One of my favorite Daedalic point-and-click adventures is free on Steam, and a pile of others have been marked way down

Deponia screenshot — (Image credit: Daedalic Entertainment)

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.

Deponia Trailer - YouTube

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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.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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