How did you people play Dreamfall?!
 

As always, my title is half facetious, but after recently re-playing TLJ (it's still not a "classic" or "work of art," but it is very compelling, and ambitious and yes, more than enough, to want to spend more time in Starky Arcadia) I loaded up Dreamfall.

These controls are dreadful! This Zoe Castillo character seems to have something wrong with her frontal lobe, because she can not pick up a ringing telephone, loves to repeatedly smash her head on the wall, and when she tries to look at something makes this weird Tron-like beam of light scan things in the room like she's a living bar code scanner.

The absolute worst control using my mouse/keyboard - is it better playing with a controller? I do want to play the game, but I can't continue like this, getting Zoe to even go down stairs is a chore, and I heard there's combat in this game. I'd fear for her in that situation.

What did you guys do to solve this situation? Ignore it? Learn it? Buy a controller? I can not think of worse controls (I've never played Grim Fandango) in any game I've played.

i dont remember the controls at all. i played the game when it first came out. but what i do remember is that i did not have a problem with it at all. do you generally not play like 3d action adventures or do you just find it worse than lets say tomb raider and such?

+1

The controls are fine. Maybe you just need a little time getting used to them.

A lot of people complain about adventure games being in 3D. I personally don't care how it's made. All I care about is a good adventure game.

I remember I had to reverse the vertical mouse axis, but other than that I played through the game without a problem.

I also remember that I had to tweak the control settings to make this game playable.

I took the time to learn the controls, and man it took almost fifteen minutes!

It's a fantastic game if you master the controls, which you should have no problem with if you're a little patient in the beginning.

My friend had another problem with Dreamfall and that was that she couldn't get into it because Zoë's voice was so boring ^^

Dreamfall has the best controls in the adventure game I've ever played.. I don't know what you are talking about..

For all of you who are saying they were no problem, I've noticed that many of you also play games other than adventures which makes a HUGE difference. If I had used the mouse & keyboard, I would have been cursing like a sailor. I don't play games that typically use keyboard controls and I suck at it. Quite frankly, I don't have the time or patience to try and master it.

While the controls may have been no problem for some of you, they were for other people.

For Dreamfall, I bought a controller, which worked tons better.

Many people complained about the camera. If you are used to consoles, it seems quite natural to fiddle with the camera while moving, and this is hard on the keyboard.

Me, I am used to keyboards since always, had no trouble with Dreamfall, and just needed to move the camera in some stealth sequences, but it is apparent others feel otherwise.

I even finished Psychonauts with a keyboard, despite some claims that this was almost impossible.

Yeah, I just fiddled with the sensitivity settings a bit, and it worked fine.

What DOES suck are some of the fights. Really bad programming on those.

I played with the keyboard and i hated the controls, they were clearly made for consoles and gamepads, terrible and frustrating. I mean why the hell cant we use the mouse to click on objects? That "beam of light" that is used to interact with the world was very retarded. I think a system like KOTOR (you can use the mouse freely to interact, and move with the keys) was a much better alternative. Anyway, after a few (long) minutes i got used to it and managed to enjoy the game. Perhaps its better with a gamepad, but i hate gamepads.

I couldn't deal with the keyboard/mouse controls -- couldn't get used to them despite that I have no trouble with keyboard controls in most other games I play. So I used a gamepad for most of the game. However there were some timed "puzzles" where the keyboard/mouse seemed necessary -- or at least it was faster to be able to click on a symbol than move the cursor to it with the gamepad joystick.

Dreamfall is the first, and so far the only PC game I used a gamepad for. Previously I only used one when playing console games.

I remember they were awkward at first, but I guess I got used to them. At least until I found myself in a combat situation. That made me wish I had spent more time practicing at that dojo place.

I don't remember how i fared with the controls to be honest. I've played both the PC and Xbox versions and i don't think i had any problems with either as far as i'm aware. On some occasions the keyboard/mouse did feel better though.

I still haven't played it. Started to, but lost interest, at least partially due to the clunky controls. (Plan to give it another try one day.) And yes, I played with my gamepad which makes games like Sands of Time and Psychonauts a joy to play.

Maybe I should try it with the keyboard.

The controls do indeed take getting used to, not only because they're clunky (more so that most action/adventure games on the PC), but also because, IMO, point and click is far more intuitive for a game like this, and most of us are more used to that method of gameplay.

I ended up using a gamepad (which I generally prefer to use for all games except adventure games, because I HATE WASD controls), and my experience was much better. It still took some getting used to, and I had to adjust the controls to my liking, but that describes almost any gamepad game for me.

Once you get used to the controls, you'll probably become frustrated that there isn't more gameplay (outside of running back and forth fetching items, and simplistic fighting and stealth elements). Just go with it. This is much more of an "interactive movie" than TLJ was, and the story is well worth plodding through the sub-par gameplay.

I never play other genres than adventure games and I prefer point and click but have learned to master the keyboard fairly well. If I can do it I'm sure can too. ;)
j/k. Why not get a controller if you think it'll improve your experience.

When I played it (XboX version) the controls seemed just fine. I haven't tried the PC version though.

Well my sister came up to me one day and urged me to play this game - promptly handing me the Limited Edition version.

Tried to install it but found it wasn't compatible with Vista and so never bothered. If even half the amount of effort was put into the game that was put into the game's security, I may take a look at it in a the year 2034 :D

Am I missing out on a gem?