Dreamfall (The Longest Journey 2) - xbox

[Tobal]

Went down town a few days ago, after finishing Zelda:TP which put in the mood for good story and remembered seeing consolevania raving about it. Boy is it good, picked up the xbox version(works on 360), its an Adventure game like Broken Sword but in 3D and massive, art/graphics are similar to Morrowind(almost looks like the same engine) and Characters well developed and voice acting well above anything produced inthe videogame world, if Shenmue's dub(and writing) had this writing team and voice talent behind them god knows how much better it would have been.

Mostly its wondering around lots of locations solving puzzles and furthering the brilliant story in our future earth called stark and its twin earth Arcadia a steampunk/morrowind vision, as girl named Zoe lost and confused and eventually the first games heroine April and new comer an Assasin of the Enemy. Most of the puzzles are easy and everything is solved within area as the items you need are always around you so none of that Discworld or Monkey Island style 'WTF' moments when trying to solve something. A special shout out has to go to 'Crow' the talking crow comical sidekick.

And with that adventuring is added 'workman' like combat, 1v1 poorman zelda'ish combat, not hard just very workman like you get quick attack, strong but slow strike and Block/Dodge button. And also Sneaking, normally just holding the sneak put and walking behind people, dodging into vents or behind vending machines. Again feels tacted on but break up the puzzle solving in a very long game.

Anyone who's played and finished Shenmue2 will get a similar feeling when you finish this game, you get heck of cliff hanger. I'm going hunt down the first game now which sadly PC only and is back inthe day when adventure game where 2d rendered with 3d characters.

[Kaladron]

I played and finished this a few months ago and found it incredibly compelling. For a game that features very little gameplay it is surprisingly absorbing - mainly thanks to the excellent script and decent voice acting. Shame it finishes on such a cliff hanger though, a sequel hasn't even been confirmed yet.

[lostn]

Pity you didn't play the first game before Dreamfall.. That game was much better. And longer. And more complete. No cliffhanger ending. It wasn't a game that felt like it was part of a trilogy, but was actually complete in and of itself.

Dreamfall was a big letdown, both gameplay wise, and story wise.

[Kaladron]

Dreamfall was a big letdown, both gameplay wise, and story wise.

For you, perhaps. I loved it.

[lostn]

I loved it too for what it was. But not as a sequel to TLJ. The puzzles were too simple, there weren't much inventory items, making it even easier. And the plot was just not self contained.

As I said, being part of a trilogy does not mean you can't have a story that's complete in itself but still continues.

[fallenangle]

I've just finished Dreamfall and have to agree with what most of the above ^ said. Great story telling and, mostly, excellent script supported by high quality voice acting from all the main players. Fine music and soundtrack too.

But the gameplay - hmm. Not annoyingly tedious as with Fahrenheit but, with a few exceptions, it's well below average most of the time. The combat is particularly lame.

What I just don't understand is why somebody can't take a Tomb Raider, MGS or even GTA type game engine and marry it to a story like this and make a proper game of it. Instead we get these flawed attempts at incorporating action elements into text lead graphical adventures.

I think it needs the opposite approach - take an action/adventure game and give it a complex, motivational storyline with truly alternative routes. These would not just be dependent on the practical/physical choices you're allowed to make but your behaviour, interaction or response to the other characters in the game.

[Lyris]

This reminded me of Psychonauts for the reason that the gameplay is really nothing special, but you feel compelled to play it because of the characterization and voice acting.

Sadly when it got to a back-in-time "beards and sandals" part, I lost interest, which is my loss I suppose.

[fallenangle]

I rather enjoyed the swapping back and forwards between worlds, after all that was rather key to the story. Arcadia was perhaps an over familiar cod medieval style fantasy setting but it was well done within its limits.

It reminded me of a less interactive version of the City hub from the excellent Thief: Deadly Shadows. Now that is a true benchmark and always overlooked when discussing attempts at this sort of hybrid gameplay. It comes much closer to getting the balance between involving story and action elements correct IMHO.