a paedophile! Wait, that’s not funny), a woman being forced to dance naked for money, and the deaths of at least two small children. There are several moments done in the name of “comedy” that had me shifting uncomfortably, like the paedophile (who actually turns out to be. What baffles me though is how dark the game gets on occasion. There are a lot of minigames this time around as well, which will either tickle your puzzle-bones or deeply frustrate, so I’m relieved that Daedalic allow all of them to be skipped. There’s still no hint system though, not even the basic version in Memoria, which irritates me greatly. Despite a few moments of sheer fluke guessing (but of course weighing down a paper airplane with a keyboard key and throwing it at a therapist would get it to a giant tower that can’t be viewed from this scene) the adventuring quality of the final act is spot-on and contains most of the fun of, well, the series. At this point the game becomes a lot more challenging, adds some truly clever puzzles, and even features a couple of genuinely funny scenes – Rufus sitting on a therapist’s couch matter-of-factly recounting the utterly insane things he’s had to do, and the ultimate temptation for a child-eating slime monster. The second half of the game, through means I won’t spoil, introduces the ability to switch between three characters a la Day of the Tentacle. Fortunately after the hotel things get a lot more interesting. Still, a lot of adventure players won’t care since most just want the puzzles and aren’t worried if they’re pointless or not (in Deponia’s defence Sam & Max Hit The Road consisted mostly of plot-irrelevant puzzles, but then that game was funny so it got away with it). well, it makes you wonder what the point of it all is. Amusing, but all padding, and having to play a minigame and through various overcomplicated means collect a pie, a urinal cake, a pile of dust, pepper, and toothpaste just to get a towel which is just one part of collecting some clothes from the laundry. That’s why the first big chapter after the rather incomprehensible opening (if you haven’t played the last game that is) is set around a hotel where interesting things happen but have zero relevance to the overall plot, plus the goal is literally just a bit of pointless busywork to keep Rufus occupied. There is no catch-up for people who haven’t played the first two games so don’t start here - Deponia isn’t so much a “trilogy” as it is one story split into three and padded to within an inch of its life. We’ve had one of Leisure Suit Larry strutting his stuff on the dancefloor, now here's Rufus and Goal Surprisingly enough it doesn’t come to that. or just escape together and let the planet be destroyed. In Goodbye Deponia the Elysians are planning to destroy Deponia so Rufus and his Elysian “girlfriend” Goal have to quickly figure out a way to stop them. This plot is in no way a rip-off of Matt Damon’s recent movie Elysium despite sharing the name of their floating rich-people city since the first game came out last year and didn’t have Sharlto Copley in it. The Deponia series follows Rufus, professional ego-driven incompetent, as he attempts to escape from the trash-covered Deponia to Elysium, the floating city of the rich. Just in case though I have my Monkey Island 2 code-wheel on standby in case I need to slit my wrists with something symbolic. Fortunately Daedalic have redeemed themselves since then with the excellent Night of the Rabbit and two great The Dark Eye adventures, so maybe we’re ready to return to Deponia now. It wasn’t funny in any way, puzzles were the worst kind of adventure game nonsense, the plot felt like it consisted entirely of padding, many major goals just felt unsatisfying like “get a cup of coffee” or “go upstairs”, and worst of all main character Rufus was a copy of Guybrush Threepwood with all the wit, sweetness, and likeability stripped out. I make no apologies for utterly hating Deponia, a game that was to comedy adventures what Stephanie Meyer is to vampire novels (has fans but is a blight on the genre).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |