Name
Cipher
Daedalic Entertainment is the state of art Point and Click Adventure Game developer in our age. Many may have played some of their games due to hype or whatever, and here I will go through all their major releases so far and give boring details on their gameplay or stuff.
1.Edna & Harvey: The Breakout
The first game ever developed by Daedalic, this game is supposed to originate from a college thesis, and it shows. First it uses Java, and the laggy and jumpy nature of Java and its animation is the sore of this game. Every scene is window-sized, so there is no scrolling, and consequently you will have a lot of scene transitions. Loading always take a couple of seconds, and the end result is quite detrimental to the enjoyment of this otherwise unique and interesting game.
Being the first game also has its merit. The developers naively inherits the Sierra verb-bar system, which includes 'look at', 'pick up', 'use' and 'talk to'. And result is glorious because you can use these verbs on everything and get a unique line! Adding that you are playing a mental patient and her talking rabbit doll, you can expect a lot of (forth-wall breaking and maniac) fun just by applying different verbs and items to hotspots and other items without achieving anything progression-wise. However, all of this is let down by subpar translation and voice-acting from german to english. It's not russian-to-english level awfulness, but it diminishes one of the best part of this game.
The game also stands out different from other Daedalic game in terms of level design. As the title suggests, you are trying to break out the asylum. Even though every scene is very small, they are numerous and together they construct a pretty demensional environment. The progression is satisfying because you are always trying to gain more freedom of movement in the institution, and in the same time you gain more puzzles to solve and more scenes and characters to interact to achieve your end goal.
That is, until the first chapter ends. Like many games Daedalic makes later, this game suffers the same syndrome: become linear after first chapter yet which is also half of the content.
All in all as a breakout game of the studio, this game is pretty good despite its 56 metacritic score, technical difficulies, and recurring translation/localization issues. Also they seem to forget to implement verb cycle, which makes experimenting kind of chores.
2.The Whispered World
The first game reached out to mainstream I think, and it should also be the first game many of us here have played (or tried to play) from this company.
The game is released two years later, and they have a far-more mature engine in place. However they switches to verb coin style gameplay, reducing the amount of useleass but glorious dialogues.
The protagonist of this game, a depression patient, is usually the reason why people dislikes this game. Daedalic seems to like depressed main character, and they ranges from sympathetic to slightly annoying to super annoying, and I assure you that Sadwick is on the super annoying end of the spectrum.
The worst of the offense is actually the ending. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say it somehow makes the character's depression and thus the whole adventure meaningless.
So if there is one game from Daedalic you should not play, it's this award-winning game. Or The Night of Rabbits. I don't really know.
3.A New Beginning
An eco-thriller, the game looks like an environmentalist propaganda at first glance. Maybe it is, but luckily it is saved by a balanced cast and a good amount of science fiction elements. This game is also the one of the two games Daedalic makes so far that features two main characters, a depressed(!) retired biology scientist and a girl from future coming to save the world from apocalypse.
After the slow start and the slightly annoying depression patient in prologue, everything becomes better with the time travel and apocalypse now, and it can easily deliver you through all 8 chapters as you can hardly predict the next step the game will take you. Well actually you can predict where it will take you, but you are left wondering what would happen there, which makes it a good story, right?
So this is actually the first storyfag game coming from Daedalic. And if you have some tolerence on the depression syndrome of Daedalic main characters and the global warming controversy, this is actually a better game than it looks like. And its blend of comic art style character and realistic backgournd is pretty neat.
However the game does not support wide-screen, and some versions(like GOG.com) have a save function disabling bug (past fifth chapter. That is, you can't save anymore and have to spend the rest of the afternoon beating the game). You have been warned.
4.Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes
A spin-off to the first Edna & Harvey game, this game continues the line of seriously mental games series which will eventually lead to famed Deponia trilogy both in terms of gameplay and artstyle. This game also marks the maturity of their technology. From then on they began to churn out roughly three games per year, which is a stunning feat considering the quality.
The games stars Lilly, a perfectly normal convent schoolgirl, doing exactly what she has been told to do. The verb wheel is replaced by the two-button interface which will be shared by (most of) future Daedalic games.
Besides being a black comedy, the game also features an awesome narrator, who is reminiscent of the snarky narrator from Space Quest 6 and full of double entendre and fourth wall breaking. In fact I would easily consider this narrator the highlight of this game, considering that Lilly rarely speaks a few words.
Harvey's New Eyes relies on many elements from the first game. You will meet a couple of patients from that game besides Edna, and both games feature the same antagonist, but it's stand-alone enough to be considered a spin-off and if you can't sit through that Java game, you can easily skip it to enjoy this one instead. I'll say this is my top favorite game from Daedalic alongside Memoria (They are two kinds of flavour and can't be compared, thus the tie).
5.Deponia
The first mainstream hit from Daedalic. It has its mental protagonist and crazy songs directly from Edna&Harvey series. This game is so well-known I will just stop here.
6. The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
Starring yet again a slightly depressed but sympathetic main character, Chains of Satinav advertises itself as a dark and gritty fantasy story, and in reality it's a dark fairy tale story, which is much more beautiful. This is the first time Daedalic runs out of their puzzle ideas and has to give their characters magic abilities to increase solution space, thus creating a bigger puzzle space to draw puzzles from.
The game is overshadowed by its sequel Memoria, but it's still one of the better games from Daedalic. And if you can't stand all of the mental stuff from the other series, this game is your best choice as it's one of the more serious and normal games in tone.
7.Chaos on Deponia
Continuing the trilogy, this game suffers from the middle book syndrome as there is not really many new things if you have been through the first one and the story really doesn't go anywhere. Unable to dish out magical abilities in a sci-fi game, they have to make three copies of your girlfriend, and whole game revolves around this.
However, Chaos on Deponia features the greatest freedom in all of Daedalic games. In the first chapter, you are usually giving multiple obectives and can complete them in any order you want in most case. After the first chapter, the game opens up in style of Space Quest 3, where you can choose multiple places to go. Unlike Space Quest 3 which pretty much mandate a correct order of visiting the planets, here you maintain the freedom as in the first chapter. So level design-wise, this game really stands out from rest.
8.The Night of the Rabbit
From a different creator (who made some hit flash AVG called What Makes You Tick), this game is easily one of worst ones. Playing this after other Daedalic games is like playing King's Quest 7 after 1-6. They even reduce the two-button interface to single-button just like The Princeless Bride. The false freedom is profuse in this game as you are often giving multiple objectives but have to complete them in a set order because you need the magic abilities gained as the reward of completing another objective.
The game is a pity because it has a interesting premise of becoming a magician and travel different worlds, yet restricts itself as a children's game about teaching you the badness of industries, banks and grownups. The only memorable bits are the easter egg scene (which connects to most of games above) and the stinger.
We already have a complaint thread in this forum so I'll stop here.
9.Memoria
The best Daedalic has to offer so far, it blends the right amoung of storyfagness, easy puzzles that a poor AVG player like me can complete without consulting walkthrough (I did for the magical realm in the first game) and the beautiful art style from the first game. It also reduced the screen time of the couple from the first game which some of you find annoying, in favor of two new and stronger characters. Hopefully Daedalic can churn out more gems like this one, but as depressed as I am, I don't think they can outdone themsevles anymore. It's mostly about expectation.
10.Goodbye Deponia
They always release GOG version one month after other major channels. Fishy, eh?
11.Journey of a Roach
Seems like another collaboration project just like The Night of the Rabbit.
1.Edna & Harvey: The Breakout
The first game ever developed by Daedalic, this game is supposed to originate from a college thesis, and it shows. First it uses Java, and the laggy and jumpy nature of Java and its animation is the sore of this game. Every scene is window-sized, so there is no scrolling, and consequently you will have a lot of scene transitions. Loading always take a couple of seconds, and the end result is quite detrimental to the enjoyment of this otherwise unique and interesting game.
Being the first game also has its merit. The developers naively inherits the Sierra verb-bar system, which includes 'look at', 'pick up', 'use' and 'talk to'. And result is glorious because you can use these verbs on everything and get a unique line! Adding that you are playing a mental patient and her talking rabbit doll, you can expect a lot of (forth-wall breaking and maniac) fun just by applying different verbs and items to hotspots and other items without achieving anything progression-wise. However, all of this is let down by subpar translation and voice-acting from german to english. It's not russian-to-english level awfulness, but it diminishes one of the best part of this game.
The game also stands out different from other Daedalic game in terms of level design. As the title suggests, you are trying to break out the asylum. Even though every scene is very small, they are numerous and together they construct a pretty demensional environment. The progression is satisfying because you are always trying to gain more freedom of movement in the institution, and in the same time you gain more puzzles to solve and more scenes and characters to interact to achieve your end goal.
That is, until the first chapter ends. Like many games Daedalic makes later, this game suffers the same syndrome: become linear after first chapter yet which is also half of the content.
All in all as a breakout game of the studio, this game is pretty good despite its 56 metacritic score, technical difficulies, and recurring translation/localization issues. Also they seem to forget to implement verb cycle, which makes experimenting kind of chores.
2.The Whispered World
The first game reached out to mainstream I think, and it should also be the first game many of us here have played (or tried to play) from this company.
The game is released two years later, and they have a far-more mature engine in place. However they switches to verb coin style gameplay, reducing the amount of useleass but glorious dialogues.
The protagonist of this game, a depression patient, is usually the reason why people dislikes this game. Daedalic seems to like depressed main character, and they ranges from sympathetic to slightly annoying to super annoying, and I assure you that Sadwick is on the super annoying end of the spectrum.
The worst of the offense is actually the ending. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say it somehow makes the character's depression and thus the whole adventure meaningless.
So if there is one game from Daedalic you should not play, it's this award-winning game. Or The Night of Rabbits. I don't really know.
3.A New Beginning
An eco-thriller, the game looks like an environmentalist propaganda at first glance. Maybe it is, but luckily it is saved by a balanced cast and a good amount of science fiction elements. This game is also the one of the two games Daedalic makes so far that features two main characters, a depressed(!) retired biology scientist and a girl from future coming to save the world from apocalypse.
After the slow start and the slightly annoying depression patient in prologue, everything becomes better with the time travel and apocalypse now, and it can easily deliver you through all 8 chapters as you can hardly predict the next step the game will take you. Well actually you can predict where it will take you, but you are left wondering what would happen there, which makes it a good story, right?
So this is actually the first storyfag game coming from Daedalic. And if you have some tolerence on the depression syndrome of Daedalic main characters and the global warming controversy, this is actually a better game than it looks like. And its blend of comic art style character and realistic backgournd is pretty neat.
However the game does not support wide-screen, and some versions(like GOG.com) have a save function disabling bug (past fifth chapter. That is, you can't save anymore and have to spend the rest of the afternoon beating the game). You have been warned.
4.Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes
A spin-off to the first Edna & Harvey game, this game continues the line of seriously mental games series which will eventually lead to famed Deponia trilogy both in terms of gameplay and artstyle. This game also marks the maturity of their technology. From then on they began to churn out roughly three games per year, which is a stunning feat considering the quality.
The games stars Lilly, a perfectly normal convent schoolgirl, doing exactly what she has been told to do. The verb wheel is replaced by the two-button interface which will be shared by (most of) future Daedalic games.
Besides being a black comedy, the game also features an awesome narrator, who is reminiscent of the snarky narrator from Space Quest 6 and full of double entendre and fourth wall breaking. In fact I would easily consider this narrator the highlight of this game, considering that Lilly rarely speaks a few words.
Harvey's New Eyes relies on many elements from the first game. You will meet a couple of patients from that game besides Edna, and both games feature the same antagonist, but it's stand-alone enough to be considered a spin-off and if you can't sit through that Java game, you can easily skip it to enjoy this one instead. I'll say this is my top favorite game from Daedalic alongside Memoria (They are two kinds of flavour and can't be compared, thus the tie).
5.Deponia
The first mainstream hit from Daedalic. It has its mental protagonist and crazy songs directly from Edna&Harvey series. This game is so well-known I will just stop here.
6. The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
Starring yet again a slightly depressed but sympathetic main character, Chains of Satinav advertises itself as a dark and gritty fantasy story, and in reality it's a dark fairy tale story, which is much more beautiful. This is the first time Daedalic runs out of their puzzle ideas and has to give their characters magic abilities to increase solution space, thus creating a bigger puzzle space to draw puzzles from.
The game is overshadowed by its sequel Memoria, but it's still one of the better games from Daedalic. And if you can't stand all of the mental stuff from the other series, this game is your best choice as it's one of the more serious and normal games in tone.
7.Chaos on Deponia
Continuing the trilogy, this game suffers from the middle book syndrome as there is not really many new things if you have been through the first one and the story really doesn't go anywhere. Unable to dish out magical abilities in a sci-fi game, they have to make three copies of your girlfriend, and whole game revolves around this.
However, Chaos on Deponia features the greatest freedom in all of Daedalic games. In the first chapter, you are usually giving multiple obectives and can complete them in any order you want in most case. After the first chapter, the game opens up in style of Space Quest 3, where you can choose multiple places to go. Unlike Space Quest 3 which pretty much mandate a correct order of visiting the planets, here you maintain the freedom as in the first chapter. So level design-wise, this game really stands out from rest.
8.The Night of the Rabbit
From a different creator (who made some hit flash AVG called What Makes You Tick), this game is easily one of worst ones. Playing this after other Daedalic games is like playing King's Quest 7 after 1-6. They even reduce the two-button interface to single-button just like The Princeless Bride. The false freedom is profuse in this game as you are often giving multiple objectives but have to complete them in a set order because you need the magic abilities gained as the reward of completing another objective.
The game is a pity because it has a interesting premise of becoming a magician and travel different worlds, yet restricts itself as a children's game about teaching you the badness of industries, banks and grownups. The only memorable bits are the easter egg scene (which connects to most of games above) and the stinger.
We already have a complaint thread in this forum so I'll stop here.
9.Memoria
The best Daedalic has to offer so far, it blends the right amoung of storyfagness, easy puzzles that a poor AVG player like me can complete without consulting walkthrough (I did for the magical realm in the first game) and the beautiful art style from the first game. It also reduced the screen time of the couple from the first game which some of you find annoying, in favor of two new and stronger characters. Hopefully Daedalic can churn out more gems like this one, but as depressed as I am, I don't think they can outdone themsevles anymore. It's mostly about expectation.
10.Goodbye Deponia
They always release GOG version one month after other major channels. Fishy, eh?
11.Journey of a Roach
Seems like another collaboration project just like The Night of the Rabbit.
