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Maybe It was Just a Dream... A Long Beautiful Dream

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 22 / 24
Date: April 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is the sequel to a game entitled "The Longest Journey" for the PC. I'm ashamed to say I've yet to play this remarkable game, but when the sequel came around, I couldn't say no to it. In fact, because of its sequel I want the first one even more. This game has deep, interesting and convincing characters, along with a fantastic storyline. The game is, overall, a fantastic experience.

Zoe is a beautiful attractive woman who can't decide what she wants to do with her life anymore. She's dropped out of high school, she's broken up with her longtime boyfriend, and now she seems completely and utterly lost. Her ex boyfriend, however, is interested in doing a story, and he needs Zoe's help. This begins what is undeniably a fantastic game, full of fantastic story elements. It seems simple, but the story grows into something remarkably complex. It becomes somewhat of a fantastic journey the player never wants to end. There are moments, however, where the story throws a lot at you, and the game isn't long enough to bring every subplot to a satisfactory conclusion. This shouldn't suggest the storyline is bad. You'll just expect the game to be longer.

The story is played out through cinematic cutscenes. Most of the story is told in this fashion. However, unlike most games, the voice acting is top notch. It never losses hold. The dialogue is also fantastic, and flows smoothly. Put simple, these characters actually seem human as opposed to one-dimensional cardboard cut-outs. Not only does this help the characters seem human, but also helps them become instantly likeable. You'll also be given choices to make in some dialogue sequences. Your choice makes the outcome of some dialogue a little different, but you'll still end up in the same place regardless of your choice.

Dreamfall plays like an Action/Adventure game. Battling foes is pretty simple. It's not hard at all. The game is not much of a challenge, and even some puzzles are pretty simplistic. Despite how little of a challenge the game is, that shouldn't suggest the gameplay doesn't have its merits. There are some puzzles that really will boggle your mind. It's even better because there is no one basic solution to a puzzle. Several of the games puzzles are, in fact, open ended. Put simple, there's more than one way to solve various puzzles in the game. This works for replay value as well. If a puzzle is easy the first time, try to solve it in a more challenging and intellectual way the next time. It makes doing many of the games puzzles rather fun and interesting as opposed to being stale and repetative like some games out there. The only real problem with the gameplay is that there's not a whole lot of it. Most of the game consists of dialogue and exploring. So you won't fight that many enemies, or solve nearly as many puzzles as you might think. Rather, you'll be watching more of the game than actually playing it, and this is something that has plagued video games for a while now.

It's fun to explore many of the games areas. Especially considering it looks visually stunning. You won't just play as Zoe either, and each character has different reactions to certain things. So you might also want to go and explore the same area as another character. The game also isn't so huge that you'll get lost while exploring, which helps the game in more ways than one. And because the game is so beautiful, you can easily get lost in it. It really does look like a fantastic world. Especially because the characters also seem so real. They've got facial expressions and everything, making them seem a lot less like stone statues.

Even better is the audio. Video Games rarely sound as good as Dreamfall. The music is, in and of itself, dreamlike because it's so good. If the graphics don't absorb you into the world, the soundtrack sure as hell will. It's expertly composed, almost movielike in when the music starts as well. And, as I've noted, the voice acting is astonishing. Also close to being movie like. Perhaps some of the best voice talent in the entire video game industry, and I'm not overexaggerating.

The game is a little short, though, despite its long cutscenes. The game can easily be completed in less than ten hours if you try. However, with such an absorbing storyline (that does, I'm sorry to say, end too soon), it'll fly by. You'll have the game completed befre you know it. I really wish the game could've been longer.

You'll love Dreamfall. So many elements and themes woven into one game can't be bad. It's a fantastic gaming experience, one that so rarely comes about in the gaming world. Nearly everything about this game shines.

On the Positive Side
+Fantastic Graphics
+Some of the best music in gaming history
+A very involving and interesting storyline
+Lots of exploration to be done
+Great voice acting and dialogue
+Loveable characters

But on the bad side...
-There are a lot of subplots, not all of which, conclude in a satisfactory way
-The game is short
-Many moments of watching rather than playing
-The game isn't that challenging

Despite some of the cons, the game is fantastic and engaging experience.

Terrific

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 32 / 34
Date: April 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Note: I own the PC version of the game, but I would own the Xbox version would it be Xbox 360 compatible. Using the controller works best for this game. The resolution isn't as good on the Xbox version and there's more aliasing problems. However, don't pass this game up. It is absolutely terrific. I can't recommend it high enough. Also, for $10, I'd recommend checking out The Longest Journey on PC as a starter if you have a PC.

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.

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.

Exceptional

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Dreamfall is the exquisite "sequel" to The Longest Journey. I say "sequel" because the events that take place in Dreamfall aren't directly related to what happened in The Longest Journey. There is a considerable benefit in knowing the back-story, but it's not strictly necessary. Dreamfall is set in a futuristic world, though not a cliche Hollywood way, where you mainly play as a young woman named Zoe. At points in the game you also play as April Ryan, the main character from TLJ, and Kian, but their parts are not as prominent as Zoe's. Without giving anything away about the plot suffice it to say that it involves dreams, corporate greed, the fate of two worlds, and a mysterious girl begging you to save April.

The Dreamfall's story is absolutely engrossing. Not only does Dreamfall have an incredible story and writing, but it's also incredibly cinematic. I have played very few games that have even come close to this level of story-telling. What's more, unlike most games there's actually meaning beyond the events that take place. Dreamfall is, at its heart, a story about three people's journey of faith and finding purpose for their lives. The character development of the characters in Dreamfall is largely unparalleled in other games today, though you do miss out on some of the character arcs if you haven't played TLJ.

Technically Dreamfall is also well above average, especially when it comes to voices and music. All of Dreamfall's voices just fit. There wasn't an annoying or unbearable one in the lot, which is something even giants like Grim Fandango can't claim. The main character's, Zoe, voice is particularly pleasing to listen to with its distinct British accent. The music is nothing short of amazing. It fits the game to the letter, and is hard to imagine it any other way. Finally, the graphics. Dreamfall is not as technically advanced as games like Oblivion, but it's still beautiful. Dare I say more beautiful then some higher poly-count games? Yes. That is not to say that the graphics are dated, by any means, but rather that the combination of stellar art direction and great (but not top of the line) graphics has incredible results.

The last stop is gameplay. Gameplay is without question Dreamfall's weakest link. Funcom, the developer, has wisely avoided the traditional non-sensical obstacles that exist in adventure games for no reason other than to prolong the game in favor of more organic puzzles. The problem is that that there aren't enough of these puzzles and the ones that are there are fairly simple. Funcom also broke tradition again by adding sneaking elements as well was limited fighting. The fighting is not hard and neither adds nor detracts from the game. The sneaking, on the other hand, is handled quite well, and it is definitely one of the more fun aspects of the game.

Overall, Dreamfall is nothing short of incredible. You should play this game for its beauty and its gripping story rather than challenging gameplay or mind-binding puzzles. Finally, a word of warning. Dreamfall is the middle part of a trilogy, the first part being The Longest Journey. While The Longest Journey wrapped up most of its lose ends by the end and only led indirectly into Dreamfall, Dreamfall is another story. The central story involving Zoe, April, and Kian comes to a conclusion, but there are several major questions left unanswered. This is a result of Dreamfall leading directly into the final chapter of the trilogy. It seems frustrating at first, but rest assured it'll be well worth it in the end. In conclusion: Buy this game if you love a good story.

An Interactive Novel

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Good though somewhat flawed gameplay is quickly forgotten as you become wrapped up in the staggeringly amazing story!

Spectacular!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: May 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The story of Dreamfall is fabulous and immersive! No senseless puzzles! The challenges require high curiosity and a little common sense to solve, but they aren't too easy. There are multiple choices for every action, some which seriously alter how you progress. Plenty of replay, I'm still finding new ways! The only downside is the lousy PC controls (hoping for a patch soon), but the Xbox is fine so I'm given this a top rating!

Short, rushed, and unsatisfying

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: May 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is short, unsatisfying, and feels rushed. I rented the game from Blockbusters - it's a 1 week rental that I rented yesterday and just beat - the ending credits are scrolling as I write this review.

First, let's start with my biggest complaint - the story. A story has thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. This game lacks synthesis. It has thesis up the wazoo. I just spent about the last half hour watching the game beat itself, repetitively stating "This had better not be the ending". The main plot does not conclude. The side plots do not conclude. Ultimately, the main characters fail at everything they attempt to accomplish. The game is obviously rushed. The last three chapters are a bad joke. Chapters 12 and 13 literally consist of "Move from point A to point B and watch the level's ending cutscene." Chapter 13, to be more precise, is "Move forward until cutscene". Chapter 14 isn't a chapter - It's just cutscenes. The way the game was ended was enough to send me straight here to write this review. I wasn't satisfied; I was angered. It's that bad.

Now, on to the gameplay. First of all, the traditional adventure game puzzles - problem solving through item collection, item use, and dialogue - are not challenging in the least and usually does not advance the plot in any way. In most cases, dialogue is irrelevant - no matter what you choose to say or do, the avatar makes your choices for you and you are left as an observer to their poor decision making abilities.

I think they tried to make up for the lack of challenge with the addition of stealth, combat, and timed matching games - all are poorly implemented. Thankfully, there is hardly any combat in the game. Kian, the "apostle", sees the most combat, which is no challenge since his weak attack damages enemies even when they are blocking. He's glitched. The enemy, for the most part, stands there and fails to block his attacks, with one or two swings in retaliation. Most stealth situations involve one or two patrolling enemies with small fields of vision, slow movement speed, and predictable patrols. A few situations result in instant death if you are seen. I've been shot through solid walls and somehow electricuted by the floor. I hid in plain sight while heading down a stairway because the pathing blockers on the edges of the downward staircase also, unrealistically, block line of sight. The matching puzzles were frustrating, though they were the most fun part of the end of the game. That's a bad thing.

Now, on to glitches and evidence that the game was either rushed, or done half-hearted. First, between several of the level maps, you can see into part of the next map as you approach the link. However, this lacks consistency. Several of the links show this as a flat plane with a low resolution texture that looks a bit like the next area, while others show this in 3D. Walking into a snowbank, I discovered a glitch where the player's avatar bounces from the ground to the top of the snowbank and back. Also, I managed to walk inside a pathing blocker and was unable to move from the position. I had to reload my last saved game to continue. Finally, although all three main characters have a journal that is used to guide the player to their current objective. The problem is that only one of the three main characters uses the journal.

To summarize - I've played a lot of adventure games, but this is the worst adventure game I've ever played. Adventure games rely heavily on story and puzzles to entertain. Dreamfall fails to entertain.

More like watching a movie than playing a game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I was really excited about this game coming out, and 20 hours of game play later I have to say I'm disappointed. The game has beautiful scenery and an interesting storyline, and is really easy to control. However, the game is at least 60% cut scenes, where there's no actual game play going on. Sometimes, the only involvement you have is making the character run up some stairs from one cut scene to the next. When you are playing the game, there's never any question of what you should do, because you can only interact with objects and people that are key to your mission/current objective. The fighting is clunky and slow, you can't explore the worlds on your own, and you have no freedom to make your own decisions.

All that said, I had fun playing the game, but was really disappointed in the ending. Plus, there's virtually no reason to replay this game, since nothing in it would be different.

I would recommend renting this game and playing it over the course of a week. It's easy and kind of a fun way to pass the time. But there's no reason to buy it.

I th

Should have been a book or a movie it would have been better that way!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: May 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game says its an action/adventure game but I say its adventure game emphasis on adventure. Some people say that its short but its long. It is called "dreamfall: the longest journey" for a reason. All I've done is "Talk to one person and talk to an other person, walk over here, walk over there, blah blah blah". In a game you should be playing it not just mindlessly moving a joystick. This should have been either a book or a movie 'cuz this is not worth a penny to be video game! But if you like adventure games you should get this 'cuz thats ALL IT IS!

...and it was going so well

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

It's been six years since the original game, The Longest Journey, came out on the pc. I don't remember a whole lot about the game, except it featured a great character named April Ryan, had excellent voice acting, and an engaging storyline. But, since it was six years ago, I really don't remember a whole lot about the storyline except that there were two worlds, one being magical and the other technological, and that April could travel ("shift") between those worlds. And that once I finished it, I really, really, REALLY wanted a sequel to be made.

So along comes Dreamfall, the sequel to The Longest Journey. This game has been in development for over three years, and by reading previews on it the total gameplay was supposed to be somewhere in the thirty-plus hours range. There were supposed to be a lot of sidequests that you could go on, and so on. I really thought this was going to be a great game, and it just, well, fell way short.

Basically, in this game you don't control April Ryan (at least at first) as your main character, but rather a girl named Zoe Castillo. She has a delightful accent, and talks a lot. When her friend disappears, she sets off to find him. There are a lot of twists to the storyline, and I don't want to give them away. But, suffice it to say, the story is certainly engaging. The problem is, it's really the only strength to this game, and in the end it fails.

In The Longest Journey, there were a TON of puzzles. Some were ridiculously impossible (unless you're a REALLY good gamer), but there certainly were a lot. It took me a very long time to beat that game, and it lived up to its name. The puzzles in this game are unbelievably easy. There was never once in the game that I was even remotely confused as to what to do or where to go, which wouldn't necessarily be bad if there was more to the game than puzzle solving. Unfortunately, there really isn't. They've added 'combat' to this game, if you want to call it that. Basically, all you have to do is keep hitting the Attack button and you will win every fight. At one point you control a guy who has a sword, and he's supposed to be a 'legendary swordman', yet I wouldn't call him that--again, all you have to do is keep hitting attack. It's a clumsy fighting system, and the game certainly wouldn't be any worse if fighting was removed completely from it.

So then there's the story to talk about. It started out SO well. Seriously. It was engaging, and told through EXCELLENT voice acting. And then it just ended, with NO explanation. I would say that there are a lot of loose threads never tied up, but that would be an extreme understatement. The amount of questions left unanswered is ridiculous. I can appreciate a story that leaves a question or two for the sequel (or for pondering), but this isn't nearly the same thing. My theory on what happened is that although they worked on this game for three years, the developers ran out of time. So instead of requesting more time, they had to hit a deadline so they made the conclusion as cryptic and open-ended as possible. For more than half of the characters I have no idea if they're dead or not, including the main character. I have no idea about pretty much everything that happened at the end, and it's not one of those 'if you paid very close attention to everything you can figure it out' deals, either.

Then there's another problem with it. The developers of this game apparently knew its story was its only real strength, too, so they made it the biggest part of the game. Especially at the end, most of the game is dialogue. You'll sit for twenty minutes listening to a conversation, then you gain control of your character and bring them up a set of stairs and go through another half-hour of conversation. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. There's no final character you have to battle, nothing. You just sit there and watch for the longest time. Now, I like a good story just as much as the next person, but this got somewhat extreme. I'm reminded a bit of Final Fantasy X, where huge cutscenes would take a long time to get through, but at least in that game there was a lot of gameplay.

I finished this game in about 10-12 hours, and there's really no reason for replay. There were NO sidequests in the game whatsoever, unless I completely missed EVERY one of them. The story is completely linear. You do get opportunities in conversations to choose how you want to answer, if you want to be a jerk or a nice person. Maybe some of those options lead to sidequests, or changes in the story, but I doubt it. The game did do a couple of changes in point of view--you control three characters during the game, and at points they meet, and you control the conversation from both sides--which was interesting.

Some of the characters from The Longest Journey return in this game. I don't remember them all extremely well, but some of them were pretty funny in this game, especially toward the end. Probably the best character was Crow, who really was funny in a lot of the things he said. But he entered the game very close to the end, and although it seemed like he was going to be Zoe's companion for awhile, the game hit its sudden ending not very long afterward.

As far as graphics go, well, they're okay. I played this on the Xbox; I'd assume on the pc they'd be a little better. Essentially, though, although all of the environments have their own special feel, the graphics aren't going to astound you. The character models are only okay, although they do a very good job with the facial expressions. The characters' eyes move, they smile, they tilt their head--the way it's done goes along with how someone really would do those gestures. So give the developers some credit there, because it makes the characters more believable. Also, speech is synched up with the characters' lip movement very well. It's not perfect by any means (are there ANY games that are?), but it's one of the best jobs I've seen of that to date.

So, here's the deal. The voice acting is incredible; there's no question about that. The story started out very well, and fell VERY short at the end. The puzzles aren't engaging. There's little to the game OTHER than the story and dialogue. Is this game worth playing? I think it is, but with reservations. Obviously, with the way it was left off, a third game is going to be coming out in this series. I would assume that game will attempt to tie up all of the loose ends this game created. If you want to play this game, I'd suggest waiting until the next one in the series comes out. That way, when you get to the end and start cursing at how poorly it's done, you'll have the next game in the series to start right away, so you won't have to spend a long time confused. As it is, if it's going to be another six years before the next game comes out in this series, then it's just not worth it.

An Interactive Story That Really Means Something

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you've perused any online reviews of this game, you'll know the following about Dreamfall: the visuals are lush, the music and voice-acting are gorgeous, the gameplay is...well, not so great. And while many have commented on the engrossing story, I think what is really most remarkable is that it is *about something*. It's a work of interactive fiction that subtly tries to get the player to think about not just the fates of the twin worlds of Stark and Arcadia, but about the world we're in right now. It is an audacious attempt to stretch the boundaries of the medium of videogames, and I think it succeeds spectacularly.

The first game in the series, The Longest Journey, came out in 1999. The end of the 20th century, the "end of history," we were told. And in TLJ, although it was set in the year 2209, the story was literally about the end of time -- the end of a 13,000-year-old divide between science and magic, between order and chaos. But we pulled through -- as April Ryan did -- we made what we thought were the right choices, and we thought the good guys carried the day into the new millenium.

And here we are in 2006. Enter Dreamfall, which looks at its twin worlds through the same eyes that we're looking at ours. We thought we won. We thought we had the bad guys licked, and saved the world. But it didn't turn out that way. Sure, April saved the world, but things went downhill from there. Just as our "post-historical" world is facing new threats and old fears, Stark and Arcadia are facing powerful interests, fear of the unknown, and rage at what they cannot control.

Don't worry; the game isn't hamfisted or preachy. Its story is deftly told, with characters and dialogue that pull you in, and keep you there. As you lead the characters through the story, they will have you in turn angry, joyful, wondering, and choked up. I took 2 days off of work to play it through, and never once was I bored.

About gameplay: sure, it's pretty easy, and not the smoothest on the block. In attempting to stretch the boundaries of video games, it does seem as though the creators occasionally lost sight of what the medium is currently capable of. However, I think the Xbox version really lends itself to approaching Dreamfall more as a piece of interactive fiction: I could relax on my couch, settle in comfortably, and let the story unfold around me.

Bottom line: Dreamfall will pull you in, and leave you wanting more. It will make you feel, and involve you in the lives of compelling characters and their worlds. And it will make you think, and not just about fantasy worlds. And that is an impressive achievement for any work of fiction, and especially so for a video game. If that's something that you'd like to experience, buy this game. You won't regret it.

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