Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

"I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth; then I ask myself the same question." - Harun Yahya

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is the 2006 sequel to the adventure game The Longest Journey. In contrast to its 2.5D point-and-click predecessor, it is fully 3D and more action-adventure in nature.

Dreamfall is the combined story of three individuals. It tells the story of Zoë Maya Castillo, a young woman in Stark looking for something to do with her life before she gets caught up in an adventure to find her missing ex-boyfriend and stop a mega corporation from releasing a dream-manipulating product. It tells the story of April Ryan, now settled in Arcadia and leading a bitter rebellion against the Azadi empire occupying Marcuria. It tells the story of Kian Alvane, an Apostle of the Azadi empire sent on a special mission to assassinate the troublesome "Scorpion" rebel leader...

Thoughts

Two TV Tropes reviews express my thoughts well enough. So let's be lazy. From Anna the Crow:

I understand the complaints - the story is sort of unintelligible and the cliffhanger is terrible, it's a bastard child of adventure and stealth action, it's quite too short, it's quite too easy... But for me, it was Love At First Sight. Characters are awesome - Zoë is a lovable main character, in a situation that lots of young people can relate to; April is a Knight In Sour Armor and even if you didn't play TLJ you just have to root for her; Kian is... scary and Badass at the same time. Other people (damn, even the things!) you interact with - Crow, Wonkers, Faith, Na'a'ne and others in the resistance are so... alive. The story gets you in and doesn't leave you until the end and sometimes gets just scary. And then there is the graphic. Say what you wan't about the importance of top-notch graphical gimmics in games - visual part of gaming is important. And Dreamfall is beautiful. It doesn't resemble any other game I know. And even after those four years from it's creation it still looks good, because Zee Rust aside, the design is unique. It's that type of games where Scenery Porn doesn't become ridiculous after the technology becomes obsolete. Overall, it might be just an escapist fantasy. But it works and won't leave you indifferent. Me, it really didn't - it got promoted to that single-digit group of stories I obsess over, and I'm very picky!

From tomwithnonumbers:

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is a beautiful experience that instantly became one of my favourite times. It's incredible what a difference the graphics upgrade from The Longest Journey did. The whole world becomes something you want to look at and explore, arriving at each destination is it's own reward. And this of course strengthens the world building immensely, making Stark and particularly Arcadia something I'm interested in and want to know about and see more of. But it goes beyond a graphics upgrade, this game was made in 2006 and it still looks in 2013. Each setting has so much character and is so different from each place. The Cyberpunk of TLJ was interesting, but the Eastern-African-Futuristic blend of Casablanca is so much better when every wall and building is breathing a sense of place.

And the characters are all compelling too, it puts the rest of the industry to shame that someone so effortlessly creates not one by two, completely believable, completely interesting, protagonists who also happen to be female. These aren't generic 'good' heroes and they have problems that are relatable but also admirable and not boring.

I was happy to find the inane puzzles from original are also completely removed, instead almost every quest chain is a very believable and simple set of actions, that adds flavour to the story. The combat and the stealth is pretty broken, but it's not hard and there's nothing that quicksaving won't get you through in three minutes, so I couldn't find myself annoyed by it. It still adds a believable texture to the world, it's important that Zoë can and does fight like she does, even more so for April and the Apostle. If you're looking for a hardcore game, I don't know why you thought to look here. Shamus Young described Dreamfall as more akin to reading a book, you can explore and look at the world at your own place and experience what it's like to go through the events. The actually plot is good too. The ending moment with the little girl is one of the hardest things I could ever imagine someone having to do.

There are missteps, but it would take many more to destroy the magic that is Dreamfall.