[Len Green]

The following may be known to everybody and hence superfluous… it was not for me however since I didn’t see (or notice) it in the manual.
If there is anybody else who hasn’t played the game and is unaware of the [u]extremely helpful[/i] suggestion below, it may save you tons of redundant frustration and extreme annoyance.

Dreamfall is absolutely full and overflowing with brilliance, imagination, marvelous gameplay, graphics, etc., etc. Considerably more than any other game I can remember for ages !
On the other hand, I find the interface shockingly clumsy and infuriating, in particular the control over the characters’ movements. Over & over & over, I found Zoë &/or April moving in directions completely from my intent, or blocking my whole large monitor with a grotesque enormous full facial close-up , often at crucial moments !!
But the real bugbear is the action sequences and the timed puzzles. Some of them are ‘reasonable’ for “non-action” players like myself… but others are very difficult, frustrating, and on or even over the borderline of possible (e.g. the escape from twins episode).
I personally don’t mind repeating an action or timed puzzle ½ or even 1 dozen times here & there. But when it VERY FREQUENTLY becomes seriously more than this (even though you are ‘restored’ fairly quickly), the repetition diverts from the progress of the gameplay and narrative (such as it is --- popular with some, not with others !!)

I had staggered through 3/4’s of the game when I read the following post on a Forum… unfortunately I had not seen it anywhere earlier than that or my gameplay would have been [u]very much more pleasant[/i] and far less irritating.

I hated the control system in Dreamfall until someone pointed out to me that the easiest way to manoevre Zoe <<& April>> about is to just keep the 'W' (forward) key depressed all the time and use the mouse to change direction..bingo,it suddenly became a breeze to play. Oh, and you need to invert the camera controls in the options menu otherwise everything is counter intuitive (a pompous way of saying that it moves in the opposite way you expect) Hope that helps!

It most certainly DOES help and VERY MANY THANKS !
It’s a pity I didn’t learn this from you before struggling through 3/4 of the way through the game. But “Better late than never”.

A concrete example :-
I just couldn’t avoid Zoë being killed by one of the 2 twins (almost at the very beginning of ‘Chapter 6: Orpheus’). After at least 3 dozen attempts I lost patience and requested a savegame for the first time in very many years. A fellow gamer kindly sent me one and I was enabled to continue the game.

Now, using the above recommendation, I returned to those twins and escaped them… at my very first 2 times I nearly succeeded, and on my third attempt (only) I succeeded easily !

[TezChi]

Funny, I'm playing Dreamfall right now, and I'm not having a single problem with the WASD setup, guess I'm just used to it. INCREDIBLE game btw.

[Sik]

This probably answered a question I asked elsewhere, so thank you.

I was wondering why so many people found Dreamfall's controls clumsy, and this gave me some insight. The first thing I did when entering the game world was adjusting the camera controls so they fit me. Now that you mention it, I can recall that including inverting camera controls (both vertical and horizontal?). The combination of mouse and keyboard control felt intuitive, and very reactive to me, but the way you played at first is probably the way a lot of people are experiencing the game, so good call on pointing out what may be obvious to some.

[default]

When I first played Dreamfall the control scheme did indeed seem odd. First thing I did was check the control options where I was happy to find more than adequate customization. Unfortunately, the game still did feel a bit awkward.

At that point I remembered Dreamfall was released on PC as well as XBOX and that got me thinking. I hooked up my trusty USB to Playstation controller adapter and gave it a whirl. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.

I have never before or since played an adventure game with a gamepad (and most likely would make fun of anyone I saw doing it), but Dreamfall seems designed for it. The analog sticks in particular made moving and interacting with the environment a breeze.

If you have a gamepad with analog sticks of any brand hanging around, I strongly recommend giving it a try with Dreamfall.


Ps: I've been lurking on these boards for a few years now and finally decided to not be a slacker and register. So... Hi to all the AG crew! Big thanks for having this resource and keeping these games and the people who still love them together.

[stepurhan]

Welcome to the forums default.

I hope you'll enjoy being a member here.

[Aubstopper]

honestly, i thought dreamfall's controls were easier to use more so than regular adventure games..

i like to use my left hand to control movement and my right hand to control camera angle/everything else; i like the ability to look anywhere i'd like with a change of angle...but, i'm also used to non-adventure gaming, so that might have something to do with it too.