Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Re-Play: Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue


Since the birth of my daughter, video gaming has become vastly scarce.  As a parent, of course my flesh and blood will always come first, but the moment they get some good rest, daddy's gonna get some time in.  So what better way to quench the thirst than a good few hours mindlessly killing enemies in Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue.  At least, that's what I thought.

You may remember me completing the first game, Deathspank, back in August 2010, and I absolutely loved it.  The mix of action RPG, with tons of comedic dialogue that only Ron Gilbert could instill into a game proved to be a winning combination in my book.  And its sequel, Thongs of Virtue, was a no-brainer to purchase.  The sequel was even part of my Extra Life campaign last October (which I will gladly participate again this year).  But because of the disaster last November with my PS3 saves, the game was shelved for a long time, unoccupied by a save file...until this past weekend.

I'm surprised to report that within a short weekend of solid blocks of playtime, I had almost reached the same spot my last lost save file was at.  Whether it was the persistance to reach that point, or whether I didn't give a damn and just winged the battles, I went from level 1 to 6 in no time flat.

And it was here that things went south.

Don't get me wrong...the game is very enjoyable, the gameplay is solid, and the storyline is hilarious.  But the moment you take on too many missions at once, everything just becomes a jumbled mess.  Even when you think you got a good grasp on completing mindless mission after mission, all it takes is one bug to ruin the entire experience.  My moment, I believe, was when I powered down the system after obtaining a necessary item for a mission.  Because of my premature power down, I'm left with an open-ended mission that could never be completed.

Thinking that this bug must've came up at one point or another, I vigorously searched the interwebs for a solution, only to find that the game is littered with many unresolved bugs, a couple of which literally break the game at crucial points in the game.  It's disheartening when you see a game released with bugs, let alone ones that can potentially deter players from playing again.  And when the bug is unfixable - well, that's the last straw for most players.  For me, it was a wasted weekend of catchup, and it would be a while before I return back to it again for a third time.

Overall: Maybe

The game is mindless fun.  And the fun would've continued if it weren't for the bugs that need to be side-stepped.

No comments: