Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is the 2006 follow-up to Funcom’s critically acclaimed point-and-click adventure The Longest Journey. But the second instalment in the series moves towards a more action-orientated focus; would we love it as much as we did the original?
ROUND-UP:
REVIEW-UP:
Funcom considered The Longest Journey to be an important IP, so plans to make a sequel were greenlit despite the difficulty of marketing an adventure game in the mid-2000s. In order to make their next game appeal to a wider gaming market they decided to develop Dreamfall: The Longest Journey for both the PC and Xbox, which led to a longer production cycle than that for the original title. The title also had a larger development team (approximately thirty people) and budget (around $5 million) than The Longest Journey; but sadly, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better than its predecessor.
Over ten years ago we were introduced to one of gaming’s most memorable heroines: a smart and likeable young woman named April Ryan, who possessed a latent ability to ‘shift’ between her technologically-advanced world of Stark (also known as Earth) and the magical world of Arcadia. These parallel realms had fallen out of balance and April was revealed as the chosen one, leaving her to reluctantly restore harmony between the two – but what happened to her afterwards?
April Ryan is one of the most memorable female characters within a video game.
I first played The Longest Journey back in 2006 after purchasing it in a bundle with Dreamfall: The Longest Journey from GAME. Loving the original so much I went straight onto the sequel – or rather I tried to, because the damn thing wouldn’t work due to flaming DRM! After being so disappointed by this failure, I just gave up and I’ve never gotten around to playing Dreamfall since. But recently I repurchased the title from Steam, and I was really looking forward to reuniting with April and seeing what she’d been up to.
However, the plot this time around concentrates on the story of Zoë Castillo, a girl who starts the game in the same way that April did in the original ten years before: in her underwear. After becoming disillusioned with the path her life is taking, dropping out of university and breaking up with her journalist boyfriend, she decides to give her ex a hand with a story he’s working on by completing a favour. Little does she know this will set in motion an epic series of events that will see her caught up in an adventure of dream technology and travelling all across the globe. There’s not much more that can be said without starting to spoil the Dreamfall’s layers of mystery; and while it isn’t absolutely necessary to have played The Longest Journey to understand what’s going on, it’s a definite plus to have some knowledge of previous events.
Zoë Castillo turns out to be a likeable young girl, rather like April herself.
At first I was a little disappointed not to be playing as April, but after a short while Zoë started to grow on me. She’s a likeable, realistic character who questions what happens to her and doesn’t just accept these unbelievable events. Fans shouldn’t be disappointed however because we’re reunited with our original heroine along the way, although she’s not the same feisty-but-innocent girl; she’s now a hardened crusader has become disillusioned by the demands of her fate, which isn’t surprising given her situation. Players will also get to take on the role of April’s enemy, Kian, a devoutly religious Azadi assassin who has been ordered to deliver his message with a sword. Each character plays a key part in the story and we’re taken on their inner journeys while they question their convictions as the drama unfolds around them.
The Longest Journey was a straight point-and-click adventure, whereas Funcom tried for a more action-orientated approach in Dreamfall. This kind of makes sense when you consider that the title was developed not only for PC but for Xbox also; it was presumably designed this way to appeal to a larger crowd and draw console gamers into the dwindling adventure genre. Unfortunately however, the new direction doesn’t lead to anywhere near as enjoyable as the places we were taken in the initial instalment.
Action elements have been introduced into the series in Dreamfall.
It’s difficult to shake the feeling that intelligent design was given a backseat to simplistic fighting and sneaking sequences. Combat scenes happen infrequently but when they do, they’re often tedious and out of place for a game of this pacing. Players are able to perform both weak and strong attacks as well as block; but fights usually see the enemy constantly blocking and you being forced to use strong hits to break through. The sluggish controls will invariably result in a dramatic slow-motion death or two, but no more than that given your opponents’ total absence of AI.
A lot of the title will consist of sneaking sequences but there shouldn’t be a need for these when there could be intelligently-designed puzzles. The stealth system is as basic as the combat, requiring you only to keep your distance and avoid walking on broken glass to remain undetected, and they can be just as painful. I got so frustrated during one section that I had to get the 1001-Up.com boys to help me; rather than hiding behind a pillar as I’d tell her to do, April would actually hide in front of it leaving her open to attack – by an opponent twice her size that she could never beat.
Puzzles are a staple in any adventure game but I’m not sure those within Dreamfall could be considered as such. You’re always told exactly where to go and along the way you’ll usually find exactly what you need to overcome any obstacle; there’s little in the game that will test most players and inventory-combination challenges are almost absent. During one of the more elaborate puzzle sequences (which actually focuses more on stealth anyway) you have another character telling you precisely what to do at every stage. The Longest Journey was criticised by some for containing challenges that were illogical but its sequel suffers from the exact opposite: it’s just all a bit too simple.
If you’re looking for a classic action-adventure, I’d probably recommend that you go for something like Fahrenheit (review coming soon) rather than Dreamfall – but please don’t let that or any of the comments above put you off purchasing the game. Despite the shortcomings of the action elements, they’re not what you’re going to be spending your time doing: it’s all about the plot and talking to other characters, which is by far the best part of the game. Like the original, it has an extremely long storyline and this is enough to keep you going through the less enjoyable combat and stealth sections.
Dreamfall is full of endearing characters, some familiar and some new.
Attention to character detail isn’t just limited to the central few and almost all have their own personality which makes the worlds of Stark and Arcadia come alive. Familiar faces from The Longest Journey including Brian Westhouse and Crow make a welcome return, and new characters such as Wonkers and Theoretically Blind Bob are lovely additions to the series. While long conversations pieces may not be to the taste of all gamers, in my opinion they’re some of the best scenes in Dreamfall; the quality of the writing is excellent throughout and the story covers all aspects of the emotional spectrum.
The only problem is that it’s over too soon: not in terms of gameplay, because Dreamfall should keep most players occupied for around ten hours or so, but because the story hurries to an unexpected close and leaves so many loose threads. Back when the title was released it wasn’t known whether there would be third instalment in the series and so this was obviously an unpleasant surprise; and playing the game now, I can see how it would have been painful to not find out what happens to the endearing characters and amazing worlds. But we now know that Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey is on the cards following a successful Kickstarter campaign by Read Thread Games – we’re looking forward to going to their developer session this month at Rezzed.
The subtitles refer to an end, and Dreamfall’s is pretty abrupt.
Back in 2006, Dreamfall’s graphics had been a bone of contention since it was announced that the game would leave behind the beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds of The Longest Journey and replace them with a full 3D environment. While some thought this was an unnecessary move that compromised visual quality, others praised Funcom for bringing the adventure genre into the 21st century. The title may lack some detail and texture in areas, but it more than makes up for this with plenty of animation and imaginative settings.
The music in Dreamfall is like a score from a feature film and it’s an integral part of the experience. Composer Leon Willett commented in an interview that the game’s story required ‘a broad, Hollywood approach’ but that he had rarely considered the music from The Longest Journey as inspiration. There’s only one slight hitch with the sound: all of the playable characters are well voiced but since only a couple of lines of dialogue can be loaded at a time, some sentences are cut up by random pauses.
A protagonist in their underwear seems to be a recurring feature in The Longest Journey series.
Just like Stark and Arcadia, there’s a delicate balance between story and gameplay that Dreamfall: The Longest Journey fails to maintain in places, and this makes for a very entertaining but passive experience. But it’s a triumph of storytelling that deserves to be in every gamers’ adventure collection; The Longest Journey was a similar accomplishment six years prior and its sequel raises the bar further still. It’s a roller-coaster of emotions from excitement to intrigue to sadness to fear, and I can’t wait to see where Read Thread Games take us in Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey.
RATING-UP:
How did we reach these scores? Click here for a guide to our ratings.
