The Baconing Review
Another year, another game developer trying to reproduce the action and RPG loot of Blizzard's Diablo series. Some games come and go without much of a fight, including a lot of expensively-made games like Sacred 2 or Titan Quest, as great as these games were. Indie titles seem to give a better payoff for the investment, so with Torchlight 2 coming soon and The Baconing - the third game in the DeathSpank series - out now, things seem to be looking up for hack-and-slash fans.
Or do they? Hothead Games' The Baconing dumps the titular character's name for something with a little more internet-friendly instant appeal, but make no mistake: this is DeathSpank 3 in everything but name. The action plays out in a 3D-ish perspective that combines hand-drawn art on 3D polygonal surfaces in a style that the developers compare to a pop-up art book. The world "curves" in a convex pattern as you traverse it, giving the developers a closer-to-earth perspective along with an easy way to limit the amount of terrain and number of enemies on the screen at once. You'll start out with a decent little sword and shield along with some basic equipment, but DeathSpank quickly replaces it all and eventually decks himself out with a full raiment of completely ridiculous gear.
DeathSpank is the brainchild of Ron Gilbert, who's probably best known for the LucasArts adventure classic Maniac Mansion - and his touch is all over this game. The humor, attitude, art, and style all reflect his irreverent style, and this is by far the most charming aspect of the game. Ron actually left Hothead Games before even the first DeathSpank was released, but you can see his influence everywhere.
Unfortunately, I'm starting to wonder just how much of an effect Gilbert's departure had. I don't want to disparage the efforts of everyone else at Hothead, but most indie developers have innovated a little more than this inside of three games. This is a direct sequel with much of the same style, and what's worse is that most of my complaints about the first two games are still here and completely unchanged. Simply put, I find a severe a mismatch between the fighting and the style of art and animation. Characters move and attack in a herky-jerky style, which can be charming and enjoyable, but if we're going to have this kind of animation, it's best if we're just mowing them down so that we don't have to try to time and counterattack against enemies that are so difficult to read. But The Baconing is a very defense-heavy game, requiring you to block often and heavily in order to keep yourself alive when you get surrounded. It helps that once you hold the spacebar to bring up a shield, you can then use the WASD keys to move relative to whatever you're targeting with your mouse, and having easy access to both melee and ranged attacks on each mouse click is very useful. (Even better: use a gamepad.)
Abilities like Perfect Reflect and ranged shot charging, new to the series, allow you to really put the hurt on foes as long as your timing is impeccable and you can predict enemy movements. But this game proves itself to be a slog within the first few minutes of play, requiring you to spend more time defending than attacking if you don't want to constantly find yourself respawning at the nearest outhouse. (Don't ask.)
I found it a real disappointment to have a game so wacky and silly require me to be so methodical and disciplined once I started playing, and I couldn't shake this feeling as I got further and further into the game. Even with more powerful equipment, the enemies' damage and health bars rose to meet the occasion, and I felt like I was spinning my wheels as I went on. Hell, it'd be fine if the core action at least meshed well with the over-the-top tone and ridiculous voice work, but that's just not the case. You've got to be of two minds when you play this game: a steadfast, dedicated, and disciplined warrior in battle, and a fan of silly, non-sequitur humor when talking to NPCs, enjoying the scenery, and completing quests. And you've got to be able to do this at pretty much the same time. In a way, the PS2 cult classic God Hand was kind of like this, but that game took it to an even bigger extreme. I should probably point out that I couldn't ever really get behind the the previous DeathSpank games because of the same issue; fans of the originals won't likely have the same complaint about The Baconing as I have.
If you thoroughly enjoyed the first two DeathSpank games and are ready for more, then the recommendation is easy: pick up The Baconing if you've got the spare cash, because you'll definitely dig it. For those of us who didn't immediately fall in love with this series' action, though, I'm really hoping that Hothead Games can break free of whatever development rut they seem to be stuck in right now and start working on projects that are as fun to play as they are to see and hear. Also, the $15 price tag is not exactly expensive for an indie PC title, but it's not really a bargain either, and while there are many hours to be had here, I wouldn't say they're all terribly entertaining. Or at least, not in quite the same way you get with a game like Bastion, which has vaguely similar controls and mechanics but a much better synergy between its visuals and action. As it is, I'm finding that The Baconing will only meet its potential for some gamers, and for the rest of us, it just feels like a bizarre, self-aware kind of tedium.
