The Longest Journey

TLJ is my favourite adventure game of all time. This little old gem (I think we can consider it an old piece of code by now) has all the ingredients for the epic game experience. A fantastic storyline, an own universe between here and beyond, a personal journey through a set of psychological challenges, puzzles that you will never forget so soon (yes, because they'll drain a good part of your gaming hours), beautifully portrayed characters, namely an amazing and witty April Ryan, and a solid replayability value. If you're wondering if you should give TLJ a try in this day and age, specially with Dreamfall Chapters - final cut around, please don't think twice. The puzzles may be a bit too much to bare, but the story is book material that you will not easily find anywhere else. If you are the reading type you can also count with a couple of reading hours at the Enclave. If you don't you can skip it and amuse yourself with the colourful dialogues between April and the rest of the characters and April's diary itself. TLJ is not a game just meant to be played, but savoured in every detail with the lot it has to offer. The first time I played it I encountered every possible bug (I used a 4 CD version as long as I can remember) and by now all those troubles are gone. GOG included a patch for the police station crash (itself a classic) and there's help available in forums too. At the beginning I was also amazed by the duration of the game. It really lasts ages and has a good pace to it. Between the story and the puzzles it flows quite naturally. As the graphic value goes, it may and will look a bit dated. Regardless expect to be surprised by in-game videos with a soul of their own. We get a lot of them in the last chapters. Get yourself immersed in the mysterious Arcadia and the futuristic Stark! TLJ will not begin and end within your game experience as there's a lot of extra-material and the rest of the series to explore afterwards.

I have been gaming since text adventure. I truely loved this old style game with puzzles movies and a great storyline.

I loved this game when I first brought in on multiple CDs many years ago. I played through it several times and fell in love with the characters and especially April Ryan. For the longest time her character and voice actress were the bar I set all adventure games to. It is for this reason I felt betrayed greatly by the future of the series, after so many years of waiting we got Dreamfall and Dreamfall Chapters, of which I've not been able to bring myself to finish either all because of my admiration for April and her character in the original The Longest Journey. Sadly time has taken it's toll on the graphics which I do not believe were great when first came out but the story telling is top notch and the world is created lovely. A Remaster of this game would be welcomed greatly or a more involved game with Stark and Arcadia but I doubt that will ever happen (check out the time gaps between This and the Dreamfall games).

Story: 5/5 Worldbuilding: 4/5 Art Design: 4/5 Graphics: 3/5 Sound: 4/5 Gameplay: 4/5 I still give 5 stars and not 4, because the story was just so fantastic

Just play and let yourself drag into the worderful story which is still modern ..mmm, love that game