Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

Sci-fi and adventure fans will appreciate Funcom's sequel to the popular adventure game for the PC, despite its rather short play time...

With a science fiction theme that deftly combines magic and technology, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey continues the adventure of the point and click PC game The Longest Journey that was released in 2000. And while the game may not be absolutely hitting on all cylinders, it is an adventure in a sci-fi universe that many will not regret putting the time into explore.

If you are worried that you missed the first Longest Journey game and will be confused by the story, don’t be. Truth be told, even though this is a new story with a new lead character, you’ll at times be confused anyway. Dreamfall stars a young woman named Zoë Castillo. She’s not particularly ambitious and has little direction to her life. One day in her home she sees a strange girl on her video screen. (Reminded me a little of the creepy tape chick from that movie The Ring.) At first she thinks little of it, but when the visions repeat it begins to worry her. Then when her best friend disappears and a dead body shows up in his apartment, things take off. The story that follows takes place in the real world Zoë lives in and a parallel world called Arcadia where magic is as real as our own technology. In addition to Zoë, you’ll also have the opportunity to control a woman named April Ryan, star of the original The Longest Journey, and a monk/warrior type named Kian, as you unravel a corporate conspiracy of global proportions.

As befuddling as the story can be at times, few could deny how well the story plays out and that it does not insult the player’s intelligence as so many games do. This game does not pull punches and its storytelling is consistently mature. This is a game that earns its “M” rating as much for its suggestive themes and strong language as it does for violence. Ultimately the story does not come to a wholly satisfying conclusion. There are just too many story threads left dangling at the end. (Did I hear “sequel” from someone?)

Unlike the original PC game that was a point-and-click game, Dreamfall lets you take direct control of your character as it wanders the environments meeting other characters and learning about the big bad global mega-corporation conspiracy. You naturally run into the usual environmental and inventory puzzles as well as employ stealth and open combat.

Controlling the game is about what you’d expect and the control scheme works reasonably well while just wandering around and interacting with the world. Things break down a bit when the game goes into a fight scene between your character and the intellectually-stunted AI. There is a bit of noticeable lag between controller command and on-screen execution, but it almost seems the game takes the control problems into account and dumbs down the enemy accordingly. I’m not sure that is really the best solution, but it does make the game playable without controller-throwing frustration.

From a presentation point of view Dreamfall is very good. The voice acting is of uniformly high quality and our heroine Zoë has a very sexy English accent provided by Ellie Conrad-Leigh. The developers even got Sarah Hamilton to reprise her role of April Ryan from the original game. The soundtrack is equally good with some terrific compositions and even a few songs. The locals the game takes place in are lushly rendered and very imaginative. I was particularly intrigued by the near-future city Zoë lived in. My only complaint about environments was that they seemed limited in what could be interacted with. But on the plus side, anything that could be interacted with was appropriately highlighted. The character models did not quite measure up in my opinion, but I have to admit that I have been playing too many Xbox 360 games recently, and I might be setting the bar for current-generation consoles a little high these days.

With gameplay totaling in the neighborhood of 10 to 12 hours, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is not exactly epic in length, but its intriguing and well-crafted story and setting will probably make it a favorite of science fiction fans. We can only hope that is does not take another six years for Funcom to make the next game; at my age I will have forgotten what all the loose ends were that I really wanted to see concluded.

Review by Will 'Jayson' Hill - courtesy of Gameshark.com