Deponia

The Good
Rufus lives in Deponia, a post-post-scarcity trash world he longs to escape. To where? Why, Elysium, of course. A Floating city where everything is better.

I found the story and characters quite charming for the most part, the world building in particular is excellent given the shortish play time.

The game looks and sounds great, with smooth animations, and excellently scripted (and comedically timed) cutscenes.

I played on Switch where you control Rufus a la Grim Fandango, with areas of focus activating as you draw near, rather than when a mouse cursor hovers above. Despite some focussing issues occurring at most three times during the play through, the switch port controls very well.

The Bad
Although being very funny in places, Rufus (our hero!) is beyond egotistical (as described in the blurb), he is completely narcissistic. A fascinating clinical case. He will do anything he pleases as long as it suits his goal. I call him an incel as he also can't seem to get along with any woman (his true love is unconscious most of the game, by his own hand), even joking about (and eventually actually) drugging his ex-girlfriend so he can have his way with her. Thankfully we only witness him do this to commit a little shoplifting. I realise I am being very picky about this, and I understand the developers wanted some lovable idiot rogue, but after only 10 years his attitude comes across as problematic. Even without that aspect, Rufus just comes across as a bit of a dick. He makes Larry Laffer seem like Guybrush Threepwood.

So is that all an issue? Well, yes. I spent a good portion of this game not wanting to play any more. I didn't want to do what the narrative was pushing me to do. I'm pretty sure I've committed mas murders in other games without my conscience bugging me as much.

A few of the puzzles just seemed badly designed, or let the aesthetic of the game obscure their solutions. One involves you plotting pins on a map of the town. It took me much too long to realise the house roofs were all different and correspond to certain characters' hats. I think some positive feedback like seeing a character react would have helped. There was also something involving cats and mail, and who knows what the hell the designers were thinking of when they designed that one.

The game also crashed on me once. Odd. It might not happen to you. But given this isn't as complicated as some ancient SCUMMVM games, it's an impressive achievement.

The Bottom Line
Deponia is a fun jaunt through a wonderfully realised world. You just might not like playing as the problematic protagonist.