9/27/2019 Dreamfall The Longest Journey Pc Itag
Anyone who played the original The Longest Journey for the PC back in 2000 couldn't have resisted its unyielding charm. The story, sounds, wildly creative environments and stunningly authentic character interaction were enough to make it a true classic. Six years later, the sequel finally makes its appearance, and things have clearly changed. Though retains a few of the best parts of the original, it tacked on a lot of unnecessary gameplay elements while stripping down traditional adventure mechanics, leading to a decidedly less satisfying experience.
Dreamfall clearly tried for a more action-oriented approach, presumably to draw in more fans to the dying adventure genre. Unfortunately, the new direction doesn't lead anywhere enjoyable. There are still puzzle elements at work, involving item collection and combination to open doors, activate machinery, etc., but they've been greatly simplified from the first. Objects eligible to be interacted with are highlighted by blue brackets and are always obvious.
Though there are multiple ways to complete some of the puzzles, they're generally too obvious. You're always told exactly where to go, and along the way you'll generally find everything you need to complete whatever impasse you arrive at. After you've collected everything, it's a simple matter of combining the obvious and implementing each in a step-by-step fashion. There's disappointingly little cause to use any sort of logistical reasoning to progress outside a handful of puzzles. Perhaps the lockpick puzzles as well, but even those are relatively simple. Several of the game's more elaborate puzzle sequences actually have other characters guide you, telling you exactly what to do in every situation.
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is the sequel to Funcom's acclaimed PC adventure game.
While playing through, it's difficult to shake the impression that intelligent design was given a back seat to painfully simplistic fighting and sneaking sequences. The combat is, for all intents and purposes, a total joke. Though it happens somewhat infrequently, you'll occasionally find yourself squared off against a foe with raised fists.
Weak and strong attacks form your offensive options, and you're also able to block. Fights usually play out with the enemy constantly blocking, forcing you to use strong attacks to break through. Then they fall over and die. It's one of the most boring, imprecise fighting system ever created, and, should a sequel to Dreamfall ever be made, it should be massively augmented to make it playable or totally removed.
You'll spend a total of about 15 hours playing through Dreamfall, and a surprising amount of that will consist of sneaking sequences. Again, why is there a sneaking system when there could be intelligently designed puzzles? The sneak system is just as simplistic as the combat, requiring you to keep your distance from foes and avoid walking on broken glass to stay undetected. There's no ability to hide in shadows, no noise meters, no ability to crawl or perform special moves, nothing that could be called sophisticated or entertaining. Instead, as long as you stay out of direct sight and hide should an enemy come close, you're successful. Despite the staggering shortcomings of the newly added 'action' elements, they aren't what you're going to be spending most of your time doing in Dreamfall. Mostly, you're going to be watching characters talking with each other, and that's by far the best part of the game.
Like the original, Dreamfall continues the tradition of an extremely strong storyline and intricate character interactions, both compelling enough to keep you plodding through the game's action doldrums. A warning to those curious about this game, the character interaction sequences take an extremely long time to get through, sometimes verging on ten minute conversations. Personally I'm a big fan of storyline and strong character, so I loved to see this kind of dedication to building emotion, fleshing out motivation as well as plenty of extraneous character details. However, if you're someone who couldn't care less what a character thinks and would rather just play the game, you're going to hate Dreamfall.
Since the storyline is such a huge part of why people should play this game, I can't really say that much about it. However, one criticism does unfortunately have to be made, and it involves the ending. I'll keep it as brief and vague as possible, but Dreamfall's conclusion was extremely frustrating. I think getting into any more detail would do more harm than good, so I'll just say that the rest of the game's narrative was a joy to uncover. The plot threads that guide you through Stark, Arcadia and beyond can be described as virtual 'page-turners,' so you'll always want to find out what happens next. You'll also revisit and get reacquainted with many characters from the first title, so those new to the universe of The Longest Journey may feel a little lost once Dreamfall's plot really gets going.
Anyone who played the original The Longest Journey for the PC back in 2000 couldn't have resisted its unyielding charm. The story, sounds, wildly creative environments and stunningly authentic character interaction were enough to make it a true classic. Six years later, the sequel finally makes its appearance, and things have clearly changed. Though retains a few of the best parts of the original, it tacked on a lot of unnecessary gameplay elements while stripping down traditional adventure mechanics, leading to a decidedly less satisfying experience. Dreamfall clearly tried for a more action-oriented approach, presumably to draw in more fans to the dying adventure genre. Unfortunately, the new direction doesn't lead anywhere enjoyable. There are still puzzle elements at work, involving item collection and combination to open doors, activate machinery, etc., but they've been greatly simplified from the first.
Objects eligible to be interacted with are highlighted by blue brackets and are always obvious. Though there are multiple ways to complete some of the puzzles, they're generally too obvious. You're always told exactly where to go, and along the way you'll generally find everything you need to complete whatever impasse you arrive at. After you've collected everything, it's a simple matter of combining the obvious and implementing each in a step-by-step fashion. There's disappointingly little cause to use any sort of logistical reasoning to progress outside a handful of puzzles.
Perhaps the lockpick puzzles as well, but even those are relatively simple. Several of the game's more elaborate puzzle sequences actually have other characters guide you, telling you exactly what to do in every situation. While playing through, it's difficult to shake the impression that intelligent design was given a back seat to painfully simplistic fighting and sneaking sequences. The combat is, for all intents and purposes, a total joke. Though it happens somewhat infrequently, you'll occasionally find yourself squared off against a foe with raised fists. Weak and strong attacks form your offensive options, and you're also able to block.
Fights usually play out with the enemy constantly blocking, forcing you to use strong attacks to break through. Then they fall over and die. It's one of the most boring, imprecise fighting system ever created, and, should a sequel to Dreamfall ever be made, it should be massively augmented to make it playable or totally removed. You'll spend a total of about 15 hours playing through Dreamfall, and a surprising amount of that will consist of sneaking sequences. Again, why is there a sneaking system when there could be intelligently designed puzzles? The sneak system is just as simplistic as the combat, requiring you to keep your distance from foes and avoid walking on broken glass to stay undetected. There's no ability to hide in shadows, no noise meters, no ability to crawl or perform special moves, nothing that could be called sophisticated or entertaining.
Instead, as long as you stay out of direct sight and hide should an enemy come close, you're successful. Despite the staggering shortcomings of the newly added 'action' elements, they aren't what you're going to be spending most of your time doing in Dreamfall. Mostly, you're going to be watching characters talking with each other, and that's by far the best part of the game. Like the original, Dreamfall continues the tradition of an extremely strong storyline and intricate character interactions, both compelling enough to keep you plodding through the game's action doldrums. A warning to those curious about this game, the character interaction sequences take an extremely long time to get through, sometimes verging on ten minute conversations.
Personally I'm a big fan of storyline and strong character, so I loved to see this kind of dedication to building emotion, fleshing out motivation as well as plenty of extraneous character details. However, if you're someone who couldn't care less what a character thinks and would rather just play the game, you're going to hate Dreamfall. Since the storyline is such a huge part of why people should play this game, I can't really say that much about it. However, one criticism does unfortunately have to be made, and it involves the ending. I'll keep it as brief and vague as possible, but Dreamfall's conclusion was extremely frustrating.
I think getting into any more detail would do more harm than good, so I'll just say that the rest of the game's narrative was a joy to uncover. The plot threads that guide you through Stark, Arcadia and beyond can be described as virtual 'page-turners,' so you'll always want to find out what happens next.
You'll also revisit and get reacquainted with many characters from the first title, so those new to the universe of The Longest Journey may feel a little lost once Dreamfall's plot really gets going.
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