Preview DeathSpank - 1st Screens, an Interview, & 100 Chickens

[Jason]

Tags: DeathSpank

Adventure gaming kingpin and former <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=191" target="blank">Codex victim</a> <b>Ron Gilbert</b> gave 1UP the first <a href="http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3175829" target="blank">up close & personal preview</a> for <b>DeathSpank</b>.
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<blockquote>Throughout the story, you'll discover main and side quests, listed as Important and Unimportant tasks in your Quest Log. As you might imagine, some of these feel much like classic adventure game puzzles. In one situation, you run across a farmer who wants to grow top vegetables, and in order to help, you have to track down different types of exotic manure, one being Unicorn Poop. In another situation, you want to get a sword from recurring character Eubrick the Retired, who requests a taco in trade, so you have to go to a taco stand and ask for the ingredients he wants, but the taco stand isn't allowed to make an "extra spicy" one because of a lawsuit, so you have to track down a special plant and combine it with the taco in your inventory. (And yes, there will be a hint system -- "certainly a more robust one than what you'd have in a classic adventure game," says Gilbert.)</blockquote>
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Next came the <a href="http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3175862" target="blank">interview</a>:
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<blockquote>And the way I think really good dialogue comes out is when you get done with this conversation with this person, and in some ways you felt like you had an actual conversation. You weren't just picking from menus and saying the same thing over and over again, having them respond with the same canned response a second time, but really varying all of those things... You know, you talk with someone about this and later on you discover, "Hey, now they're actually doing something a little different." But I think for that stuff to work it has to be subtle, because if it's not subtle gamers will start to meta-game it. They will start to look at the trees and they will start go, "Oh, you know what? I need to get this person to do this." So now they're making choices about the meta-game; they're not really making choices about experiencing the artistic nature of it all.</blockquote>
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<a href="http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3175824" target="blank">Stay tuned</a> for a video, LucasArts wet t-shirt contest, and other goodies throughout the week.
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<i>Thanks to PlanHex for shoving this in our inbox</i>

 

[kingcomrade]

In another situation, you want to get a sword from recurring character Eubrick the Retired, who requests a taco in trade, so you have to go to a taco stand and ask for the ingredients he wants, but the taco stand isn't allowed to make an "extra spicy" one because of a lawsuit, so you have to track down a special plant and combine it with the taco in your inventory.

ಠ_ಠ

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

So instead of a proper, QfG-like adventure/RPG full of class-specific content and multiple solutions to puzzles, Ron is working on a lame Diablo clone devoted to fetch quests and grinding? Another great designer falls victim to the Molyneux syndrome.

 

[VonVentrue]

Another great designer falls victim to the Molyneux syndrome.

I'm more than willing to give Ron the benefit of the doubt at this point. At least until the first gameplay videos have seen the light of day.

 

[JarlFrank]

He always said the RPG part would be mostly like Diablo, so no surprise here.
I still hope for good dialogues and humour, though.

 

[DriacKin]

As long as it'll have a good sense of humor and some interesting characters, it might still be a worthwile game.

 

[ghostdog]

Exactly, all that matters to me about this game is to have a good sense of humor and bearable action-rpg mechanics. Something like Anachronox.

 

[St. Toxic]

Another great designer falls victim to the Molyneux syndrome.

I don't know. Going by the feel of the interview he doesn't seem to have his head stuck up his ass.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

Exactly, all that matters to me about this game is to have a good sense of humor and bearable action-rpg mechanics. Something like Anachronox.

Where was the Action RPG part in Anachronox? It was a tactical JRPG.

 

[ghostdog]

Exactly, all that matters to me about this game is to have a good sense of humor and bearable action-rpg mechanics. Something like Anachronox.

Where was the Action RPG part in Anachronox? It was a tactical JRPG.

meh whatever , you know what I mean.