Stranger's Wrath is perfect example of how to make very different game from its predecessor and how to make it work really, really good. Nowadays game developers just can't make them like that(Fallout 3 being exception). Syndicate and Final Fantasy are great examples, their latest installments were very different from previous games and they weren't that good. Some games are meant to follow the tried and true classic formula and try to improve on that, but Oddworld is a series that evolved in a meaningful way with this. Really hoping they'd revive this series again and try to evolve it the same way, it's high time we see a new Oddworld game.
Deponia 2: Chaos on Deponia is in a word amazing. The best point & click adventure game I've played, beating Monkey Island and Broken Sword games, seriously. Star of the game is once again Rufus, egoistical jerk who always has some scatter brained plan for everything and of course people get hurt in the progress. Now the love interest, Elysian girl named Goal, has much bigger part to play, she's not just asleep most of the time. The first big mission is basically persuading Goal's 3 different personalities and the end of the mission a bit heartbreaking not spoiling too much though. Story revolves around Rufus trying to fix Goal and get to Elysium, this place high above in the sky, to tell that Deponia is inhabited and not to blow it up. You also discover some interesting things about Elysium which makes you question a bit that are the bad guys really bad guys, and what would really be best for everyone. If Rufus really trying to do the right thing? The biggest complain I had with the first game was the ending, that was the only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars, but now that's not the case, ending just left me graving for more, like with the first game, but now it was satisfying too. Deponia ended just as things got really interesting, but Deponia 2 starts off interesting and hilarious keeping that feeling all the way through game. They do a fairly good job explaining what happened in Deponia in the beginning of the game, but I still really recommend playing the first one because you just won't know these characters as well and there are some hilarious references to Deponia, and it's really good game too. Gameplay is, interestingly, actually improved from Deponia and other point & click games. It still has the same basics, you mix some crazy stuff you find and try to go forward, but this time there are some extras. You need to sometimes take what people say literally and do what they say, there are some easter eggs and puzzles sometimes evolve around these things, like having to adjust your settings from menu screen. These things might seem like minor extras, but they still kind of set a standard for other point & click games to try and evolve. Puzzles are awesome, one of the best, if not the best that I've ever played. They're logical... well they're logical in their own silly, quirky way. For example, you need to get a fish from fisherman, paint it black and white like a zebra, put a platypus egg to its mouth and shock the fish alive with this space time altering machine that you use later to time travel and later the egg hatches into a platypus that eats the fish. It makes sense... really, it does. And the best for last, humor. Humor is top notch, there are constantly coming real laugh out loud moments, like this hamburger restaurant called Mc Thulhu(obvious reference McDonalds and Chtulhu) which is run by an interesting fella who calls customers sacrifices and tries to get people step on some kind of trap door, he also seems to talk to some dark overlord in his basement who runs the shop :D There also are some serious moments and they're very well done. As for the bad things, nothing big except typo's. It doesn't make the game worse and there aren't that much of them, but it still gives away this unprofessional feeling. Someone clearly didn's spell check this one thoroughly. This is a minor complain though and could be fixed with a patch. Bottom line, awesome game. Makes some real improvements over the first one in terms of story and characters, and brings some minor new things to the whole p&c genre. As I said in Deponia review, if you like point & click games, there's no reason to pass Deponia, but now I say, if you like games at all, you definitely should play Deponia 2, it's just that amazing.
PoP08 is really different take on Prince of Persia formula we got used to in the last generation of gaming. No more time manipulation or lots of foes to defeat or Dahaka to chase you around etc. But I still wouldn't say it's negative thing like many seem to think so. People are just so set on the thing that this isn't what Sands of Time trilogy was like and fail to see the beauty of this game. Story is pretty basic, you're the prince that finds this mysterious princess and you have to purify the land that evil has taken over, simple and works surprisingly well, especially considering the age of gaming we live with complex story lines, characters etc. The story fits the graphical style and the fairy tale world really well. Running around walls, climbing and hanging from ledges has been PoP signature for a long time, and this doesn't change in PoP08, in fact, this does it better than any of the other games. Running is fluid, fast and most of all fun. Little downside is that you can't die, whenever you fall your partner comes and saves you and takes you to previous platform where you started climbing. Yeah, game is really easy, little too easy. Combat is one of PoP08's biggest downsides, but also one of its strong points. You basically have only 4 foes to beat + end boss. You fight each of the enemies 4 times in different places and the fights are always a bit different. The downside is that, well, there's only those 4 foes, but it also allows really cinematic fights that you just don't get when slashing your way through hundreds of opponents. The fights are really different and you can basically decide for yourself which of the 4 you want to fight first. They can be tough battles and you need to think a bit what is the most effective way to beat them. You can use lots of combination attacks with Elika and all of them work differently depending on the enemy. Need I say anything about the graphical style? It's absolutely amasing, I love cell-shading and this is just as beautiful as it gets. All and all, I really don't think you should pass this one especially if you prefered climbing and running over combat in previous PoP games. Running is so much fun and absolutely beautiful graphics enhance the experience. This is different game, but different isn't always bad. Games need to take bold new directions, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. In this case, I think it works.
I just loved Deponia, I can't deny that. Rufus, the main character, reminds me a lot of Guybrush Threepwood from Monkey Island games, and the game itself feels like it. Rufus always has some scatter brained plan and you combine and use lots of weird stuff to proceed in the game, standard point and click game and it works. There are lots of colorful characters and I liked all of them, they were very well made. What makes Deponia stand out is the world. Backgrounds are absolutely beautiful, they fit the game and story perfectly, and every item you can use and pick up are also very well made, they blend into the background so well that it's sometimes hard to notice what you can interact with and what not. If you press space bar or middle mouse key you can see every object you can interact with. Puzzles itself are really great, I'm not that great with puzzle and point and click games. I've played Broken Sword, Monkey Island and some other games, but I've never been great with them and used lot of walkthrough, but puzzles in Deponia were great, they were logical(most part) and fairly demanding but not on the impossible level where you have to use walkthrough for every puzzle. At least a novice like me could solve them with some thinking. Only problem I have with this game is that it's short and it ends way too suddenly. Just when things get really interesting... It just stops. There's going to be a sequel, Chaos on Deponia I think it's called, coming out in November and I can't wait for it. But ending still seems rushed, like devs just gave up and didn't dare to make any more in case that Deponia didn't sell that well.The ending is only thing that's keeping me giving it whole 5 stars. If you wait till November when sequel comes out and buy these together, I bet you'll get awesome, full lenght adventure game. If you like point and click games, there's no reason to pass Deponia.
