Goodbye Deponia’ Review – Good Things Come In Threes

‘Goodbye Deponia’ Review – Good Things Come In Threes
Rufus, the self-appointed hero of the Deponia series – not to mention, king of wanton destruction and mostly unintentional murder – is back for one last harebrained misadventure in the grand finale to Daedalic Entertainment ’s popular point-and-click trilogy.

’s popular point-and-click trilogy. Featuring Daedalic ’s wonderfully peculiar brand of dark humor and, if you can imagine, even more insanity than the previous installments, Goodbye Deponia is the platypus-flavored icing on top of the crazy cake – an acquired taste, perhaps, but unforgettably delicious.

For those unfamiliar with the plot of the series, the story goes something like this: Deponia is a junkyard planet, above which floats the city of Elysium, home to the elite, upper-class citizens and the leaders of the shady Organon organization. Rufus, an accident-prone Deponian with dreams of a better life, attempts to sneak into the upper city only to get caught up in political intrigue when he accidentally knocks an Elysian woman (aptly named Goal) out of the sky. They discover that the Organon is planning to destroy Deponia, in hopes of finding a better, cleaner planet to live on instead. In one of fate’s stranger twists, it is up to Rufus to stop the Organon and save the world.

The beginning of the end starts shortly after good guys Rufus, Goal, Doc and Bozo escape the clutches of the evil Organon on Bozo’s cutter. True to form, Rufus’s attempts to complete even the simplest of chores – in this case, making breakfast – result in spectacular failure, setting off a chaotic chain reaction in which the boat is wrecked by an enemy ship, Goal is nearly killed (in several different ways), and the gang is forced to seek shelter for the night in the haunted Hotel Menetekel. This, of course, all occurs in just the first fifteen minutes or so.

The gameplay follows the standard pattern set by the prequels: everything is just a click away, and once again players can use the mouse-wheel as a quick-access to the inventory. As always, exploration is a treat: the world of Deponia is amazingly detailed, even beautiful in a lost-and-found sort of way, and Rufus’s commentary on every clickable object in the game is priceless. One big improvement is the puzzle design; often in past installments, riddles suffered from too heavy a reliance on random, absurd solutions which, though fitting for Rufus, sometimes felt overly frustrating. The situations this time around are no less insane, and a few puzzles still involve guessing, but overall the solutions are markedly easier to decipher, and all the mini-games come with a handy-dandy “skip” button.

Things do get pretty complicated, however, when one Rufus becomes three . Sadly, the three of them don’t get to spend much time together before separating (oh, the fun they could have had), and with the splitting of the group comes the introduction of a new mechanic. For this portion of the game, the player controls all three Rufuses at the same time, often using the actions of one to further the progress of another in a surreally disconnected sort of team effort. This section isn’t so much difficult as it is time-consuming – though still a lot of fun, some of the obstacles don’t really serve to advance the plot or provide any meaningful new insights, and the unnecessary delay grates a little on the nerves. Who has time for putting some stranger’s kids to bed and playing bartender in an underground sewer when the world is about to explode?

As with the prequels, the cast of Goodbye Deponia is one colorful congregation of personalities brought vividly to life through fantastic dialogue, acting, and a loving dose of character development. Many a familiar face appears for one last huzzah, as well as a host of new supporting characters, including a Grim Reaper lookalike, a man selling nooses next-door to a psychiatrist’s office, and even a Rufus fanboy in full costume. Inspector Cletus and Bailiff Argus get surprisingly little screen-time despite being the main villains, but as Rufus would say, it’s not really about them anyway – it’s all about him.

As far as heroes go, Rufus is one in a million, taking the “loser protagonist” trope to unprecedented extremes. An unabashed kleptomaniac who breaks everything he touches, Rufus revels in the spotlight, professing himself to be the savior of all despite ruining countless lives and generally being hated by at least 90% of the Deponian population. His plans are consistently utterly nonsensical – yet they almost always work, even if it’s not in the way he intends them to, and often at the expense of someone else’s suffering.

The developers do a fantastic job of dragging him right out to the farthest edges of morality, stopping just short of crossing one line too many. Partly his likeability depends on his humorous quips, but even more on the nature of his intentions; he’s selfish, brash, and quite a bit dense, but even his worst acts are committed without malice and are often merely the result of his persistent inability to comprehend consequences or learn from his mistakes. Now and then, he even manages to do something right – and after all, he’s risking his life trying to save a world he doesn’t even want, and that certainly doesn’t seem to want him.

Goodbye Deponia digs deeper than its prequels, suggesting doubt and even a certain amount of (albeit indirect) self-loathing buried beneath the layers and layers of self-aggrandizement and irrational optimism. Like everything else about him, Rufus’s character arc is wild, unconventional, and more than a little warped, but in the end it leaves you with a crooked smile and a funny feeling in the pit of your stomach – love, perhaps, or maybe just indigestion – that tells you you’re not going to be able to forget about him or his escapades anytime soon.

The writing, which in the past suffered some minor flaws mostly due to translation issues, has been improved to a point very near perfection, with possibly the most coherent plot yet. Daedalic stole my heart long ago with their penchant for a certain fearlessness in storytelling, and the Deponia series in particular never shied away from pushing the limits of just how utterly ridiculous (or completely disturbing) a game is allowed to be. The third installment, of course, is no exception. In fact, what few missteps there are mostly come from pushing things a little too far; in one scene, Rufus’s sexist jokes (which are, to be fair, meant to make him look stupid) fall pretty flat, and moments such as selling a black woman into slavery to a monkey-man or stepping into a pervert’s creepy van to “visit his petting zoo” might elicit more wincing than laughter. Still, there’s more than enough truly funny slapstick and sarcasm to weigh out the discomfort – and besides, it really wouldn’t be a Daedalic game if it didn’t make you squirm at least a little bit.

In a similar vein, some players complain that the ending of the game seems too serious to fit with the tone of the series. But Daedalic ’s humor has always been quite dark and spiked with a touch of uncomfortable realism; much like a Joss Whedon production, their games tend to induce sudden, unexpected bouts of emotional whiplash, and few more so than Goodbye Deponia . Rufus’s antics, hilarious though they usually are, have nearly always had devastating consequences for someone – and sooner or later, the past always catches up with us.

If there’s one legitimate complaint to make regarding the ending, it’s about how open it is. Though most of the main conflicts are resolved, quite a few questions are raised but never answered. On the one hand, it wouldn’t be too shocking if this really is the end – officially, it’s the last game of the trilogy. But who’s to say there won’t be a follow-up trilogy set in a new location, or a spin-off featuring someone other than Rufus as the player character? Speaking from a fan’s perspective, I can’t help but hope this isn’t really goodbye for good. After all, “where there is life, there is hope.”

Whether this is the final finale or merely a temporary farewell, Goodbye Deponia is everything a sequel is supposed to be: bigger, better, maybe even the best. It’s a laugh-a-minute rollercoaster with all the twists and turns and unexpectedly stomach-churning drops any adventurer could want, and well worth the $20 price tag. In fact, if you liked the prequels at all, it might be worth the few extra bucks to get the premium version, which comes with the (lovely) soundtrack, concept art, some sort of workbook, and an amusing introduction penned by Rufus’s biggest fan.

Ready to become the next hero of Deponia? Goodbye Deponia is available for purchase (in several languages) via both the official siteand the Steam page. A special three-in-one package, which includes the complete set, is also an option for newcomers who have yet to play the first two games.

[review pros=”Well-developed and memorable characters, entertaining and fast-paced, surprising plot twists, unique dark humor, dynamic gameplay, improved puzzle design, eye-catching and highly-detailed art design and animation, beautiful soundtrack, professional voice acting, excellent writing” cons=”Some solutions rely on random guessing, a few puzzles feel unnecessary to the story, a few jokes fall a little flat, a little too open-ended for a finale” score=97]