Dreamfall almost lived up to its predecessor.
STORYLINE
The Longest Journey introduced me to April Ryan, a smart-talking teen who unwittingly holds the key to saving her world and another she never even knew existed. She wasn't a typical adventure game heroine, because she reacted just like a regular teenager would at being thrust into a strange world: she complained, whined, joked, got angry, but ultimately overcame her angst to save the world.
In Dreamfall, it's 10 years later, and we have a new focus for the story. Her name is Zoe, and she is a disaffected college student with no faith in herself or the world. While trying to trace her best friend's disappearance, Zoe is haunted by visions of a little girl, a black house, and a name: April Ryan. In her search for answers, Zoe uncovers a plot that could destroy her world and the dream world. Although Zoe is the main character of the story, the player also meets April Ryan again, as well as a fighter/priest named Kian. All three are searching for answers. The three heros' criss-crossing adventures will test their courage, skills and faith to the limit. Will their combined talents help save the world?
This is a riveting storyline, filled with amazing dialogue, sympathetic characters, and enough twists and turns to keep you gaming long into the night. Every time I wanted to stop, something else would pull me in and make me play "just until I find out..." There are many threads, people, and mini-stories in this adventure, and, for the most part, they are handled well. The ending is surprising, though. See below for my reactions to it.
VIDEO
This game is beautiful. Click on any of the images in this blog to see screenshots of just how gorgeous and immersive this world is. It is 3-D, and you are able to navigate and explore through almost all of the scenery. The gaming screens look almost as good as the cut-scenes, and the story and gaming elements complement each other seamlessly.
The main characters are expressive, especially Zoe. At times, you see happiness, weariness, curiosity and alarm on her face and in her eyes. She and April and Kian also moved very well around their world. There are some slight 3-D problems (the hair never looks right in close-ups), but there's enough jaw-dropping scenery to compensate.
AUDIO
The audio is spectacular, and shows that the designers understand the importance of ambience. The voice acting is excellent overall. Most importantly, the three main characters have interesting, intelligent voices that draw you into their worlds. That's important, because I spent 15 hours listening to them comment on everything! Even more impressive, however, is that most of the bit players also have impressive and professional voices. The haunting music and the sound effects and background noise add to the realistic feel of this world.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay of Dreamfall is hit-or-miss throughout, and I found that the attempt to include all sorts of gamers ended up frustrating me. The puzzles aren't challenging enough for adventurers and the fighting and sneaking aren't hard enough for action gamers. The only ones who will be absolutely satisfied are those gamers who like eye-candy and lots of dialogue with their gaming.
The game has been released on PC and XBox, and the player can play with either a game controller or a keyboard/mouse combination. There are a number of matching puzzles, timed puzzles, and finding the key puzzles, which are normal for adventure gaming. There is also a maze, although it is fairly easy to navigate. The puzzles are very easy to solve, although some of them require going back and forth in worlds to collect ingredients.
The two elements that were the most annoying and least adventure-like to me were the "sneaking" element and the "fighting" element. I put both of these terms in quotes for a reason. The sneaking around is necessary in many sections of the game, but it just involves crouching and hiding behind objects. It is used much too frequently, and there is no sense of accomplishment when you've done something so simplistic to get away.
Fighting is also simplistic. There are two types of opponents: ones you can beat easily, and those who beat you senseless in just a couple of hits. You can hit with two keys (or two mouse clicks) and block with the space ba r. So, when fighting, I would just click like mad until I was killed or I won. After a couple of disastrous fights, I snuck around a lot more to avoid them.
ENDING
The ending of the game was another disappointment. After 15 hours of getting to know the characters (in some cases again) and interacting with their world, the ending was a let-down. There were many questions still unanswered, and it seemed as though the three heroes didn't do much to save the day. The ending was bleak and disturbing. I immediately went online to see whether anyone else shared my views. Luckily, they did, and I found out a wonderful piece of information. The Longest Journey was always meant to be a trilogy, and this was the middle story. So, hopefully, all the unanswered questions will be answered in the next installment. Hopefully, I don't have to wait another six years for it.OVERALL
Despite the flaws of this game, I truly loved Dreamfall. The characters were real and I became invested in what happened to them. I actually cried at one point in the story. Of course I'm a wimp, but still, video games don't usually bring me to tears. There was also humor, romance, friendship, loyalty, fear, sadness, betrayal, and greed, all the huge themes in any great story. The locations were exotic and even the bit players were interesting.
Just a warning, however -- if you don't like a lot of dialogue and exposition, you're going to hate this game.
I love the interaction between players, and it seemed to me like a long movie. I would recommend Dreamfall to any adventure gamer who wants to truly experience another world.
MORE INFO
For more information on Dreamfall, go to http://www.dreamfall.com/. Although there is no demo of this game, you can see a preview movie by clicking on the Media tab and then Audio Video.
