Dreamfall: The Longest Journey for Windows

The adventure game is a dying breed these days, and there are plenty of reasons for this. The increased processing power of computers has made games that involve realistic physics, dynamic lighting, and powerful explosions far more popular than a sedate, puzzle-solving title could ever be. Unlike shooters, adventure titles have had a great deal of difficulty truly adapting to the world of high-power graphics processing and 3-D effects. Since the halcyon of days of "Myst" only "Syberia" has truly captured the essence of what made adventure titles so intriguing. Therefore, I was excited when "Dreamfall: The Longest Journey" created a critical buzz this year. Perhaps I had finally found another adventure game to pull me away from first-person shooters and real-time strategy games.

Dreamfall is a sequel to a legendary game called "The Longest Journey", which I never played or even heard of. Fortunately, it is not necessary to have played the first game to understand this one. The story begins with a young girl named Zoe Castillo who is living in a breathtaking home in Casablanca some time in the Earth's future. Zoe is beautiful, intelligent, and evidently quite wealthy with an understanding father and a black belt in karate. She is also depressed and adrift after dropping out of college and breaking up with her boyfriend. She has also recently begun to see visions of a strange, creepy little girl in television screens imploring her to rescue a person named April. (April is the protaganist from the previous Longest Journey title). It seems that April is actual living in a parallel universe called Arcadia, where magic takes the place of technology. Through a series of well-paced incidents, Zoe is drawn further and further into a complex plot which leads her far away from her boring life in Casablanca. It is really not possible to describe any more the plot without giving away important spoilers, but it is a gripping ride.

The world in Dreamfall is very well written, and fascinating. It uses a nice combination of familiar science-fiction and fantasy elements and jumbles them together to make something unique. The characters are well rounded and Zoe is, arguably, one of the most interesting female heroes you'll ever see in a video game. The supporting characters are great too, with some truly cinematic voice acting. The high quality acting is a good thing, because this game has a ton of dialogue. In fact, you will spend a large amount of your time in Dreamfall simply interacting with other characters in tightly scripted exchanges.

On the surface, Dreamfall plays similar to Syberia. You direct Zoe through her world from a third-person perspective. At times, you will run up against objects or people who can be interacted with, picked up, and manipulated. When speaking to other characters, you are often given a choice about how you will direct the conversation. This is usually determined by the tone you want to take. For example, when confronting somebody you can be aggressive or pleading. Objects that you pick up may have to be combined with other objects in order to be useful.

This all sounds great, but in reality the "game" elements are really thin. Your conversations, while giving the illusion of choice, are really not open ended at all. No matter what, you will probably end up getting the same information with any tone of voice you choose. Interacting with objects is so tightly limited that there really aren't very many choices to make here, either. It is usually glaringly obvious what you have to do and when. The only problem occurs when the somewhat clunky interface makes it difficult to do something that should be simple, such as climbing on top of things. Your exploration of the world is also tightly controlled. Most doors are locked, and most hallways are dead ends. The only open paths seem to be the ones you are meant to take. If an object is needed, it is typically close by, and any puzzles are relatively simple. Even the combat and stealth elements, such as they are, seem to have been tacked on.

This is not to say that Dreamfall isn't a fascinating experience. It is actually quite an enjoyable one. The only thing you have to realize is that it is more of an "interactive story" than it is a "game." If you played Syberia and got really sick of some of the dead-ends, then this might be good news. However, if you enjoyed the sense of accomplishment that came from figuring out some of the tougher puzzles in previous adventure games, then Dreamfall will be disappointing.

I would also have to qualify the technical side of the game as a bit of a disappointment as well. For one thing, the PC version has a godawful bug in the installation procedure which forces you to have at least 7GB of memory available in your C: drive. Like most people, my C drive is small and used mostly for system files. There is a workaround that you can find on the web in order to choose the drive you want to install to, but its a pain and shouldn't be necessary. I also found the graphics, while competently executed, to be a bit of a letdown. Despite the fact that the graphics are merely competent, there are far too many loading screens to sit through. Considering the fact that Oblivion managed to create a massive, fully dynamic world without hardly a load-screen to be found, this is a frustrating experience. These screen go by quickly, but they kill the flow of the game at times shouldn't be necessary.

Overall, however, Dreamfall is well worth the reasonable price tag it is currently selling for. As long as you realize that the story here is king, rather than puzzles or action, you'll be fine. The somewhat lackluster graphics and technical execution are more than countered by excellent writing and fine voice-acting. While I still consider "Syberia" to be the gold-standard of modern adventure gaming, Dreamfall is a worthy addition to the fold. I am looking forward to the last installment.