Here we have Deponia, a video game from 2012, so this one almost has its tenth anniversary already. I did not play it back in the day right after it was released, but somebody directed my attention to it a little later and now I thought why not also review it and this is the third time already I am playing it, which should make clear that I really liked it a lot. You can also see this from my rating. I will just do a great deal of brainstorming here and not be too chronological or structured, but I hope you will like my review nonetheless and I guess with the chaotic protagonist you can also say that a chaotic review style is what this game deserves. I will just talk about everything I liked and disliked a little later. For now, let's focus on the basics: The man mostly in charge of the outcome here was Jan Müller-Michaelis, who is better known as Poki and has worked a on quite a few games released by video game publisher Daedelic. This also includes three more games that follow after this one and once more take us into Deponia, Elysium and other places that play crucial roles in this series. Actually, it was supposed to be a trilogy, but many fans were not happy with the end of the third installment, so Poki agreed to come up with a final chapter. That we shall talk about on a different occasion though. For now, let me say that I think you should get the collector's edition or whatever it is called of these first three games because this includes something truly amazing: We see Poki (or his comic-style self) up there in the left corner of every new screen basically and you can click him and he will elaborate on this screen and scene in particular. That was a really cool idea and you get so much background information that make it even more fun to play this game a second or even third time. He talks a lot about his designers who worked on these scenes, how he drove them crazy with his ideas, but also about all kinds of other stuff. Just watch it. It can also be added that here and there he is joined by the heads and voices of Rufus and Goal, which makes it even more special.
As for the voice actors, they all did a really nice job too. This page here lists the English ones first, but as I am a German native speaker, I played the original of course and can only comment a bit on the German folks. The main character is voiced by Monty Arnold, a German actor who has been in some fairly trashy films too over the years, but his voice work on all kinds of projects was never something one should talk about in a negative way. He was also considerably older than the Rufus character back then, but it does not show at all. I thought this was done by a man in his 30s max. The other voice actors are less famous, but one mention goes out to Marie Biermann too, the daughter of German singer Wolf Biermann indeed and it's probably a good thing that she took this career path and not the one of a yellow press journalist. Biermann voices Toni by the way, Rufus' ex-girlfriend, but with Goal, the female protagonist mostly asleep/unconscious for this first chapter, Toni is pretty much the biggest female character in here. Okay maybe not in terms of impact on the story, but definitely in terms of lines. As for Goal, they also pok(i)ed some fun at that because she is not too happy when interviewed by Poki up there that she barely has something to do in this opening episode. As for the Rufus interviews, he is really his true self the way we also witness him in this video game in terms of character. How he talks to and about others, what exactly he has to say and most of all how he sees himself. A great deal with this game is about the comedy. There are just too many examples to mention, so I will keep it short there. Take the moment when Rufus talks about a sponge at Wenzel's home. How we think he means the sponge, but actually means Wenzel. Take the moment when he talks about a capsule or something and says it is strong, resilient and only shows minor scars. There he talks about his reflection and we think he means the capsule. In addition to that, I also really, really enjoyed the running gag towards the end when he keeps saying that one character is an evil pirate who abducted a doctor and a young woman, but truth is he is no pirate, but completely harmless.
There are many, many other fun parts. It all comes down to personal preference what you like the most, but feel free to send me an email and tell me if you like. I cannot say anything bad about the comedy at all. One thing from the developer commentary I did not like too much was how Poki kept talking about a famous German video game streamer, kept praising him and that really did not belong into this game here or the commentary, even if I understand that he was happy that the streamer's popularity also helped the game in becoming more famous, but he could have done that in one of the sequels only when said streamer even voiced one of the characters. Another thing I am not too happy about to "buy" popularity like this, but I shall not talk about it on this occasion here. Maybe when I review the sequels. Now back to this game here. I am not sure how long I needed back then originally when I played it the very first time ever to get through from beginning to end, but if it is not the first time you play it or if you are really, really good with point-and-click adventures, then you can easily do it within one day, maybe considerably less even and under ten hours. I am not sure I'd recommend it though. The reason is that this game really invites you to use everything with everything because of the smart and entertaining words coming out of Rufus' mouth when he uses a with b. And there are so many examples when he does not just use a standard phrase with everything, so trying it all out is really recommended and makes this an even more rewarding video game. Of course, there are also some segments during which he says exactly the same like for example again with the sponge I heard "Schwamm drüber!" (as we say here in Germany) again and again and it means vaguely "No hard feelings!".
One thing that maybe slightly bothered me was that the video game struggled with likability in terms of characters and settings. Of course, you cannot make a garbage planet look like a holiday paradise, but still. With the characters, it was even more crucial. I must say I did not like Rufus with some of the stuff he said. It may be true what Toni said on one occasion that he does not have any friends. Surely his perhaps closest friend Wenzel is not a friend at all. I mean he calls him a miserable small worm or something on one occasion and Wenzel also does not respect Rufus one bit as we see when it comes to Rufus' stuff and how Wenzel is (not) willing to share in the event of a lucky coincidence. Maybe Rufus' relationship with the barkeeper is a little bit better. At least he does not get annoyed by Rufus, even when the latter leaves and does not help him with the cleanup after their big explosion. The maybe biggest part of this game is all about finding all kinds of ingredients for a very special drink. Something he can use to wake up Goal. I mean this was a bit confusing with all the different kinds of water there honestly, but it's much more about getting closer to the solution and the dialogues en route than about the key plot I suppose. And with the importance of this "potion", he also gets to use it a few more times, even on cats. These mail cat plays on words were awesome, probably impossible to translate though for the international versions. There are many other animals in here too, like a parrots, whales, pigeons, bulls and others that I do not remember right now. Those I liked. I generally preferred the biggest part of the game early on. Later on, I found some of the twists confusing. Like how Cletus (real charmer when he talks about Goal) looked like Rufus, which added nothing for me except a few jokes on who is more handsome. Or also why Goal has this metal in her head instead of a brain/memory. No explanation there either really. And the "cleaning" part was not good and entertaining enough to forget about this idea. No pun intended.
What I did like though, even a lot in fact, was the ending. It felt a bit confusing, not gonna lie, with these disks and which one is in Goal's head right now, but how Rufus tricked them basically in the end and inserted the one that has Goal remember was a pretty smart move. Well done. Also interesting name creation there for Goal. She (i.e. Her affection) is the highest goal for Rufus here. Or is it really? Maybe not yet entirely here in game one. Some moral dilemmas are included as well. There are other interesting verbal inclusions too of course like Elysium. You will recognize them when you hear them. I could and would like to elaborate a lot more on the comedy, but here is not the place for that. Let me say that the parts there in the garbage, also this mine or what it was, did not win me over too much. The end, also with the amazing sky and horizon and the historic take on Deponia even with these mosaics was better again, but my favorite inclusion was definitely everything that took place at Kuvaq during the first stages of the game, also because there weren't so many technical gadgets yet. The little tutorial early on was okay too, even if I strongly dislike Wenzel. Especially with how much like a player he felt with Toni in his shower. Or the water vein under his house. Okay, he has to deal with Rufus and his shenanigans constantly, but that doesn't make me like him. Had a touch of Gustav Gans (Gladstone Gander) with all his luck. Oh and I must mention all the references to Rufus' dad. Those were some rare emotional inclusions from a dramatic perspective. That is all then. Of course, I highly recommend this game and I will definitely continue playing soon and review the other parts as well. Until next time then. Hope you enjoyed the read.
As for the voice actors, they all did a really nice job too. This page here lists the English ones first, but as I am a German native speaker, I played the original of course and can only comment a bit on the German folks. The main character is voiced by Monty Arnold, a German actor who has been in some fairly trashy films too over the years, but his voice work on all kinds of projects was never something one should talk about in a negative way. He was also considerably older than the Rufus character back then, but it does not show at all. I thought this was done by a man in his 30s max. The other voice actors are less famous, but one mention goes out to Marie Biermann too, the daughter of German singer Wolf Biermann indeed and it's probably a good thing that she took this career path and not the one of a yellow press journalist. Biermann voices Toni by the way, Rufus' ex-girlfriend, but with Goal, the female protagonist mostly asleep/unconscious for this first chapter, Toni is pretty much the biggest female character in here. Okay maybe not in terms of impact on the story, but definitely in terms of lines. As for Goal, they also pok(i)ed some fun at that because she is not too happy when interviewed by Poki up there that she barely has something to do in this opening episode. As for the Rufus interviews, he is really his true self the way we also witness him in this video game in terms of character. How he talks to and about others, what exactly he has to say and most of all how he sees himself. A great deal with this game is about the comedy. There are just too many examples to mention, so I will keep it short there. Take the moment when Rufus talks about a sponge at Wenzel's home. How we think he means the sponge, but actually means Wenzel. Take the moment when he talks about a capsule or something and says it is strong, resilient and only shows minor scars. There he talks about his reflection and we think he means the capsule. In addition to that, I also really, really enjoyed the running gag towards the end when he keeps saying that one character is an evil pirate who abducted a doctor and a young woman, but truth is he is no pirate, but completely harmless.
There are many, many other fun parts. It all comes down to personal preference what you like the most, but feel free to send me an email and tell me if you like. I cannot say anything bad about the comedy at all. One thing from the developer commentary I did not like too much was how Poki kept talking about a famous German video game streamer, kept praising him and that really did not belong into this game here or the commentary, even if I understand that he was happy that the streamer's popularity also helped the game in becoming more famous, but he could have done that in one of the sequels only when said streamer even voiced one of the characters. Another thing I am not too happy about to "buy" popularity like this, but I shall not talk about it on this occasion here. Maybe when I review the sequels. Now back to this game here. I am not sure how long I needed back then originally when I played it the very first time ever to get through from beginning to end, but if it is not the first time you play it or if you are really, really good with point-and-click adventures, then you can easily do it within one day, maybe considerably less even and under ten hours. I am not sure I'd recommend it though. The reason is that this game really invites you to use everything with everything because of the smart and entertaining words coming out of Rufus' mouth when he uses a with b. And there are so many examples when he does not just use a standard phrase with everything, so trying it all out is really recommended and makes this an even more rewarding video game. Of course, there are also some segments during which he says exactly the same like for example again with the sponge I heard "Schwamm drüber!" (as we say here in Germany) again and again and it means vaguely "No hard feelings!".
One thing that maybe slightly bothered me was that the video game struggled with likability in terms of characters and settings. Of course, you cannot make a garbage planet look like a holiday paradise, but still. With the characters, it was even more crucial. I must say I did not like Rufus with some of the stuff he said. It may be true what Toni said on one occasion that he does not have any friends. Surely his perhaps closest friend Wenzel is not a friend at all. I mean he calls him a miserable small worm or something on one occasion and Wenzel also does not respect Rufus one bit as we see when it comes to Rufus' stuff and how Wenzel is (not) willing to share in the event of a lucky coincidence. Maybe Rufus' relationship with the barkeeper is a little bit better. At least he does not get annoyed by Rufus, even when the latter leaves and does not help him with the cleanup after their big explosion. The maybe biggest part of this game is all about finding all kinds of ingredients for a very special drink. Something he can use to wake up Goal. I mean this was a bit confusing with all the different kinds of water there honestly, but it's much more about getting closer to the solution and the dialogues en route than about the key plot I suppose. And with the importance of this "potion", he also gets to use it a few more times, even on cats. These mail cat plays on words were awesome, probably impossible to translate though for the international versions. There are many other animals in here too, like a parrots, whales, pigeons, bulls and others that I do not remember right now. Those I liked. I generally preferred the biggest part of the game early on. Later on, I found some of the twists confusing. Like how Cletus (real charmer when he talks about Goal) looked like Rufus, which added nothing for me except a few jokes on who is more handsome. Or also why Goal has this metal in her head instead of a brain/memory. No explanation there either really. And the "cleaning" part was not good and entertaining enough to forget about this idea. No pun intended.
What I did like though, even a lot in fact, was the ending. It felt a bit confusing, not gonna lie, with these disks and which one is in Goal's head right now, but how Rufus tricked them basically in the end and inserted the one that has Goal remember was a pretty smart move. Well done. Also interesting name creation there for Goal. She (i.e. Her affection) is the highest goal for Rufus here. Or is it really? Maybe not yet entirely here in game one. Some moral dilemmas are included as well. There are other interesting verbal inclusions too of course like Elysium. You will recognize them when you hear them. I could and would like to elaborate a lot more on the comedy, but here is not the place for that. Let me say that the parts there in the garbage, also this mine or what it was, did not win me over too much. The end, also with the amazing sky and horizon and the historic take on Deponia even with these mosaics was better again, but my favorite inclusion was definitely everything that took place at Kuvaq during the first stages of the game, also because there weren't so many technical gadgets yet. The little tutorial early on was okay too, even if I strongly dislike Wenzel. Especially with how much like a player he felt with Toni in his shower. Or the water vein under his house. Okay, he has to deal with Rufus and his shenanigans constantly, but that doesn't make me like him. Had a touch of Gustav Gans (Gladstone Gander) with all his luck. Oh and I must mention all the references to Rufus' dad. Those were some rare emotional inclusions from a dramatic perspective. That is all then. Of course, I highly recommend this game and I will definitely continue playing soon and review the other parts as well. Until next time then. Hope you enjoyed the read.
