What's there to say: Intense space pew-pew action, possibly the first-ever dynamic music system, and a fight against iconic enemies of humanity. Keeping in mind that the game is... nearly as old as I am, it is a lot jankier than I remember, but I suppose that could be running it through DOSBox instead of on native DOS-enabled hardware. So many creature comforts made their way into Wing Commander II it's almost shocking... All told: I played it in the (late) '90s, and still had fun with it in 2025. Despite the occasional ear-bleed.
Let me just start off by saying that I'm really very grateful people try to tell stories about these themes - my dear old Sweden's role as weapons exporter, for one. That sort of thing is too rarely spoken about. However, I obviously didn't enjoy the game all that much. The backstory is where the game really shines, but the story itself - the dialogues, narration - just isn't good enough. I mean, I can't claim to be able to write better myself, but parts of it just felt sloppy. Another thing I really wish they would have spent more effort is in the sound department. The voice acting wasn't the most stellar performance I've heard, but I won't make an issue of it. (Hell, X3 was MUCH worse than this.) My beef is with the phone calls, and volume levels. The voice lines are very faint, while the music is relatively loud - I have NEVER, I kid you not, encountered such imbalance before, from any independent or established studio. Also, it would've been a nice touch if they'd made the lines spoken through a telephone actually sound like they came out of a telephone - filters, encoding artefacts, that stuff. I also noticed that some interactions, mostly involving inventory items, didn't result in either prompt or animation, further making the game feel incomplete. It is an enjoyable game, clever puzzles, but just a little more effort could've gone a really long way.
Despite the few pixels they used, the graphics in this game are a wonder to behold. The music is well suited to the palette they used. The story does need some more interpretation on the gamer's part to really get the most of it (amazingly deep), but that just adds to the replay value. The voice acting is, perhaps, the weakest element. There's... little else to say, really. This game is made of awesome, period. PLAY THIS GAME, or Crispin gets it!
I'll try to avoid spoilers, so all I'll say about the story being told is: Clever as heck. There. You can argue about the depth, relevance, and involved science (I mean, algae ARE cool and all, BUT...), but the twists and turns are just miles above the competition. The snag about catering to a clever audience is, however, that you might get inspired to make some fiendishly difficult puzzles, which caused at least me some undue frustration. All is not doom and gloom, however: they all make sense! I highly recommend this game, but be aware that it comes packaged in an art style that might not appeal to everyone.
While everyone and their grandmother have weighed in on the graphical splendour (Too pretty for words - you really have to see it to believe it, even if it has some obvious imposed technical limitations. Fantastic atmosphere!), it goes without saying that the control scheme is NOT optimal for the PC. It's probably nice with a gamepad, but not in the slightest for keyboard-only adventurers. (Mouse makes it bearable.) But seeing as I have nothing new to add there, I'll just limit myself to pointing this little gem out: Voice acting. Yes, voice acting in pretty much any game that doesn't have Bioware's or LucasArts (RIP) logo on it has a disturbing tendency to be all kinds of awful - and Dreamfall is no exception. Or is it? Just for fun, I changed voices to Norwegian - and was instantly blown away. Pick any subtitle you like, but you owe it to yourself to experience the norwegian voices! Also noteworthy is that there are often more than one way to progress through tricky spots. For example, you can either walk right up to a not-very-nice-guy and bluff your way through, or lure him away with a pizza oven and sneak past him instead. (There's even a third option in that case: fail stealth/bluff and kick him inna nads.) Refreshing.
