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Video Games : Dreamfall: The Longest Journey ( XPLOSIV PC DVD ROM)
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Rating: 
- Warning - laptop compatibility
This is not so much a review as a warning. I bought this game having loved The Longest Journey but while TLJ played fine on my XP laptop, Dreamfall does not. Basically, the problem is not so much XP as the integrated graphics cards on laptops. In fact the packaging of the game says its not compatible with laptops but obviously you can't see that until you've bought it. My laptop is a couple of years old so newer ones may work but its worth checking before you buy it.
Seeing as I couldn't live without playing dreamfall I bought it for the xbox, and thought it was elegant and brilliant, hence justifying 5 stars for a pc game I never got to play!
Rating:
- feels like a console port
The controls are simply too horrific to describe. I only have three words "bad console port". This game feels like it was suppose to run on a PS2 and not on a PC, the movement is reminiscent of the first tom raider game, minus the auto target feature. The inventory requires way to many clicks, movements and mouseovers before something happens. point and click would have sufficed here, not: tab scroll one way, select, scroll another way, select again, combine, repeat...(you get the picture). The combat (yes you now do combat in adventure games too) suffers due to the bad controles and I found it difficult to do any of the fights, feels like Tekken but with a mouse and WSAD keys. Other then that the game suffers a great deal of obvious movie rip offs, (Gollums cave and blair witch are most obvious) which is really sad.
If you can see past these failings, the game is quite good. If you played longest journey before, there are numerous references and they weave in with the story very nicely. Story sound graphics, and the world are all really good. So it's 4 stars from me, since it's above average.
Rating:
- A little Disappointing
I must admit that I did like the atmosphere in the game and the main characters and swopping between playing the main characters, but the game lacked a lot of things.
First off, it's categorised as an adventure game. It's pretty new, so it follows the 3d and fighting and sneaking aspects that other adventure games have been implementing thus far, but does it badly. I've played games like Broken Sword 3 (where there is both sneaking and quick thinking parts to the game) and Sanitarium (which has a few mandatory fight scenes), but in this game, they go too far with it. I think the first few fight scenes are okay and implemented well, but then it just goes ridiculous. Same for the sneak scenes. There are far too many of them and they are clumped together in chapters 5 and 6 of the game, leaving you to feel more like an imitation Lara Croft than Zoe Castillo or April Ryan. If I wanted to play Tomb Raider (which I already do and enjoy thoroughly) I would have been playing it instead! I wanted puzzles and interaction at chapters 5&6, but all I got was some cheap, shoddy TR imitation stuff and a gap from the beautiful woven story thus told. Not good.
Erm...I find the voice acting is generally good, but the dialogue was sometimes a little longwinded and didn't get to the point quick enough. I still love April (I have TLJ and played a bit of it before this game, so I kinda know the storyline beforehand), and the actress playing her still acts her well; although she is ten years older and more mature in this one. Zoe, however. Ah! Zoe! Zoe's actress obviously doesn't know how to use her acting skills ably enough to convince us of the reality of what is happening to us, or move us in any way. She sounds bland and distant, and reads her lines as if reading a long and tediously boring book. (lol) And considering Zoe gets attacked and startled several times during the game, she doesn't sound very convincing. A bland 'I was attacked' or 'That's the first time I've had to knock someone unconscious' isn't very convincing at all. It seems no situation scares Zoe's actress into moving into 'emotive' mode.
The atmosphere and graphics of the game and strange goings on are fantastic and make you thoughtful, but overall, you are left waiting a lot for cutscene after cutscene, making the game feel more cinematic than an actual game. This is good and bad in many ways: less gameplay experience makes you bored, and longer cutscenes add to the general realistic atmosphere of the game. I have always thought that game cutscenes are usually too short, but I think Dreamfall goes a bit far in making them too long sometimes.
An okay game, but don't expect too much. There are good ideas here, but I'm not sure that they are implemented to the best of their ability.
=Anli=
Rating: - Good but not without frustrations...
I just finished playing through this game, and found it quite a "page-turner" as far as following the plot goes... but I still can't honestly say that it compares visually with TLJ the first time around, or even with the gorgeous backdrops of Grim Fandango or Zork Nemesis. It seems that 3D is still just a bit clunky, even in the most well-designed games (which this isn't always, although it's mostly very nice looking). Plus, the great leap from Stark to Arcadia, and April's surprise and delight at the new world with all its amazing people and animals, which lent so much charm to the first game, just don't seem to happen here. So the visuals, whilst good, still lose out on both clarity and impact.
Having adjusted to the pirouetting camera-angle and shopping-trolley controls (very common in adventure games), I found the game was stable and very straightforward, guiding the three protagonists along a rather set series of paths. There is a basic inventory (the "combine items" is only used three times in the whole game). Puzzles are not very challenging, although they fit fairly well and are quite enjoyable to do.
It's a very filmic game, with many cutscenes and lengthy dialogue. It dragged a bit for me, to begin with, but I warmed to it once Zoe, the lead protagonist, went to the now-decayed location of Venice, which has been faithfully put into 3D in about the same proportions as it was in the original game. Even April Ryan's old home is revisited, and the transition from a rather beautiful and prosperous locality (where April Ryan's home and art college were) to a completely rundown no-go area is quite striking. This is interesting, as is the return of one of the nicest characters from the first game, in the same location as he was before.
The introduction of fight and action scenes is not a success. The fight scenes have very basic controls and some attackers are impossible to overcome, whilst others are very easy. There is a lot of sneaking and hiding so as not to rile ornery monsters, laser-guns or guards, and quite a bit of dying (don't worry, it reloads from a save just beforehand and there are loads of save slots). It can cause uncomfortable nervous moments throughout the game, but without the sense of achievement that comes with developing fighting skills. Not likely to please anyone therefore...
Conversely, characterisation is excellent, but that has its frustrations: in most cases we just don't see much of the best characters, and the vast majority of their storylines are never resolved. In other words, the plot is mostly unfinished, at least in my humble opinion. I will probably want to play the sequel if there is one, because it's a great story, but it's a bit irritating when a game's developers have such a blatant assumption of this. After all, it's not billed as a "part 1".
I'm glad I had a go at this game because it has many qualities, but I can't pretend it has much replay value compared to its predecessor. The fact that some website reviews have given it a raving 100% merely indicates that adventure games which are even moderately good are few and far between... because this definitely isn't a ten out of ten. Perhaps a seven.
Rating: - gorgeous graphics and lovely story just a shame aout the controls
I absolutely loved the first longest journey and I was really looking forward to playing this. I was initially disappointed that the makers had strayed away from the original point and click format of the first game, it is quite difficult at first to control the character with the keyboard. However if you go into options and adjust your screen resolution to a lower setting and fix the camera behind you it is much easier. Having said that once you get past the controls you slip nicely back into the world of stark and arcadia that you come to love from the last game with a new character and storyline as well as meeting some familiar faces and seeing how the world has changed from the previous game. If they had stuck to the point and click format I would have given this game 5 stars.
- Warning - laptop compatibilityThis is not so much a review as a warning. I bought this game having loved The Longest Journey but while TLJ played fine on my XP laptop, Dreamfall does not. Basically, the problem is not so much XP as the integrated graphics cards on laptops. In fact the packaging of the game says its not compatible with laptops but obviously you can't see that until you've bought it. My laptop is a couple of years old so newer ones may work but its worth checking before you buy it.
Seeing as I couldn't live without playing dreamfall I bought it for the xbox, and thought it was elegant and brilliant, hence justifying 5 stars for a pc game I never got to play!
Rating:
- feels like a console portThe controls are simply too horrific to describe. I only have three words "bad console port". This game feels like it was suppose to run on a PS2 and not on a PC, the movement is reminiscent of the first tom raider game, minus the auto target feature. The inventory requires way to many clicks, movements and mouseovers before something happens. point and click would have sufficed here, not: tab scroll one way, select, scroll another way, select again, combine, repeat...(you get the picture). The combat (yes you now do combat in adventure games too) suffers due to the bad controles and I found it difficult to do any of the fights, feels like Tekken but with a mouse and WSAD keys. Other then that the game suffers a great deal of obvious movie rip offs, (Gollums cave and blair witch are most obvious) which is really sad.
If you can see past these failings, the game is quite good. If you played longest journey before, there are numerous references and they weave in with the story very nicely. Story sound graphics, and the world are all really good. So it's 4 stars from me, since it's above average.
Rating:
- A little DisappointingI must admit that I did like the atmosphere in the game and the main characters and swopping between playing the main characters, but the game lacked a lot of things.
First off, it's categorised as an adventure game. It's pretty new, so it follows the 3d and fighting and sneaking aspects that other adventure games have been implementing thus far, but does it badly. I've played games like Broken Sword 3 (where there is both sneaking and quick thinking parts to the game) and Sanitarium (which has a few mandatory fight scenes), but in this game, they go too far with it. I think the first few fight scenes are okay and implemented well, but then it just goes ridiculous. Same for the sneak scenes. There are far too many of them and they are clumped together in chapters 5 and 6 of the game, leaving you to feel more like an imitation Lara Croft than Zoe Castillo or April Ryan. If I wanted to play Tomb Raider (which I already do and enjoy thoroughly) I would have been playing it instead! I wanted puzzles and interaction at chapters 5&6, but all I got was some cheap, shoddy TR imitation stuff and a gap from the beautiful woven story thus told. Not good.
Erm...I find the voice acting is generally good, but the dialogue was sometimes a little longwinded and didn't get to the point quick enough. I still love April (I have TLJ and played a bit of it before this game, so I kinda know the storyline beforehand), and the actress playing her still acts her well; although she is ten years older and more mature in this one. Zoe, however. Ah! Zoe! Zoe's actress obviously doesn't know how to use her acting skills ably enough to convince us of the reality of what is happening to us, or move us in any way. She sounds bland and distant, and reads her lines as if reading a long and tediously boring book. (lol) And considering Zoe gets attacked and startled several times during the game, she doesn't sound very convincing. A bland 'I was attacked' or 'That's the first time I've had to knock someone unconscious' isn't very convincing at all. It seems no situation scares Zoe's actress into moving into 'emotive' mode.
The atmosphere and graphics of the game and strange goings on are fantastic and make you thoughtful, but overall, you are left waiting a lot for cutscene after cutscene, making the game feel more cinematic than an actual game. This is good and bad in many ways: less gameplay experience makes you bored, and longer cutscenes add to the general realistic atmosphere of the game. I have always thought that game cutscenes are usually too short, but I think Dreamfall goes a bit far in making them too long sometimes.
An okay game, but don't expect too much. There are good ideas here, but I'm not sure that they are implemented to the best of their ability.
=Anli=
Rating:
- Good but not without frustrations...I just finished playing through this game, and found it quite a "page-turner" as far as following the plot goes... but I still can't honestly say that it compares visually with TLJ the first time around, or even with the gorgeous backdrops of Grim Fandango or Zork Nemesis. It seems that 3D is still just a bit clunky, even in the most well-designed games (which this isn't always, although it's mostly very nice looking). Plus, the great leap from Stark to Arcadia, and April's surprise and delight at the new world with all its amazing people and animals, which lent so much charm to the first game, just don't seem to happen here. So the visuals, whilst good, still lose out on both clarity and impact.
Having adjusted to the pirouetting camera-angle and shopping-trolley controls (very common in adventure games), I found the game was stable and very straightforward, guiding the three protagonists along a rather set series of paths. There is a basic inventory (the "combine items" is only used three times in the whole game). Puzzles are not very challenging, although they fit fairly well and are quite enjoyable to do.
It's a very filmic game, with many cutscenes and lengthy dialogue. It dragged a bit for me, to begin with, but I warmed to it once Zoe, the lead protagonist, went to the now-decayed location of Venice, which has been faithfully put into 3D in about the same proportions as it was in the original game. Even April Ryan's old home is revisited, and the transition from a rather beautiful and prosperous locality (where April Ryan's home and art college were) to a completely rundown no-go area is quite striking. This is interesting, as is the return of one of the nicest characters from the first game, in the same location as he was before.
The introduction of fight and action scenes is not a success. The fight scenes have very basic controls and some attackers are impossible to overcome, whilst others are very easy. There is a lot of sneaking and hiding so as not to rile ornery monsters, laser-guns or guards, and quite a bit of dying (don't worry, it reloads from a save just beforehand and there are loads of save slots). It can cause uncomfortable nervous moments throughout the game, but without the sense of achievement that comes with developing fighting skills. Not likely to please anyone therefore...
Conversely, characterisation is excellent, but that has its frustrations: in most cases we just don't see much of the best characters, and the vast majority of their storylines are never resolved. In other words, the plot is mostly unfinished, at least in my humble opinion. I will probably want to play the sequel if there is one, because it's a great story, but it's a bit irritating when a game's developers have such a blatant assumption of this. After all, it's not billed as a "part 1".
I'm glad I had a go at this game because it has many qualities, but I can't pretend it has much replay value compared to its predecessor. The fact that some website reviews have given it a raving 100% merely indicates that adventure games which are even moderately good are few and far between... because this definitely isn't a ten out of ten. Perhaps a seven.
Rating:
- gorgeous graphics and lovely story just a shame aout the controlsI absolutely loved the first longest journey and I was really looking forward to playing this. I was initially disappointed that the makers had strayed away from the original point and click format of the first game, it is quite difficult at first to control the character with the keyboard. However if you go into options and adjust your screen resolution to a lower setting and fix the camera behind you it is much easier. Having said that once you get past the controls you slip nicely back into the world of stark and arcadia that you come to love from the last game with a new character and storyline as well as meeting some familiar faces and seeing how the world has changed from the previous game. If they had stuck to the point and click format I would have given this game 5 stars.