Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Dreamfall killed my PC. To be fair it was more like Starforce killed my PC. When I reinstalled this to play a few weeks ago it installed the copy protection that came with the limited edition. Windows 7 had a hissy fit and wouldn't reboot past a blue screen of death. I ended up having to restore my PC to factory default and reinstall everything.
Anyway after reinstalling it and cracking the software protection I finally got to play it again.
Dreamfall is the sequal to The Longest Journey. Something is strange in the twin worlds of Stark and Arcadia once again.
This time you are Zoe Castillo a young woman in Casablanca, a college drop out with no direction. Used to lazing about with her friends and genreally not having a clue when she starts seeing strange visions of a creepy house and a young girl asking her to find and save April Ryan.
Spurned into action after her reporter friend Reza disappears she sets out to find out what happened to her friend and how it is linked to her strange visions.
During the game you will visit some old locations in both Stark and Arcadia, meet some old friends and make some new ones. You switch control of characters at certain times in the game but will mostly control Zoe Later in the game you will also control April Ryan and new guy Kian Alvane (Religious warrior who is chasing April).
In a major change from the first game the game is presented in 3D and directly controlled with the keyboard or gamepad (I chose this one). I liked this method of control and was soon running about looking for hotspots with ease. Unfortunatly they felt that they needed to add some stealth and fight sequences into the game. Luckily they are few and far between because the fighting mechanics are hilariously bad.
Graphics are pretty good for it's day, but look a bit old now. The areas to run around in a very small before hitting a load screen, but luckily the loads are fairly fast. Voice acting and music is superb for the most part (I still hate the stilted voice of the yellow skinned woman who follows Ryan).
Puzzles are mostly inventory based and are pretty straight forward. There are a few hacking mini games which are fun for the few times you have to do them.
The story is up to the same standard as it's predecessor, the story is deep and intertwines the two worlds and various characters in a mostly satisfying way however my biggest complaint about this game is it is far too openended. The Longest Journey worked as it was a self contained storyline, but this was designed as a multiple game story that so far has not been completed.
Overall I had alot of fun with this game, but now i'm frustrated that six years leater i'm still waiting to what fate lies for April, Zoe et al.
4/5
