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Save your money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 101
Date: April 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Funcom has lost its touch for making good games. Dreamfall is a sad follow up to The Longest Journey. The gameplay is boring, the graphics is ok, the music is ok, it has limited content.

Not worth your money.

The Good the Bad

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 30 / 42
Date: April 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The Good: An incredibly provocative sci-fi story filled with many memorable characters; beautiful presentation, featuring fantastic voice acting and musical score;

The Bad: As rich as it is, the story leaves you wanting much more.

Dreamfall is a must have

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 31
Date: April 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is by far the best adventure game I have seen in years. The characters are believable and the sound and graphics simply stunning. Zoe is "real" and the game gave me and my family many hours of enjoyment. It's nice to see a game like this. I haven't yet played The Longest Journey, but will definitely play it now.

Awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 27
Date: April 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

In an age where computer game stories can be summed up on a soggy napkin usually Dreamfall is a revealation. A wonderfully deep story superbly told with great voice acting and superb narrative.

If you are a shooter or action fan, sure you will *hate* this game, but anyone who craves an engaging and dynamic story then this is unmissable.

Yay-Boo

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 81 / 125
Date: April 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Yes, it's finally out, and the wait is finally over -- or is it?

Yes, the game is beautiful, the writing is superb, the graphics and voice acting and directing are brilliant. But there are two big problems: the interface for the PC is unbelievably clumsy, and the story doesn't end. How's that for frustration?

The controls for the PC make it abundantly clear the game was designed for console play, with PC play being tacked on afterwards. This means that it's extremely difficult to move your characters around the screen, let alone interact with the environment. I spent ten minutes in the first screen trying to pick up the stupid phone, and I almost gave up on the whole thing. The game is really only playable with a controller like the Gamepad, and even then it's hard to walk through a scene without bumping into the walls constantly.

And the ending, well ... Without giving anything away, be prepared for the game to end just as it gets started. No questions will be answered; instead, you'll have a whole new set of questions. Obviously they're aiming for a sequel -- which the game's producer says he won't make unless Dreamfall brings in the bucks. This makes me nervous about whether we'll ever find out what happens next, and just when we're really starting to care for these characters. How hard would it have been to reach a modicum of closure while still maintaining the suspense?

That's not to say the game isn't enjoyable or the story riveting all the same. I sincerely hope he does make the money to make the (hopefully) final episode so we can find out what happened. All the same, I remember the ignominious end of the Tex Murphy series -- in which poor Tex was left suspended in the middle of a cliffhanger, and the next game was never made.

Terrific

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 193 / 231
Date: April 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Six years. Quite a long time to be waiting for a sequel to an adventure game. It is also quite a long time for graphics, hardware and gameplay to change. When the Longest Journey came out, it was heralded by critics as being one of the best adventure games a person could buy. It incorporated a terrific story, wonderful voice work and, at the time, good graphics that helped bring depth to the genre. Now, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is out, a direct sequel to the events of the first game. Is it everything we could hope for? Well, that depends on what you're looking for.

A lot of reviews out there, including here on amazon.com, have talked about various aspects of the game. The negative points discussed were the easiness of the gameplay, the bulkiness of the controls and the horrible combat. The positives have been over-whelming the terrific, complex and utterly addictive story and plot. So, depending on what you are looking for, you will either really love this game or really dislike it.

AS far as the gameplay is concerned, I tried playing it with a mouse and keyboard but the controls felt wonky to me. I am a console player mostly and because of my lack of affinity with the mouse and keyboard for third person controlled games I spend a good deal of time walking into things and the walls. However, plugging in a controller, all of my complaints went away. I'd recommend trying a controller if you have any problems, as the game seems better suited to it (probably due to the fact it is also an Xbox game).

The difficulty has been lessened from The Longest Journey. One one hand, this is definitely a valid complaint. However, my complaint with the first game was that there were times where the puzzles seemed utterly illogical and were very order-specific. I would spend a long time trying to get something accomplished simply because I didn't do it exactly how the game wanted me to. In that aspect, Dreamfall lessens any frustrations to allow you to enjoy the story more fully. That said, the puzzles do lack the depth of The Longest Journey and adventure games in general. I wish they were a bit more difficult or took a little more brain power to figure out what to do.

The combat is a bit clunky. It is comprised of block, light hit and strong hit. A rock, paper, scissors type gameplay ensues where a strong hit will break through a block, a block defends against a light punch and a light punch can break someone from doing a strong attack. However, the controls are a bit wonky as well, making battles easy but unintuitive. You can also slide to the side, forward and back while blocking. While it's not up to par with fighting games like Dead or Alive, what do you want from an adventure game?

Actually, calling it a game might be stretching it a little. And I don't mean this in a bad way. Playing this game reminds me of another fantastic adventure game called Indigo Prophecy, but without the simon says style gameplay. Here, you will move from place to place, work on puzzles, do some stealth and some clunky fighting. But the gameplay is there to pull you in and create an interactive story. A cinematic story that has you at the center. I like this approach.

Graphically, I think the game is stellar. There've been complaints in this department as well, but I think the game is pretty stunning. While there's no way it could live up to the powerhouse of, say, Oblivion, what is here is terrific. The colors are vibrant and lush, the settings are absolutely beautiful. Casablanca, the starting city, feels like a mix of futuristic landscapes with a traditional Spanish-style living. Add to this the vibrant color scheme and terrific art direction, and I think the game is stunning.

One department no one seems to be complaining about is the sound. From the beautiful music to the very competent voice staff, everything runs well. Some characters are a little lacking, not necessarily in their voices but in the direction. Sometimes it seems as if the voice actors don't know the context of what they are saying and stress words wrongly or don't have the excitement or fear that one would have in their situations. As an example, in the beginning someone is afraid of something (I'm being purposefully vague) and cries "No! No!" but it's almost as if the threat is a mere bother as opposed to a possibly life-altering event. Other times, though, the voice actors are terrific in conveying the emotion.

The game scales really well. While I'm playing it above the recommended specs, there's nary a fault or bug that I've come across. There's no slowdown from what I've seen. It also scales terrifically well to fit your monitor. I've played it on a regular 19" all the way up to a widescreen monitor and it is terrific. The game was made to be played in 16:9 widescreen. Like I said earlier the controllers work terrifically with the game. I am using an Xbox 360 controller and I haven't had a single problem, save that the trigger buttons don't register.

One confusing problem is the constant presence of loading screens. There are a ton of them breaking up cutscenes as well as action. It's a little disappointing. I'm sure part of the problem was to help make it playable on both the Xbox and the PC. But load screens are a normal part of our life now and even the "triple A games" like Half Life 2 utilize them. And the loading screens in Dreamfall, while frequent, aren't long by any means. So, to me, it is a minor nuisance that I completely ignored and only bring it up because of other reviews out there commenting that reviewers aren't bringing it up ;)

All of this is simply the mechanics, though. What lies at the heart of this game, much like The Longest Journey, is a story. A story that is exciting, mysterious and emotional all at the same time. The Longest Journey was, at the time, probably one of the best stories I had seen in a video game. Dreamfall has, in my opinion, blown that story out of the water. People will probably argue this with me, but I think Dreamfall's story is definitely a bit better. It seems more urgent this time around. Partly, this is because of the fact its more of an "action adventure" game as opposed to a point and click game. Whereas in The Longest Journey there were instances where you were chased, you couldn't die. Here, things seem a bit more dire and urgent. The pacing of Dreamfall is also excellent and helps keep you moving from point to point. Ragnar Tornquist has a much better control of the story and spins a yarn fitting of a novel. I don't want to talk about the story at all in order to allow everyone a chance to view it with virgin eyes. To get the story across, there is a ton of dialogue. Much like the first game, Dreamfall allows its characters to talk and talk about their lives, what's going on in the world and the plot. While playing The Longest Journey isn't necessary per se, characters from it will show up in surprising ways, starting off from the very beginning. A small caveat about the story. Yes, the story doesn't end so much as set up events for a third game. However, if you look back at The Longest Journey, you would also find a game that doesn't end. It, too, basically explains what would happen in the second game and leaves so many threads open. Here's hoping the game sells well enough to merit a third game.

So here lies the crux. The reviews here and your enjoyment of the game will come to this: do you want a game that puts gameplay above story or a game that places story above gameplay. If you choose the former, you probably won't like this game as much. However, if you are like me and enjoy the latter, I can't recommend any other game higher than this one right now. I can normally overlook most flaws or gameplay issues in a game, if it keeps me enthralled with a terrific story. I enjoy story-centered games a ton. So I feel confident rating this game as a five star simply because I never had a dull moment. I compare both The Longest Journey and Dreamfall to novels. Very dense and filled with backstory, characters and plot, Dreamfall isn't a typical video game. You have to really want to get to know everything and everyone in it to get the most out of the game. If you want to really sink your teeth into a story and know everything there is to know about a fantastical world, there's no better place than Dreamfall.

There's a reason why so many people are vigorously defending it can be played on a gamepad >>

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 25
Date: April 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The reason why so many people in so many forums are defending the fact that this game can be played on a PC if you simply also buy a gamepad as well and don't use the keyboard and mouse -->
It's because it is more or less unplayable without it.

Despite the logic that this game's predecessor was a PC game, Dreamfall was built for the XBOX. The version for the PC, as it is becoming more and more apparent, was duct taped together very quickly and without regard to the fact that it was a PC.

And whereas the story may be good, if it can't be played, get a book, or watch Final Fantasy. Seriously.

Here's the thing. On a PC, probably the biggest thing that is used differently from console games is the mouse, and the use of cursors on the screen either to pick stuff up, talk to people, click where you want to go, or give someone a hurtin'.

But, since this is an XBOX game, there is no cursor and no use of the mouse in that sense at all.

The second thing that would be useful, especially in this case where the mouse is essentially de facto put out of commission, is the fact that PC users can modify numerous controls on their keyboard for use. However, again, being an XBOX game, they only have a wee few number of controls, so as not to exceed what can 'fit' on the XBOX game. Numerous actions that would normally have been put in the game to aid gameplay are not there... only a small few things can be done, and so the character is not able to do much of anything.

And I'm sorry that so many people have to complain that the game is virtually unplayable in standard PC version, but being able to handle the controls is not the point of the game. That should not be difficult. The programmers should make that easy for us to do, as they most certainly did in TLJ.

the fact is, they could have left the same engine/backend/supporting matrix/whatever , as they did in TLJ, and then maybe there wouldn't be so many people talking about how it's not easy to simply get the game going.

there's simply no reason for that, regardless of all else.

Controls are Extremely clumsly. If planning to buy, please read:

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 26
Date: April 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am not writing this to bash Funcom / Aspyr / Whoever else put this game all together, but, I know there are folks like myself out there who probably don't play a lot of games but like the Adventure genre. The Longest Journey [TLJ] was a good, relaxing game that was fun to play, and it accomplished the goal of gaming in general I thought -- it was enjoyable. However, this is far from it.

It's difficult to get past the controls in terms of dissatisfaction - and dissatisfaction isn't really the right word. Dissatisfaction is what you would call it when you order a Caesar Salad and there isn't enough chicken, but it's okay otherwise. Here, it's unplayable for a number of people [and of course, it is playable for some, and some will undoubtedly write back to this stating that, but the fact that it's unplayable for a number of folks is true and something to consider]... and here are some reasons why this is so:

First example -- in TLJ, to get your character [April] from one place to the next, you'd simply click on the place you want to go. If you want to run, you double click. And if it's an item you want, you click the item. It involves common sense. There's not a lot to it. It was what programmers would call elegant, because it got the job done, it was easy, and it was good. There's nothing wrong with having a solution that's easy and good... in fact it's, well, good. In dreamfall, however, that is not how it works at all. You can use your mouse for movement, but only if you use it's rolling, not clicking. So, you end up with the keyboard, which is lacking, and also sort of odd... example two:

Another example -- the ability to simply slide to the left or to the right is not possible. For all of those familiar with virtually every game from Quake back in the 90's to today, one always has the ability to move the character forward and backwards, as well as being able to slide a little to the left and to the right.

This is helpful if your next to a door and you need to go through it, or anything along those lines.

In this game, you essentially are always going forwards, for your character is always facing the way you are running, so even when you click the button to move to the right, your character turns 90 degrees to the right [as does your view], and you move that way. What decides what is right/left/forwards/backwards is arbitrary in the room and can change. So, if you're standing to the left of a door and want to go through, you'd have to walk right, then walk forward [even though it's now to the left of your character, you'd use the walk forward key], and so on and so forth.

There are simply so many things with the controls that could be described that simply are not at all intuitive, and do not make this game enjoyable. The playing engine backbone they had from TLJ it seems they through out the door and put one in that makes it so moving around is the most difficult thing.

I really could go on... but I hope that this at least makes you pause before rushing out to get what you just knew was going to be a great game, because they had years to improve upon a good game, and it didn't occur to you that they'd go backwards, not forwards... that they'd use other companies examples of engines that just never worked. This game just doesn't work, and if you get it and start trying to mess with the controls you'll understand and wish you hadn't, no matter how the story might be. Hey, I wish it wasn't this way either.

A perfect story with imperfect controls

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: April 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Looking at the reviews below, it is obvious that some reviewers never even got very far into Dreamfall before giving up due to the controls. Because of this, I suggest those reading those reviews take their comments with a grain of salt, these are VERY frustrated people obviously.

Having actually played through this game on the PC, with keyboard and mouse (okay, really a trackball) I'll give it to you straight. Yes, the game has an awkward and rather uncomfortable interface. It is beyond obvious that the designers were pretty much forced to constrain themselves to the artificial limits of the XBOX, and did not give enough flexibility and customization to PC players as we perhaps deserve (if anyone from Funcom reads this, really ALL you have to do is allow the mouse to point and select objects to analyze/interact with, and give a way to TURN the character/camera with buttons).

But what makes up for ALL of that is the STORY. Dreamfall has character depth and a story line to make professional novelists weep. Tornquist, the director, is a master of his craft and if you play enough of the game to get to the meat (I'd say about 10-15 minutes) it become difficult to deny how perfectly he has crafted this experience. The game weaves high fantasy, sci-fi, horror, comedy, suspense, mystery, political drama and even a bit (nothing nasty, just a bit) of romance perfectly into a story filled with interesting, intricate characters (that are voiced pitch perfect, by the way).

It is this unbelievable story that is the reason I game Dreamfall a 5 on the fun factor, honestly even the Final Fantasy games don't come close (oh, and in comparison to Indigo/Farenheit Tornquist doesn't just go for an easy out to the story, he really obviously has somewhere to go). Anybody who really likes a good story, should DEFINITELY buy this game (and no, a good story isn't half-life 2 btw, this is like HL2 as the ocean is to a small puddle). Don't be afraid of the rather control scheme, you'll get used to it after the 6th or 8th straight hour of being enraptured in the tale of Zoe, April, and Kian.

As for the other aspects of the game, the graphics are beautiful. Not state of the art (I doubt they could have afforded it), but what is there is used to great effect (and prettier in the PC version than the XBOX one). Each and every environment is unique and intricately detailed. Faces and bodies are, unlike oblivion (another good game that pales in comparison to this one) well crafted and very pretty (the White of the Kin is teh hotness).

Sound, as well, is well used. Footsteps change with terrain, and subtle sonic cues are used to warn of movement or proximity and direction. Everybody and everything is voiced, and the musical background could not be more perfect for every occasion. Honestly, nect to the story, the soundscape of Dreamfall is the second best thing about the game.

So go, get Dreamfall. Work through the slightly awkward interface and experience the story. Trust me, it makes it all worth while. You won't regret it if you do (and hopefully, the Funcom gang will release a patch to fix up the problems with the interface and it will be even easier to get into the story). Indeed, the only problem now is I can't wait till they come out with TLJ3. If only they had been released at the same time!

Dreamfall: The Shorter Journey

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: April 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Here's my review of Dreamfall:

Story - Excellent. Not as good as The Longest Journey, but it was still amazingly well done(until the end; leaves you hanging badly). The characters are the draw of the game, and I fell in love with each of them. If you played the original, seeing people from TLJ again felt so good. It was neat to see what the worlds are like 10 years after the last game. There was an element of depth that seemed missing in Dreamfall in comparison to TLJ; like how you could find out tons of info about Arcadia by asking people a million questions as well as reading books in the Sentinel library. It also seemed like you did not -do- all that much in this game. In TLJ, April literally went_everywhere_and saved/united_everything_.

Graphics - Sometimes the textures can be bland, but there were many times I was in awe of the visuals. The animations were pretty good for the most part, and the "cinematography" was well done the whole way through. Both worlds were very stinkin' cool, and Arcadia was flat-out beautiful at times(the Dark People's city). The best part is that it's a beautiful game that will run on older systems fairly well.

Sound - The dialogue was voiced perfectly. April is still voiced by the woman who did TLJ, and from what I can tell, all other older characters came back to voice in Dreamfall. Zoe and Kian sound great as well. The music was also seriously done perfectly; it always sounded good and enhanced the mood.

Gameplay - I thought the puzzles were pretty normal. It did feel easy and much like I was guided throughout the entire story. The sneaking wasn't that bad, and I think I enjoyed it(outside of the cave troll part). The fighting is truely abominable as it was sluggish, boring, and hard to control. Fortunately, it's not that big of a deal. The controls everywhere else worked great for me -- I used a logitech dual analog controller. I did mess around with the controls for PC and you can make them reasonably user friendly, but the default setting is pretty bad.

Lasting appeal - It's a lot shorter than TLJ, and the ending feels incomplete. If it had a little more closure, it would have been one of my top 5 favorite games. However, I noticed a few small details that can be changed and it warrants at least 2 plays through. It took me 15-17 hours to beat, but I explored and savored every bit of dialogue and every bit of the environments.

Conclusion: I'm going to play it again in a couple months (after I play through TLJ for the..4th time) to see if it's any better. I am glad it was only $40 and not $50, because it makes it easier to give this game an "A" grade. It gets a 90% from me, just because it succeeded in what it tried to accomplish. Go buy it if you like great stories(and cliff-hanger endings). If a sequel never comes out, though, I will grow to hate this game. :P

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