User Reviews (1 - 11 of 141)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

The Longest Journey in more ways than one...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 249 / 276
Date: September 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

When I purchased this game, it was because of the rave reviews it has recieved by gaming magazines and organizations, as well as my own personal love of adventure games. It had been a long time since a worthy adventure game had hit the market (Grim Fandango springs easily to mind), and I was looking forward to the stunning visuals and in-depth gameplay I had read about.

Well, the visuals did indeed impress me, and the voice acting was extremely high-quality, a virtual rarity for such games. And the game's story and characters are very in-depth. Indeed. VERY in-depth.

Believe it or not, this is where my major complaint with the game is. I do believe that story and dialogue are important for a good interactive adventure game, and Longest Journey has it. In abundance. Perhaps a bit too much. The puzzles are inventive, the characters multi-faceted, the story captivating, and the background well developed. But after the game gets past the initial introductions, there are certain spots in the game where I found myself clawing my eyes out waiting for the in-depth dialogue to end. Do I want story and interaction? Yes. Do I want to spend forty-five minutes listening to two people drone on about the historical background of the game while I sit hunched over clicking the mouse every fifteen seconds to keep the conversation going? No. To be prefectly honest, I got about two thirds of the way through the game before I gave up and stopped playing. I was weary of the lengthy conversations going nowhere, and my carpal tunnel was really acting up.

Interesting dialogue is important, but I'm not willing to suffer for it, which is sadly what I ended up doing. The key word is "Game", and I'd prefer to play the game instead of watching it like a hand-crank powered television. This game has much to offer it, but the extensive padding eventually turned it into the Longest Journey on several different levels.

In short: If you love adventure games, then you definitely want to check this out, but be prepared for some exceedingly long stretches of boring dialogue that hold you captive to your mouse.

Through a Very Cool Looking Glass

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 96 / 104
Date: February 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The Longest Journey is more of a trip than a journey, more of a quest than an adventure. Like Alice falling down the rabbit hole into a very tripped out world of caterpillars smoking hash, and concoctions that turn a person very small or very large, The Longest Journey is a five-senses experience. And April Ryan, TLJ's central character, is the perfect hostess. If this were a movie, think natalie Portman or Wynona Ryder (pre- sticky finger days).

TLJ is a more-edgy version of the Myst series, but in a platform more similar to a DreamCatcher game (inventory items, various characters with whom you must interact, etc.)

You bounce between two parallel worlds: Stark (a mythical, futuristic west coast city) and Arcadia (Grimm's Fairy Tales meets Jules Verne), with the fate of the world in your hands (and eyes, nose, ears, etc.). TLJ is to be savored - rich graphics, excellent voice acting, compelling, not-too-difficult story line, puzzles, etc.

This is not your typical, McComputer fare. Rather than hamburger, think filet mignon. As such, it will flood your senses and fill you up right.

Caution: I wouldn't recommend this game for young ones - the language is profane at times.

An excellent adventure game...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 22 / 22
Date: November 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

.....I have to admit up front that I'm not usually a big fan of adventure games. I've always been more of a turn-based strategy / role-player type. Most adventure games I've played are just strings of contrived, non-intuitive puzzles and pixel hunts. But, I had read some great reviews for TLJ, and so bought my first adventure title since the King's Quest series ended.
.....First, the graphics are excellent. The backdrops are gorgeous works of art that really bring the in-game world to life. Secondly, the puzzles are, for the most part, intuitive and fun to solve. The game almost won't let you screw yourself by 'using up' or dropping a critical item. The game only allows you to use items where necessary, and removes them from your inventory when no longer needed. But the best part of the game is the characters. They are well-developed and realistic and the voice acting is top-notch. There were a couple of dialogue exchanges where I actually laughed out loud ("PECK it off?!!"), and I don't laugh out loud much.
.....Also worth a mention is that it ran flawlessly without a single crash or lock-up, which is sadly uncommon with most unpatched computer games currently on the market.
.....I did have a few small problems with the game, however. A couple of the puzzles were non-intuitive. Most of the secondary characters, though well-developed, played almost no part in the great scheme of the game. Finally, for a game that was all about story and had great cut-scenes, I would have thought they would be more numerous and longer, especially the game finale.
.....All in all, though, playing TLJ was a fun and memorable experience that was well worth the bargain-bin price its going for now.

The Longest Journey

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 22
Date: June 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I read about this game a few years back while browsing through a videogame website. It was European based, written, produced, and published. It had huge success in Europe and recieved great reviews. They also emphasized how it wasn't planned for US release for at least another year. I was eager to play it but had to wait patiently. A solid year later I purchased my own copy. There are five games that have grabbed my attention so effectively that I played them constantly, went to bed thinking about them, and dreamt about them: Half-Life, Ghost Recon, Gran Turismo 3, Starcraft, and The Longest Journey. It absorbed my life for three weeks. It cut into my sleeping time, it made me forget to eat, and my only thoughts at work were how to get to the next chapter.

It's an original story with tons of characters. Once the story gets rolling it'll suck you in. A lot of people say it's a slow start but I beg to differ. It sets up a lot of script and facts that you need. Clues pop up every once in a while that pique your interest until you can't stand it any longer and absolutely must know what's going on. It's superbly paced and the voice-acting is great. It's not Oscar winning but it's definately not like Final-Fantasy-X-unacceptable. Sometimes you do run into gobs of dialogue and you'll catch yourself daydreaming. Imagine you're reading a book and it's much easier to follow.

It really is a great story. Something that many video game companies forget to involve.

Guaranteed to keep you happy for the longest time!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 23
Date: July 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game recently and can't say enough good things about it. While it came out some time ago, there is nothing dated about it. It runs on old systems, and is a blast to play.

The 3D graphics aren't the latest, but the 2D art is beautiful. Also, the cutscenes are very well done. The story is magnificent (the strongest part of the game), and though the game gets slow sometimes, there were no puzzles that I couldn't understand (unlike some other adventure games). The humor is not used as much as in some Lucasarts games, for example Grim Fandango, but it is there (however, much of it is adult humor)

Thus, my first warning would be that a person needs to be mature when playing this game (I was 14, and I didn't have a problem, some people might not be as mature at my age). There are sexual themes (including homosexuality), a great deal of bad language, and a little violence. My only other warning is to not forget to eat, sleep, and talk to family while this game is on your hard drive.

While I recomend this game to anyone, I especially recomend this game to anyone who is not a big gamer. This game is a great introduction to gaming.

Wish It Would've Been Even Longer!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: May 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I truly have never played a more enjoyable and interesting adventure game than "The Longest Journey". Right from the start, I was totally entranced by the graphics, sound, and story, which continued to improve as the game progressed. The character of April Ryan is very likeable, and her dialogue is very real and appropriate for every interaction. I went through a variety of emotions while playing this game, and found myself staring at the screen endlessly into the night. About five hours later, I realized I'd only left my desk once, and it was about time to get some sleep!
This game allows the user to pick and choose questions and answers, which I liked very much, because this means I can play the game more than once to see the other reactions and answers that characters might offer.
The only difficulty I had when trying to play this excellent adventure game was in the beginning movie. I had help from the troubleshooting guide in the "read me" text though, and my problem (thankfully) was fixed very easily. If you have a slow computer it's a good idea to disable 3D acceleration and high quality video.
I am so glad that this outstanding game won the title of adventure game of the year. It truly deserves it. I hope every person who plays this game is filled with amazement during this journey of discovery, and recognizes it for what a well-written and thoughtful PC game it is.

Worth looking into

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: December 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is an entertaining game. The story is great- not too predictable and spans two separate dimensions which gives you the chance explore several different environments (from deep sea to outer space) and meet amusing and frightening characters(no fighting or dying though). April Ryan, as the main character, is full of sarcasm and wit. The dialogue is funny and real.

Although the background graphics are good, characters' animation aren't the best (the game is a few years old). The cut scenes are done well.

My biggest complaint is that the longest journey isn't long enough. Unless you get stuck on one of the puzzles, it doesn't last long enough, and there is little replay value. Still, this is a good game for the price.

I could make a joke about the irony of the title . . .

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 27 / 40
Date: July 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

(...)P>I've played some god-awful adventure games in my day, but I've got to say that without a doubt, this is perhaps the most unplayable I've ever attempted to endure. Game of the Year? Best adventure game ever? I'm boggled by the reviews. I'm a world-class cheapskate, and I'll finish any game just to say I got my money's worth, but this thing is just insufferable.

Let's take a look at the blow-by-blow:

1. But it's got gorgeous graphics -- Ok, the scenery's pretty. Know what? So was the scenary in Myst, and that suckers a good 5+ years older than TLJ. And let's keep in mind that when people are raving about the graphics, they're referring to the SCENERY; if it moves in the game (i.e. the characters), then its blocky and clunky. I've seen better quality in full motion video games than the character models in this thing.

2. The voice acting -- Yeah, it's good, which indeed is a rarity these days. I must confess that I found the main character annoying after a while, but the voice acting was certainly top-notch. But what good is voice acting when . . . .

3. They never shut up -- That's right. Never. Never ever. And every time you meet a character, you're going to find these enourmous dialogue trees, with layers on layers of their childhood, their sexual proclivities, their hopes, their dreams, blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. And, in true adventure game style, you never know which little bit is going to yield that crucial bit of information that you need to progress the game. So you sit and you listen and you pray for death to come.

4. The story is just lame -- Maybe I just have a chip on my shoulder, but what kind of hippie, new age, gobbledy-gook is this? What was the writer smoking? I'm quite forgiving, particularly in the realm of sci-fi and fantasy, but this thing is just trite and uninspiring. My favorite thing about the game is that it'll put some outlandish rule out there, which normally I'd just accept without thinking, but then they try and EXPLAIN it, and it makes no sense. For example:

* Crazy outlandish rule -- So there needs to be a new Guardian every 1000 years.
* Me -- Gotcha. 1000 years. New Guardian. Check
* Expository character who can't stop rambling -- Oh but there's a good reason for the 1000 year cap: the soul can't be separated from the body for longer than that.
* Me -- HUH?!?!?!

5. It's still all the annoyances of adventure gameplay -- To top it all off, you're still going to be bogged down in the apparently unbreakable rules of an adventure game:
A) If you know what you need, but you can't find it, examine every stinking thing in your inventory 'cause it's probably hidden inside something else
B) If you know you need to use something in a specific way, but it just doesn't seem to work, you probably simply haven't placed the object in PRECISELY the right spot to trigger the action
C) When all else fails, spend half and hour blindly trying to combine items in your inventory, and waving inventory items across the screen. With any luck, you'll stumble across the completely unintuitive Rube-Goldbergian contraption/technique that the game's designers decided was the only possible way to open a window. If you're less lucky, it means you don't have the right item, so go revisit every location and try to pick up everything you can. Once you've got something new, repeat blind inventory combining and/or waving until you're allowed to proceed to the next 20 minute monologue on the Balance and the Disc and the Key which is the Disc which has been broken into four which are the keys of the Disc for the Balance.

(...) I hope so so that I can run out and enjoy that root canal I've been putting off.

Just what I needed

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: August 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you are looking for a plot-driven adventure game, you enjoy reading science fiction and/or fantasy, and you want to use your mind every now and then during game-play, then consider playing this one. It is very well produced. It runs smoothly through its entirety and is graphically beautiful.

As a former addict to Sierra's Space Quest and King's Quest series, I was pleased to have the opportunity to play a similar game set in both technological-driven and mythological-driven worlds. I was also glad that it was 3rd person, since the sensitive controls of 1st person games make me dizzy. To the drawbacks, though:

April Ryan's normal 1-mouseclick speed was a very s-l-loooww strolling walk (I thought you had to save two worlds! What heck are you thinking??). That along with the nonchalant "we've-got-all-the-time-in-the-world" style of the spoken conversations was so at odds with the flavor of the game that I quickly changed my settings [allow ESC for skipping forward, subtitles ON, and voice level down (this still allowed for music and background sounds)] in order to ease my increasing dislike for our Star. I found the language real, albeit long-winded, and it would have revealed nothing new to me when I was a teenager, let alone what I hear from teenagers today, so I'm skeptical of the need for a Mature rating.

The gamer in me hated that the conversations spoon-fed (or should I say force-fed?) information for solving tasks that I had already figured out but couldn't complete until finishing a set dialogue with some particular character. The reader in me, however, appreciates the dimension that the dialogue added to the story. Another drawback for gamers (at least me) is that you can do nothing wrong. You cannot die, but you may be stuck in the same place for a long time, which is a hell unto itself. If you need to look at/touch/combine things now, you can, if not, then you can't now but maybe later. Sometimes this made the puzzles too easy and a couple of times the emergence of a new item was so obscure that, I admit, I had to use a few hints to nudge me in the right direction.

I'm still partial to the freethinking style of the early Sierra games mentioned above, yet despite its flaws this was a very entertaining way to wind down from work for a week. Funcom deserves kudos for this half game-half movie and, like the movie Matrix Reloaded, The Longest Journey needs a Part II to tie up loose ends. I am waiting.

Gotta sleep... But I must finish... I must...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: August 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

My Journey just ended today and it truly was a long one. I finally beat it...!!! Now I can sleep in peace. I myself was skeptical about buying this game, but I can assure you, you'll be captivated by it. Please note, this is actually a 4.5 stars game. I am only able to put 4 starts because the dropdown box doesn't allow otherwise. I come from a background of playing various adventure games by Sierra On-Line and Lucasfilms. TLJ did not disappoint.

This is one of those games that draw you right into the story and makes you feel like you're a part of it. In fact, it was almost impossible to go to sleep on some nights. And even when I got the opportunity to, I actually started to dream about what was going to happen next.

TLJ was very well put together - there are so many different places to visit and so much detail in each of the scenes and full motion videos (FMV's). Each one was magnificent and just pure eyecandy. Kudos to the designers and graphic artists! I must also say that the characters and their voices were also very convincing. Just about everyone of them fit their mood or accent. They were very much alive. Particularly Detective Minelli (*a reference for those who have played the game already). Whoever did the voice for April did an incredible job. The musical scores were also amazing; they were well performed and added dimension to each scene. But most of all, I fell in love with the story and thought it was terrific.

There is one drawback: For those of you with a short attention span, be warned... there is A LOT of dialogue. This is actually a good thing as it adds the feeling of actually being in the story and it gives you more of a sense of the who the characters really are.

After reaching the end of the journey, however, it left me wanting more... I wonder what the chances are for a "The Other Longest Journey"...

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions