Name: The Baconing
Item: The Baconing
Author: Retro Replay

The Baconing

The Baconing starts with DeathSpank making the sort of catastrophically silly decision this series thrives on: wearing all six Thongs of Virtue at once. The result is Anti-Spank, an evil double who sends you on a quest to destroy the thongs in six bacon fires before the final showdown. It is a knowingly absurd hook, and the game commits to it rather than pretending its fantasy quest is anything but a joke machine.

Under that comedy sits a familiar Diablo-style action RPG loop of hacking through enemies, gathering your bearings in a diagonal-down world, and handling light puzzles. The one meaningful wrinkle is a timed block that reflects damage at an attacker, giving combat a welcome moment of timing amid the button-driven chaos. It does not radically reinvent DeathSpank, but if you liked the earlier games, more of that same goofy, colorful action is a perfectly reasonable excuse to return.

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The Baconing wastes little time getting you back into DeathSpank’s particular brand of action RPG: you move through a diagonal-down world, cut through packs of enemies, and push onward toward the next absurd objective. The first hour has an easy pull because the premise is so immediately daft. DeathSpank’s attempt to wear every Thong of Virtue creates Anti-Spank, and suddenly you are off to undo that mistake by feeding the six thongs to six bacon fires.

This is, fundamentally, a continuation rather than a reinvention. Its Diablo-like combat and simple puzzle-solving retain the shape of the previous DeathSpank games, so returning fans will settle in fast. That familiarity can become a frustration if you wanted the third entry to substantially change the formula; the game mostly trusts that more DeathSpank is its own reward.

The new timed block is the important exception. Block at the right instant and the incoming damage is reflected back at the enemy, adding a small but satisfying skill check to encounters. It gives you a reason to watch an opponent and react instead of treating every fight as pure attacking. The mechanic is not enough to transform the action, but it is a smart addition that makes combat feel a little sharper once the timing clicks.

Go in wanting breezy, humorous hack-and-slash rather than a major mechanical leap. The puzzles are simple, and the combat’s core remains familiar throughout. Yet the game’s directness works in its favor: you always know the broad task, and the timed defense offers enough interaction to break up the routine of battling through enemy groups.

Graphics

The Baconing uses colorful 2D scrolling visuals from a diagonal-down viewpoint. That perspective suits an action RPG well, keeping DeathSpank, his enemies, and the flow of a skirmish in view while you move through its fantasy and futuristic mix. The bright cartoon style also matches a game built around bacon fires, magical underwear, and an evil version of its hero.

Story

The story runs on escalation and idiocy in the most deliberate sense. Having collected all six Thongs of Virtue in the earlier games, DeathSpank wears the lot at once and creates Anti-Spank, his evil counterpart. It is an appropriately self-inflicted disaster for a series that prefers broad comic absurdity to solemn fantasy drama.

Your goal is clear: destroy each thong in one of six bacon fires, weaken Anti-Spank, then face him in a final confrontation. That structure gives the quest a dependable throughline, even when the surrounding tone is deliberately ridiculous. You are not here for a tangled moral epic; you are here to see how far the game can stretch its central joke without blinking.

That approach will divide people cleanly. If DeathSpank’s brand of humor already makes you smile, the premise gives the adventure a strong excuse to keep going. If it leaves you cold, neither the villain nor the bacon-themed mission structure will suddenly make the narrative land.

Overall Experience

The Baconing is a solid, narrowly targeted sequel. It knows what DeathSpank is and does not spend much energy trying to make it something else: a colorful, joke-heavy action RPG with simple puzzles and familiar hack-and-slash combat. The timed block is a worthwhile improvement, especially when you begin using it deliberately rather than treating it as an occasional accident.

The trade-off is obvious. The game preserves the earlier installments’ main strengths, but it also preserves their basic shape, so novelty is limited. Anyone already tired of the series’ combat rhythm may find that the new defensive trick cannot carry the whole adventure on its own.

For fans, though, the payoff is straightforward and likely sufficient: one more trip with DeathSpank, a suitably silly personal nemesis, and an objective too absurd to confuse with any other fantasy quest. Newcomers can start here if the comedy speaks to them, while series regulars should treat it as a familiar plate of comfort food with one better seasoning. For background on the game’s release and place in the series, see The Baconing’s history.