Chaos on Deponia
Review
If it ain't broke...
by Matt Porter
reviewed on PC
Familiar Ground (cntd)
It is impressive how many different puzzles and storyline threads are crammed into such a small area though. Once you have completed the first area, you will be able to choose one of the remaining locations to go to, which stops the game from feeling too linear.
Since this is a sequel, Chaos on Deponia can be related to the original, rather than drawing the obvious Monkey Island comparisons. This helps the game as it broadens out into its own proper series. As soon as I loaded the game, the music on the main menu took me back to when I played the first game. Much like Deponia, the music is excellent, although the songs in between chapters are not as good as the first game in my opinion. The same surreal, fourth wall breaking humour is still here; Rufus certainly seems to let on that he knows he is in a video game more than once. In fact, there is a rather ingenious puzzle a couple of hours in that will really have you thinking outside the box. I won’t spoil it here, but needless to say there was a real revelatory moment when I found out what needed to be done. In general, the puzzles are as convoluted and quirky as you would expect from a game like this and sometimes leave you stumped for a while until you use trial and error to find the solution. On the whole, you can usually figure out what is going on though and the puzzles do a good job of making you feel smart as you solve them.
Localisation Gone Meh...
The dialogue is certainly funny, with many laugh out loud moments, but it just seems like the developers have gone overboard at times. Some conversations can take minutes to listen to and I often found myself just reading the subtitles and skipping forward. Some of the subtitles did contain spelling errors and it seemed as though completely different words were spoken and written down in places, but the general meaning was always conveyed just fine. Some conversations are unskippable, however, and can be particularly frustrating if you have already heard the same dialogue a few times as you figure out how to solve the puzzle. It is a shame as the game is largely well written, but it seemed as though I was just watching what was happening on screen at times rather than playing.
So Chaos on Deponia has not really improved upon the first game, but it has not gotten worse either. If you enjoyed Deponia, or like these kinds of games in general, it is certainly worth checking out. There are interesting and funny new characters and many hours of puzzling gameplay. It has nice looking graphics, great music, and for the most part ran on my machine without a hitch. It does have an unfortunate acronym when you think of how many people will be searching for “CoD” this month though, so just make sure you are buying the correct game for your kids.
8.0
fun score
Pros
Multiple laugh out loud moments. Interesting puzzles and amusing new characters.
Cons
Feels like there has been too much dialogue crammed in. Not much has changed since the first game.
