Goodbye Deponia
Rufus faces cloning, sacrifice, and a tragic choice.
Goodbye Deponia is a graphic adventure game from Daedalic Entertainment, following *Chaos on Deponia*. The story centers on anti-hero Rufus, who still lives on the junk planet Deponia. He wants to join the floating city of Elysium and stop the Organon, a military group that has lied to Elysium’s government by claiming Deponia is uninhabited and should be destroyed. Rufus is aided by the pirate Bozo, the Elysian girl Goal, and the resistance.
While traveling to the upper ascension station on Bozo’s cruiser, Rufus and Goal get stuck on an Organon cruiser. Rescuing Goal, Rufus meets his biggest fan, Barry, but destroys Bozo’s ship in the process. Forced to continue on foot to Porta Fisco, Rufus, Goal, Doc, and Bozo stay overnight at a hotel. There, Doc and Bozo set up a lab to merge Goal’s three personalities. They trick Rufus into searching for a supposedly nonexistent object. Meanwhile, Argus sends Cletus and Opperbot to find Goal after realizing they captured Donna instead. Rufus finds the object in Cletus’s room, but returns to find the operation already complete. Furious, he runs into Argus and Donna. Disguised as Cletus (his look-alike), Rufus convinces Argus he is Cletus, and a disguised Goal claims to be Donna. Argus takes them aboard the last Organon cruiser.
On the cruiser, Rufus removes his disguise before noticing cameras. He tries to erase the footage, but Goal is taken for interrogation. Rufus sneaks into a torture bot as Argus reveals his plan to conquer Elysium and wants Goal by his side. To their shock, Argus removes his helmet, revealing he also looks like Rufus. Rufus accidentally injects Goal with a lethal dose of Sodium Amytal. As she dies, she admits her love for Rufus. Argus orders the bot (with Rufus inside) thrown overboard.
Rufus wakes in a room like the game’s tutorial, thinking it’s Hell after repeated deaths by crusher. He discovers it’s a cloning facility and meets Hermes, a man resembling Death. Hermes admits he created Elysium to reach Utopia, planned to destroy Deponia for power, and forgot people lived there. He also made clone workers. Rufus, Cletus, and Argus are the last living prototype clones. Enraged, Rufus vandalizes the facility, and Hermes kills himself. A dead Goal falls from the sky. Rufus clones Hermes to ask about cloning Goal, then clones her, but she returns as a baby and falls down a drain.
Quick Facts
- Title
- Goodbye Deponia
- Developer
- Daedalic Entertainment
- Platforms
- Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Released
- Windows, OS X · 17 October 2013 · Linux · 8 July 2014 · PlayStation 4, Xbox One · 30 January 2019 · Nintendo Switch · 23 December 2019
- Genre
- Graphic adventure
- Modes
- Single-player
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Goodbye Deponia continues the story of Rufus, an anti-hero living on the garbage planet Deponia. He wishes to become an inhabitant of the flying city Elysium and stop the Organon, a military organization that deceived the Elysian government into believing Deponia is uninhabited so they can blow it up. Rufus receives help from the pirate Bozo, the Elysium girl Goal, and the resistance. The plot involves Rufus and Goal traveling to an upper ascension station, encountering look-alikes, and discovering that Rufus, Cletus, and Argus are the last living prototypes of clone workers created by a man named Hermes. Hermes discovered Utopia, created Elysium to fly there, and devised the plan to destroy Deponia to power Elysium, having forgotten people still lived there. The game ends with Rufus sacrificing himself by letting go of a cruiser, falling back to Deponia, while Cletus assumes his identity and Goal saves Cletus, leaving Rufus's survival uncertain.
Reader's Guide
Goodbye Deponia received generally favorable reviews according to Metacritic. German publication Golem.de declared it a commercial hit. It debuted in first place on the GfK Entertainment Charts' weekly computer game sales rankings, selling 10,000 units in its first seven days across Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, with half of those sales from online stores such as Steam. Carsten Fichtelmann of Daedalic Entertainment called these numbers 'a record for us' and noted it was the first time in 15 years an adventure game had reached first place on the German market's weekly sales charts. He criticized brick and mortar retailers for understocking the game and driving customers to digital purchases or mail-order companies like Amazon. Adventure Gamers awarded it the 'Best Traditional Adventure' and one of the top 5 'Best Adventures' in their 2013 Aggie Awards. According to Daedalic, the game achieved strong international sales in its opening week.
Did You Know?
- Rufus, Cletus, and Argus are revealed to be the last living prototypes of clone workers created by Hermes.
- Goal is accidentally injected with a lethal shot of Sodium Amytal by Rufus and dies, but later is revealed to have been saved.
- Rufus clones himself twice, resulting in three 'Ruffi' to solve three simultaneous problems.
- The game ends with Rufus letting go of a cruiser to fall back to Deponia, while Cletus takes his identity and Goal saves Cletus.
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