Rufus is a strange one; utterly sure of his own abilities through years of every stupid scheme he comes up with somehow, quite magically, coming up trumps. Of course, it very rarely pans out quite how you expected things will, even given some of the more outlandish set ups, but that’s half the charm of the game.

It regularly descends into quite slapstick humour, as Rufus and our other characters shift from one crisis to another – which is usually Rufus’ fault – but it lives perfectly alongside the setting, plot and script. Its light and self-knowing style is lovely, with jokes that address everything from Rufus’ ridiculous heroics to the game’s German language origins.

As the third game in the trilogy, there are plenty of characters returning and story arcs which are carrying on. Though it didn’t really feel all that vital to know each character in advance, with their roles quickly and simply defined just by how they act during play, whether antagonist, ally or just a standard person, there was definitely something missing from my understanding of what was going on as I haven’t played the previous entries yet.

Rufus and his gang start the game trying to reach Elysium, a floating paradise in the sky, in order to convince them that they shouldn’t destroy Deponia, a planet covered in junk on which thousands of people still live. It follows directly on from the end of Chaos on Deponia, and I didn’t have that knowlege going into the game, but quickly takes a left turn, derailing the plot threads which carry over, and landing Rufus and Goal in another series of tricky situations.

Though the twists and turns are actually pretty complex, with many of them holding over from previous entries and making use of already established characters, it wasn’t ever difficult to keep track of. Instead, it actually allowed them to turn these to humorous effect, as you make your way from puzzle to puzzle.

This is very much your traditional point and click adventure, with an inventory of objects you’ll have to collect and combine in various ways to complete the objective. The only problem being that this is such a wacky world and Rufus’ characterisation allows him to attempt and get away with practically anything, that it’s sometimes difficult to know what the often nonsensical solution might be without resorting to trial and error. There’s no sign of an effective hints system to help you along outside of the handful of mini-game puzzles, and I did on several occasions turn to a guide to help me progress.

The first major area spreads across a multi-layered hotel, as an example, and it’s only by exploring and trying out every item and speaking to each person at least once that you get any idea of what you might need to do. In fact, it’s an area which has several strands of puzzles which tie together towards a final scene, but I almost felt a little lost in what I could and couldn’t do yet.

Thankfully, the difficulty and complexity wasn’t always as high as that first area, and throughout I was able to enjoy the overall story. There are actually some quite lovely moments of drama in there, thanks to some of the big shifts in the story, which allow for more than just overconfidence and brash actions from Rufus.

There’s still plenty of that, and Rufus can very often come across as a thoroughly unlikeable character, whose trail of chaos only hurt the people around him. Sometimes it works, tying in with the slapstick humour, but other times his antics fall a bit flat and some of the jokes in the script can feel quite crude and clumsy, in my opinion, possibly having lost something in translation.

However, over the course of the game, it does feel like Rufus learns something about himself. He is trying to save a planet, and as the story’s arcs come to a conclusion, that requires an element of selflessness and sacrifice, compared to his usual cockiness.

The visuals are another aspect which will certainly help to draw people into the game, and they delight at every level. The artwork is simply a beauty to behold, creating something that’s pleasing to the eye, no matter what junk-filled tip it is depicting, futuristic space craft or dingy sewers. It’s not just the surface of Deponia that is visited, and you will travel around and visit a lot of varied and interesting places, most likely leaving a trail of craziness in Rufus’ wake.

Goodbye Deponia is a lovely end for this trilogy, with a story which, aside from the odd misstep, had me invested in the outcome and the surprises that cropped up along the way. Also, the art style and puzzles should delight and challenge respectively, meaning that, though this doesn’t push adventure games in a new direction, this is the conclusion to a fairly essential series for fans of the genre.

Score: 7/10