Dreamfall: The Longest Journey Review

I recently took part in watching X-Men 3. Was I disappointed? Very. Shoddy script writing, lame action, and just plain awfulness. Sequels always disappoint me. Video games are usually no different. Sequel to one of the most interesting games of recent years, Dreamfall was one of my most anticipated games of the year. Sadly, like X-Men 3, it doesn’t pan out too well.

You get to play as three different characters, but you start off as an annoying young girl, Zoe Castillo. Throughout the game, Zoe constantly questions her existence and what she should do with her life. While this gives Dreamfall a sophisticated image, it clearly is not. Zoe constantly reminds the player by blatantly saying lines like “What should I do with my life?� Not only that, but every character that knows Zoe seems to have this innate connection with her and also understands that she is confused, despite the gamer being filled with apathy towards her. The problem is that she is just so blunt with her feelings, the storyline just feels forced and boring.

While the storyline does eventually pick up, though it takes a long time, the game is not at all cinematic. The Longest Journey was a cinematic game for the most part. However, Dreamfall’s transitions seem so forced that it feels more like the retelling of events than an actual story. The game could have clearly used a cinematographer. While I am very critical on the story aspect of the game, the storyline is not that bad. For some parts, it was good. If you’re looking for an amazing story, don’t get your hopes up. If you’re looking for something, this might just be it.

While the Longest Journey was straight up adventure, Dreamfall tries to broaden its audience by introducing stealth and fighting scenes. They are very easy, but very pointless. Fighting consists of randomly pressing the spacebar and your left-click button on your mouse. The puzzles were clearly dumbed down. I like easy games or at least games that have an easy difficulty option. However, Dreamfall takes it to the extreme by adding junk. Easy junk.

The graphics in this game might be the strongest part of the game. On a good computer, you’ll like the character models. Adventure games never had a good backing when it came to graphics, but Dreamfall is definitely the best out of the genre. The audio is also well done. There are many voice actors, some characters have stereotypical voice actors, but its overall good. The amount of money put into this part of the game is quite evident

Contrary to what the title states, this game is not at all long. I beat it in 7 hours. Like I said before, the game is easy. There is no replay value, no unlockable content. If you are going to pay over 30 bucks for this, you might just feel ripped off. While it emphasizes a great storyline, anyone with good sense will find it boring initially and might never get into it. The addition of the new modes of gameplay are very annoying. Unlike the last game, this is not at all long. Game developers should focus on expanding the original game’s vision and not try to broaden the audience. Unless you can get this game in the bargain bin, you should pass.