Surviving Deponia

Surviving Deponia is the fifth installment in a popular series of humorous adventure games by Daedalic Entertainment, which began in 2012. It's also the first installment in the series not to be developed by Daedalic - in June 2023, the company announced they'd no longer develop games, focusing on exlusively publishing them. The game was therefore developed by AtomicTorch Studio - the creators of CryoFall.

Mechanics

The choice of developer is no accident. Surviving Deponia drastically diverges from the series' gameplay. It is no longer a point-and-click adventure game, but rather an isometric explorative adventure with heavy emphasis on survival, similar to the previous game of AtomicTorch Studio -the aforementioned CryoFall.

The survival aspect forces players to gather resources and gradually expand their base, where the protagonist and NPCs dwell - these include returning characters and some brand-new ones. We can interact with them and take on various quests.

Gathering resources sounds easy in theory, as the titular planet is completely covered in all sorts of junk. We must, however, watch out for monsters and hostile humans. While we can fight, we're usually on the defensive - facing larger groups of enemies means certain death.

Plot

Surviving Deponia is set directly after Deponia Doomsday. A disaster that occured during the previous game's finale - the airborne citadel of Elysium crashing down onto the planet - led to climate change. The event causes massive water shortages on Deponia - but what if the cause of the crisis was something entirely different?

During the campaign of Surviving Deponia, the player must solve the mystery behind the water shortage. The game is a canon finale to the series (though Daedalic Entertainment doesn't rule out potential future sequels).

Technical aspects

Surviving Deponia only supports singleplayer. It runs on the RENKEI engine - the proprietary engine of AtomicTorch Studio.

Trivia

Though visually Surviving Deponia resembles previous installments, an important member of the team did not return - that being Jan "Poki" Baumann, the co-founder of Daedalic Entertainment, the creator of the Deponia series and the director of all its previous installments, since he left the studio in 2019 in pursuit of a musical career. The developers, however, have done their best to maintain the spirit of the previous games, as well as their unique sense of humor.