Adventure Gamers - Forums

GameSpot posted their review of Deponia. Considering they tend to be very unforgiving towards the adventure genre, their score is very… 

Here’s the link: http://www.gamespot.com/deponia/reviews/deponia-review-6384274/

An 8.0 from Gamespot for an adventure game is basically off the charts by their standards.

Certainly doesn’t hurt to entice some curious gamers and swing more people toward adventure games. If Deponia lands on Steam and gets a decent sale, watch out.

Well, Gamespot gave the same score to The Book of Unwritten Tales.

I always found it a myth that Gamespot plainly hates all kinds of adventures games, doesn’t understand the genre and loves to rip adventure games apart. They may just be a lot less forgiving than genre fans are.

ozzie - 29 June 2012 08:31 AM

Well, Gamespot gave the same score to The Book of Unwritten Tales.

I always found it a myth that Gamespot plainly hates all kinds of adventures games, doesn’t understand the genre and loves to rip adventure games apart. They may just be a lot less forgiving than genre fans are.

They don’t really like first person adventures, unless it’s Myst. They gave 6’s for Dark Fall, JP3 and Callahan’s (vastly underscored IMO) and get this - 3.9 for Scratches and a 2.6 for Barrow Hill!

Well, I neither played Scratches or Barrow Hill, but I guess that a lot of mainstream reviewers are very unforgiving of games that are technologically so obviously outdated. I mean, pre-rendered 3D in first person games was merely a stepping stone to true 3D that offered lots more details than real time 3D could at the time. When the capabilities of real-time 3D grew, the need for pre-rendered 3D melted away. On top of that, contemporary real-time 3D started to look a lot better than pre-rendered 3D in such games as Scratches or Barrow Hill.
Both Scratches and Barrow Hill were very low budget affairs. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they should be treated lighter because of that. But I’m playing The Journeyman Project 3 at the moment now and while the outdated tech does bother me a bit and I wonder how a Journeyman game might play and look in true 3D, I’m still enjoying it a lot.

So I guess outdated tech is a minus, especially if it’s used badly (the navigation in those prerendered 1st person adventures can get really disorienting), but if the game is otherwise well made it shouldn’t result in such scores. I guess those games weren’t reviewed by critics that appreciated their type. I think 3rd person comedy adventures, like Deponia and The Book of Unwritten Tales, are more widely appreciated. My guess.

Wow, that Gamespot review is pretty glowing! (Has some puzzle spoilers though.)

ozzie - 29 June 2012 08:31 AM

I always found it a myth that Gamespot plainly hates all kinds of adventures games, doesn’t understand the genre and loves to rip adventure games apart. They may just be a lot less forgiving than genre fans are.

Great article on the subject here.

Deponia looks really interesting, and price is really attractive too. Any user reviews?

Deponia is good! I tried the demo without any expectation that I’d enjoy it at all, but I did. Just goes to show you can’t really ever tell what you will like.I think I know what I’m going to be playing this weekend, although I’m not even sure if its out yet - some places say 8th Aug, others say it’s already out.

Oscar - 18 July 2012 09:16 AM

Deponia is good! ...I’m not even sure if its out yet…

It is definitely available on amazon.co.uk. I just received my retail box from them.

Finished game 2 days ago. My english is not very good so I’ll try to make my “review” short.Game is really good, the story is interesting (the game doesn’t take itself very serious), characters are nice, puzzles are good, graphics are nice. The environment reminds me of Machinarium, but it is not so melancholic and charming. My rating for this game would be 4/5. Game is good but it won’t blow your mind like Monkey Island.

Finished! What a great game.
After dissapointing localisation of A New Beginning, I’m glad Deponia turned out to be every bit as good as The Whispered World.

Great characters (all of them, but Toni must be my favorite). Fresh and fun, even though it was quite painful to watch Rufus’s egocentric behaviour by the end of the game.

Puzzles were fantastic. And it was nice to finally have a few more locations to explore at once (main town of Deponia). Compared to 2-3 screens to explore (before moving on next 2-3 screens) in most of recent adventures, it was almost an open world
Graphics.. beautiful. Lovely backgrounds and fantastic 2d sprites- even fully animated!

Anyway, can’t wait for the sequel!

Deponia is aviable DRM-free by GOG.com for 14.99 $.