![]() The Baconing was, of course, released just about a year after the previous entry in the franchise, and, as with DeathSpank and Thongs of Virtue, the plot is kind of thin here, and more of a vehicle for exploring the world.Īdd the frustrating combat, and it'd be hard to argue that The Baconing was the sequel I was hoping it would be. That might have been OK had the game been released years after Thongs of Virtue or if the plot was superbly engrossing. The game's main issue is that there is little new to do here. It might be a cliche to suggest "you'll enjoy The Baconing if you enjoyed the original games", but there is some truth to that. In that sense The Baconing is still an adventure game disguised as a action/RPG hybrid. There's a lot to see and plenty of characters to interact with, and the humor is spot on as long as you like the silly stuff. The graphics follow the whacked-out style of the originals, and when paired with a catchy soundtrack - sadly with some recycled music - exploring this new varied world can be a lot of fun. Luckily DeathSpank has always emphasized a mix of exploration and silly humor, and you'll find plenty of both in The Baconing. That's pretty much where the changes end as far as gameplay mechanism goes. To add insult to injury, the few puzzles you find are often pretty clever. An awful lot of missions seem to revolve around going from point A to B and kill something or somebody, with the combat difficulty fluctuating wildly, to the point of frustration setting in too often. The possible exception is that there is more combat this time around, and that's not really a change for the better, in my opinion. Some promises were made of an updated combat system, but if there were any changes, they elude me. Yep, it's DeathSpank, no doubt about it.Somewhat ironically, one of the game's biggest flaws is that it's too similar to the previous DeathSpanks. Heck, I'm sure those involved here are largely the same group of people, minus, of course, Ronzo himself. The Baconing, like Curse of Monkey Island, stays true to its predecessors and one could forgive a more casual player for thinking the same team had developed it. It happened with Monkey Island fifteen years ago, and now(-ish) it has happened again with DeathSpank. Bob may be in marketing, but he's described as "a sleek, business-minded hammerhead shark with devastating catch phrases and an incredible bite," not to mention his ability to "feast on the fallen to help his brother in arms." And, of course, he can pull a swordfish out for brutalizing should the situation call for it.Once upon a time, Ronzo "Ron" Gilbert must have made a deal with the devil, permitting him to make two excellent games in a franchise before seeing a third one developed without his input. ![]() He also spoke to us a bit about The Baconing's co-op, confirming that, yes, the feature will return, noting that Bob from Marketing will be "joining the likes of Steve, Sparkles, and Tankko" as playable co-op characters. "This new title isn't DeathSpank 3 or DeathSpank: The Baconing, instead it should be thought of as The Baconing." Inglehart added that "this is a standalone experience that will appeal to fans of the DeathSpank character, but also to gamers everywhere who love unique and engaging video games." Let's hope! Hothead producer Mike Inglehart further explained to us that his studio wanted people to be able to play the new game even without having played previous entries in the series. Aha! Still, we couldn't help but wonder why Hothead would voluntarily ditch the brand name that it stuck to the last two games, effectively walking away from the brand recognition it built up over the past two entries. In fact, the title was changed just by asking our fans," a Hothead rep told Joystiq. Did series creator Ron Gilbert take the rights to the character with him, for instance?Īs it turns out, there's a fairly simple reason behind the name change: "We haven't removed the words or name 'DeathSpank' from the title for any legal reason. ![]() When Hothead announced the third entry in its dungeon crawl SLASH role-playing series this past week - titled solely " The Baconing," dropping its usual "DeathSpank" moniker - we couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the series' main character to get him taken off title duties. ![]()
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