DeathSpank: Thong of Virtue review

DeathSpank has all of the qualities of a fantastic downloadable game. It has action, personality and a lovable main character. What more could you ask for?

In DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, the mighty hero, DeathSpank, is on the quest of finding all of the missing thongs that have corrupted individuals across the land. Gamers who loved the first game will be pleased to know that everything they enjoyed about the first one is back and has been upgraded. New errands, new locations and new weapons are among some of the added content. This time around DeathSpank can use a variety of firearms; from pistols, shotguns, machine guns to even rocket launchers. Also added to the new arsenal are different types of grenades and spells.

The same wit and characteristic dialogue is back as well, with DeathSpank still unable to say no to any one in need of help. Even though this game is packed with just as many hours of gameplay as the first one, and seems to be everything we wanted out of such a quick sequel, I still can’t help but be disappointed in the unchanged inventory system that is as horrid as ever. I don’t mind only being able to carry a certain amount and I even overlook what a pain it is to compare weapons and armor to what I have equipped. But I can not ignore what a pain it is to move around in the inventory screen and the stupidity of having to pick up, then drag objects I no longer want onto the grinder. Why can’t I just select it and hit a trash button? It would make things so much simpler.

DeathSpank T.O.V. also took out a good chunk of level-grinding that was needed in the first game. The enemies’ difficulty levels in T.O.V. seem to level up with you and where the game thinks you should be at that time in the story. I enjoyed being able to run around and give enemies a fair fight instead of being incredibly overpowered or underpowered compared to them as this happened more often than not in the original.

I loved the variety in errands as well. Some of DeathSpank’s old friends from the last game are back; be prepared to kill the Gleem Queens, take readings from the Thongoloths and even collect cave crystals for the spelunker again. Among those are tons of new errands such as posting eviction notices, recovering lost feminine products and fixing oil rigs.

Sure, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue is more of the same, but when it’s more of the same amounts of awesome, then it’s a very good thing. In a lot of ways, I enjoyed T.O.V. even more than I liked the first one. This sequel seems better put together and has slightly more personality. Now if only they would fix the crappy inventory system for the third, then DeathSpank might just make its way into my favorite downloadable games of all time.