Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

While a beautiful game visually, Dreamfall lacks the depth and gameplay of The Longest Journey. Not only this, but the story seems to invalidate all that April worked for, distort her as a character, and then stop. Meaning, just as I thought we were ramping up for the 2nd half of the game, the credits rolled. The death of a dream!

So, you loved TLJ? You loved the main protagonist, related to her story? You were into the narrative of the first game and invested in April Ryan's journey? You were hoping to see her continue her journey and follow her on another adventure? You had fun watching the character grow, evolve, become more confident? Then DO NOT buy this game, pretend it doesn't even exist. If TLJ's ending disappointed you even in the slightest way by making April not the chosen one....then don't even come with 10 miles of this game. April, while playing a pivotal role in the first game was not the chosen one. Regardless her character under went an interpersonal struggle and left an lasting impression on the heart's of millions across the world.... The sequel throws away everything you loved about the character, making her cowardly, emo, void of any spunk or creativity....leaving her broken, hopeless and desperate. This would have been a terrible way to end TLJ, leaving fans across the world disappointed and perhaps never allowing for the game to be the classic that it is today... It's a terrible way to start a sequel. As defenable as it is, because it's from the same creator...it's just the worst imaginable treatment of a main protagonist the world has ever seen. The main protagonist takes second seat to a new character... and is killed off in the most meaningless and anti climatic way possible with a horrible non expressive, non dramatic cut scene which adds nothing to the story. The player who was a avid fan of the first game and was looking for more of the story is left with major disappointment and heart ache... This has to be one of the worst sequels ever made and one of the easiest to pretend that it never existed. If you are looking for an actual continuation of the first game and it's main protagonist I would disregard this title and just use your own imagination to make up what happened to April. This game is worst than anything you' d imagine and you'll just be sad.

The story, the design, the characters... everything is almost perfect, only the controls are a little dodgy for a PC game. But you are going to hate the game when you see the credits in the middle of it, you are not going to believe it and you are going to look for a button that tells "begin second part". It is a real pity but that is the truth and if you buy and play this game keep it in mind: this game does not end and there is no sequel (yet).

The major problem with this game is that it ends on a cliffhanger. Scratch that - this game ends on several cliffhangers: Not only for the protagonist, but for other characters/subplots/story arcs too! What is the purpose of an adventure game if it can't give me a complete story? Other than that, the graphics still hold by today's standards, the acting is good, but it's like going to the cinema to see half a movie, listening to a song that is abruptly cut in the middle of the solo, buying a book that has the second half ripped off. And that's how i felt when i "finished" it: Ripped off.

It's great to see Dreamfall here. I'm not one to write reviews, I think this is my first one, so that should tell you something... This game has motivated me to break my silence. A lot. I caught wind of this game about a year or so before it released, I saw a preview of it on one of those video game news sites. The overall premise of the game caught my interest and I fell in love with Zoe Castillo immediately. I bought a copy a couple of months after it went retail in the US. I had never played The Longest Journey at that time (in truth, nor had I even heard of it), so Dreamfall was my introduction to this storyline. However, after being absolutely FLOORED by Dreamfall, perhaps one of the greatest stories I think I've ever experienced, I was then on a mission to get my hands on a copy of The Longest Journey to see what started all of this. So on a side note, I've been a fan of The Witcher forever and I discovered GOG through the CD Projekt relationship. GOG had The Longest Journey, and that was the game that caused me to create my GOG account. Now Dreamfall is here too. I've come full circle. Dreamfall is a spectacular follow-up to The Longest Journey. This story moved me. TLJ was great, but Dreamfall really stuck with me, hauntingly so. I never got so emotional over a video game, I just thought it was that great and powerful of a story. I still pull it out, install, and play through it once in a while. All in all, it's a very sad story. A sad story where, after a struggled attempt to quell the bad guys, the good guys don't always win. But what really made this story so believable for me was the A+ voice acting. Combined with my fondness for Zoe (big double thumbs-up to Ellie Conrad Leigh for giving Zoe so much personality) as well as the rest of the unique and unforgettable cast of characters. There's strong, consistent tie-ins with numerous characters from TLJ (for those who were familiar with TLJ beforehand), and it's all glued together with a very fitting and powerful music score. The third-person mechanic and great graphics (for its time, and they're still holding up nicely enough) make the story fun to play through and interact with. Also, the ability to use an Xbox 360 controller through USB is a nice touch for those of you that prefer the gamepad approach. Don't go into this with any grand ambitions of epic battles; the combat system is severely lacking and only used a handful of times throughout the game, it's definitely a total afterthought, but that's okay. This game is all about STORY, not combat or action. It's a refreshing departure from the typical run-and-gunners or hack and slash RPGs that I tend to gravitate toward. It's a game where you just sit back and enjoy THE STORY. I can't say enough good words about this game, although not in direct relation to Dreamfall-the-game, the only thing I'm disappointed with is Funcom and their lack of following through with Dreamfall Chapters. There was a fair amount of mention and perceived enthusiasm on this topic from the creator not too terribly long after Dreamfall was released. It would've been great to see more of this story arc. I don't recall hearing or seeing any definite word that it's an officially canceled concept, but unfortunately, it has yet to become a reality. Oh, one more thing, be sure to hang out through the credits. After they're done rolling, there's an interesting little cinematic clip immediately following. Had you been paying attention to the story throughout the game, you should be able to make some sense of it.