If you’ve ever had a chance to check out Night of the Rabbit, then you’re already familiar with the work of German developer Daedalic Entertainment. The developer/publisher has notoriety for their work on adventure games and while I will admit to not having much experience in the genre, I can’t think of a better way to broaden my horizons than with a studio that specializes in them.
Goodbye Deponia is the third in a trilogy of Deponia games that stars a character named Rufus as he strives to make his way to a space station in the sky known as Elysian. Rufus is something of an aloof character with many ill-conceived plans that ultimately backfire and affect both him and those around him. During one of his misadventures, he encounters a woman named Goal that he regards as his ticket into the space station by using her brain implant that is imparted only to those residents who belong to Elysian. Unfortunately, Rufus finds himself under circumstances where he needs to clone Goal in order to get her back, but as with many things he does, the plan fails and he winds up with a baby version of her.
As the demonstration begins, we see Rufus has himself been cloned into three separate versions of himself. One of the key elements of the game is switching between the various versions of Rufus (who are usually not in the same place at any given time) and using their combined talents to help each other out of a jam. For example, one Rufus may be in need of a pacifier to calm down Goal and prevent harm from monsters, so a Rufus in another area may have to retrieve one from a bearded baby he runs across (don’t ask) by giving it a caffeine lollipop. Of course, in doing that, the baby gets agitated and begins crawling away, potentially leading to more shenanigans down the road.
The general vibe I get is that Goodbye Deponia is intended to be humorously written, which complements the cartoonish and exaggerated art style. Even though the game originates in Germany, the North American release will have full English voice actors as with its predecessors. The game is also designed with newcomers in mind, as you don’t have to have played the previous two entries to understand what is going on, and visual cues letting you know that you’ve triggered something to happen seem to be frequent. The game is also reported to be about 15-20 hours in length, so you should get plenty of bang for your buck. Be sure to check out Goodbye Deponia when it releases this fall on PC.
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