Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

[Malkavia]

So we wouldnt get off track in the Dragon Age thread.

What an incredible, deep, interacting, beautiful game.

There wasnt any blood or scandel or sex or anything like that, yet for some reason I fell in love with it.

I hate adventure games too.

[Rohsiph]

I never finished this one even though I could hardly wait to play it while it was in development.

Did you ever play the first title in the series? (Just titled: The Longest Journey).

[Malkavia]

No but I've heard a lot about it. I would play it if I had more time, maybe over Christmas Break I'll try it out.

[Rohsiph]

I recommend it, especially if you don't mind slightly-outdated graphics. It has some of the most memorable characters in gaming. It's one of the very few titles I'd be comfortable recommending to a literary-type who isn't much of a gamer (translation: the writing is good stuff).

In fact, the writing in TLJ was why I was so drawn to the sequel. Unfortunately it came out just before I started a new Fall semester of college and I got too distracted to give it a decent chance. I also felt it was missing some of the urgency from TLJ . . . some of the concepts that seemed to be extending the TLJ world were really invigorating, but all in all it lost out to my education ;)

[Svadilfari]

So we wouldnt get off track in the Dragon Age thread.

What an incredible, deep, interacting, beautiful game.

There wasnt any blood or scandel or sex or anything like that, yet for some reason I fell in love with it.

I hate adventure games too.

Yes. For me it is a good book and art, all alive and motioned. I was speechless when I saw the game. The main protagonist Zoe, was somewhat me, in her interests, problems and personality. I identified myself with her very strongly. Apart from that:
- references to aboriginal mythology.
- deep and well thought psychology of characters
- well thought-through plot

I love adventure games. The Longest Journey was also beautiful - more radiant, optimistic. Both of them are my favorite games, but I prefer Dreamfall - it is more serious game and concerns more real problems.

[MrControll]

I've never gotten to play the first game, but I loved this one. Can only hope the sequel gets finished...

[Kisai]

Urgh. If I read this thread earlier , I would have gotten it on Steam when it was on sale.

Holidays, then.

EDIT: Wait, they're still on sale. Snagged.

[Storm]

I liked the Longest Journey, although I felt it had too many cut-scenes. I want to play. The story and graphics were beautiful and compelling, though. I think they came out with the sequel?

I tried playing the first one, but it was way too slow for me. I usually don't mind outdated graphics and love adventure games. I still replay King's Quest every few years. However, TLJ had way too much pixel-hunting, painfully slow story, and the controls were annoying.

[Kisai]

Well, I've started with the first one. My impression is that its more of a visual novel than a game. I haven't found a way to die yet. The game keeps warning me that some places I'm going to are 'scary' and I haven't had the equivalent of a small dog even yap at me.

The conversations are looooooong and not really relevant to the plot. When you do actually get to the point where people start to explain what's going on, its about 2 hours in. (I mean yes. you could speedrun through this, but what's the point of that?). April, the main character is a bit unlikeable. She's got the Neo thing going where she reacts to everything without interjecting much personality. She quips at every description but never asserts herself. To get things done, she pesters just as much as she gives items.

The puzzles are a bit obtuse. They're solvable, because the only way to manipulate things is to look at it, speak with it, or 'hand' it. You 'hand' things until something eventually works. But some of these puzzles are ridiculous. You spend a great deal of time getting an item that you have no idea what you'd use it for. Or you'll combine items to make a thingy that any sane person would just go to the hardware store if they needed help to get something else.

The graphics aren't bad, but the cut scenes are horribly chunky. Everyone looks horrendously ugly in their cutscene, like they were poured from wax, and it just detracts from the story.

[SShack]

I had gotten it from Steam a couple of years ago and made it about 4-5ths of the way through the game and then it turned out to have some sort of corruption and crashed every time I tried to get to where I was supposed to go next.

[TheStranger]

It was an interesting game, but I wasn't particularly motivated to finish it.

[Kisai]

I had gotten it from Steam a couple of years ago and made it about 4-5ths of the way through the game and then it turned out to have some sort of corruption and crashed every time I tried to get to where I was supposed to go next.

Urgh. Don't say that. I just got myself stuck because I didn't buy a can of soda with my cash card in a police station while I was breaking into their archives. In any other universe, one realizes that leaving a credit trail in a place where you're performing an illegal act for an item that you can get anywhere and anytime in a city is a bad idea...