The Longest Journey

I haven't played a ton of adventure games. Before TLJ I had played 1 Space Quest, 1 Kings Quest, and Indiana Jones: The Fate of Atlantis. These adventure games were about solving puzzels and moving the story forward. I went into TLJ expecting a similar experiance, but thats not what I got. TLJ focuses more on it's story and setting than on the puzzles. There are puzzles, personally I found them easy enough that they didn't slow the story down and just required a bit of thought here and there, but most of your time is sent listening to the characters talk. Thats what TLJ is about, the characters, the plot, and the setting. This game is fully voiced, so no reading text. You'll spend a huge amount of time listening to characters talk. A little ways in I stopped thinking of this game as a game and instead thought of it as a book. Every now and again I'd have to choose a dialog option or solve a puzzle, my symbolic flipping of a page. So now I'll summarize what you can expect from TLJ: 1) I didn't measure the length of the game, but it took me a week to play through it. That was playing everyday. My guess would be 20-25 hours. 2) The story is the standard "unlikely hero" story that you've either read in a book, saw in a movie, or played in another video game. What sets it apart is the unique setting. The story starts out slow, then picks up a couple of notches, stays there for a while without really slowing again. This is of course subjective and experiances will vary. There was a ending, I had read in other reviews before I purchased the game that there was a cliffhanger ending. I didn't feel that way at all, and thats a good thing. No one wants to get to the end of a book and on the last page it says "Is the world saved? Pay $10 and find out next week in.... The Longest Journey 2!" 3) I had no crashes, ran into no bugs, the sound never cut out. I had no problems at all playing the game. This is on Windows Vista I'm going to give this game a 4. It's a good game and I liked the setting. I'm docking it a star because in the end, The Longest Journey is a book. Once you've read it, theres really no reason to go back. You'll remember the puzzles and the twists won't be surprises. The ending also didn't match my tastes, meaning I would have taken it a different direction, but thats just my opinion. I consider TLJ money well spent and would recomend it to anyone who wants a story they can play through at a relaxing pace.

The fantasy element of the game really had me intrigued but some of the characters are insufferable

This game was an absolute joy to play. The story is engaging, the voice acting believable, and the graphics are top notch. If you're a fan of point and clicks the then don't miss out on it. It has a very magical feel to it and leaves a lasting impression.

Having been used to URU (on and off line) I found the graphics a little crude at times. But in general, I enjoyed this game. However, some of the dialogues are incredibly lengthy, which makes the journey longer than need be. Not only are some lengthy, they are unbelievably boring (eg, in the Enclave, with Yerrin). But one has to be careful in using ESC with the dialogues: if you miss something critical, April doesn't hear it or answer it, and you can be stuffed later on (eg, in the police station witjh the with the union-blighted repair men: I went round the loop a few times). The trick is to save frequently or you'll be restarting. I enjoyed April's appearance and saucy feminist behaviour. The ending seemed a bit weak, leaving me wondering what happened to so and so (eg, Emma and Micky). I would have thought the epilogue could have been much better. Very anticlimatic after such a great journey. Is there an upcoming seguel?

Ragnar Tørnquist's The Longest Journey is one of those games you never heard of that you simply must play. As an adventure game, it follows the general adventure formula of find this, use with that etc, but if you are an adventure game fan this won't be a problem. The inventory and user interface are very easy to use, the voice acting is great, and the story is unique and, dare I say, inspired. And, as other reviewers have pointed out, it is a long game. Not because of puzzle difficulty, but sheer LENGTH. This is a fat novel in game form and trust me, you will want to play it again. I strongly suggest you check it out, and if you love it like I did, try and find a copy of the sequel "Dreamfall". It isn't quite an adventure game, and isn't quite an action game, and does suffer from some cross-genre confusion, but the story is simply fantastic. You won't be disappointed!