The Longest Journey

"An enjoyable romp through an imaginative world. Unfortunately, quite simple, with a questionable ending."

The Longest Journey is a decently-constructed modern example of the classic point-and-click adventure game. Told from the perspective of the female protagonist, April, it recounts one woman's journey along a path of magic and self-discovery using fairly extensive dialogue. While the plot is, as my description suggests, more-or-less generic, it maintains a brisk pace through a richly-illustrated world and does not feature an overabundance of pointless off-target segues. I completed the game without a walkthrough in just over 10 hours without rushing very much; I did fast-forward through a bit of dialogue.

Graphics: 8/10
In honesty, I could not keep Final Fantasy 8 out of my head when thinking of a description for the game's environment, although the 3d characters are obviously at least one generation newer than those in FF8. The backdrops are colorful and usually smoothly animated; from city streets and the subway to a fairy-tale forest swarming with gnats, the illustrations are pleasing to the eye. Exits may occasionally be non-obvious, but the creators thoughtfully added visible travel icons, toggled by the "x" key. The characters themselves are a hair blocky by today's standards, but they usually aren't shown closely enough for them to be distracting. The FMV sequences naturally use higher-poly models, but they match the standard graphics well. Unfortunately, the sequences are also a bit on the short side.
One downside is that I found the script font employed in several parts of the game (including the diary) quite difficult to read. Fortunately, while the material does add to the environmental ambiance, very little is actually necessary for the completion of the game.

Music, sound F/X, and voice: 9/10
Overall, quite good. The music is decently orchestrated and varies from classical to lightweight coffee-shop muzac (keep in mind, the protagonist is a barista); it generally supported the visuals well, and none of it grated on my nerves. The sound effects were also well-executed, from the protagonist's footsteps fading off as she walks into the distance to the noise of storm and surf. Voice acting is quite decent. If I was going to nitpick, I could say that the female lead occasionally overacts; then again, she's playing a professional artist, so perhaps the voice work is right on cue. The game has been criticized as being talky, but the voices are generally quite pleasant to listen to. And, the speeches can be fast-forwarded through with the "esc" key.
It also bears mention that there is audible cursing in several places. On that issue, there is exactly one character, about midway through the game, that does more than throw the occasional utterance; this one interaction would keep me from handing the game to a child, which is quite unfortunate, as the rest of the game would represent an excellent story for a young-to-teen player to dig through. The foul-mouthed character appears midway through Chapter 3, so it shouldn't take too long to find if you want to make a judgment call for yourself. While he appears twice more in the plot, he is decreasingly vulgar as he reappears.

Plot: 7/10
The game's plot isn't anything to be too surprised about, but it maintained my interest throughout. It certainly has a twist or two, but taken as a whole, the storyline can be a bit bland. Aside from the protagonist, characters are shallow but stay true to form. The two worlds are, unfortunately, somewhat generic in that they are a 23rd-century corporate-ruled semi-dystopia and a run-of-the-mill fantasy kingdom. Fortunately, the protagonist finds a few unusual paths to take through these worlds and gets into some interesting situations. On the downside, while the ending offers something of an interesting twist, it is also something of a cop-out. It's not a failure of the magnitude of the final 30 minutes of "Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit," but players might do well to expect a gentle let-down in the end.

Gameplay/challenge/replay: 5/10
While I WILL acknowledge -- and even thank -- the developers for putting forth a very stable and unconfusing interface, but really, there was nothing here that wowed me. True to form, the entire game is generally played with the left mouse button. Click and walk, click and talk, click and pick up the toy monkey.

Now, before adventure fans rise up in revolt here, I'd say that I didn't really expect anything different, but it leads into the more important gameplay issue, which is challenge. The game is phenomenally simple. Most of the time, advancing the plot is a matter of combining items. Put the fribber and the nugglenit together to retrieve the dingpuddy, which you can use to open the door. It also includes a few puzzles, which were intuitive and easily cleared, which genuinely surprised me. [Mild Spoiler] In the first segment of the game, one task involves calibrating a machine so that an item can be acquired. A simple (no, really, it's simple) algorithm provides the solution and frees the needed item. At that point, I expected to see an increasing gradient of difficulty as the game progressed. However, nothing more difficult presented itself at any point in the game. I would say that there were two more de facto "puzzles" in the game, and each was simpler than the first one. The rest of the game is a matter of simply pointing the right item at the problem at hand, which got a hair tiresome after several hours. As for replay value, I would say that there is little to none; as far as I could tell, the game path has no real branches; every item is necessary to an unavoidable plot point.

Overall: 7/10
I got this game in trade for a buying a couple pizzas for a friend; that said, I think I got my money's worth and maybe a bit more. The game told a simple story, and I got along with it well. There were no long downtimes or really dull zones, and I got a laugh or two out of the situations April got into. The story's last twist surprised me, and while I am disappointed in the ending overall, I also think that its cause was a simple matter of time, space, and budget, not outright neglect; technically, the threads are mostly tied off. If you can acquire this game cheaply, it's not a bad way to blow a couple afternoons. Additionally, it might be a decent game for a teenager to poke through.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/06