Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

​I found this game to be approximately composed of 50% Cutscenes 20% Walking Around 15% Sneaking Around 10% Fighting 5% Solving Puzzles It has a great story, but left you with a sense of being incomplete, most likely because it continues in Dreamfall Chapters, but it should still stand on it's own. Combat and stealth were poorly implemented. Combat usually involved either aimlessly swinging your sword/staff/fists while the enemy just stood there or they were unbeatable. Fortunately, there were ways to avoid many fights. Sneaking generally involved attempting to solve puzzles while trying not to be seen and constantly hitting save/reload because it was so easy to die. I didn't feel like I could take my time to try and figure out a solution like I could with the first game because of this, so I had to look up the answer online so I could get past these unpleasant parts of the game as quickly as possible. When there were puzzles to solve, they were a little elementary and often involved "hacking" or "lockpicking" which involved playing a minigame. The story did make it all worth it and from what I understand in Dreamfall Chapters, the combat system (and stealth?) was scrapped in favor of more puzzles, so I'm very excited to play that. As an aside, Dreamfall was only available in Windows and XBox 360. The Xbox version was too expensive and windows just tends to be unstable, so the game crashed on about 10 occasions. I'm happy that they published the new game on Mac as well. Overall, if you're looking for a game with lots of interesting adventure game puzzles to solve, this probably isn't it.

The game is a sequel to The Longest Journey, and I can definitely see it being set in the same in-game universe. However, It falls short in many places: The "adventure game" gameplay is lacking in this game when compared to the previous one. It is much more focused on just telling the story. The story itself is decent with plenty of sci-fi elements, but I don't see why it needed to involve arcadia. If it had just focused on telling the one story about Rezza and his investigation, I think that might have been more coherent. In the end it kind of fizzled out and nothing was really wrapped up. It does have some redeeming points though: The art is great (considering how old it is) and the music and voices are very well done. Some of the character interactions in the story are funny, others are serious and its good to get that mix as it helps sell the story. The few parts where you can wander around and solve puzzles are actually very good. If only there was more of that and less cutscene. Overall, as a game it's pretty poor, and the story is alright (ending aside).

To start, I'd like to say Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is not a perfect game. In fact, it is quite far from a perfect game - the gameplay is a bit minimal and the combat is clunky. However, the reason why I love this game so much is the story and the characters. I CARED about Zoe, April, and Kian very much, and I wanted to see what happened to them on each step of their journey. The story is one of the best I have ever seen in any medium, and the intermixing of the storylines is quite nicely done. And yes, although it ends on that cliffhanger it makes me long even more for the Dreamfall universe. Ragnar, I am expecting great things for Dreamfall: Chapters.

Although a bit lacking in gameplay and difficulty, this game is truly unforgettable. It will move you to tears and disturb your soul. You CANNOT miss this game!

I adore this game and series. I'm biased and for good reason. The worlds are beautifully realised, the characters feel real and the interweaving stories are multi-layered and intriguing. It's incredibly nice to look at and lets players find out more about April from the first game in the series, 'The Longest Journey' (which I heartley recommend). Summary: Graphically it's still a good looking game. Plays well but the interface can be a bit awkward when Zoe gets into a confined space (you'll see what I mean when she's in the security zone). Still no final part to the series despite arts council funding in the developers home country and some artwork, fmv and test work having been released the year before last (2010). I don't feel that the score should be dropped because a further game has not been released although I hope it does come to pass. Only the occasional control issue stops me giving it a full five stars, but it should give the option of four and a half.