It's great to see Dreamfall here. I'm not one to write reviews, I think this is my first one, so that should tell you something... This game has motivated me to break my silence. A lot.
I caught wind of this game about a year or so before it released, I saw a preview of it on one of those video game news sites. The overall premise of the game caught my interest and I fell in love with Zoe Castillo immediately. I bought a copy a couple of months after it went retail in the US.
I had never played The Longest Journey at that time (in truth, nor had I even heard of it), so Dreamfall was my introduction to this storyline. However, after being absolutely FLOORED by Dreamfall, perhaps one of the greatest stories I think I've ever experienced, I was then on a mission to get my hands on a copy of The Longest Journey to see what started all of this.
So on a side note, I've been a fan of The Witcher forever and I discovered GOG through the CD Projekt relationship. GOG had The Longest Journey, and that was the game that caused me to create my GOG account. Now Dreamfall is here too. I've come full circle.
Dreamfall is a spectacular follow-up to The Longest Journey. This story moved me. TLJ was great, but Dreamfall really stuck with me, hauntingly so. I never got so emotional over a video game, I just thought it was that great and powerful of a story. I still pull it out, install, and play through it once in a while. All in all, it's a very sad story. A sad story where, after a struggled attempt to quell the bad guys, the good guys don't always win.
But what really made this story so believable for me was the A+ voice acting. Combined with my fondness for Zoe (big double thumbs-up to Ellie Conrad Leigh for giving Zoe so much personality) as well as the rest of the unique and unforgettable cast of characters. There's strong, consistent tie-ins with numerous characters from TLJ (for those who were familiar with TLJ beforehand), and it's all glued together with a very fitting and powerful music score.
The third-person mechanic and great graphics (for its time, and they're still holding up nicely enough) make the story fun to play through and interact with. Also, the ability to use an Xbox 360 controller through USB is a nice touch for those of you that prefer the gamepad approach. Don't go into this with any grand ambitions of epic battles; the combat system is severely lacking and only used a handful of times throughout the game, it's definitely a total afterthought, but that's okay. This game is all about STORY, not combat or action. It's a refreshing departure from the typical run-and-gunners or hack and slash RPGs that I tend to gravitate toward. It's a game where you just sit back and enjoy THE STORY.
I can't say enough good words about this game, although not in direct relation to Dreamfall-the-game, the only thing I'm disappointed with is Funcom and their lack of following through with Dreamfall Chapters. There was a fair amount of mention and perceived enthusiasm on this topic from the creator not too terribly long after Dreamfall was released. It would've been great to see more of this story arc. I don't recall hearing or seeing any definite word that it's an officially canceled concept, but unfortunately, it has yet to become a reality.
Oh, one more thing, be sure to hang out through the credits. After they're done rolling, there's an interesting little cinematic clip immediately following. Had you been paying attention to the story throughout the game, you should be able to make some sense of it.