It has been a LONG time since I played a Deponia game. Back then I had not yet reached a point of giving series I was in the middle of priority to continue, and to be fair, I'm honestly not 100% sure I would have had I been in those early days. But that did not mean a sequel would be bad... would it? Would it? Well... yes and... no.... kinda... you know what? This time, it actually is kinda complicated.
Story: When the first Deponia ended, the fate of this planet was not settled. It's still a garbage heap, don't get me wrong, but there are plans to blow the planet up. The only ones who stand in the way of this plan even potentially are Goal and Cletus, a couple from city floating over the planet called Elysium who had come down to the surface to see if it was inhabited before doing something so drastic... and that is looking grim. Rufus, for his part in trying to save the planet and be with the woman of his dreams, has failed.
But all is not lost, for they have not made it to the floating city yet, and Rufus plans to get there with them, somehow convinced Goal would welcome him with open arms. His plan, as always, was overly dramatic as he attached himself to a giant buzzsaw to fling himself at their gondola, slicing his way into the ship. A few more messups (both his and Cletus') and all three were now back on Deponia having damn near fallen to their deaths. Goal in particular paid the price as her brain implant was heavily damaged in the fall. Thankfully Doc is still a genius and with some quick work she can be saved... provided Rufus gets the right quality parts... I think you can figure out where this is going.
The end result of this is Goal's mind being split into three and Rufus' quest to make her whole again complicating the plans and schemes of multiple parties who all want different fates for the planet and need the codes embedded with her personality in this implant to make any of them happen. Overall this does make for a rather descent chapter in Deponia's story, but not a complete picture. Unlike the first game, this one does not end at a reasonable stopping point. It demands a part 3.
It is also a pretty funny episode mainly because of Rufus. He's selfish, arrogant, delusional, and an all around ass... and when he's not he's still an absolute idiot... and he's the both the guy you will be playing the roll of, and absolutely hilarious for how often he faces the cost of his own actions. Everything from helping him create his spinning sawblade plan right through the entire game, the laughs of this nature really never quit. At the very least, I can say the story itself and the writing around it will entertain a sick sense of humor (self included).
7/10
Graphics: Like the previous title, this game is a fully animated adventure and will look something akin to a Saturday morning cartoon: you will have well drawn, stylized characters populating painted backgrounds... which is a really good choice for the world of Deponia. Being effectively a planet-wide dump (literally the people off world drop their garbage here), this kind of look allowed the artists to absolutely play with the character of the various places you will visit which despite all being effectively covered in junk are surprisingly varied. There will be about five such locations the game will take place in, although only one is more then a few screens, and this is the floating black market where most of the game takes place. This place has everything, from a tavern to a tech shop to an upper-class snooty part of town to even an arena where two combatants can settle their differences in a "civilized" way. Every one of these places manages to have it's own look and feel even as they fit together being all built from the same materials dropped from above. The remaining places are a lot smaller though also well thought out and full of color and flavor.
And no morning cartoon would complete without colorful vibrant characters to populate the world, and this game has that in spades, each character wearing their personalities on their sleeves in the absolute best way possible. Further pushing this, the game has absolutely no problem populating events you cause with cutscenes to really enhance the slapstick effects. You will definitely laugh your ass off at expressions of our hapless if delusional hero as he entertains himself. It really does all look great.
8/10
Sound: The same cartoon ascetics the graphics wear on their sleeve are also in the audio department as well. Sound effects won't stand out particularly strongly, but everything that needs to make noise from footsteps to slamming doors to gun fire, and anything else sounds right in it's own right. What will stand out immediately is the sound track. This being a planet of junk, a sound track that is offbeat and funky fits it brilliantly. Add to it how upbeat it is and you are in for a treat.
But the real star here is the voice acting, as everyone is on their A game, oozing their characters perfectly. In particular, I need to give special attention to Rufus and Goal. The former is an absolute idiot, but the actor plays him perfectly, ranging from absolute jerk to well meaning idiot at any given time, leaving you never fully sure if you hate or like the guy despite himself.
Goal, on the other hand gets special notice here because the actress actually has to play not one character, but three. Early in the game (and in fact just about the entire thing), the character's personality is split into three, making her have to play effectively 3 in one, and make it work.. and she does brilliantly. The closest she gets to failing is "Spunky Goal" who seems a little too eager to duke it out sometimes, but that could just be the writers,
9/10
Gameplay: Sadly this is where this game falls apart, falling beneath what the original offered. Like the first game, this is a point and click adventure. You will navigate between the various locations completing puzzles to complete much bigger objectives as the story moves forward. The first MAJOR goal of this will be, well... Goal. Due to Rufus being... well... Rufus, the operation to save her life split her personality in three and you need to get all three to agree to be remerged into one whole. This will involve getting to know and take advantage of the various interests and distastes of each slice and incredibly convoluted problems to solve on the way... which is where this game starts to fail.
When you play a point and click game, you can expect to have moments you will get stuck and need a hint or two to proceed. What you do not expect are solutions so obscure and obtuse you didn't have a chance to find them (or sometimes even the puzzle itself), and this game has SEVERAL puzzles with such solutions. Many times, it involves invoking the rage of Spunky Goal without any real reason why, but the absolute most atrocious one involves a secret door knock to get into "the resistance's" base. The music in the center of town distracts Rufus so he knocks to that instead. The answer is to remove the music... in the most 4th wall way possible: you go into the settings and lower the music volume to zero. It was at this moment I decided this game was not worth even trying without a guide.
Nor are these going to be your only activities as the game also has several mini games. In most of these cases, there is a way to skip them should you get stuck, but I recommend trying them at least. For the most part they are descent distractions this time around.
And fortunately the interface supporting this is smooth as hell, interfacing all your interactions to the cursor brilliantly and using the mouse wheel to literally spin down the menu/inventory. It works great, I just wish, as noted before, the gameplay it supports was better.
5/10
Bugs: For the most part this game ran perfectly. I have to say for the most part, however, because there are portions in the English version that remain in German instead. Thankfully none of these seemed to be actually in game, but rather an option to skip minigames. It's kinda jarring when you didn't realize what you were doing was considered such a thing, however, as it just shows up at random.
Digital Rights Management: If you pick up the Steam version of this game, it will use Steam itself as DRM. However, other versions (like the one I got on GOG) are indeed DRM free.
Source: PC Gaming Wiki
Score: I wish I could say this game was good. It has a great story beat, a descent total plot, great voice work, and even amazing music work. But the game all this supports just isn't good. It has all the regular issues most point and click games have that may require you to seek a little outside help from time to time, but so much worse then in most cases. If you don't mind playing with a guide in hand, there is a lot to enjoy here, but it's nothing but frustration without one.
6/10
System Requirements:
- Either a 2.5 Ghz single core or 2.0 Ghz dual core CPU
- 2 GB RAM
- Anything supporting OpenGL 2.0 with a least 512 MB VRAM
- Windows 7 (64-Bit)
- 5 GB of Hard Drive space
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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