A New Beginning

A New Beginning pulls you in with a grimly direct setup: Earth has become unlivable, time travellers are out of chances, and one retired bioengineer may hold a piece of the answer. It is a traditional point-and-click adventure that earns much of its momentum from that urgency, even when you are stopping to rummage through an inventory or untangle a machine puzzle.

This is a good fit if you miss comic-styled adventures with hand-drawn scenes, character swapping, and unapologetically old-school puzzle logic. Its skip option for machine mini-games is especially welcome: you can wrestle with them briefly, then get back to Fay, Bent, and Salvador’s increasingly tense mission.

Follow the game trail: Chaos on Deponia Deponia

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first stretch gives you a strong reason to press on. A devastated future, a trip back to the 20th century, and a solution tied to Bent Svensson’s blue-algae research make even the familiar point-and-click routine feel purposeful. You alternate between Fay and Bent depending on the chapter, which helps the adventure avoid feeling locked to a single perspective.

Mechanically, this is firmly in the classic adventure tradition. You inspect hotspots, use the context-sensitive interaction menu, collect inventory items, and combine them to clear obstacles. If you enjoy the satisfaction of finally seeing how two seemingly unrelated objects fit together, there is plenty here for you. If that style has always tested your patience, expect a few moments where the story’s momentum gives way to methodical trial, observation, and deduction.

The machine puzzles are the clearest potential sticking point, since many are framed as mini-games rather than simple inventory problems. Fortunately, they can be skipped after three minutes without finding a solution. That is a sensible compromise: take a real shot at solving them when you are in the mood, but do not let one stubborn contraption stall a story-driven playthrough. Dialogue riddles add another layer of problem-solving, though the central rhythm remains comfortably old-school.

Graphics

Hand-painted backgrounds and animated cel-shaded characters give A New Beginning the look of a comic brought to life. The animated interlude sequences lean into that comparison by arranging their action in comic-panel structures, a fitting match for a sci-fi adventure that moves between an underground future and the 20th century.

Story

The strongest part of A New Beginning is the conflict at its center. Fay wants to persuade Bent to return to his research and help prevent the climate catastrophe. Salvador, the surviving leader of a failed time-travel mission, sees persuasion as a luxury he cannot afford. That split gives the game more bite than a simple race to save the world.

The stakes are enormous from the outset: humanity has already been driven underground, Earth’s magnetic protection is failing, and a devastating solar flare is approaching. Yet the story does not rest solely on apocalypse imagery. It anchors its crisis in Bent, an engineer who has stepped away from the work Fay needs him to resume. That makes the quest feel personal as well as global.

You should come in ready for a serious, environmentally focused science-fiction story rather than a breezy comedy adventure. The time-travel premise serves a clear dramatic purpose—change the past before the future is beyond repair—and Salvador’s ruthless approach keeps Fay’s idealism from becoming too tidy. The result is a premise with real tension even when the adventure-game pacing slows it down.

Overall Experience

A New Beginning is a solid recommendation for anyone who still enjoys the deliberate pace of a traditional graphic adventure. It knows what it wants to be: a hand-drawn, puzzle-led sci-fi story with an urgent ecological crisis at its heart. There is little attempt to disguise its affection for classic genre conventions, and that honesty works in its favor.

Its frustrations are equally traditional. Inventory combinations and puzzle bottlenecks can interrupt the flow, particularly if you are primarily there for the plot. The machine-puzzle skip option makes a meaningful difference, though, because it lets you decide whether a puzzle is a welcome brain-teaser or simply an obstacle between you and the next story beat.

The payoff is a tense journey carried by a strong central dilemma rather than novelty alone. Give it a chance if you want a serious comic-book-flavored adventure and can meet its point-and-click logic on its own terms. Skip it only if you need constant forward motion or have no patience for item puzzles; this is a game that asks you to stop, look closely, and work through its problems.