First Impressions: DeathSpank

First a quick explanation for those that might not know. There is a type of You Tube video called Let's Play. Basically it consists of a screen capture of somebody playing a video game and then as they are playing they commentate on themselves and what they are doing. I don't know who did it first or who was the pioneer but there a lot of people recording them these days. I even considered trying do one myself once, but my tests turned out to be of the not good variety.

I don't actually watch a lot of LP videos either. Generally if I'm interested I'd prefer to play the through myself. Though I have found sometimes it is interesting to see how others tackle a game after I'm finished with it, but it has to be someone whose commentary I'm interesting in hearing not just some random You Tube user. So the only ones I've watched regularly are the ones put out by Hank Green.

How does that relate to DeathSpank? Well that's one of the few times I'm started watching a Let's Play video having not played that game first. I owned it via Steam, but it was one of many games that I'd not got around to playing yet. This is okay as it is not a game which is big on story. It's what's known as a hack-n-slash RPG which is all about killing the monsters and getting fancy new swords.

A couple of days ago I got the itch to actually play the game for myself for a change and so I loaded it up. However because of the videos, technically this isn't my first impression. I already know this is a very nice looking game with cartoon styled graphics and this works very well with the parody theme running throughout the setting and the writing. I already know there are jokes, but not the kind I will usual lough out loud at. I already know a lot of what needs to be done as I already watched someone else do it. I do now also know that it controls well and acts very like Diablo 2, however that's not very surprising as that's the main game being parodied here.

What did surprise me was realizing how little the Let's Play videos actually cover. When you're watching the game in ten minute chunks once or twice a week it makes it feel like it been going on for ages. Although it's actually only 25 episodes since earlier in the year. Still after one evening's play I found I was almost caught up to where the videos are already. At which point you calculate that 25 ten minute episodes is only four and a bit hours. So there's no worry about spoilers anymore as I'll be ahead soon and it feels like I'm barely even one quarter of the way though so far.