Dreamfall: The Longest Journey review

[funcroc]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/702/702002p1.html

IGN review

 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/profile/show...0789&user=GregK

Greg Kasavin's blog post

Reeling from Dreamfall

 

I just finished Dreamfall, which ships this week. Considering the quality of the story and presentation of The Longest Journey, its predecessor, I went in with fairly high hopes. I wasn't disappointed. Last night, in fact, I had pretty much become convinced that the game was just utterly amazing. Normally when games have spoken dialogue and subtitles, I honestly tend to skip through a lot of the speech. But this game's dialogue is so good, I did something I've never done in a game before: I turned off the subtitles and just watched and listened. Dreamfall is first and foremost an amazing story. But, man, I wish it went on...

 

Anyway, I need to play the PC version more (looks even better on the PC but couldn't resist playing on a bigscreen TV) and still need to gather my thoughts before I commit to a review. But here's some informal advice on the side, and what I expect the review is going to boil down to: If you appreciate games for their storytelling ability, you need to play this game. It's exciting, moving, dramatic, funny, scary, touching...seriously.

 

And yet...damn it. Give me five more hours.

Edited April 18, 2006 by funcroc

[Morgoth]

Gameplay already sucked in TLJ, but the chars, humor, atmosphere and the imaginatively created environments were unbeaten. So, screw those scores. I'll definitely pick up my copy ASAP.

[Morgoth]

Here's another review (Xbox though): http://www.xboxaddict.com/products/staff_r...Product_ID=1279

 

It got a 96/100.

[Atreides]

Good to hear - I'll definitely pick this up when I don't have 3 assignments and a midterm due in a week.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Im buying it no matter what because Im such a huge TLJ fanboy.

 

 

Gameplay already sucked in TLJ..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I dont Ive ver heard people talk about gameplay in adventure games before. What about TLJ was bad gameplay?

[Fenghuang]

Well like sometimes when you clicked the mouse on stuff it didn't click as well as it should've.

[Yst]

Yeah, I've definitely got to get my hands on Dreamfall.

 

I very much liked the first. Unlike some people, I didn't think it was the absolute best that in-game story-telling has to offer (In Adventure, I found Grim Fandango more artful and in dialogue writing, PS:T more nuanced), but it was a very good game indeed, with some very lovely art as well.

 

I hope that Dreamfall will prove to be, for me, the cure to Oblivion. The cure for yet another RPG which, while very good in many important respects, still seems to suffer from the continued delusion that it makes perfectly good sense to complement some of the finest talent and creativity in the world of game coding on the one hand with, on the other, an overall quality of dialogue writing and narrative depth surpassed with no small frequency by early teenage Backstreet Boys fanfic.

[Morgoth]

What about TLJ was bad gameplay?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Having static backgrounds and only be able to run from one end to another got tedious.

But I guess that's okay for that kind of games. I'm usually not an Adventure buff, and actually despise games that don't allow to express you via gameplay and actions, but TLJ is kinda unique beast. Tornquist's excellent writing skills and humor actually destroys everything I've seen from other writers, and yeah, that includes MCA and DGaider too. So, here you go. I know Dreamfall will probably only consist about talking and mood as well, but if done well, I'll be very pleased.

[Dark_Raven]

I read an article about it in a computer game magazine, it looks like a promising game.

[Jorian Drake]

I read an article about it in a computer game magazine, it looks like a promising game.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's a must!

 

I already await episode 3 ! ^_^

[metadigital]

Looks good!

[Ellester]

I

[mkreku]

I've played it, but I wasn't that impressed. It's an obvious Xbox-port (the PC-version, that is) with lots and lots of loading times. The framerates were all but consistant and the graphics were kind of underwhelming considering how the machine had to struggle. I didn't have time to delve into the story, but it seemed true enough to The Longest Journey (which is a favourite of mine too).

 

The fighting sequences were horrible though, and the sneaking sequences were so basic it only felt like something they've thrown in to prolong some levels (you had to wait for a train to pass and make noise to be able to sneak past a guard dog).

 

I really hope the finalized story will be worth the technical shortcomings and sellout game features.

[Yst]

It's an obvious Xbox-port

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Of all the things I didn't want to hear, that's pretty much #1.

 

And I consider it all the more inexcusable, if this is so, because the Adventure market, insofar as it is strong anywhere, remains strongest on the PC. Consoles might be where the money's at these days elsewhere, but for adventures, I have to question whether this is really the case, and it makes sense to write the game for console and port, rather than take the PC seriously as a platform from the get-go. I suppose the sales figures will tell.

[Musopticon?]

Oh well, my budget just became a lot more flexible.

[Morgoth]

I've played it, but I wasn't that impressed. It's an obvious Xbox-port (the PC-version, that is) with lots and lots of loading times. The framerates were all but consistant and the graphics were kind of underwhelming considering how the machine had to struggle. I didn't have time to delve into the story, but it seemed true enough to The Longest Journey (which is a favourite of mine too).

 

The fighting sequences were horrible though, and the sneaking sequences were so basic it only felt like something they've thrown in to prolong some levels (you had to wait for a train to pass and make noise to be able to sneak past a guard dog).

 

I really hope the finalized story will be worth the technical shortcomings and sellout game features.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I suspect you got an early, unfinished version of the game, because fansite owners who recently got an almost complete version didn't mention anything about bad framerates or such.

That thing about Xbox-port doesn't really bother me with "gameplay-light" games (besides it was co-developed for both platforms), games like Psychonauts or Beyond Good & Evil show that an adventure can make fun on all platforms.

[mkreku]

Actually.. I, too, have been given the preview code (not the beta-code we were shown months ago) and that's what I am basing my reflections on.

[Darque]

I want this

[Lilandra]

This is already on my list of games to get.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Ive already pre-ordered it "

[funcroc]

Gamespot review

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/longe...tml?sid=6147844

 

Gamespy review

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/dreamfall/702029p1.html

There's clearly a lot going on in Dreamfall. The game covers a lot of metaphorical, political, and religious ground, and is easily one of the best story experiences I've ever had in a videogame. It's a multi-threaded, complex affair that's much more than just an exciting adventure tale. The game poses profound and troubling questions about the uses and misuses of faith, the limits of corporate, governmental, and religious power, and the significant difference between belief and fanaticism and knowledge and wisdom. The dialogue is wonderful, brought to life by a stellar cast of voice-actors, and the characters are clearly defined and supremely likeable. The game easily holds its head up high with such classic fare as Planescape: Torment and Grim Fandango.

[mkreku]

1up review:

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3149772&did=1

 

A number of issues put it there, but none so conspicuous as the very fact that it struggles to even be a game. Throughout its entirety, the bulk of the gameplay involves ferrying whichever character you happen to be playing to the next event, and then watching it play out. And while to some degree that's always been the nature of adventures, the cinematics are typically the carrot rewarded for getting past some obstacle. But in Dreamfall, much of the time all that's asked of you is to control moving your character from one place to another; that's it -- not too challenging that. Neither is it very reward worthy.

[karka]

My next adventure game will be Daemonica.

[Ginthaeriel]

The Gamespot review criticizes Dreamfall for having a story that didn't tie up it's loose ends very well.

 

Well didn't TLJ? I mean, you were basically spammed with all these cool cultures and characters, and didn't have a clue about what happened to them after the game ended. Did Brian actually survive the Vanguard's attack on that Arcadian City whose name I cannot remember? I mean, TLJ must have had one of the worst endings relative to the rest of the story in the history of games, or even narrative fiction. I know for one thing that the top reason why I want Dreamfall is because TLJ left me hanging so badly.

 

I'm glad to hear that the puzzles are less complicated/obtuse. I know hardcore adventure game fans prefer mindbenders, but I personally did not care much for the rubber ducky puzzle, which annoyed me to no end.

 

*sigh* I really can't wait for my copy now...

[Kaftan Barlast]

I know hardcore adventure game fans prefer mindbenders, but I personally did not care much for the rubber ducky puzzle, which annoyed me to no end.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

"How to design Adventue games 101"

 

 

Good puzzles require logic, memory and/or deduction

Bad puzzles are trial-and-error

 

 

 

The rubber duck, although somewhat logical when you had the solution, belongs to the bad category or the "use the bicycle pump on the chewing gum and leave that in the tarpit to get the penguin to drop the frisbee" category