Daedalic was widely viewed as the inheritor of LucasArts’ point-and-click adventure crown a decade or so ago, back when it was putting out some truly great point-and-click adventure games. Whether Deponia is one of them is a matter of some debate, but I think it is, and more importantly I know that you can pick it up for free right now on Steam.
The Deponia trilogy tailed off pretty sharply through the sequels and I honestly wouldn’t recommend them, but I really enjoyed the first: A slapstick farce featuring a deeply unlikable clown who suffers a number of amusingly unpleasant outcomes as he tries to save a woman who’s fallen into his literal garbage dump world from the Utopian space station in orbit above. It’s a bit like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, except Rufus—the unlikable character in question—has none of the coyote’s charisma or intellect.
Also, as mentioned, it’s literally free until March 16, and as selling features go that’s a tough one to beat.
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But that’s not the only reason we’re here: Daedalic is holding a whole big publisher sale on Steam, with major markdowns on all kinds of stuff. If point-and-clickers are your thing, you will be well fed here. Night of the Rabbit, probably my favorite Daedalic joint ever, is 90% off ($2.49), as are the delightfully unhinged Edna and Harvey: Harvey’s New Eyes and the grim fantasy The Dark Eye: Memoria, both of which are on for $2. (Chains of Satinav is good too, although not quite up to Memoria—but hey, two bucks.)
Keeping at that deep discount, Ken Follet’s The Pillars of the Earth is also down to $2, The Whispered World Special Edition is $2, and its followup Silence, which I did not care for at all but lots of other people did, is—you guessed it—$2. There’s plenty of newer stuff to choose from as well, but honestly I’m just here for the adventures. Don’t dawdle, it all ends on March 16.