Dreamfall; The Longest Journey
Aficionados of adventure games, those who have already played The Longest Journey, will already be deep into Dreamfall; The Longest Journey.
This long awaited sequel is once again a tale about a shape shifter -- this time it is Zoe Castillo,
who is picking up April Ryan's mission. Zoe is a well drawn character -- appealing, easy to identify with,
a teenager, wondering what to do with her life.
You will actually play two additional characters in the game.
It is difficult to do justice with a review because is it part novel, part movie, part game.
That it comes on 6 CDs should give you some idea of how long and complex it is.
As in the original, there are multiple worlds, Stark, the technological world, Arcadia, the land of magic, and fearsome Winter.
Zoe's mission is to restore the balance between the worlds in the face of destruction to both Arcadia and Stark.
Locations are many -- Zoe's home base in futuristic Casablanca, timeless Arcadia, subterranean caverns,
the sterile corporate halls of Tokyo and familiar Newport, Venice.
For those who played the original, it will be sheer joy to see familiar locations and characters turn up once again.
Interactions with other characters are numerous, and through it the player will slowly get to know what is going on.
Game play is not all talk, there is searching for clues, avoiding malevolent female twins, and fighting Kian Alvane,
a fundamentalist who, to prove his worth, will try to kill her.
The game will touch on philosophy, faith, self appraisal, political oppression, privacy, fundamentalism and corporate power.
A full plate for a game, but then, that's what makes it so great.
It ends -- as the original did -- inconclusively, so one can expect another sequel.
Hopefully we will not have to wait 10 years.
The game is rated M, which it too bad, since it might keep teenagers away from a wonderful experience.
Yes it has some cursing and sometimes the main character is in her underwear -- but really!
For those of you who, after playing Dreamfall; The Longest Journey will want to go back and play The Longest Journey
I have included the Amazon link. Note that Dreamfall will only play on Windows XP.
Reviewed by: Editor - 08/06
Ages: Mature -- see review