“People say I’m extravagant because I want to be surrounded
by beauty. But tell me, who wants to be surrounded by garbage?” -Imelda Marcos
If there is one person who is sick of garbage, it’s Rufus. Rufus lives
on a planet called Deponia and Deponia is covered in garbage, junk, and useless
trash. He’s been trying for years to escape Deponia and reach a place above
them known as Elysium, where he imagines life would be immensely better for
him. However, Rufus is… not the sharpest chunk of scrap metal in the junk heap.
He’s failed many times before, but THIS time it must work!
Source: Steam(link below)
Welcome to Deponia, the point
and click adventure-puzzle game developed by Daedalic Entertainment. We start
by helping Rufus put together his latest scheme to get off Deponia and start
living life as he deserves! He has no job, he still lives with his ex-girlfriend, and
he has no friends. It’s no wonder Rufus wants so badly to leave. It’s worth
mentioning though that Rufus is arrogant, self-centered, sexist, and rather
obnoxious…. So most of his problems are a direct result of himself.
Once we get Rufus's er, rocket(?) together, we take off and end up on an Organon Cruiser where we see Goal, the beautiful Elysian. She looks like she is in trouble! In an effort to help, we end up sending her pummeling down to Deponia, and Rufus ends up not far behind her. Once we locate her, we find out her brain implant is damaged and she isn't waking up. Now Rufus must find a way to help her, because maybe if he helps Goal, she can take him back to Elysium! But it won't be easy....
I remember reading a lot of reviews that called this game out as sexist
garbage, and I don’t necessarily agree. Rufus as a character is sexist, sure.
Toni, his ex-girlfriend, is depicted (from Rufus’s point of view) to be a harsh,
nagging, mean woman in a stereotypical fashion. However, you can also clearly
see that Rufus himself is the cause of his own plight. In my eyes, Toni is a
saint for not killing Rufus in his sleep. A parade should be held in her honor.
Apparently, a lot of people saw issue later in the sequel games, so we’ll see
if my opinion changes. For right now I’m going to say that being sexist fits in
Rufus’s character. The game can have some dark humor, but it’s more of a “Oh
man, did he really do that?” and not outright rage as I see expressed in some
places.
One of the things that I really enjoy about Deponia is the hand drawn
environments. The entire game looks hand drawn and the style is appealing--almost a comic book style. The
colors are fitting and rich, making this game enchanting to look at. The
character movement cycles can seem a little choppy sometimes, like some frames
are missing.
Just beautiful! Source: Indie Gaming Magazine (link below)
The soundtrack is fitting, but nothing special. At the beginning of
each chapter you are treated to a little song which helps sum up events in a
humorous way. Speaking of humor, I found this game extremely funny in a boyish,
immature way. The kind of humor not everyone finds funny. For example, there is
a scene towards the end of the first game where Rufus gives someone a wedgie,
and then you hang him from the nearby flag pole and reel him up so he is
hanging from his underwear near the top. THAT kind of humor.
Now for the real bread and butter of the game… let’s talk puzzles. I
love puzzle games. Puzzle platformers and point and click puzzlers are some of
my favorites. I was glad to hear that Deponia would offer challenge, but I
didn’t expect the puzzles to be as difficult as they were. I tried to not use a
guide. If I had stuck with that I wouldn’t have made it very far. About 1.5
hours into my gameplay I found myself stuck and had to resort to using a guide
because I didn’t think to give a parrot laughing gas. Yeah, really. The hints
you can receive from some items by right clicking on them are vague, and there
is no in game way to get help to solve anything. So, have fun clicking on
everything, and trying to combine everything item by item in your inventory
because some of the combinations are really stretching in. It seems strange that Rufus can come off as such an idiot, and be able to put together some of these complex schemes as he does.
Even through the frustrating puzzles, I enjoyed the game. The story
isn’t revolutionary. Rufus is motivated by the lust he feels for Goal because
she is from Elysium and represents his ideal life. The characters are interesting, but aren't given all that much depth. All of the characters kind of feel superficial to me, except Rufus. Maybe that's the way it was meant to be, though. Poki could have intended us to only experience Deponia the same way Rufus does. I really liked Goal, the small amount of time she was conscious during this game. I mean, hey... The first time she woke up, she uppercut punched Rufus and that was enough to make me love her.
POW! Right in the kisser! Source: GamezPlay (link below)
Overall, I enjoyed the first part of Deponia. I look forward to playing
part 2, but I’m going to play some others in between. If the puzzles continue
with such difficulty, it may take me some time to blunder through them.
Deponia: The Complete Journey can be found on Steam, for $39.99. If you’re a
fan of complex puzzlers, this might be the game for you. You can find the link below! Let me know what you
think of this game, if you’ve played it!
Happy Gaming, Friends!
Bell
See the list of games I plan to play here:
Game List
Or email me at: bellannmae@gmail.com
Sources:
