The Longest Journey

The Longest Journey has an amply deserved reputation as one of the greatest adventure games ever made. Despite its age (almost 24 years old), the story, world and characters remain top notch as does its comedy and gameplay (almost no pixel-hunting for hotspots for example). Even the game's low resolution visuals can be greatly improved by running it via ScummVM and using the "TLJ HD" (https://tljhd.github.io/) and "HD characters" (https://www.moddb.com/mods/hd-characters) mods. TLJ is the story of April Ryan, an inhabitant of the 23rd Century Earth as she discovers her true powers and her destiny as she travels between this world of science (Stark) and Arcadia, a world where magic is commonplace. The story and lore of these worlds is fantastic and a joy to uncover as you solve puzzles, engage with quirky characters and enjoy the sights and sounds. The game doesn't fear tackling more mature themes such as drugs and abuse but does so without going overboard and it manages to preserve the dreamlike quality of its narrative and setting throughout. The cyberpunk dystopia of Stark is well contrasted with the fantasy epic lands of Arcadia and their intertwined fates are superbly explored. The worlds really feel massive with lots of little touches and the excellent voice acting brings everything together marvelously. You get to meet a variety of races and explore the world and your own place in it over a lengthy adventure (about 25 hours) and the ending packs a punch with unexpected twists and turns. As the game has some responses which can result in different outcomes (including different cut-scenes), there is some replayability (one of the first adventure games to do this as far as I know), even though the changes don't affect the ending. This is a journey well worth undertaking. Its sequel, Dreamfall, is also excellent and the third and so far final game in the series, Dreamfall Chapters, has a solid ending despite being a massive drop in overall gameplay and story.

I stumbled with this game while reading an interview to one of the game developers demigods, wishing more of them were like it. That was enough for me, I didn't read any reviews nor saw any trailers or videos, anything at all. I think that's the right way to approach it, not having any background of the story or how it plays out. Since you're reading this I'm sure you're looking for more than a few words to make a decision (it's your hard earned money after all!) So here it goes: You're April Ryan, an art student living in Newport, USA, at the end of the 22nd century. As you might expect, there's a lot of new technology here and there, but, gladly, this isn't a game about a dystopsian future or a post-apocalyptic world ruled by machines, but something closer to home. The world, as we know it, appears not to be whole, and some sort of "leakage" from another place seems to haunt your dreams lately. The premise is simple, and as the game lays out all its elements, you start to discover what's going on, and challenge your own perceptions of place and reality. It all plays beautifully, with characters you care about, a well written story, great dialogue, and, despite sounding too cliche, a great adventure all around. Yes, the game has its faults: some dialogues might be too long, it's not always clear what things you can interact with, and some puzzles seem a little out of place; but in the end, the gripping story and all the positives I already mentioned should make up for it.

As a PC and adventure gamer since I was child, this game is one of my must. Awesome story, awesome game from the beggining to the very end. Please play it, definitively woth it ;)

Great adventure game full of humour and colourful characters. Even though I only first played this last year it ranks up there in my list of top adventure games. Wish there were more like this one on the market.

This is rated among one of the top adventure games ever made. Interesting, funny, relateable protagonist, incredible adventure, deep story with a engaging plot. Unforgettable gaming experience... Thought provoking dialogues. Incredible 3D animation for its time. An old 2000s adventure game that somehow manages a cinematic feel. Then game the sequels where very little was scared. They feel more like spin offs, they assinate April Ryan's character, take away huge proportions of her soul and with that the series is left completely changed with new protagnoists that take it in an entirely new direction...it's no longer April Ryan's story... she becomes less and less relevant... She becomes a secondary character that becomes incredibly depressed, broken.... It's increidbly easy to fall in love with this adventure game and it's protagonist but you should stop with this game and see it as a stand alone, use your own imagination how April Ryan moves on with her life. The ending however less than entirely cheerful didn't have to open itself to the complete self destruction of the protagonist... it left itself perfectly open for a "come back" or " challenging fate" sort of sequel... Instead we got a bizzare, spin off like sequel that made the protagonist "fated to doom and gloom" and a random new protagonist is shuved down our throats... This game has it all, a wonderful story, humor, a great protagonist, everything... and you should only seek to play this one if you fall in love with all of it as I did because the sequels seek to destroy and unravel basically all of it... The sequels didn't have to go in that direction but they do... TLJ is one of the greatest adventure games ever and April Ryan is one of the best protagonists...save yourself the heart ache and skil the spin off sequels...