island series seemingly completely.

A shame, but one that can be well correct with the release of the The Secret Of Monkey Island on the iPhone. This is the special edition, with new artwork, cleaner interface and updated sounds (even some scenes which had been previously cut are added back in). The interface takes a little getting used to at first - you drag a cursor around, tap for the primary option (usually walk to) and double tap for the secondary (open, talk to) ... otherwise you can open the verb menu or your inventory for more complicated actions. If you get stuck, you can shake your iPhone for a hint (which while fairly leading, but usually not too spoilerish). Also, you can swipe two fingers to compare the original classic with the updated version.

Fans of the series looking to revisit should probably just stop reading now and go download. Those new to the series, like myself, are in for a treat of "player friendly" design, as it was called back then (no annoying deaths, hints, no babel fish puzzles), excellent sound design and dialogue (seriously - play this one with the headphones on) and humor.

Highly, highly recommend unless you just know that the adventure game genre isn't for you.

Update: Now having played the entire game through, I still think this is a fairly commendable port with a few pretty huge caveats:

1) The "drag cursor" interface worked largely for me, but there were some sections (like navigating Guybrush around certain island maps) where it was extremely frustrating. Tip: don't try dragging the cursor by placing your finger directly on it. Put your finger off to the side so that you can see the cursor while it moves.

2) There's a at least one puzzle where it was much easier to perform in classic mode. While the Special Edition is grand, it shouldn't be allowed to hinder gameplay.

3) There were two puzzles with pretty massive bugs to them that if it weren't for the built-in hint system and the ability to flip back to classic mode - the user would never move forward. The second one, if it weren't for classic mode alone, you would never finish the game from what I can tell. These are things that should never be allowed into a shipped product.

I still quite enjoyed it and hope that mode classic adventure games make their way to the iPhone, but the whole thing feels like it needs another iteration. And better quality assurance.