This Point-and-Click Adventure is hilarious; there's a lot of slapstick comedy and pretty dark humor. I found myself pretty consistently laughing at the jokes, and the whole adventure was a wild, chaotic ride. The interface is a little clunky, but it's manageable. The music is catchy, and the visuals are colorful and interesting. Highly recommended to fans of the genre.
This is the Adventure game I'd always wanted in the '90s, but never knew existed; thank GOG it's available here! The game just oozes that '90s Adventure charm, especially in its lovely visual style. The world has a lovely design that makes it a joy to explore, and very memorable scenarios. The humor is also top-notch; I haven't laughed at a game like this in quite some time. Highly recommended to fans of the genre and the era!
I played the original, or retro mode, or whatever you want to call it, but with the voice acting. This wasn't bad, but it wasn't as visually appealing as the first game; the colors in a lot of the backgrounds were washed out, and most of the locations weren't all that interesting. I did like the new look of Guybrush, though, and his voice actor fits him perfectly. This one takes quite a long time to really get going, and not long after it does, it shoots itself in the foot. With a nuke. The last portion of the game is extremely tedious and annoying, sending you to random screens whenever it feels like it. The fortress area right before that was a great villain's lair - the kind I dream of, as an Adventure fan - but that was easily the highlight. The humor brings some good laughs, but not nearly to the extent that this game's reputation would suggest.
This Point-and-Click Adventure is certainly a product of its time, and that's both for good and for bad. First thing I did when I figured out that I could was press F10 to switch to the original version of the game, and I recommend this; the new version has a terrible interface, and the graphics... well, I didn't think that there was a digital uncanny valley, but this is it; it's kind of like a cheap Flash game from 2001 or so, but also creepy? I'm glad you aren't stuck with that, in any case. Playing the classic version, I had a good time; it's like many games from its time, but a bit more intuitive and with a friendlier user interface, especially compared to the old text parsers. The visuals are absolutely stunning; the most important thing to me in a game like this is its world, and it absolutely delivers from start to finish. The puzzles are mostly pretty reasonable, but the used boat salesman was a frustrating mess that worked only when it was good and ready. Learning to "master the sword" was a bit grindy, too, but at least the actual combat wasn't a clunky mess; it was actually pretty clever. Overall, a pretty short adventure, but a very memorable one.
Worst of the bunch; hands down. Sure, this had some great laughs - probably more than any other game in the series - but it introduced time travel. Time travel comes with loops that make you repeat long segments all over again. You also sometimes have a time limit to get through the moon logic puzzles or be forced to start them from the beginning, and they love to waste your time with long dialogue that can be skipped and long animations that cannot. On top of it all, the ending renders the entire plot of the game completely pointless. The game only exists because players didn't like the original ending of the series, and while that does leave the main plot unresolved, this starts out by making it crystal clear that this is developer sour grapes in the form of a game, and that makes much better punishment than entertainment. And so it did; this was a long struggle with a big middle finger to the player at the end, topped with some half-assed philosophy that was a thinly-veiled jab at anyone who didn't like the third game's ending.
If you liked the others, you'll like this one, too; it's more of the same in every aspect, good and bad. I feel like this one had the most laughs for me, and the world is still fascinating and beautiful, so there's that. On the other hand, the characters are more tortured and insufferable than ever, the big twist doesn't add up to much because they don't really do anything with it other than a few gags, the puzzles and minigames are the worst I've seen in the series (thankfully, there's a skip button), and the way it all ends not only fails to truly conclude the story, it also doesn't make a bit of sense.
This continues almost right after the previous game, and almost everything from there applies here. New areas to explore, which are beautiful, and the characters and puzzles are still irritating. It's nice to finally be able to give Goal some screen time.... conscious screen time, anyway, and I like that she wants to stomp on Rufus's egotistical face, but it's also directly against what you, the player, will have to do, so that's irritating, too. The writing also had moments where it was strangely incoherent, too; I'm used to translations having a little wiggle room, but there were times when I had NO idea what they were trying to say. By the end, it all did start to grow on my a little; not sure if that's improvement or Stockholm Syndrome.
For me, the most important part of a Point-and-Click Adventure is its world, and Deponia is quite a lovely one. Even though it's a planet largely covered in junk, the bright colors and construction of its areas really paints a charming picture. That's what matters most to me, because even if it's filled with moon logic puzzles, you can always resort to a walkthrough, and continue on touring the world. And you probably will; in the beginning, puzzles can be a little unintuitive, but everything is structured in such a way that you have limited options, and each inventory item will eventually be consumed in a very satisfying way. The further you get, though, the less true this becomes, and some of the later puzzles are completely incomprehensible, unless you really like trial and error. The main character is also just awful, and to make things worse, he thinks that everything about him is great; I can't stand people like that, and this forces you to play as one! At the very least, the jokes do land about half the time, and when they do, they're a riot, or at least worth a snrk. Ultimately, I am glad to have experienced Deponia, but it's certainly not without its drawbacks.
This is like one of those old Roguelike RPGs where movement is turn-based, something like Castle of the Winds or the Fushigi na Dungeon franchise. In addition to the usual, you have a class system, which brings quite a variety of options, and you get to keep the skills you learn, even after changing class again. Most of the classes work really well, too; I even found a mage class that I like, and I almost never like playing a mage! Another nice touch is having a different look to your avatar with each class, but you still have the option of choosing the appearance of any class you've been before. The music is reminiscent of early-SNES-era Jun Ishikawa with a splash of Yasunori Mitsuda; absolutely exquisite! The only real gripe I have is that the challenge is VERY unbalanced. At times I'd blow through a boss like nothing, only to be slaughtered in seconds by ordinary minions, and the final boss is a total brick wall. This wouldn't be so bad, were it not for the fact that experience scales down as you level up, so grinding isn't really a viable option; leveling up in a previous area will take an eternity. At the very least, you can choose different difficulties to mitigate the punishment you receive for a cheap death; they come in Roguelike (permadeath that erases your save), Roguelite (permadeath but unlocked classes and banked items remain), and Diet Rogue with Lime (death sends you back to the village with half your current experience, unspent JP, and money). Overall, it is a very enjoyable experience, if you're into this sort of thing, but it's not without its frustrations.
Easily my favorite of the rereboot trilogy. While Shadowrun Returns was a bit lighter on story and much lighter on characters, and Hong Kong was SUPER heavy on story and characters, this one strikes the best balance between writing and gameplay. This is more of a personal point, but this one also had my favorite player characters of the trio, except the latecomer; I usually just wanted to slap him. The mechanics are largely the same, but there are more creative solutions throughout the mission scenariosm and those are always fun to pull off. I did run into a mission or two that was frustrating, but the only one I couldn't finish was optional, and not even worth all that much.
