Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

"It may have a great story, but the many unnecessary gameplay elements bring its quality down"

The Longest Journey (a PC adventure game released back in 2000) was, and still is, considered one of the best adventure games of all time and that is something I simply cannot disagree with. The game was truly a celebration in gaming storytelling. It really made a big and unexpected impact onto the genre with its charm, characters, and a top quality story that is presented in one of the best ways ever. Now, the previously unknown Norwegian company Funcom and game designer Ragnar Tornquist bring us another great story in the form of a sequel called Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.

In Dreamfall, one gets to see the world (in the year 2219) through the eyes of Zoe Castillo. She is a college dropout who finds herself wasting her life doing absolutely nothing. She hangs around at home watching television (or whatever it's called in the future), she sometimes goes down the street to meet with her friend Liv, or she might go to the gym. It's a pretty boring life for her, and truthfully, she's unsatisfied with what she has become. However, she soon finds herself wrapped up in events that bring her to another world known as Arcadia where she has a few run-ins with April Ryan, the protagonist of The Longest Journey, and many other interesting characters and she soon begins to learn more about her own destiny and what she can do. The story goes into a lot of depth and it's a truly magnificent piece of work. It can easily be seen by the end of the game that a lot of work put into it and its presentation.

Sadly though, the story doesn't have a very good gameplay foundation to support it. The original The Longest Journey was a point-and-click adventure where you couldn't die. While this may seem odd, it was actually a really good way to present the story because you never found yourself dying and having to repeat a certain scene that you've seen before. The game flowed smoothly and you could more easily appreciate the story. Unfortunately, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey goes on the action-adventure route with more focus on the adventure and less on the action. I wouldn't have minded if the action elements were done well but the combat is clunky with the only options being a strong attack, a weak attack, and blocking. The controls are also a bit iffy at first with an unusual control scheme where the camera is controlled with the mouse and the playable characters' movements being controlled with the WASD keys (thankfully, you can quickly get used to it). However, one of the most meaningless changes in the gameplay is that in Dreamfall, you can die which leads to some very tedious and frustrating moments where you were about to solve a puzzle, but had to repeat it because some stupid troll decided to punch you. The game's adventure roots are still present with some interesting puzzles and enjoyable exploration, but far too many clunky action elements ruin the experience which makes me think that the game would have probably done better if it was just a pure adventure game.

While the gameplay is questionable and frustrating, the graphics are thankfully pretty nice to look at. The graphics actually look kind of simply without much detail. However, this game is an example of how a great art style and great design can still make a game look beautiful despite the fact that it may not have the highest polygon count out there. It also continues the tradition taken over from the first game of being able to apply a whole lot of different themes into one game. It is simply astonishing how one game can contain the dark and gloomy alleys of Newport, Venice while it can also contain the snowy but bright city of Marcuria. It really makes it seem like the entire world (or worlds) of Dreamfall could have several games put into it which is really impressive. The game also does a good job of bringing the locations in The Longest Journey and transforming them into a believable interactive three-dimensional world.

The game also gets a lot of credit for its audio. Just like its predecessor, Dreamfall has incredible voice acting. The amount of emotion that each voice actor (and voice actress) gives to their characters is just astounding. The music is also pretty good with some tracks seeming like they should be in some sort of epic movie and a few creepy yet calming tracks which make it seem like they fit right into the ending of a horror movie when all the horror seems like its over but anything can still happen. It is even better that each time one of these tracks is played, it all fits with any given situation. The sound effects are all solid and continue to make the game believable and immersive.

Despite the great story of Dreamfall, it also has the unfortunate position of being “in the middle”. That means that it's a sequel to an immensely popular game, but it also has this crazy cliffhanger ending that directly points to another sequel. Don't get me wrong though, the story is still really deep and presented in an almost perfect way but it simply can't be helped that the game leaves us wanting more (and unfortunately, considering the 6 or 7 year gap from The Longest Journey to Dreamfall, the story won't be continued until a few more years).

It's also strange how the game is kind of short. With a subtitle like “The Longest Journey”, one would expect that they are in for a long journey. However, that simply is not the case. It lasts only around 15 to 20 hours which isn't that long which means it might only occupy you for three or four days (or one day if you are one of those people who keeps playing non-stop). A good chunk of this game is also spent listening to characters conversing with each other and storyline progression so there obviously isn't that much gameplay in this game (which is actually a bit of a good thing considering how boring the combat is).

Overall, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is just full of things to like and dislike. It has a great story, good graphics, and excellent audio. Meanwhile, the gameplay (the main foundation for any game) is absolutely tedious, frustrating, and overly simple. It makes me wonder why they decided to go with the whole action-adventure approach when they can't even do the actions parts well. If you loved The Longest Journey, want to get immersed into a huge and complex storyline, or you really like adventure games, I recommend that you go ahead and get Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, but anyone else shouldn't really bother.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/08

Game Release: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (US, 04/17/06)