Deponia

plan to escape his life and who, unbeknownst to him, will soon meet the girl of his dreams who quite literally falls from the heavens. It’s a nice setting for a point and click adventure very much in the vein of countless others throughout PC history; some of which were very good and others - well, they were the stinking rubbish that Rufus has to live on and in every day. Welcome to the world of Deponia.
To start you are given a simple, but humorous tutorial on the game mechanics followed by a relatively straightforward but inventive introduction to the story. The hero, or anti-hero given the feeling of the local town’s populace towards him, is such a slothful egomaniac know-it-all it’s a wonder he hasn’t been lynched long before the story began. But, as you move through the tale you begin to see why he hates his life so much. He is surrounded by some of the most self serving, odd (but at times hilarious) characters from the stubble-chinned, deep toned, dress wearing secretary of the mayor to the triple jobbed doctor/fireman/policeman who has more than a little super hero/vigilante fixation about him.
The puzzles range in difficulty and frustration, from the usual to the very unusual, as is the wont in this genre. It’s a shame when you come upon an obtuse solution by trying every object for the sake of progress, rather than because it makes sense to do so, since most of what’s at hand is used in a logical manner, quite often with chuckle worthy results. This isn’t atypical though and I’ve yet to come across a point and click game without a similar failing. This is particularly prevalent with comedic adventures where tasks are designed around the gags rather than the other way around and here we have no exception.
The writing more than makes up for this and is surprisingly well translated from its original language, although at times some of the subtitles still pop up in German even though the actors are speaking English. The quality of the voice actors is also pretty high all round, even if some of the voices are grating in the extreme. For me, more personality in a character’s tone is much better than trying to give them a “different” sound. The villains (Organon), with their horribly tinny metallic voices made me reach for the volume control on more than one occasion. Not good!
The art style is very colourful and detailed with an over the top cartoon vibe perfectly suited to the story and characters but it’s also very old school and doesn’t do much with all of the modern technology available today to help it stand out. The animation is generally poor and the backgrounds, whilst interesting, are mostly static affairs with minimal interaction other than those needed for story progression. Indie studio or not, I can’t help feeling this would’ve lifted things to a higher level and gifted the world with a more immersive quality.
Speaking of immersive, the aural quality of the world works very well indeed. Again - like the animation - it’s kept very simple, but what is there does the job perfectly. The music can be a little peculiar at times but even Rufus takes a jab at it at one point. It’s all very crisp and clear which is why the Organon with their distorted voices and high volume stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. A similar problem with the annoying main character of Daedalic’s The Whispered World caused many a reviewer to drop their scores.
Overall Deponia isn’t a bad game, but it isn’t a great one either. It’s entertaining, inexpensive, has some laugh out loud moments and doesn’t take itself seriously. Unless you love this genre though there is little here that makes it stand out from what’s gone before. With a little more polish and thought about the little things out-with the functional aspects of the game mechanics I feel Daedalic could bring something very special to the table. Maybe next time.