When I first downloaded it, it didn't even work. I followed various advice but still nothing. I uninstalled it and pretty much wrote it off. Consider that a warning. This has been many people's experience with this game from GOG and it could well be yours. Years pass and I decide on a whim to give it another shot. Lo and behold, it decides to actually boot up. I spend a happy hour creating a rather large party of 6 characters. The creation system is fairly deep but I found the wording on skill and ability descriptions was often frustratingly vague. If you're a min-maxer or don't like to make blind decisions this could be quite off putting. For example, I chose a gageteer and although I'm about 8 levels in with my team and despite having collected several 'crafting items' (and even heard about some things I might want to build) I have absolutely no idea how to actually make anything. Spellcasting is more obvious except you have a mana pool, and then spell points for each school of magic. My bishop is like a cleric and wizard rolled into one, with access to all magic and it's it quite irritating that even though I have tonnes of mana, I can't cast a certain spell because I'm out of spell points for that school. So the game's quite obtuse, but that's ok. Graphically It's functional but only just. Animations are ... there. It's all pretty basic but it's an old game. The soundscape is quite nice and although the music is repetitive it's not awful. The voice acting is really where this game shines for me. It's definitely above-average and the script is well written enough for the clear talent of the actors to shine. Finally, the combat. It's slow, clunky and takes some getting used to. It's not quite as difficult as I'd been led to believe although some fights are just unwinnable, forcing a reload. SAVE OFTEN. For more on this, watch sseth's video on youtube. It's fun, in a masochistic kind of way. F*** the lockpicking though.
If you have the patience to endure the abysmal 'trial' and early game then the game opens up into an enjoyable, tactical open world RPG. There are some good ideas in terms of characters, settings and quests along with quite a few paths to victory. The writing throughout is thought-provoking and engaging and it combat really shines in the late game feeling very satisfying. The only problems is... It's clunky AF. The UI is attrocious and especially when you first start out you'll really struggle to even know what you can interact with, and how to do it. Although this does get easier as you acclimatise, it never goes away. This is simply due to the age of the game. And the biggest problem: The early game only really favours one build and although it's *possible* to survive the early game without a hefty investment in melee skill and strength/endurance abilities, you won't enjoy it. It's ages until you get a ranged weapon that's worth a damn, or any decent armour and you can forget about a charisma/stealth/technician build, you get no opportunity to make use of it until the mid-game at best. And although you absolutely can benefit from those skills, opportunities to use them remain few and far between. This game feels like it punishes creative character builds until at least the mid-game, at which point your skills and equipment can back up your idea. The early game pigeonholes you into a melee tank build and, considering the rest of the game, that's a travesty. Other niggles come from obsolete design decisions and poor AI. Honestly - if you want to get this game either to experience it for the first time, or for nostalgia - do yourself a favour and spend your money on Underrail instead. Although the setting is slightly different - Underrail is essentially the same game, just benefiting from nearly two decades of game design refinement. So there you have it - don't play this, play Underrail.
This game has some of the best writing I've ever seen. Not just in a video game, I'm talking about in all of the literature I've consumed over the years, which let me tell you, is a LOT. The writing honestly deserves a literary prize, and how often can we say *that* about a video game? Moving on to the gameplay.. It is odd, it takes some getting used to, but if you crack it - Ignore the comments about grind - it's not true. Once you understand the ways to make money, you'll be rolling in it. Once you get a fast ship (and you don't need to spend a lot to do this) it cuts down on that too. This is not a game like elite or eurotruck - you're not supposed to buy low sell high. I mean, you CAN but it's not the way to make money. Evolve the storyline, explore the rich world that's been beautifully crafted. Read, Read READ - soak in the heady atmosphere and then you'll just know how this game wants you to play it and it will love you for it. I don't think it's actually possible to explore every storyline in this game in one playthrough, so my advice is to focus on one storyline and just put all your eggs in one basket. Keep doing that in a single playthrough until your options are exhausted and then retire, giving yourself a MASSIVE headstart for your next playthrough which opens up many more options to persue some of the more obscure, or time-dependent storylines. This is an adventure game with a strong narrative and a great script. It is NOT a rogue-like money-making sim. And if that sounds fun, then this game is for you... Enjoy.
Pros: *Beautiful artwork and lighting. *Great level design allowing for a lot of player choice. *Satisfying weapons and abilities (very fun). *Interesting tools to accomplish your mission. *Well optimised for great performance. Cons: *Too much worldbuilding/lore hidden in books/notes instead of through dialogue. *Short at about 15 hours of gameplay. I did almost everything and still completed it very quickly. *Thin, predicatable plot that has little impact despite trying quite hard. *Plot threads have unsatisfying conclusions. Neutral: *Redundant powers /charms such as wind / bloodthirsty. *Overpowered abilities such as lvl 2 possession / timestop. *Not much variety in enemy design or setting. *Voice acting is a bit hit & miss. Overall: A fun game that leaves you wanting more. More fluid and pretty than Thief I or II but also much shorter and with an overpowered protagonist. The game loads you down with weapons and abilities which are used as your main rewards for playing, however you don't get much of a chance to experiment with them because the game is very short. On top of that, once you've unlocked certain, powerful abilities there really isn't any reason to use anything else.
I played The Longest Journey way back, when it was first released. It was game-breakingly buggy then (my sister found a bug right near the very end of the game that literally stopped her from seeing the exciting climax of the aforementioned Journey) She was doubly salty considering that it was indeed the Longest of Journeys. I wasn't so fortunate, encountering a game-breaking bug which stopped me progressing in the game much earlier. But enough about the OLD version, how does the GOG version hold up? In a word; Worse. I found that I could only play for around 5 minutes each session before the game did that annoying thing only videogames can do, and hang on the same frame - stuttering it's last chunk of audio like a deathrattle before I was inevitably forced to close the program. I DO NOT reccomend you get this unless you know for a fact that the gods of PC gaming will allow your system to run this game.
