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| | Title:
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
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System:
Xbox
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Genre:
Adventure
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Publisher:
Funcom Dublin, Ltd.
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Developer:
Funcom
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Release:
4/17/2006
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Online:
No
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ESRB:
Rating Pending (RP)
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Let's face it; the adventure game is a dying breed. While great games like Indigo Prophecy and Beyond Good and Evil have injected much needed life into the genre, it still hasn't completely stopped the impending trend of adventure games becoming less and less popular now a days. With the popularity of fast paced action titles like God of War and Halo that inject an adventure aspect into their predetermined genre, players are having a harder time getting excited about just experience the adventure, minus the action. But that hasn't stopped Aspyr from releasing the sequel to arguably one of the best adventure games in the past few years. Dreamfall, the direct sequel to the PC smash hit The Longest Journey, is Aspyr's statement that the adventure genre is not dead. Can Aspyr save this dying genre?
Story Masterpiece
Dreamfall takes places after the events of The Longest Journey have come to a close. Needless to say, things are still not right in the world. Players take the role of Zoe Castillo, a biotech student drop out who is having trouble finding her place in the world. Quickly, Zoe's world begins to spin out of control when her reporter ex-boyfriend goes missing and Zoe begins having visions telling her to save "April". Ultimately, Zoe is thrust into an amazing adventure that will take her across three worlds and have her meet countless people. Beyond this I won't spoil anymore of the story because it truly is the best thing Dreamfall has going for it. At the core of every adventure game is the narrative. If it stinks, no matter how ingenious the mechanics are of the game, no matter how good it looks, the game will fail. That is not the case with Dreamfall. Aspyr has done an outstanding job in crafting the story and world of the game. Every character Zoe meets seems unique, and every twist and turn in the story feels fresh. If you are a fan of a good story that rivals the heavyweights of Final Fantasy, then this is the game for you. However, in order to experience this amazing story gamers are going to have to look past a few less than stellar additions to the adventure genre that Aspyr has made. 
Just one of the amazing locals of Dreamfall
Neo...Zoe is not.
Probably the most radical and disappointing addition is the combat system. Simply put, it stinks. While the buttons do respond fairly well to the commands while in combat, the camera becomes a big issue. It likes to position itself in places where gamers can't tell whether they are close enough to land a hit and can lead to a lot of "air punching." Complimenting the camera are the very stiff animations. Every hit laid on an opponent just doesn't feel powerful. There also isn't much depth to the system. Players can do light or heavy attacks and block, and while combos are possible they are hard to pull off. Now one has to give Aspyr credit for trying something new in the adventure genre. Too often adventure games are just click and interact. But if this trend of combat in adventure games should continue it needs a radical overhaul.
This is not that exciting.
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