Daedalic The best Daedalic adventure games?

[Gepeu]

The Deponia trilogy of course, with Doomsday as a runner up.

 

[bddevil]

1. The first two Deponias (the third one isnt really worth it by itself, but fine as a trilogy). Chaos is probably as close as new adventures can get to MI2
2. Memoria. It's a bit too linear and puzzles are a bit too easy, and they probably shouldnt have made it a sequel to Chains. Other than that, very good story and characters.
3. A New Beginning. Lacked a lot of polish and character development, but it had a lot of potential. If you've never played it, make sure to get ze Deutsch version, as the English dub is atrocious.

 

[4249]

I didn't know Memoria was rated so highly. I loved the Deponia series and remember Chains coming out and it getting a pretty lackluster response, so I must've ignored Memoria based on that. Should Chains be played before Memoria or are they separate enough?

 

[CryptRat]

Chains must be played before Memoria, and it's worth it even if it's probably not as good.

 

[lophiaspis]

Does Daedalic have any more puzzle-free adventures like Pillars of the Earth? I loved Pillars but usually hate puzzle adventure games.

 

[evdk]

Chains must be played before Memoria, and it's worth it even if it's probably not as good.

You don't really have to play Chains to enjoy Memoria (I mean, the main characters from Chains are besically just relegated to a framing device; the choice at the end just probably won't have as much emotional impact).

 

[Darth Roxor]

Yep. I played Satinav after Memoria for instance.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I'm in the minority who prefers Chains over Memoria. For me, Chains was much more memorable and atmospheric, even though it's - if you approach it objectively - the worse game of the two. A bit similar to my perception of Demon / Dark Souls.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Well, I had really hated the Whispered World and found Deponia 1 only "OK" and did not play the other ones for that reason, so for me Daedalic was dead...

... until I played Edna & Harvey : The Breakout. It was fabulous, and the second opus looks even better so far.

I am on a parallel track with "The Pillar of the Earth" which is also "OK".

 

[ValeVelKal]

So, finished Harvey's New Eyes. It starts wonderfully in chapter I, better than The Breakout... and fall flat in all other chapters, sadly.

Still fun.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Interesting. What made it fall flat for you? I thought it was one of Daedalic's best together with Memoria, and I remember its being solid all the way through. The story, puzzles and general feeling of 'unease' that only gets stronger the more you play and gradually replaces the initial lighter-hearted hilarity (+ the way everything is resolved in the end) were all really good in my view.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Well, Chapter 2 (the village) is basically two "parts" :
- Picking up items that are just laying around and giving them to the barman so he does the cocktails. No puzzle to get them.
- Unlocking "you must not" instructions by doing extremely simple things in Lilly's brain. It is way simple because there are few items to use and interact with.
Honestly, I found it terrible on the puzzle front, and not even that funny - especially compared to Chapter I.

Chapter 3 ("back to the asylum") is significantly better than Chapter 2 but the arch is actually finding four different colors (to "pain" the pizza parts) and iirc 2 of them are just direct pick-up, leaving 2 puzzles that are pretty illogical, but given the limited amount of items it is quickly found nonetheless.
I did not quite understand the whole "perfect pizza" logic to be honest. I understood I am supposed to mix their "like / dislike" with the fact that they mix-up colors, but my notes and the final good solution did not match as I expected.

On the other hand, I loved the final "chess-like" battle, but that's because I am wargame/tactical player first, a RPG player second and an adventurer gamer when my wife wants us to play something together .

 

[Manny]

From Daedalic I have played both Harvey games, The Whispered World and A New Beginning. Of all these, by far the best is Edna & Harvey: The Breakout. In fact, imho it is one of the few "recent" adventures that I think is on par with the classics, as it has good puzzles, a lot of reactivity, good narrative rhythm and the story is very well managed. Also, unlike other modern adventures, the madhouse space is quite open to explore. I also liked the trips to the past in order to gain skills in the present. It is a pity that the second part, as ValeVelKal has mentioned, ends up having a design with quite obvious puzzles, because the second adventure has its charm in other areas.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

I choose Pillars of the Earth because it's the aesthetically most brillant of their games, very beautiful and strong in atmosphere and narration. Not so much of a complex adventure though, puzzles are simple. But production values are phenomenal and the setting is perfectly captured.
I tried almost all of their games but only finished two or three of them (Chains of Satinav, which I really enjoyed, and Edna, which literally took me years to finish because I regularly lacked motivation to continue). I don't know what it is but there is something excruciatingly slow and boring with almost all Daedalic games, at least for me. They simply don't motivate me enough to play them. Most of them look just so beautiful and original and have unique story premises but I find their gameplay and story development so uninteresting and dull. I can't say why exactly.

 

[GarrisonFjord]

The first one (Edna & Harvey: The Breakout).

Lots of interactions (even if just flavour).
Least eye-pleasing of them, but irrelevant to me.
Actually preferred the crisp & straightforward visuals.
Great ending(s) too.

Second would be A New Beginning.
Then The Dark Eye.

Didn't care about the rest (apart from maybe graphics).
Deponia had great 2D art, but I couldn't stomach anything else about it
(esp. the purposefully annoying music & main character).