Can’t believe that the Nintendo Switch is already three years old, has tons of ports, and has become a phenomenal porting system. Deponia is one of the recent ports that has come to the Switch. The point and click trilogy was originally released on the PC in 2013 and then was ported to the PlayStation 4. I thought the trailer was funny, and it really made me want to play the game. It reminded me of some of the comedies that I watched, so I had a feeling that I would like it.
In Deponia, the world is a vast garbage dump, and Rufus, the main character you control, wants and seeks more out of life. He refuses to be part of the lower class and doomed to live his life in literal mountains of trash. He makes an escape pod to blast himself in the upper sphere on an Organon Cruiser wanting to leave his trash-filled life and tries to grasp his dream – for the opportunity to get into the world of the rich, who live in a floating city high above the clouds called Elysium. Fate seems to smile on the egotistical good-for-nothing when one day the attractive lady named Goal from the higher sector plummets into one of the trash heaps. Rufus decides to help the young woman out by taking her back to her husband. When he notices that Goal’s husband is a dead ringer for himself, he hatches a diabolical scheme to gain access to the upper world. However, things don’t work out quite as planned since he has feelings for the beauty, which limits his usual unscrupulousness.
The game has a pretty fast load time and only takes a few seconds to load to the next scene or area, which makes it great when playing in handheld mode or connected to the TV. However, I found that Rufus walks a tad slow, which was kind of a problem for me, but thankfully, you can make him run with the ZL or ZR buttons. It’s a great thing too because there is a lot of backtracking and going around to the same place a number of times. But what got to me was getting frustrated with the game’s trial and error. I got stuck a number of times where I didn’t know what to do or how to do something and had to watch walkthroughs to help myself out. When you first meet Rufus, he is packing his suitcase to get ready to launch off to Elysium in his escape pod. Yes, it may sound easy, but it is not, you have to search around the three-story house (which he shares with his ex-girlfriend) and try to locate the items he needs. Nothing is as straightforward as it seems when locating what is needed, picking it up, and taking it to the suitcase. There’s a variety of sequences that need to be followed. When you are free to explore the city, there’s a lot in the city that can be interacted with and a lot of items that are available for Rufus’s inventory, but missing just one thing can delay a whole sequence. This means you can easily waste time trying to figure out what to do next, not knowing you’ve missed earlier steps and that your next attempt just simply won’t work.
Deponia has a great 2D cartoon art style and uses the right tones of color to make it look unique. You are not just looking at a world of trash and junk, you are looking at a vivid world full of life. Not only that, each character has their own wacky personalities. I love the voices and voice actors. They nailed each character perfectly. The writing for the game is brilliant and makes me feel like I’m watching a comedy. Yes, sometimes there is a dry joke that may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but overall, it is a fun adventure.
Even with the frustration of getting stuck, and yes, there are some characters that can help you out with vague hints, but they are just the tiniest of hints, I still had fun with Deponia. It may take place in a junkyard post-apocalyptic-like world, but it brings a certain type of charm and spirit.
Developer: Daedalic GmbH
Publisher: Daedalic GmbH
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: Apr 24, 2019
