The Longest Journey

"A true experience."

After playing and completing Dreamfall a while back I thought this would be the perfect excuse to revisit The Longest Journey (hereafter: TLJ). I enjoyed Dreamfall but thought it somewhat lacked substance when it came to the gameplay. The story and the characters where the real stars, a situation not that dissimilar from TLJ as we will see.

Graphics

One thing that has to be taken into account, is that this game was released in late 2000. That was almost 7 years ago. And when regarding the graphics, it shows. Don't get me wrong, age doesn't equal ugly when it comes to visuals. This is of course a matter of taste, but I personally can accept technically dated graphics if the design and style are still appealing. This is certainly the case with TLJ.

The environments are quite nice, and the same goes for the characters. Its just that the graphics are hindered by technical limitations. Resolution is fairly low and textures can look very muddy because of this. Especially clothing looks rather peculiar. They usually look painted upon the characters rather then actually worn by them. In general, the characters interact well with the environments, but sometimes it can look awkward. Cut-scenes are adequate, but little more. Stranger still, April looks different from one scene to the next, and does not really resemble her ingame self.

Again, I must stress that TLJ isn't all that bad looking. The above rant doesn't detract from that. It is simply that TLJ has aged less well then for example Syberia. A game which was released only two years after TLJ and is thus 5 years old, belongs to the same genre, and has the same type of graphics

Sound

Well, there isn't all that much to complain about in this department. Music is beautiful, always being responsive to what is happening onscreen. And of course there is the voice-acting. Simply superb, the only slightly annoying thing being, that it is sometimes rather clear when an actor is doing multiple voices. This is only a really minor annoyance, and is fully compensated by the actress voicing the main protagonist, April Ryan. Seeing that the graphics don't always manage to convey an emotional connection, it comes down to her voice to connect to the player. And it succeeds wonderfully.

Gameplay

The Longest Journey is a traditional point & click adventure game through and through. Think of games like Monkey Island, Full Throttle (to a point) and Broken Sword and you get the picture. Explore the environments, collect objects, talk to other characters and use the gained objects and information to solve the puzzles.

Like was mentioned before, the main character is April Ryan, an eighteen year old aspiring art-student. She has moved from the countryside to the big city, Newport, to study at the Venice Academy of Visual Arts. When she starts having strange dreams, and peculiar things start happening, April discovers she can travel between our world and the magical world of Arcadia. Before long, it becomes her destiny to restore the shattered balance between the two worlds. The game takes place in the early twenty-third century, but it the world is still reassuringly familiar.

Even though this story may not seem all that special, it is the execution that makes all the difference. TLJ manages to present a believable world with compelling characters. None more so then April Ryan. Through her eyes the player will view her friends, enemies and the other persons that inhabit both worlds. Due to this perspective, April becomes more then just a glorified cursor, she becomes alive. It also helps that the dialogue is particularly well written, and that it is delivered almost perfectly.

But for a game to succeed it needs more then just a story, however wonderful that story may be. It also needs a solid game to back it up. Luckily, TLJ also succeeds in this area. It is a more then capable point & click adventure game. The puzzles are fun but also tend to be a tad simple. There are some decidedly fiendish ones but the majority are very straightforward. One gratefully positive aspect of these puzzles is that they are also quite logical and not too vague. This can only be a good thing.

If there is one complaint it would be that the balance between the game proper and the story can sometimes be a little lost. By this I mean that the story becomes more important then the gameplay which results in rather lengthy conversations with little interaction. I personally didn't consider this to be a great flaw, seeing that the dialogue is very well written. But I can imagine that there will be certain gamers who would take an offence to this aspect of TLJ.

Overall

This is one of my favourite games. It is pretty rare for a game to be this involving. It has a gripping and well executed story with compelling characters. April Ryan really comes to live and adds a charm to the game in a manner which other games rarely manage. The downside of this is that the game itself sometimes plays second fiddle. Not a real problem as such, seeing that the story and the portrayal of the characters are excellent. And besides, the puzzles themselves are fun and gratifying to solve. With the occasional exception they are also not that complicated. When all is said and done, you play TLJ for the overall experience it provides. And an experience it is.

Overall: a glorious 9.4.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/17/07