141 people found this review helpful
8 people found this review funny
2
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Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 12.8 hrs on record (9.4 hrs at review time)
Posted: Dec 23, 2014 @ 6:08pm

I'm very, VERY disappointed.

This game is a sequel to "The Longest Journey", a point-and-click adventure released in 1999.
I bought both games one year ago, and finally got some spare time, enough to play them both.
TLJ was simply beautiful. It had good puzzles (and a couple of difficult ones); I instantly fell in love with the world, the characters and the story.

Then I started playing Dreamfall.
You can clearly tell this game was born in an age when classic point-and-click adventures were dead, and the developers started using different mechanics for them (Grim Fandango comes to mind, but that was actually a wonderful game). Also, Dreamfall was developed in a period when consoles were the main target. This combination caused a long string of very bad design decisions that affect the game negatively.

Here are some aspects of the game I'd like to talk about.

The Controls
As soon as the first cutscene ended, I noticed a certain difficulty in interacting with the game. The controls are AWFUL. So awkward and counterintuitive. It is clearly designed with controllers in mind, so I said "Hey, I'll just use my Xbox360 Wireless Controller". But it didn't even work. And if you're planning to use one and you somehow manage to make it work, you still need some third party software to bind the triggers to keyboard keys because they won't work otherwise. So, after 30 minutes of googling and tweaking of input options, I ended up playing the game with keyboard and mouse.

The Camera
Oh, the pain we must endure. This is supposed to be a game about exploration, about searching the environment for clues and items to solve puzzles (I'll talk about "puzzles" later). The way the camera is implemented makes it so frustrating to even look around in smaller rooms. It just gets in the way. Not that there's a lot to look at, anyways. Gone are the descriptions of places, objects and such. There's so much less. And it's written so poorly.

The Main Gameplay and Puzzles
Nonexistant, basically. You have a couple of minigames that you will need to play 5-6 times during the entire span of the game (the hacking one, and the lockpicking one). They're both extremely easy.
There's never been a single moment where I was stuck in this game. The puzzles, which should constitute a good portion of the gameplay, are instead few and boring. The inventory space is very limited, but it's not a problem, since I don't think I ever held more than 5 items at the same time (counting your mobile phone and a lockpick that you always have with you, so that makes it 3). With some characters, you even play big portions of the game without any item whatsoever. At some point, you feel like the game consists only of walking, talking to people, and watching cutscenes. 10-12 hours of cutscenes.
So, puzzles are not a big thing in this one. They instead decided to dilute the gameplay with...

Stealth and Combat
Seriously, this is the sequel to a point-and-click. It's mainly story-driven. so, WHY ON STARK did the designers think that STEALTH and COMBAT sections were a good idea, I honestly cannot fathom.
Stealth sections are EVIL. Note to all devs: DO NOT put stealth "missions" in ANY kind of game that does not make stealth its primary mechanic. It's frustrating and boring at the same time, and it just has no point whatsoever. You get caught, you have to redo the section. Now combine this with awful camera and controls. Oh, the FUN!
Oh, and the combat. Dull, buggy and boring to death. I honestly don't know why they put combat in this. Luckily you don't get to fight a lot, but still... it's like Serious Sam with crosswords in it. It breaks the flow. Badly.

The Characters
You will control 3 characters throughout the game:
Zoe. She's the "main" character of the game, and gets the most screentime. Some people disliked her, but I actually liked her since the beginning.
Kian. He should play the role of the "Zelous assassin that will slowly come to question the dubious actions of his religious order". But he gets at most 20-30 minutes of screen time during the whole game, provided you don't get lost (which is quite hard in this game). They don't give you enough time and depth to actually see his transformation, or to actually care about him in general. Could have easily been an NPC.
April. By the Balance, girl. What have they done to you? You suck so much in this game. What a sad, sad person you've become. I loved you in TLJ, you were fantastic. Now you're an empty, self-loathing shell.

The Story
NOTE: I don't consider what follows too "spoilery", but I will be talking about the ending in a general sense, trying to not reveal more than the necessary.
So this game has its flaws, I got it. And I forced myself to play it, because I loved the first TLJ and I really liked the story of Dreamfall. And you get to rivisit some of TLJ locations, and assist to events that you knew happened if you played TLJ. And I think this is just awesome.
So I pushed on. And I played avidly despite the awful gameplay because, well, the story is all this game has to offer, and it's actually pretty good.
And when the story is at its peak, it all abruptly ends with the BIGGEST, most cruel cliffhanger ever done. It just ends.
They managed to close a single arc about an insignificant "The Ring Girl" character that you don't really care about during the whole game. And they leave 10-15 threads not just open, but brutally cut. Including the ones about the 3 main characters, whose fate is unknown. Hell, the fate of the WORLDS is unknown. This enraged me to no ends. I played the whole game just to see the ending, and I got NOTHING out of it. It's like they ran out of money and they had to cut this short. And by "cut" I mean "just leave it this way and maybe we'll make a sequel in 8 years where we'll (hopefully) fix this mess".
I ragequit as soon as the credits began rolling.


So, TL;DR.
Awkward controls and camera management; it's impossible to enjoy the scenery. Then again, you won't be able to analyze half of the things you should be able to in a game like this. Terrible inventory system, but it's not such a big deal since the game has very few puzzles in the first place, and they are all boringly easy. Frustrating stealth sections and dull, boring combat sections, mechanics which were hastily developed and don't belong to this genre anyways. Some great characters but some terrible ones as well. Great story, but AWFUL, rage-inducing incomplete ending with huge cliffhanger.

As much as it pains me to say so, DO NOT spend money on this game. It's a 12 hours long, frustrating, and incomplete cutscene.
If you loved the first TLJ like me, wait until the last of the Dreamfall: Chapters is released, so that you can at least get a complete story out of it.
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9 Comments
jackhollow Jun 10, 2021 @ 11:32am 
Argghh.. I hate how right you are with this review. I adore The Longest Journey - it's universe and lore... and have replayed this recently cause I just love the world.. but damn they could've done so much better here. It was an okay experience .. Loved seeing 3D versions of the original ... Loved seeing Charlie and Emma again... which also leads nowhere... like a lot of the game.
Couldn't actually believe the credits came up when they did.. felt like they set up so many things and then just when 'anyway bye'
Ravenscar Apr 16, 2021 @ 1:02am 
I remember slugging through this awkward game when it was released back in 2007 and the absolutely frustration at the ending stuck with me ever since so that, whenever I see the game on a sale or such, that's the first thing I think about. It. Just. Ends. With that ridiculous cliffhanger. Just like that. And so I looked for someone to confirm that so I know that I'm not completely crazy. So thank you for this review.
Danielsan May 4, 2018 @ 3:40pm 
Guarda, non sono tantissimo d'accordo con quello che hai scritto.
Sul lato tecnico hai ragione: gli sviluppatori hanno fatto l'errore di utilizzare un engine uscito da poco e piuttosto scadente (anche loro se ne sono resi conto) e anch'io ho avuto qualche problema con la telecamera, ma in realtà è solo questione di abitudine. I combattimenti li ho digeriti, lo stealth l'ho trovato inutile invece. La cosa che bilancia è la storia e ora che è uscito Dreamfall: Chapters il difetto del Cliffhanger può essere, a mio parere, scartato. E' un gioco godibile che tutti dovrebbero provare, e poi si basa sulla storia e non tantissimo sul gameplay (quello te lo scordi una volta che sei impegnato a seguire le vicende).
Oltretutto, vorrei sapere anche le impressioni su TLJ e su Dreamfall: Chapters.
nwo anführer Apr 3, 2017 @ 11:25pm 
you get disklike because Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is a good game
koral06 Jul 7, 2016 @ 1:18am 
I got a lot of hate from friends for giving this a negative review as well but I have to agree with you. As you said it makes a really good story. But reviews are about analyzing more than one element. You give an excellent review of every aspect that I can appreciate. If I'm looking to buy a game and I'm on the border I rely on reviews that go more in depth than just a good storyline. +1 for objectivity.
purpl_muffin Mar 4, 2016 @ 2:53pm 
Agreed. I was shocked by the number of positive reviews to this game.The secondary characters were far more interesting than then the three playable ones (I miss the original April, too!). Even the story didn't do much for me, to be honest. I really only played all the way through to get to Dreamall Chapters.

Then again....the first game is one of my all-time favorite adventure games so maybe this one just feels dull in comparison.
Rogga Dec 28, 2015 @ 3:03pm 
I could sign every word you wrote about this game - a tragedy!
unjoyer Dec 4, 2015 @ 7:58am 
Not sure if troll or autistic. You don't play ANY of the TLJ games for the game. It's the story that matters. I wouldn't care if Steam would sell this in a book form. Once you've read it you see the whole world differently. My close friend actually dropped religion for this game as he came to a realisation that there is no one answer...there MUST be balance between imaginitive and scientific. This "game" opened my eyes in such ways no book, movie or story ever could. Game wize - okay I'll give you that...it could do better. Then again on the story point of view and the fact that it was crafted from ground up by basically college students and that they actually had the imagination to put something so beautiful together...i mean really - this is and possbily ever will be THE best story told by any medium what so ever.
msElboim Aug 3, 2015 @ 11:44am 
Actually, don't bother to play the sequel (Chapters), it improves almost nothing.

It does get rid of all the combat, and most of the stealth missions, but they added both of these horrible and unrelated game styles into the original Dreamfall only because companies that funded the game demanded it. They managed to remove these from the sequel because of the Kickstarter campaign.

The sequel though, is as horrible in every aspect as the original Dreamfall. Both do not even come close to what The Longest Journey was.