Deponia Doomsday review

Deponia’s fate lays in your hands, it’s up to you to take control of Rufus’s life, past, present and future. Take charge, try not to send the planet south, as you look to avoid the impending catastrophe that you accidently caused, resulting in the destruction of the whole world. Using time travel, will you be able to fight time itself and re-write history.

The very talented developers Daedalic entertaiment bring Deponia Doomsday to Xbox fans, a chance to complete the action-packed, point and click trilogy. Deponia Doomsday is the third instalment which concludes the anti-hero’s highly amusing story.

If you’re like me, who has not played the first of the two-parts, Deponia and Goodbye Deponia, let me give you a little insight into the story, but I promise you, that you can jump straight into the third instalment, as Deponia Doomsday, fills in the gaps excellently.

Depnoia is a world that has been left behind, a world once full of life and breaming with class, has been left to consume itself over the years. Deponia now resembling nothing more than a wasteland, with pockets of life, surviving on the very scraps of its once thriving history. Rufus is one such character, the character the player take’s the role of. A character who ekes out his sorry existence, his reason for living.

Rufus, part of the lowest inform of social class, left behind to live out his life in this vast garbage dump. However, Rufus is cunning and opportunistic, always searching for a chance to make it big and live with the elite. A dream of floating high on life, high in the clouds.

Fate seems to treat Rufus with a nice hand. Goal, a heavenly attractive figure from the land above, some how plummets to the ground, falling into Rufus’s lap so to speak.

Rufus, a character who can only be described as that of a form of snotty good for nothing teenage type, becomes intertwined with Goal. Rufus with very noble intentions at first to help Goal get back to the land from above and to her husband, soon takes matters in to his own hands and embarks on a diabolical scheme to gain access to the riches in the sky, as he realises that he is indeed a look a like for Goal’s other half.

Long story short, things don’t quite go to plan for Rufus, as he falls for goal, limiting his usual devious antics.

In the second Instalment of the trilogy named Goodbye Deponia, The Organon plan to destroy the filth that is Deponia. Goal has disappeared and Rufus a seemingly free spirit still hell bent on doing what ever it takes to get off Deponia in favour for a lavish life aboard Elysium.

Goal still holds the key in Rufus eyes to a better life, an ex-Elysian who may just hold the cards to help Rufus elevate himself into space and earn a place reserved for the highest in society. As with any of Rufus’s plans, he just can’t help but put a spanner in the works.

Thus leading to the trilogies conclusion…….

In Deponia Doomsday you guide Rufus the anti-hero who has woken from chilling nightmare, a dream where Elysium, the city from above, crash-landed on the planet. As all heroes do, they grow a moustache, roll up there sleeves, and put in the hard graft to fix the problem, however our anti-hero comes to the conclusion that there is indeed only one way to save the day…. blow Deponia up! Sometimes dreams feel very real, could this be a vision for warning of events to pass.

As you embark in the footsteps of the loveable rogue Rufus, who once again plots to leave Deponia for the very heights of Elysium, Rufus soon realises that his dream was indeed a vision, and that it’s up to him to find the path that leads to the saviour of the very planet that he is so desperately trying to escape from.

Without giving too much of the story away….. Control Rufus on his most peculiar adventure yet, meet classic characters, solve puzzles, and laugh out loud at the bizarre comedy and tales that are told throughout, in a classic point and click adventure. A game full of wit, and panache.

“The game’s design is that of a Matt Groening Futurama cartoon, excellently drawn, well presented in a unique comic form.”

The game’s design is that of a Matt Groening Futurama cartoon, excellently drawn and well presented in a unique comic form. The point and click controls work well, with plenty of options, and lots to read and discover. Use your inventory to combine your finds, to form useful artifacts to progress in the story.

The story is excellent, combining slapstick humour with a fantasy sci-fi element, and although Deponia Doomsday is the third instalment, there is plenty here to get to grips with, without knowing the previous stories. Deponia Doomsday is split in to four chapters, offering different level layouts, with the tasks and objectives clearly laid out in front of you.

Cut-scenes are used perfectly to add to the story, full of charm, using excellent animation visuals, and wonderfully dreamed up music to aid the atmosphere of the adventure unfolding.

The puzzles are challenging, and will certainly keep you on your toes, sometimes scratching your head, as you use your exploration skills looking for the vital elements that will lead to you unlocking the next part of the story.

Deponia Doomsday’s promise of over 20 hours gameplay lives up to the task, and with over 100 backdrops to marvel at, the game is astatically pleasing on the eye. The whole Groundhog Day style time loop, dream-vision take is pure sci-fi gold, the story on its own leaves you coming back for more. However, the puzzles are very challenging and although once solved and the penny drops as to how you got there, I sometimes feel they are a little farfetched, leaving too much for the players imagination to solve.