Good review. The hype on Chaos on Deponia was that it was "even better than Deponia", but that's just not true. It's still a good game but there's something missing from the first game, a feeling that the game is more than the sum of its parts. Nothing really important happened and things are largely where they were at the end of the first game. I would hesitate to use the words "run of the mill" because there was a lot of effort here, but when you're making the sequel to a trilogy then it's impossible to harness as much effort as you have naturally when you're trying to do the best you can in the first game that you want to make into a series - and to do so you have to impress a whole lot of people.

Man, I swear I'm like the only person to like Chaos On better than the first Deponia. I found that the larger role of Goal added a lot to the story, and while I agree that the first chapter had a lot of puzzle problems in the sense that a player had no direction whatsoever and way too much you could do all at once (had to look at walkthroughs a couple of times), overall I felt like the game was somewhat better. Probably the only sequences I really disliked was the ones which involved time travel and you basically had to repeat the same scene twice.

It could be though that I just like it better since I played it first since it was on sale on Steam and only bought part one to play later.

Also, that damn junkcrab mating song is still stuck in my head.

I liked the game and the development of Goal was nice (well after spending the entire first game sleeping, anything would be better); though I still think Toni should be the main heroine. :P

I have to strongly disagree with this review.
It may not moved the story a lot, but i still thought it was fantastic.
It's difficult to say stuff about the humor, since it's always better in the original language, but i laughed my ass of dozens of times.
I don't see any reason to strongly dislike rufus. Yeah, he's stupid sometimes and not really a noble hero, but expecially the second game shows that he is a good person and a hero, when he has to be.
What i liked the most were the puzzles. There were many puzzles that were original and not a 08/15 adventure puzzle. The "irritating" puzzle with janosch is really good in my opinion, although i can see that there's the good possibility that the difficulty of the puzzle got greatly increased through the translation, it's actually not that hard in german.

So in conclusion:
I disaggree heavily. In my opinion chaos on deponia is a great game. If you played the first one and speak german, get this game (on german). Sadly i cannot say that much about the qualitys of the english translation.

Amaror:

I don't see any reason to strongly dislike rufus. Yeah, he's stupid sometimes and not really a noble hero, but expecially the second game shows that he is a good person and a hero, when he has to be.

You think that

The characterisation wasn't right, especially with Goal. I have no idea what kind of person she is now. Or Rufus, really.

Andy Chalk:

Blood Brain Barrier:
You think that

Spoiler: Click to ViewPHA+a2lsbGluZyBiYWJ5IGRvbHBoaW5zIGluIGNvbGQgYmxvb2Q8L3A+

is something a "good person" and a 'hero' would do?

I actually thought this was one of the few funny moments in the game. :)

And I don't see any actual development of Goal in this game. Instead, she's just broken down into simplistic stereotypes; the only "development" comes at the very end from Lady Goal, who becomes virtually indistinguishable from "real Goal" in the process.

Amaror:

Andy Chalk:

Blood Brain Barrier:
You think that

Spoiler: Click to ViewPHA+a2lsbGluZyBiYWJ5IGRvbHBoaW5zIGluIGNvbGQgYmxvb2Q8L3A+

is something a "good person" and a 'hero' would do?

I actually thought this was one of the few funny moments in the game. :)

And I don't see any actual development of Goal in this game. Instead, she's just broken down into simplistic stereotypes; the only "development" comes at the very end from Lady Goal, who becomes virtually indistinguishable from "real Goal" in the process.

Spoiler: Click to ViewPHA+SmFub3NjaCdzIG1vdGhlciBraWxsZWQgdGhlIGRvbHBoaW5zPC9wPg==

Yeah i know that this part did not do well in the character development section. But i don't really care. I normally care a great lot about the story, but i still really liked chaos on deponia. There were a lot of funny moments for example:

Spoiler: Click to ViewPHA+VGhlIHBsYXR5cHVzIC0gZmFuLjxiciAvPlRoZSBmYXN0IGZvb2QgcmVzdGF1cmFudCB3aXRoIGEgZGVtb24gYXMgaXQncyBvd25lci48YnIgLz5UaGUgaGFyZHdhcmUgc2hvcCwgd2l0aCBhIGNyYXp5IGFpLCB0aGF0IGtpZG5hcHBlZCBpdCdzIG93bmVyLjxiciAvPlRoZSBSZWJlbGxpb24sIHRoYXQgaG91c2VzIGluIHRoZSBiYXNlbWVudCBvZiB0aGUgbGVhZGVyJ3MgbW90aGVyLjxiciAvPlRoZSBXZWFwb24gLSBTZWxsaW5nIC0gTGFkeS48YnIgLz4uLi4gZXRjLjwvcD4=

This game is not perfect, no game is. But it is certainly not as horrible as andy makes it out to be. It's funny as hell, it contains clever puzzles and it is a LOT of fun.

I think the 3 stars is to reflect that while it's a decent game, quite a few adventure games of similar quality come out every year. Why should we glorify something that, compared with the classics of the past, is really quite average?

And that's really the reason lots of people turn away from adventure games as a whole, because they think this is the best it gets. That's something I'd like to change, personally.

Oh yeah, and it's also quite a short game.

Blood Brain Barrier:

I think the 3 stars is to reflect that while it's a decent game, quite a few adventure games of similar quality come out every year. Why should we glorify something that, compared with the classics of the past, is really quite average?

And that's really the reason lots of people turn away from adventure games as a whole, because they think this is the best it gets. That's something I'd like to change, personally.

Oh yeah, and it's also quite a short game.

I know what the rating means. My point is that i disaggree. I love the game. It's funny, it has clever puzzles and you get to know goal for the first time. Well at least the three parts of her.

Why should we glorify something that, compared with the classics of the past, is really quite average?

Compared with the classics of the past. Funny you said that. What games do you mean when you say that? Maniac Mansion? Sam and Max? Day of the tentacle? Those were awesome games but his critic points can be easily applied to them too. In nearly all of those games you don't have real character development. In Day of the tentacle you also have just one goal in front of you and no real story twists. They have many funny moments and clever puzzles and so does Chaos on Deponia.

Amaror:

Blood Brain Barrier:

I think the 3 stars is to reflect that while it's a decent game, quite a few adventure games of similar quality come out every year. Why should we glorify something that, compared with the classics of the past, is really quite average?

And that's really the reason lots of people turn away from adventure games as a whole, because they think this is the best it gets. That's something I'd like to change, personally.

Oh yeah, and it's also quite a short game.

I know what the rating means. My point is that i disaggree. I love the game. It's funny, it has clever puzzles and you get to know goal for the first time. Well at least the three parts of her.

That's up to you. I can't argue with what you find funny. I found it funny too, just not as funny or charming as other games, which it would have to be to earn a higher score.

Why should we glorify something that, compared with the classics of the past, is really quite average?

Compared with the classics of the past. Funny you said that. What games do you mean when you say that? Maniac Mansion? Sam and Max? Day of the tentacle? Those were awesome games but his critic points can be easily applied to them too. In nearly all of those games you don't have real character development. In Day of the tentacle you also have just one goal in front of you and no real story twists. They have many funny moments and clever puzzles and so does Chaos on Deponia.

Well, classic doesn't mean old. Adventure games have been around for about 30 years and there have been games I would give 5 stars from their earliest days up until quite recently.

I don't know what you mean by no character development - how could you say that Max or Hoagie have no character development? And those games have a whole heap of twists. I don't see it being any different from Rufus at ALL. And besides, you make it sound like character development and 'plot twists' are essential in a game. They're not. It depends on the type of game it is trying to be. If it tries to build the game around characters then it's important, but not every game has to do that.

Blood Brain Barrier:

Well, classic doesn't mean old. Adventure games have been around for about 30 years and there have been games I would give 5 stars from their earliest days up until quite recently.

I don't know what you mean by no character development - how could you say that Max or Hoagie have no character development? And those games have a whole heap of twists. I don't see it being any different from Rufus at ALL. And besides, you make it sound like character development and 'plot twists' are essential in a game. They're not. It depends on the type of game it is trying to be. If it tries to build the game around characters then it's important, but not every game has to do that.

I did not say character development is sooo important. Andy said it and used it as a key aspect to explain why chaos on deponia is bad. I just pointed out that many good adventure games have no character development or no plot twists, because adventure games don't need to have them.

Amaror:

Blood Brain Barrier:

Well, classic doesn't mean old. Adventure games have been around for about 30 years and there have been games I would give 5 stars from their earliest days up until quite recently.

I don't know what you mean by no character development - how could you say that Max or Hoagie have no character development? And those games have a whole heap of twists. I don't see it being any different from Rufus at ALL. And besides, you make it sound like character development and 'plot twists' are essential in a game. They're not. It depends on the type of game it is trying to be. If it tries to build the game around characters then it's important, but not every game has to do that.

I did not say character development is sooo important. Andy said it and used it as a key aspect to explain why chaos on deponia is bad. I just pointed out that many good adventure games have no character development or no plot twists, because adventure games don't need to have them.

Ah, okay. Can't argue with that. But I think that Chaos on Deponia is one of those games that needs good characters. Anything that is centered around a single main character and featuring so much dialogue does. For what it's worth, I thought Deponia did very well with the characters. Partly because Goal was well defined, which she isn't in Chaos.

I honestly can't think of a single thing I liked better about the first Deponia, so I really have no common ground to begin discussion of this review. Suffice to say I disagree with pretty much everything in it. To each their own, I suppose. But to me this was the closest an adventure game from Germany has actually come to being worthy of the praise it received there.