Posted on: January 1, 2010

gsmturing

Games: 505 Reviews: 5

Overrated

I'd been looking forward to playing this game for years and was quite happy to see it appear on GOG.com. Reading all the reviews I was prepared for quite a ride and one of the best adventure games ever made but having finished the game I can't help but feel disappointed. The game's pace is too pedestrian, characters talk way too much - especially non-essential NPCs, puzzles either make no sense at all or are tedious logic solving games. I wish the creators had focussed a bit more on fleshing out the game worlds (hello empty underwater "city") instead of giving fishermen and landlords a script the size of a phonebook. The "unforgettable" story is in fact quite forgettable and the unnecesarily complex background history of the game world is too much to remember. As for originality, the creators have borrowed heavily from Blade Runner, King's Quest, The Neverending Story, Star Wars and the Abyss, but an original game this does not make. Voice acting got on my nerves but luckily there's an option to turn it off. All in all while I'm glad I finally got to play The Longest Journey I can only recommend it to hardcore adventure fans.

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Posted on: June 25, 2010

KaelWolfcry

Verified owner

Games: 3 Reviews: 1

An Unremarkable Adventure Yarn

The Longest Journey tries its hardest to keep you hooked with typical storyline tropes like vague implication and initially random-seeming events that keep you propelling forward to find out what's going on. Still, these old storytelling tricks can't hide the flaws inherent in many typical adventure games. Obvious moments where some items can be closely examined and others can't, which must mean they can be interacted with? Check. Completely nonsensical combinations of items? Check Moments of "imminent" danger where you're allowed hours to figure out what to do? Check. Completely unrelated and uninteresting fetch quests? Oh holy HELL, check. And then at some point about halfway through, not even the storyline can hide the flaws of this game. You get sacked with an oh-so-hilarious bird sidekick (that's sarcasm, kids), the mythos and storyline of the world you're in becomes second place and lost, and moments of exposition to plug up plot holes drone on and on to the point of exhaustion, which wouldn't be that horrible if the story being told was engaging. Lead character April Ryan's reactions to events were probably the most interesting and "real" feeling part of the game. "Why me? Why do I have to save the world?" ,she asks in exasperation. At some point, me the player began to wonder why as well. And when I took down an enemy with the use of a calculator...I just stopped caring. Sometimes less is more, and no more is this apparent than in the story of The Longest Journey. While adventure games are expected to transport you into a strange and fascinating world, the universe of this game starts off being the first, and finally ends up failing at being the second. Buyer beware.

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Posted on: September 10, 2012

bolsen

Verified owner

Games: 574 Reviews: 2

This is why I love adventure games

Let me start by stating that as a Norwegian I'm possibly disqualified to even rate this game and that it was wonderful just to have an adventure game my native language. Even so this game has one of the best stories I personally have experienced in any computer game (It might share the top spot with Gabriel Knight 2). If you're even slightly interested in adventure games you owe it to yourself to play this one.

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Posted on: November 13, 2014

-SambaL-

Verified owner

Games: 63 Reviews: 8

Outdated

Unless you have played this title back in the day and are in love with the series I'm finding it very hard recommending it to anyone who would like to start with it now. It hasn't aged well both visually and gameplay wise and I quite frankly find the voice acting a bit difficult to stomach. I will say that it is better than most point & click adventures out there, though that isn't a big accomplishment seeing as the majority of those titles are terrible anyway. When compared to point & click titles Lucas Arts has brought out over the last 25 years The Longest Journey is just not that good, plain and simple. Sure the story might be compelling placed in an interestingly realised setting but when it all moves along at such a slow pace with average dialogues i personally get bored very quickly. Having heavily outdated graphics doesn't help with it either and in the end just make me lose all interest and actually make me want to reinstall the 3rd Monkey Island again. Now that is a timeless point & click adventure. Thanks to it's cartoon look it still holds up very well till this day while also having great voice acting and being genuinely funny. They even remade the first 2 titles in the franchise because they were outdated and that instantly blew new life in to them ready to be enjoyed by the current generation. So perhaps that is something that should be done with The Longest Journey as well. The story is there, the characters are there, you just need to give it new life because as it is i cannot recommend it to anyone else than it's fans. Sorry fans.

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Posted on: December 12, 2016

legen_dary_gog

Verified owner

Games: 70 Reviews: 10

Terrific game made nearly unplayable

Game's just great, but game dialog boxes (e.g. save or exit game) rendered all in white make it almost unplayable (there are key combinations, but you still have to guess what are you getting asked about), game start window opening under other already opened windows is iritating too.

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