And deservedly so. I might be a little biased, however, as I'm Norwegian and the game came with Norwegian voiceacting if you wanted it, and for some reason that elevated the game for me quite heavily. But trying to look at it objectively, it's still one of the finest adventure games out there for several reasons. Let's have a look at them, shall we? Main Character: April, a young student in a somewhat futuristic world, with all the cares and don't cares such a young lass would have. Emphatic and possessing a dry wit, while being capable of both introspection and insightful commentary on her surroundings and situation. It was one of the first games of it's genre where I truly found myself caring for her fate, and for the characters around her. She is astoundingly well portrayed throughout the game, and is the driving force behind wanting to solve every puzzle and continuing the journey, just because you want to help her as much as you can and see how she'll react to the rest of the world she's finding. World(s): The worlds of Arkadia and Stark are fantastically portrayed. Each character and creature you meet are fascinating and are sure to invoke the full range of feelings you are capable of throughout the game, while being wonderfully fitting in each situation you find them in. Arkadia being a lovely dualistic experience between dark and dystopian future, and a bright and cheerful future with delightful "future tech" which just feels natural and in-place. The same goes for Stark, in it's own way. A far more varied experience in itself, it provides everything a fantasy world can conjure up, both in creatures and settings. And they all feel natural and very fitting. Excellently portrayed through the (for it's time) fantastic art. Story and Characters: The story is confusing, there is no doubt about that. After I finished the game the first time, I had to immediately play it again just to get a full grasp of everything that's going on. But there's no doubt that it is masterfully told in a way that always leaves you with a powerful urge to discover more and gain answers to the questions you are constantly asking yourself. Buuuut it's confusing allright. Sometimes you just aren't sure at all what the hell is going on, and for some people that might put them off this game. If you like a good mystery and don't mind it just deepening over your playtime, this is definitely the game for you. The characters you meet and interact with are also masterfully written and portrayed. Anyone who has ever played this game will reminisce with joy about Raven and April's banter and friendship. About that delightful dimwit sweeping the pavement outside the old cinema, or that cliche detective outside the same building. You'll remember the Dragons with a smile, and from there you'll laugh when you recall that crab/shellfish/something thing that communicated entirely through Clicks, and yet gave you that slightly warm and fuzzy feeling when you helped him out. All given wondrous voiceacting, at least in the Norwegian version. I haven't heard the international English version, so I can't speak of that. Gameplay: It's a very simple game, mechanics wise. Point and click, click and combine, rightclick to get up a menu asking if you want to talk/approach/use/pick up something. It's quite simple, in gameplay regard. But the puzzles? They're not simple at all. Some are in fact so non-intuitive that I would always recommend having a walkthrough bookmarked in order to get you past the most frustrating points where you get stuck. When you read the solution, you'll often facepalm and say "of course, why didn't I think of that?", but that's just because the solution doesn't make any sense until you already know about it. The overall flow and puzzle solving in the game works very well, and is both intuitive and sometimes random. But like I said earlier, some puzzles are just mindbogglingly difficult and unintuitive. Don't let that discourage you, though, since these are very often highlighted in any online Walkthrough so you can get help with it without spoiling the rest of the game. Graphics: Weeeell... it's getting old in that regard. The 3D characters in 2D environments can sometimes be a slight chore both to maneuver and interact with, as we're quite simply used to much better these days. Finding out what can be interacted with, and what can't sometimes consists of just moving the mousepointer around to see when it changes into the "You can do something here" mode. For it's day, it was fantastic and without comparison within the adventure genre. But if you never played games from this era, you might want to check out a few HQ vids on youtube or something before you make the final decision on whether or not to buy this. If, however, you're one of the veterans of this era, you are already well aware of the "problems" I'm pointing out here, and you're probably quite adept at handling them. Conclusion: To me, a far better adventure games than even the old Monkey Island series and the DoTT games. The Dig, Full Throttle and so on can't compare, for me. My personal favorite amongst Adventure games, and one that I often find myself installing just to play for a few hours to get that lovely nostalgic feeling. It's worth the money, without a doubt. ... don't ever bother paying for the sequel, though. Adding sneaking and combat into this game universe just didn't do it any favors at all. Biggest disappointment I've had except the time the Console Devtards managed to turn F.E.A.R's gutwrenching horror moments into quicktime events. Buut that's another rant for another time. For now, just know that The Longest Journey is one of the finest games I've ever played, and it's got my seal of approval. Enjoy it. It's never as good as the first time.
Unlike the other five star reviewers here, I'm not going to hype this up into the clouds. People seem to forget that nostalgia doesn't automatically mean that the game is up to today's standards for people who haven't played the game yet. That is, the people who'd benefit from the reviews... History: This game came out at a time when real 3D animation was at it's infancy, game wise. For it's day, it was groundbreaking and definitely deserved it's legendary reputation. It introduced a fastpaced and actionfilled gameplay with many unforgettable enemies and weapons. No other game had weapons that could shrink the enemies and let you step on them. No other game provided enemies like the aliens you faced in Duke Nukem 3D. No other game was this politically incorrect as it had strippers, gratuitous violence and delightful oneliners (for it's day) that basically blew the minds of even experienced gamers away. It was magnificent, and it's only real competitor at the time was Quake, which struggled with the very first incarnation of a fully 3D animated world. Gameplay: You're Duke. A manly man with a chin that has the size and armor properties of your average Abrams Tank. You also run around with weaponry powerful enough to put said tank to shame. It's fairly straightforward. You shoot anything that moves, most things that don't, and progress through levels by pushing buttons, collecting keycards and activating scripted events. For it's time, magnificently made and well designed. Adding flight (through a Jetpack) was another innovation that no one had seen in a shooter before. Basically, the game provides all sorts of new and interesting ways to kill your enemies. If you haven't played any games that's come after Duke Nukem 3D, that is. Graphics: Let's face it. It's old. The game looks horrible by today's standards, and features 2D enemies and 2D environment setpieces locked inside a 3D world made mostly of boxes. Even at the time, the graphics were slightly questionable compared to the innovations made in 3D animation and the quality offered by 2D animation as well. Still, the game developers did a good job tying the world together, visually. There's plenty of problems with the graphics engine, and the set designs, but it's not directly bad. Just... not fulfilling it's potential. Controls: This is where you're starting to lose the warm and fuzzy feeling provided by the nostalgia hindsight. Even though mouselook is an option, it's hardly required. It's a throwback to the Doom days, in that regard. Pretty much everything is in your straight line of sight, and looking up and down is hardly needed. Where in today's games, your control of your character is usually nigh unlimited, Duke Nukem 3D just didn't stand the passage of time at all. In fact, mouselook in this game actually makes it feel... wrong. It just doesn't work well with this game, as it's just not designed for that function. And that will in turn make any newbies to this age of shooters go "to hell with this...". Hell, it'll turn many experienced gamers from this game as they're used to better by now. Test of time: How well did Duke Nukem 3D fare over the years? Not well, I'm afraid. The game was excellent back in the day, but just doesn't deliver the goods these days. The controls are clunky and unnecessarily difficult. The level design is exceptionally poor compared to most shooters that followed this game, even though it was better than most of it's contemporary competition. The graphics are ugly as hell, and the sound effects are just as poor. If you never played this, I honestly suggest not buying this at all. It was bloody excellent once upon a time, but there's much better shooters out there for your money. Several of them are on Gog.com even, as Unreal, Painkiller and so on. If you have played it, however, and feel a need to sometimes visit memory lane, it's not too pricey. Buying this on Gog.com will allow you to peruse your memories of times past, whenever you feel like it. It's cheap and quick entertainment and will allow you to show your friends how we played shooters Old School. Just don't start it up with the "Oh my God this is going to be sooo great!" attitude. Remember that many many years have passed since you played this as youngling, and things have changed greatly since then. Good game, once upon a time. Not so good anymore. I'll probably buy it so I can delete the "hacked" version that takes so much work to run on Vista. Also, it'll let me take my own 30 minute trips through memory lane when work is slow. But as with the version I already have on my computers, it won't be the same as it was back then.
Before I start nitpicking, the game is quite good. Don't let the following discourage you too much, but it's stuff you should know. The voice acting in this game is quite horrible. The various characters sound like they are completely detached from the events in progress, and don't mesh well with eachother. It's like they never heard what their co-actors were supposed to say, and thus had to just play things by ear. The same goes for the dialogue itself. It seems disjointed and not really relevant to their co-actors' remarks or conversation. The gameplay itself is good, albeit a little too much of a Freelancer ripoff to me. It's like they decided to mod Freelancer to be a First-Person simulator instead of a third-person simulator. The trading and mission system is almost plagiarized 100%. The only thing that differs is that the menus involved are slightly less intuitive. We've all seen the storyline before. The main protagonist has suffered some sort of loss, and is now working himself back up to the top. He's got some sort of specialty that no one else does (in this case, his ship) and is pulled into an ever increasing conspiracy and ends up having to save everyone. The unavoidable female, added entirely to attract the attention of the love-starved gamer, is about as two-dimensional as a cardboard cutout. Fits the main protagonist perfectly, in that respect. However, all this aside, it's a good game. The fights are fun, the control system isn't bad at all, and there's a certain open feel to the game. It's not really an open game, but it gets close. The storyline, while horribly cliche, still adds a bit of flavor to the game. If you are capable of overlooking the atrocious voice acting, the robotic feel of every cutscene with a living being in it, the cliche storyline and the overall feel of a Freelancer ripoff... Well, this game isn't bad at all. I bought it and played it, and I can't say I've wasted the money. Still, if you're teetering on the edge between this one and let's say Freespace 1&2 or Tachyon the Fringe and so on, the go for the other games. They are older, but far better made than this one. Be aware that this game can also bug out on high-res widescreen monitors. Make sure all your video drivers and so on are updated.
