- Gameplay
- Graphics
- Sound & Music
- Replay Value
Deponia review
We haven’t had a privilege of enjoying a fine point and click adventure such as Deponia for a long while now. In this review, we will be counting all the strong selling points of this pile of junk! Only the positive ones, since there are hardly any misgivings we had about this title.
This time, its going to work, for sure!
When you need to relax yourself and turn away from your everyday worries, a game like Deponia is exactly what the doctor would prescribe. It will challenge you with some witty and intelligent puzzles, it will make you laugh, it will amuse you and simply entertain you. Exactly what a good game should do, right?
Every plan by Rufus contains the “what could possibly go wrong” ingredient…
Deponia is a straightforward point and click adventure, you will learn how to play it within thirty seconds and fall in love with it within a minute. Left click, take or use things on something, right click is visual examination and mouse scroll opens you inventory in a blink of an eye; beyond that, click on the ground to move to a certain point, and all your must-know tech knowledge of the gameplay is covered.
What we got here is a planet virtually covered with trash. Junk, trash, garbage everywhere you see, most of it consisting out of useless pieces of machinery. On this world, in a small village built upon one of those big junk piles, there lives our local hero-doofus called Rufus. Rufus is focused on getting away from Deponia no matter the cost, so he is hatching a new escape plan every now and then, and each one fails both catastrophically and in quite an amusing fashion. The start od Deponia story begins with his latest idea on how to reach for the proverbial stars, and it is clear to everyone (except our daring protagonist) that the plan is both hazardous and ill-thought out. The rest of the game will follow our self-absorbed, lazy but somehow loveable Rufus as he faces countless unexpected challenges and eventually falls in love with an enigmatic angel-like girl. Despite hatching one idiotic plan after another, Rufus actually manages to make it through it all and achieve his goals. But the story is anything but simple, as you will no doubt soon learn.
Ever heard of the Mad Hatter? Meet the rest of the family!
Hopeless is my middle name!
Though the game is not trying to hint at the legendary Lucas adventure icon, you can easily draw references to Guybrush Threepwood, but Rufus is by no means a poor copy; he is a walking catastrophe on his own, a loveable goofhead that finds a way in your heart even though you can easily understand that you might want to strangle him with your bare friends if he was living in your house and ruining your life with his endless escapades and “bright” ideas. The story is fun, filled with intelligent puzzles, breathing with a certain Terry Pratchett atmosphere. The artwork impressive and has a original feel to it, with a slight touch of steampunk. The hand drawn backgrounds are simply great, and one should not forget to mention the cutscenes, of some of which are regular killers (for instance the scene of Rufus’ initial attempt to reach the Organons via his magnetic-rocket, the one you can see in the video).
How to wake the sleeping beauty? If the kiss doesn’t work, how about some strong coffee then?
Some puzzles may appear to not make much sense, and in some places you will have too few hints on what you should do the next, but the players of the genre should be familiar with such issues. The positive side of Deponia is the fact that you can simply press space bar and thus reveal all important objects you can interact with, which eliminates the need to scan the entire scene with your mouse in the search for the next item to pick up or the lever to pull. In some parts, you will have exact list of what you need to do and/or acquire to proceed, for example the initial required provisions to move out of your house (your ex-grilfriend’s house, to be precise!) such as a toothbrush and a par of socks, among others. Whereas in similar adventures you often get stuck in a scene or two, in Deponia you got a lot of freedom concerning where you can go and what you can do to progress with the story.
The smile on the ex-girlfriend’s face means that Rufus right now is in considerable pains.
All planned out
In effect, a game like Deponia does not require much reviewing, so that, in essence, you know you should get this title if you are a fan of adventure genre. Even if you are not, Deponia is a perfect game to make a fan out of you. Like any Terry Pratchett book, Deponia is funny, wacky, interesting and amusing experience that will make you wind down and forget your daily worries and simply have a good, healthy laugh about it all.
- Great setting
- Both funny and absurd
- Love for the graphic detail
- Original story
- Main protagonist we end up liking (even though he is somewhat of a egocentric and careless individual)
- Sometimes there are not enough hints
- The ending may be a bit abrupt and unsatisfactory
You can get Deponia from GamersGate.
