Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

In spite of the shortcomings (I played with a gamepad, which make the combat a lot less frustrating), Dreamfall ranks up there with Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain as the best adventure game of the last ten years. I only wish we'd gotten the Dreamfall: Chapters sequel we were promised to fill in some of the blanks on the endings. Other than that, it's a really great time getting to know Zoe and catching up with April Ryan after all these years.

Dreamfall Chapters has entered pre-production in 1st of November 2012! Tørnquist stated (unofficially) that the Chapters will be similar to Dreamfall in terms of gameplay. The player characters will be controlled from third-person perspective but the "focus field" will no longer be used. The gameplay will be a mix of "puzzles and exploration and conversations and mini-games and action". Tørnquist stated that the Dreamfall combat system will be removed altogether. The game will have more puzzles than Dreamfall but they will be better integrated into the plot than in The Longest Journey and balanced by a large amount of world and story exploration.[6] Like combat, the stealth sections will also be removed. The gameplay focus will be on exploring the story, rather than quick reaction and manual dexterity. Tørnquist has commented that the story of Dreamfall Chapters will pick up exactly where Dreamfall ended or even before that, to present its ending from an alternative point of view. According to him, the story will have a multi-threaded narrative and follow several characters, both new and old, including "a very exciting new heroine", who will presumably be the new protagonist. Tørnquist confirmed that Zoë Castillo and Kian Alvane, as well as the episodic character Cortez, will be returning in Chapters but refused to comment on April Ryan's situation after the ending of Dreamfall.[ On his blog, he also dropped several hints at the future development of the story. The subtitle "Chapters" refers to the theme of the game, which Tørnquist describes as "chapters of life" and "life in chapters", such as birth, life, death. On November 1, 2012, it was announced that Ragnar Tørnquist's newly-founded studio Red Thread Games began the pre-production for Dreamfall Chapters. Because Funcom's focus has shifted to online games, the company decided to license the rights to The Longest Journey Intellectual Properties to Tørnquist's development studio, who will fund and produce the game independently. Red Thread Games is a completely autonomous studio who is going to both develop and publish the game with its own resources. The Norwegian Film Institute provided a grant of 1 million NOK (ca. $174,000) for Red Thread Games to begin pre-production. The total budget of the project is estimated at about $1 million, which Tørnquist plans to raise via a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter. Red Thread Games is "not taking any Funcom employees" but the game will be produced in close cooperation with Funcom. The release date for Dreamfall Chapters is yet to be announced. When asked on Formspring, Tørnquist estimated that the development cycle of Chapters will take "around eighteen months", which would put the estimated release date around April 2014, counting from the official announcement. Although Dreamfall Chapters was initially announced as an episodic video game, this idea was scrapped in favor of a full-length game when the pre-production started in 2012. The target platforms are Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, because the developers believe "that's where The Longest Journey fans are". However, other platforms, such as tablet computers and home consoles, will also be considered. In other words we need no wake up in a world where only 2 of the games exist, as we can continue dreaming of us unfolding the chapters of life one after another...

... and the sequel to The Longest Journey. It has flaws. The camera problems can be solved. Google "Dreamfall: The Worst Camera Ever" and follow the advice there. Combat is a problem. I found tapping the forward key and pressing against the enemy and alternating using the mouse buttons worked for me. The mini games involving the lockpick and hacking can be tiresome. But you have to persevere. The story and game, they're OK but they could be better. Enjoyable, yes, but perhaps a grudging yes. Replayability which is a measure I use to see if a game is good is, well yes, I'll play it again but it's not going to be in the near future. As a prequel to Dreamfall Chapters I consider it necessary to play.

A mixed play, great story and wonderful places and do not play without a joystic

I enjoyed The Longest Journey. The story was superb, the characters were great, and the problem solving was top notch. Dreamfall has two out of these three. There really isn't much of a 'game' in this game. The makers of the game added stealth and combat to a title that really didn't need it. They are also poorly implemented. The stealth sections are boring and unnecessary. The combat sections have more to do with luck or seeing breaks in the system than with actual skill and they are also quite boring. There isn't much problem-solving or puzzles in Dreamfall, either. You can count on one hand the times you will need to solve a puzzle whereas The Longest Journey had them in spades and were enjoyable. Honestly, it's pretty much just an interactive movie. That, however, is where it shines. Even by today's standards, the visuals are very nice and appealing. They are a wonder to look at. The set design and costume design are incredible and not many games have wowed me like that. The voice acting is top notch. Nobody is phoning it in and everybody sounds exactly how you think they would. Sound effects and music are pretty wonderful. The writing is also quite great. If you wanted to know how the story continued after TLJ, you will not be disappointed. Basically, I give 5 stars to the looks, the feel, and the sounds; I give 1 star to the gameplay. That being said, I have very high hopes for the release of Dreamfall Chapters next year.