Deponia Doomsday Review

“Deponia’s new witty and humorous addition to it’s franchise”

I’ve never played any of the Deponia games, so it’s difficult to really tell how this game stands up against it’s predecessors, but so far I’m enjoying it. The game is your typical point and click adventure genre game which relies on puzzles to progress through the storyline. The downside to games like this is that you have to speak to practically everyone and interact with everything in order to progress to the next stage of the level, so they can be incredibly time consuming with nothing really happening in between, so it’s a difficult genre to master.

Deponia Doomsday is the fourth release of the Deponia series which was released on 1^st March 2016. It was developed and published by Daedalic Entertainment and (I believe) follows a parallel timeline from the ultimate conclusion of the third game in which Rufus (the main character of the game) sacrifices his life to save the future of the world. The game is set in junk yard, and that’s not me being criticizing, it’s literally a junk yard, think of a ‘Fall Out’ kind of environment and you’re pretty much there.

The story line follows Rufus who wakes up with the events of the third game having been all but a dream, with a little more added on. The finale of his dream involves a future depiction of him having aged quite significantly and attempting to blow up Deponia. There’s a surprise special voice appearance from David Hayter (Metal Gear Solid) which I absolutely loved, so the game is off to a great start. He wakes up from the dream and is quickly onto his next adventure, but first there’s some issues to solve including a time anomaly, some crystal glasses and an adamant pink elephant.

Fairly early in the game you’re introduced to Professor McChronicle, a professor of temporal physics who is looking for time rifts. The whole game is based around the ability to go back in time and re-write your wrongs, which you can do using his car, but first you need to progress so far in the story that when you go back to fix a problem you actually have the items required in order to… well fix it. The whole idea of time travel and the fact that the events of the third game were all but a dream is a bit of a middle finger to any hardcore fans of the series, but fortunately I haven’t played any of them so it’s more of a positive in my book. It’d be interesting to play the others in the franchise to see the full ins and outs of the story.

It’s a fairly tricky game, not in the sense of that something can go wrong but more in the sense of you never really know how to progress. There are some fairly obvious puzzles but in order to proceed you really do need to get everything and talk to everyone. Even talking to some people will offer unique items which you will need in order to get through the game, and in order to get those items you’ll need to pick the correct conversation choices or progress in a certain way to get those items.

One of the most positive things I can say about the game is the comedy. This game is absolutely hilarious and everything that you do, from the conversations between the different characters to the decision you make and the dialogue based on the equipment you try to combine will have you in stitches. It’s a bit more of a dark humor as the main character is a somewhat narcissistic and overly confident douchebag, but he’s a lovable douchebag, like the douche who always makes some stupid comments at work, you hate them because they’re a douche, but love them because they are THAT kind of douch. Maybe that’s why I found him so interesting to play as, because in a very depressing way he kind of reminded me of myself.

The graphics are absolutely breathtaking. The whole game is very “cartoon-y” which appeals to me straight away. I have to say that I was particularly impressed by the cutscenes which were just remarkable in every way. This game has had a lot of time put into it’s environments, character design and it’s animation so I have nothing to say but positive stuff about the overall look and feel of the game. It completely matches it’s setting; a junk wasteland and the graphics do justice to that. I particularly liked the look and design of all the characters, even if they are missing their noses, their clothing choices and their overall looks are all somewhat relevant to the area in which their living in and it’s a great plus to the game.

This wasn’t a game that I was expecting to have particularly great sound, but I was blown away by the voices and the music so the sound is really awesome. I’m particularly hard to please when it comes to background music but I loved the main menu music and music in the different areas of the game. They’re not only very catchy but also very relevant to the environment in which the game is set and if the game had a OST (official sound track) then I’d certainly be willing to invest some money into it and maybe even get it downloaded so I can listen to it on the move, unfortunately YouTube will have to do for now.

As a whole, this game is great. I can’t really say if it will appeal to previous fans of the series but I would imagine so, it seems to have the same charm and appeal from what the others have but with a few more positives thrown into it. It seems that the developers have taken into account any negatives that previous games may have had and have worked on them to try and improve on their fanbase and build another game which is unique.

Frankly I’d say if you’re a fan of the Deponia Doomsday franchise, or if you’re a fan of point of click games, or even a fan of any humorous games then give it a try. You’re more likely than not to enjoy the humor, the interaction and the plot of this game. It’s an interesting one to play and certainly one that I’d like to play more of.