Review of Deponia by Joakim

This is a classical adventure game, nothing much new,
uses old well known mechanics and design, has some minor improvements to mechanics like highlighting all available items on the scene.
More precisely, this is a humorous classical adventure game, like Monkey Island series.

The game graphics are good, if you like cartoonish style you really might like it.
Also, the Deponia universe is creative and interesting.
I tryed this game because of the looks and setting.
The game also has some decent sound engeneering, good voice acting and very cool fitting soundtrack.
Puzzle design is well thought, game is not easy nor hard.

But, I did not finish it, main character is not very loveable, I did not like the characters in general.
Also it was not very funny for a humorous adventure game, something might have been lost in translation from German, I dont know. But actually I think it’s just not my type of humor, tries to be like Monkey Island, but something is missing.
After some time I just did not have the motivation to go through puzzles, to go through all that dialogue which is not particulary interesting or funny…

I did not like the storytelling also, the way story progresses and the speed.
There is a big high in the story at the beginning and then it drops down leaving you without
actual goal, just dissapointment, then you realize “ah that is the goal now”, but for some time I was kinda… confused what to do next after that “bummer” experience.

All in all, props to Daedalic, this game is objectivly well done, I did bash it a bit but mostly because of
my subjective preferences. It is good to see serious developer putting some serious effort into this genre.

If you are looking for something like monkey island, give it a try, just try a demo or something before you buy it.
Game definitely has the looks, but does it have that character, that story, does it give that awesome magical experience that adventure games can have ? For me no, but you must try for your self

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Time Played: 5-10 hours
Difficulty: Just Right