The Longest Journey

I remember picking this up while on holiday, likely a couple of years after it was released, purely because of the title... I wasn't disappointed in the least! It really was an epic adventure with everything from an amazing story, wonderful characters and puzzles... but most importantly, that spark that draws you completely into the game and, in my case, had me dreaming of ways the story would progress or interactions with some of the fantastical characters April met along the way. When Dreamfall was due to be released, I decided that was definitely enough of a reason to replay The Longest Journey from scratch to bring the story fresh into my mind again :)

Depending on your point of view, you'll either love or hate this game. The atmosphere, the graphics and the story are just great. You feel part of something bigger. However, this comes at a price: gameplay. Dialogues are long, and often you feel like watching a movie; not playing a game. Still, I enjoyed it very much, and I'd recommend this game to anyone who likes adventures. And PS: if the above is true for The Longest Journey, it's even more so for its sequel: Dreamfall. That's just a movie where every once in a while you have to do something - often no more than just running from a to b.

Only Grim Fandango comes ahead of it in my book, and yes, I've played all the Lucasarts and Sierra adventures. It's also the only game to make me cry, since by the end you're so attached to the characters that you don't want to let them go. This game would be worth it at $50 and if you haven't played this game, you haven't experienced interactive storytelling.

This is a good game. The story line is good, characters are interesting, and most puzzles but a few solutions were dumb by my standards. It really falls on its face with the extensive walking through scenery to get to the next action point. Also there is a lot of back and forth to retrieve items, check dialog with other characters, etc. Thankfully you can speed travel but you can occasionally miss something that way.

Ragnar Tornquist, the gentleman who designed this game, is owed our thanks. It's not so much for the gameplay, which is simple and intuitive enough for anyone to play, but for the grand adventure he invites us to embark upon. A quick note: This game is a "take-your-time" kind of game. Patience and a joy for puzzle-solving come into play here. It may be an older game with dated graphics, but fortunately, the story trumps all. You are April Ryan, a brand-new student at an arts school who's been having some very strange, if visceral, dreams lately. As it turns out, those dreams are more than they seem to be as you begin having even stranger experiences occur in the waking world. While getting to know your friends and yourself, you begin to care about the characters, who are as deep and flawed as any human being. Unable to ignore the unusual happenings, you investigate and find yourself plunging ever deeper into a wondrous and mysterious reality. Along the way, you make friends, unforgettable enemies, encounter bizarre sights, learn startling revelations and uncover a dark conspiracy that will shatter the foundation of everything April Ryan ever knew and lived in. This game is as straightforward as it gets in terms of an adventure game. It's point-and-click and it doesn't really get much more simpler than that. The organization of inventory items is easy to access and utilize, especially since the pointer glows above objects of interests, so that eliminates pixel-hunting. You can skip through non-playable cutscenes, if you wish, but I highly recommend watching through them as some of them are critical to the story. It would be akin to skipping a couple of pages in a novel where a major turning point occurs. Dialog is smart and engaging, and it helps that the voice acting is superb. Subtitles, thankfully, are an option here and are extremely useful for people such as myself who are hard-of-hearing. The music is spectacular. It's evocative, grand, and instantly serves to set the mood. This game is an interactive novel, but what a novel! This is one adventure that literally lives up to its title. We're talking in excess of month's playing if a leisurely pace is taken. After you have beaten the game, I am certain you will feel a level of satisfaction that you've never felt with any other games. It is heartfelt, memorable, and a treasure to behold. It deserves to rank right up there alongside not only other adventure games (Grim Fandango comes to mind), but in all of gaming, period, if only for Mr. Tornquist's masterstroke as a storyteller. Now, dear friends, plunk down the money and treat yourself to a rich experience, you won't regret it.