Chaos on Deponia | a Review
originally posted on 07/08/2020;
Hello everyone, I am hunka bunka G.E.M.Simov, a foul fiend from the heights of heaven who finds himself talking about Chaos on Deponia on this day, and, alas, that brings me no great joy.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it. Also, I am a gameplay designer and a writer so I got the credentials to talk shit.
Most of the content in this review is copy pasted from the previous Deponia review.
GAMEPLAY
Chaos on Deponia's gameplay is the exact same as Deponia’s gameplay –as in, itis a point-and-click game, which means that it requires only a mouse and its Left Button to be played. It provides the Player with a Player Character (PC) who walks to whichever spot the Player clicks or to whichever object the Player clicks and interacts with it (if the object is one that can be interacted with).Clicking objects with the Right Mouse Button (RMB) makes the PC comment about the object (or Character).
In addition to that, the Player has the option to pick some items up, putting them in the PC's inventory, which can be accessed by scrolling up, or down, with the Mouse Wheel (Mouse Button 3). It features a large number of slots that get filled up with the items the PC picks up. An item, when hovered over in the inventory, can either be used (by the PC, on itself) or it can be used on an object in the game world, with the alternative being to have it be used on or given to a Character in the game world.
Lastly, whenever clicking on a Character to interact with them, the PC will either attempt to or successfully being a conversation with them. That will bring up a menu with a number of options that can be selected, as a result of which the PC will say whatever the option reads, and then the other Character will react to it. These Dialogues can be very important, and some options can only be selected once, so the Player should be careful with their approach.
In theory, this game is very simple, and it plays very well thanks to the simplicity of its controls. However, as a consequence of the fact that it is a point-and-click adventure game, it also has to feature puzzles as a means of challenging the Player in some way, so as to avoid simply being a visual novel. However, these puzzles - solved by interacting with objects in the game world or using items from the inventory to do that interaction with game world objects - fall into the trappings of the classic point-and-click game's puzzles.
What does that mean? Well, a puzzle can be two things - simple or hard. It is hard whenever the one solving it does not have access to the information needed to solve it, or whenever it is not intuitive (does not stick to some sort of logic). The classic adventure (point-and-click) game's blunder is that it happens to make its puzzles lack that intuitive element, it makes them thoroughly illogical, and that makes them hard, but not in a good way - one that requires that the Player gathers information so as to solve them - but in a bad way. The only way to solve that kind of illogical puzzle is to keep attempting solutions until, randomly, the Player gets lucky. That's bad design.
So, overall, what is the verdict? The game has a very simple, and smooth, vibe to its gameplay. That makes it pleasant for the Player to just play, to interact with things and do stuff in the game world - which is good. Some of the puzzles abide by some sort of logic, which makes things very nice for the Player, and provides an enjoyability to the experience. However, the presence of the illogical puzzles sours things thoroughly. 2/3
PRESENTATION
The game looks very nice. Due to the fact that its appearance is as stylized as some of the unmentionable sources of entertainment, originating in Japan, I am left pleased by the cartoony appearance of the characters. It is interesting how the characters seem to POP from the background, due to the fact that the lines outlining them are much thicker than those of the scenery, but that is excusable and makes it easier to spot important people.
The sound effects are passable, the music is decent enough, but it becomes boring very quickly. The voice acting is good, but the animations are really, really distracting. There are songs intertwined with the beginning of every act, but they really ripped me out of the experience and completely broke my immersion. The singing was not that good either, nor was the text interesting, as a norm. There were outliers.
The art is the one thing I can not really complain about, so kudos to whoever worked on it. Daedalic, stick to illustrations and world building! 2/3
STORY
The story of Chaos on Deponia is, arguably, even worse than the story in Deponia. The characters are unlikable, so much so that I found myself FORCING myself to FORCE my hand to click so that I would go on. The issue is, still, even worse in future installments, due to the fact that there was no character development from the previous game.
The main character is Rufus, an entitled, rude, unwashed, selfish and egotistical prick, the exact same idiot from the last game! And the story takes place literally minutes after the events described in Deponia, or at least so it seems - although it's muddied up because who cares about consistency, am I right?
Rufus goes ahead and breaks into the lift, upon which Goal and Cletus are situated, and ends up ruining everything that could have been interpreted, with a large amount of leeway, as progress in the story and character growth. Cletus disappears, Goal gets messed up, and Rufus is just alright.
Then the most ridiculous plot-point occurs, and I will spoil it as it happens just at the start of the game - Goal’s consciousness is split into three different people because Rufus decided to buy himself lollipops instead of buying the cartridges he was TOLD TO BUY. On top of that, even if the player tries to buy the right type of cartridge, THE GAME TAKES AWAY THEIR ABILITY TO PICK AND JUST RUINS THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE FROM THE GET GO!
In any case, the only remotely interesting thing was the world. Why doesn’t the Floating Black Market get destroyed by the Organon, seeing as it is quite large and could, probably, be seen from Elysium? Why do Elysians still have no noses?
All these questions, and more, are NOT answered in this game. Very unsatisfying. Very, very sad. On top of that, the horrible plot makes me want to poke my eyes out. 0/3
LEGENDARY POINT
Does this game, that is really just a clicking simulator with a disgusting story, get the Legendary Point? Heck no. I would rather give my Legendary Point, my ONE and ONLY gift to any game, to a hentai game, because then I'd see tits. This "sorry excuse of a" game did not spark my interest enough, it did not stick with me and make me think, nor did it inspire me. The only thing I thought about was how horrible Rufus and the stupid plot-points were, how poorly written the characters felt, and how dissatisfying it was to beat the game only to achieve... [EXPUNGED DATA]
Actually, no. Screw this. Spoilers, AGAIN! Rufus ends up back in square one, as if we did not expect that already. He does not get any closer to Elysium. It’s sequel baiting, but worse! 0/1
CONCLUSION
4/10. It's just a below average game, one I would not recommend. Don’t even watch a playthrough of it on some website, because playing it and wasting your money on sub-par products like this is not a good idea, nor is wasting your time on it any better a decision. Instead, save up your money and buy a Doner, or two of them. God knows I would have done that, had I known what awaited me.
On the wall of shame, I hang this game. I spit on it and rub it with a napkin, so as to make the moldy exterior more pleasant to lay eyes upon, but it is in vain. It's just kinda bad.