Editorial:Dreamfall: The Longest Journey Review

From Wikia Gaming

(originally written on July 26th, 2006)

Overview

After a very long waiting time, it finally happened: The Longest Journey got a sequel: Dreamfall. Well, according to Funcom, the creators of both games, it’s not really a sequel and I’d have to agree with them. I must warn you that this review may contain some spoilers to The Longest Journey, so if you haven’t played that game yet and you don’t want to be spoiled, do not read any further! Unlike The Longest Journey (TLJ), April Ryan isn’t the protagonist of this game. We will meet her and even control her, but the main character is Zoë Castillo, who finds herself seeing things that other cannot see. After deciding to help her ex-boyfriend with a story he is researching, Zoë gets sucked into conspiracies that she didn’t even know were possible and although at first it seems a coincidence that this all happens to Zoë, apparently it is not. Will Zoë be able to stop these forces that are only interested in domination? You can only find out by playing the game. But be warned: this is one of those games that will probably leave you behind with more questions than that you started with at the beginning of the game. Even more so if you have played TLJ.

The game

The trouble that it often is with games like these, is that expectations are too high, because of the awesome status its predecessor achieved. The creators of the game have cleverly found a way around this issue, by not making a direct sequel to the game, but a continuation of the universe around TLJ. Everyone who has played TLJ will remember that the game ended with April restoring the Balance and thus saving both Stark, the world of science that we live in, but then in the future, and Arcadia, the parallel world of magic. Nobody knew however, what happened to April after that. Did she return to Stark to her friends? Or did she go to Arcadia, where there was still the threat of the invading Tyren? Or did she go to another place all the same? Nobody knew. In Dreamfall, you will get the answer to this question, as you run into April and even control her at several points in the game. I won’t tell you what has happened to her, you’ll have to find that out for yourself, but suffice it to say that she is no longer the April that we knew from TLJ. April has grown more bitter and disillusioned. As I said, the game is not so much a sequel as it is a continuation of the universe and the story of the persons in that universe. Many new faces, but also many familiar faces. That is, if you’ve played TLJ. And although I agree with Funcom that Dreamfall is playable without having played TLJ, you really miss out on a lot. There’s nothing like the experience of walking through familiar locations in Arcadia which are now fully in 3D. Also, the story is more difficult to understand. But what exactly do I mean with ‘not a sequel’? Without giving too much away, it comes down to this. Apparently, there is nothing wrong with the Balance this time so the Balance does not need to be saved the way it had to be saved in TLJ, but suffice it to say that things are very wrong in both worlds. Are those things connected? Who knows, but it seems that once more, fate is in your hands as you take on the role of three different characters, of which Zoë Castillo takes on the biggest role. She’s at a turning point in her life, not really knowing what to do, while living with her father in a future set Casablanca. Zoë has lost direction and dedication and she will find that those two things are very important things to have. The other characters are Kian, an apostle and assassin who brings swift death to the unbelievers and April Ryan, of whom I won’t tell anything more, because that would ruin much of the story for you. The game is not nearly as much an adventure as its predecessor and that’s not just because the controls are different and that the game is in 3D. The biggest change is that in this game you can (and probably will, more than once) die. This is because of several combat scenes that are in the game, although I’d have to say that those are not very hard and apart from three or four of those, they can all be avoided. The other thing in which you can really die are the sneaking and running parts. That’s right: there’s both of them in Dreamfall and it got me killed on several occasions. Some of the sneaking parts can be really, REALLY frustrating, especially if you’re not good at them (like me). As for the running parts, I can only clearly remember one, but that one also took me several tries before I got it. I’m just mentioning it so that you are warned. Apart from these gameplay aspects, there are classical adventure puzzles in it, like combining objects, solving puzzles and bringing objects from one person/location to another. There are however, far less of these parts in the game than there were in TLJ. The main part of the game however, is filled by talking. Never forget that Dreamfall is actually a story that is told and that the story is the main part of the game (and boy, what a story it is!). I can therefore sympathize with people who say that there isn’t that much actual gameplay in the game, because you cannot really count the talking and in-game sequences (of which there are a lot too) as actual gameplay. I can sympathize with them, but I don’t feel that way. I just felt like ‘WOW!’ after finishing the game and regretting in more than one way that the game was finished.

The controls

There are several ways in which you can control the characters and the camera in the game. You can use a controller, use the mouse, or use mouse and keyboard together. I played the game using both mouse and keyboard and that worked well on overall. With the mouse you can choose the angle of the camera and steer your character, while with the keyboard you can move your character. When you approach an object/character with which you can interact, a square will appear around it. With the left mouse button you can then interact with it. If only one interaction is possible (for example: look at the object), this interaction will automatically occur. If more interactions are possible, a tiny menu will pop up, in which you can choose the interaction that you want. However, there is also another way in which you can interact with objects/characters. A new feature that is introduced in Dreamfall is the use of the focus field. In general, this is a feature that can help you find objects to interact with. The field is activated with the right mouse button and will appear as a vertical line in front of your character. As you turn the field around, so will your character and as soon as an object/character crosses this line, again a square will appear around it. Once again a click with the left mouse button will initialize an interaction. Not only is the use of this focus field an easy way to search for usable objects which you could easily miss otherwise, it also adds to the game because interactions may be different from when you would stand close to the object/character. For example, when you aim the focus field on a character which is standing about 20 feet away, you cannot talk to that character; you need to get closer. But when you are standing at the right place (not too close and not too far) you can sometimes eavesdrop on certain conversations! However, in combat situations controls are different. The camera will automatically focus on your opponent (and thus face your character towards your opponent), which can be a bit frustrating at some times, because you can’t see your surroundings that well which could mean that you might get yourself stuck. If you think that this could hinder your escape when fleeing from a fight, don’t worry because you cannot run from fights. When an opponent gets close enough and the ‘combat mode’ is initiated, you cannot escape from the fight. The controls in the fight are simple: you use the keyboard to move your character and the space bar to block an attack from your opponent. Blocking may not always work however, because your opponent can do a light attack, or a heavy attack. The latter one is slower, but you cannot block it. You can dodge it however, by moving your character. As for the attacks, your character too can do light and heavy attacks. Light attacks are done with the left mouse button, heavy attacks with the right mouse button. In combination with moving your character and making an attack, attacks may vary from hitting to kicking. These fighting controls are far from optimal, but luckily fights aren’t that hard (there are some fights that you cannot win, but you will find that out when you get there). Still, I can’t see the reason why the fights should be in the game as a part which you have to play. Yes, some of the fights add to the story, but why they couldn’t be an in-game sequence or something similar eludes me.

The graphics

Graphics are great. They aren’t state-of-the-art graphics like in the newest 3D first person shooters, but hey: the game isn’t a 3D first person shooter. The good thing is that because of this, you don’t need the most expensive graphics card around, although for an adventure game the requirements will be higher than you’ll probably be used to. Everything is in 3D. Characters, surroundings, objects, everything. Well, everything except some of the backgrounds. An example is when you walk from one area to another. You have to walk up to a certain trigger point to change locations. Sometimes you can already see something of that location (for example, when you walk through a porch) which is in 2D then. But if you are going to make a fuss about those kind of things, than you shouldn’t play adventure games. One of the things that I really liked about the graphics is that, although they went from 2D in TLJ to 3D in Dreamfall, the overall impression of the surroundings remains the same. When walking around in Arcadia again in Dreamfall I immediately felt a sense of familiarity: I was back. And even though I said that there are games out there with better graphics, I do not know of adventure games with better graphics. Yet, that is. However, there have been made some remarks by people that at times characters (especially some of the main characters) appear to be a bit emotionless; they lack expression sometimes, which doesn’t help the character development. I found this a bit of an exaggeration. There are moments that you can say that a bit more emotion could be expressed, but emotionless is too big a word. And sometimes I got the feeling that it wasn’t so much the failure of the game developers to add emotion to a key character at some points, as it was more the personality of the character which made for the lack of certain expressions. So on overall, the graphics are really good, great even. The best I’ve seen so far in an adventure game I would say.

The sound

Aahh, the music. I loved it, I really did. There are two kinds of music in the game. The instrumental music in the style we know from TLJ, which I loved then and I still love it now, because it adds so much to the atmosphere of the game. And then there is the other type of music, which is made up of sound tracks. This is just something you love or not. I think it depends a lot on the fact whether you like the style of the music or not and I did like it. In my opinion, it makes that much more of the game. It elevates it from a game to an interactive movie/game. And whether you like the music or not, the music is integrated really well, although there are some points in which the sound tracks are rather short and cut off quite suddenly, which is a shame. But of course there is more sound than just the music. What about the voices? Once again, voices are great. April is done by Sarah Hamilton again (apparently, because I still don’t have the English version of TLJ) and it is done very well. In fact, in my opinion, almost all voices are done very well. It might take some getting used to the English accent from Zoë, but I liked it. The only voice I felt was lacking somewhat sometimes in expression, was that of Kian. On overall it was really good too, but at certain points I just felt like the guy who did his voice was simply reading the words on the paper in front of him, rather than putting some feelings in the voice. Luckily, these moments were scarce. As for sound effects, there’s not much to say about them, apart from that they are very well done as well. Which is necessary too, because at some point in the game, there is a puzzle involving sound. That puzzle might be one of those moments were you get a bit frustrated, but when you figure it out, it isn’t that hard. I would say that the sound is definitely one of the strongest points of the game. I have said it often and I will probably say it often in the future, but good music and good voices are so important for an adventure game. Dreamfall passes this test with an A+.

Overall

Not that much actual gameplay, but a great story, great graphics, a great story, great music, a great story and a great setting. Did I mention that the story was great already? Okay, let’s be honest: I thought it was a great story, but if you’re not into fantasy and hate ending up with a lot of questions: don’t play the game. If you love your good old mysteries and love to speculate (and this game WILL give you a lot to speculate about), then chances are that you’ll really like the game. And of course if you liked TLJ and want to know what happened to April at the end of that game, you’ll get some answers (but not nearly all!) in Dreamfall.