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Goodbye Deponia – The Verdict

November 5, 2013 Kevin McLennan Comments 0 Comment

Rufus is one of those combustible characters that try as he might, can’t help but cause chaos at the best of times. This characterisation combined with Deponia‘s off-the-wall humour has seen Rufus in quite a few predicaments throughout his adventures. The most memorable of which involved him being strapped to a giant circular saw blade and catapulted through the air, but only after the player had solved a mouse trap style puzzle in order to launch the device. The reason I bring up a scene from a past game is simply for comparison. It’s these moments of picturesque hilarity that mould the Deponia games from being simply funny, to hilariously memorable. It’s also something that Goodbye Deponia, the third and final part of the trilogy is sadly lacking a lot of. That’s not to say that these moment aren’t in the game, they are, just not on the same scale.

The change in humour in Goodbye Deponia lends itself somewhat to this in my opinion. With an overall darker feel, jokes about euthanasia and periods don’t fit well with light hearted and comedical situations leaving less room for these to arise. There are still laugh out loud moments, but having played through the entire game I am struggling to remember them.

One of the more memorable scenes from Goodbye Deponia.

Thankfully Goodbye Deponia excels in places that it’s predecessors didn’t, namely the puzzle solving logic which has been kept to an illogical minimum this time around. There are still a couple of sticking points where the illogicality really stunted progression but overall the flow of the game and depth of the puzzles work a lot better than in the past two Deponia games. The best part of the game comes when Rufus clones two versions of himself, meaning three times the mayhem and mishap all controllable by the player at the same time. Switching from Rufus to Rufus feels very natural and there are even instances where they can help each other to solve puzzles by exchanging items.

Goodbye Deponia clocks in at around seven to nine hours in length and contains plenty of what fans of the series will be looking for. The beautifully hand drawn backgrounds are back, looking as intricate and interesting as ever. The charismatic characters are all there from Goal, to Rufus, to Toni and Bailiff Argus. The story writing and voice acting is for the most part as great as it has always been, providing the power behind the characters and their reasoning.

This brings me neatly onto the ending of the trilogy, which of course I’m not going to spoil for you in any way. What I will say though is that I was a little disappointed by how it was handled. It comes around rather quickly and without much of a warning as you enter into what I assumed was the last quarter of the game. It certainly didn’t happen how I imagined and after three games worth of leading up to this point I have to ask myself was it all really worth it? I may be overreacting, and I certainly commend Daedalic Entertainment for ending the way they did, as I’m sure they knew it wouldn’t stick well with fans. Were they trying to give us a life message, something to take away from the story and think about? Were they proving the point that they are unlike other developers and don’t pander to the every need and demand of their fans? Or was it simply a sloppy ending to an otherwise well written and delivered trilogy of games? The decision is yours.

Verdict – On Target

Platforms Available – PC, Mac
Platform Reviewed – PC

Steam review copy supplied by Daedalic Entertainment.

Please check this post for more on our scoring policy.

Goodbye Deponia – Hands On Preview

October 2, 2013 Kevin McLennan Comments 0 Comment

It’s evident that change is afoot in Goodbye Deponia, the third and final game in a trilogy of hilarious point and click games by Daedalic Entertainment. Early on in the game we catch our first glimpse of the inside of the Argonon cruiser headed for Elysium. It’s people look relaxed and are enjoying the high life unaware of the fact that people still reside on the planet they are about to destroy. Rufus and his band of stragglers are not about to let that happen however, and even after all his mistakes Goal has come around to his way of thinking too.

From the first moment you are able to take control of Rufus mayhem ensues, not in a frustrating ‘detrimental to the game’ kinda way, but in a wholly expected and welcomed ‘Rufus is back’ kinda way. If you’ve played the previous parts of the story you’ll already know that despite his best efforts everything Rufus touches is ruined in one way or another and the same is evident in the early story and puzzles of Goodbye Deponia.

The game mechanics are much the same as you would expect from Daedalic’s past games and indeed the past Deponia games. Space bar highlights any interactive points on the screen where as the left and right mouse buttons allow you to examine, pick up and use items found on your travels. Considering that this is the final part of three games, I would have expected the puzzle solving to be as hard as ever. Instead during the first few moments you are almost on rails and have only one option to advance. This is soon sorted and the proper puzzle solving kicks off but while the intro is entertaining, it also seems a little weak as far as gameplay is concerned.

As the version I am playing is only a preview and not the final product, there are still issues with sound balancing and missing text/voice from conversations. These are things that I would fully expect to be ironed out in the final product, but could cause frustration if they are missed. Aside from the obvious flaws, Goodbye Deponia actually seems to run a lot faster on my ancient laptop than the previous two games did. Again this could be because of the version but if translated to the final product this would improve gameplay and cutscenes nicely.

Daedalic claim that Goodbye Deponia can be played as a stand alone, without knowledge of the past two games and while they certainly try I don’t believe that you would experience the game properly. Without having that previous knowledge of characters, running jokes and puzzle solving methods many items of information would go way over your head. There’s even a quick run down of the past two adventures, but this for me acted as a jog of the memory more than a serious explanation that would allow an uninformed me to continue with play unhindered.

With all that being said the general feel of Goodbye Deponia is one of high quality care and attention, both in puzzle solving and game mechanics. The world, its characters and intricately hand drawn backgrounds are all still present and there is nothing to say that this wont be as good as the past two games, only time will tell. When all is said and done it really will be sad to say goodbye to Deponia and to Rufus, but at the same time I look forward to the conclusion of many hours of play and a genuinely interesting world.

Goodbye Deponia will be released via Steam and other outlets on October 22nd.

Chaos On Deponia – The Verdict

November 10, 2012 Kevin McLennan Comments 0 Comment

Chaos On Deponia is the second part of Daedalic Entertainments point and click adventure trilogy. It sees the return of Rufus as he attempts yet again, to make his way to Elysium and stop the Argonons from destroying the junk planet of Deponia. The problem is that Rufus is a magnet for pandemonium and makes his task infinitely harder by simply being himself. A handy intro video sums up all the goings on of the first game for anyone who didn’t play it and as a reminder for all who did. …