Seven years later, there's a sequel trying to prove that the genre didn't go out on a high note. It didn't go out at all. The point and click adventure is still here, even if it has to be tweaked and mixed with third-person combat and other mechanics more casual players enjoy. That sequel is Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, and I've absolutely no idea how it connects to the first game.
Truth be told, The Longest Journey was out of my mind for so long that I didn't connect the two until reading this Wikipedia entry...
Fun Times
I'm playing the PC version of Dreamfall, though an Xbox port is also available, and should serve as your indication for the kind of changes that the genre has been taken through in this game. Point and click adventures don't grab players' attentions like third-person action-adventure titles do, and Dreamfall has sort of been designed with that in mind, by basically fusing the two together.
We start in some kind of monastery as Brian Westhouse, a guy who likes to write with a quill and ink, in sentences that have no context. I've got two paths but can only take one, blah blah blah. I don't remember any of the writing of The Longest Journey, but if I called it waffly, then the sequel continues the tradition.
Ok, well, I wasn't expecting that. Prayer-based teleportation? I know nothing about Brian here, or where here even is. What's being set up? Not a clue. Where are we heading? Right over there. Wherever there is.
Frustrations
Not knowing what's going on is fine. You can't be told everything upfront. What's the point in that? But there's something off about all of this. The voice work isn't terrible. I'm not a fan of the writing. The motion capture - if it is motion capture - looks a little cheap, if that's the right word. Brian gets tentacled by this Undreamer or something. He's supposed to be scared. He looks spooked, he sounds concerned, he acts like a theatre student.
There are times where weird writing, strange voice work and awkward animations can work. See Fahrenheit, for example. In that game, it was almost a joy to see. In Dreamfall, it isn't.
But maybe I'm being too harsh. I've not even started the story, have I? Let's begin our tale.
Beginnings and ends do help with stories, yes. Why on Earth would you open with a line like that? This is Zoë Castillo, and she's speaking to us from a coma. It is the far future of 2219, though I only found that out after finishing my play session and reading about Dreamfall.
Zoë here says that 'bad things are happening', and that whoever knows the truth about it all is either dead or missing. Does that include her? We must surely assume so. Let's zip back two weeks to what probably isn't the start of our story to find out what put her here.
This Static not only has everyone talking about The Collapse, events of the past that sound like something we wouldn't want to experience again, but it also seems to be sending cryptic messages to Zoë in the form of ghostly girls.
Not that she has must time to register this abnormality before her literal BonziBuddy tells her she has a text message.
Seriously. Here, it's her Dad. In a minute it'll be some woman on the street she knows, then the martial arts instructor, then the barista, then her ex-boyfriend. Am I forgetting anyone? Probably. Just let it be known that in any string of screenshots involving subtitles, I've cut out so much waffle about Zoë being concerned about her current life situation that I have to wonder if this is actually a point and click game or a tool for helping the depressed.
However. These conversations don't exactly allow for gameplay to speed along. If someone talks in Dreamfall, they talk. They rabbit on and don't shut up. There's something to be said for 'realistic' dialogue, but if you're forcing it, and it's spoken by robots wearing human skin, it just doesn't sit well.
I don't want to hear the same story again and again. I understand that actual people tell the same stories to different people, but this is a video game, and all I want to do is get to the gym, not be reminded - barely two minutes after being told - that Zoë is aimless these days.
When you're not engaged in dialogue, you're able to explore the streets of... yeah, no, I don't know where we are. I might have been told. No idea. Sure is sunny and futuristic, though we appear to be in the more traditional part of town. Anyway, when you're not talking, you're free to run around and explore.
There's not much to explore right now but basic worldbuilding, and its as easy as highlighting something and pressing your action button of choice, from looking at it to talking to it, picking it up and so on.
Every street has seems to a brief loading screen between them, which isn't great but thankfully doesn't grind the game to any halt. Eventually, we run down the right street and find the gym.
After another brief chat about how bored Zoë is with life, we can put into a martial arts tutorial. Combat! In a point and click! Who asked for this? Nobody. Nobody, is the answer, because this combat is awful. Buttons for light and heavy attacks, a button for a block. It has the bare bones of a combat system, sure, but those bones weren't put into anything that resembles combat.
Press a button and Zoë eventually launches into an attack. Hopefully, you were close enough for it to connect. Even more hopefully, your opponent wasn't blocking at that moment. I wouldn't even call this a slog, or a chore. It's not even janky, but my goodness do I not want to get into any fights in Dreamfall.
We're given - or we are at the very least told about because I think we have to come back and get it later - a piece of tech for our phone that makes us invisible to the Eye in the Sky. We can assume that means that, in a world where everyone is connected to The Wire, The Eye of whatever this place is - the government, one would assume - watches over us all, and we can never be free from its gaze unless we have shady tech installed by this Liv woman.
You can have a lot of stories about shady governments and invasive technology. Does Dreamfall go that way, or is it far wackier than that? A phone call from out ex-boyfriend seems to suggest that it might be a more grounded story after all.
After mentioning that we're a little lost, that it's cool we're still friends even though we're not together, that we're having a party tonight - none of this as a result of my minimal dialogue choices, I'll have you know - we finally agree to pick up a package 'because we've nothing else to do'.
Games with great characters are games you play again and again. Dreamfall - if I ever get that far (spoilers: I probably won't) is a one and done. Based on what I've seen so far, nothing is compelling me to root for Zoë in her plight, or help Reza with his investigation or do anything for any character I've met. I just don't care for what I've seen, but I'm going to give Dreamfall a chapter to try and win me over. We're going to go pick up a package.
We're headed to Jiva or something to grab a package from Helena Chang, only it seems Helena Chang is in some distress behind an oblivious 'secretary'.
Somewhat predictably, the dialogue here is nothing to write home about, save for the fact that Zoë doesn't bore this woman with her current life situation. Instead, she bumbles her way into convincing this woman to go and look for a package.
How I don't know. I keep mentioning robots. The only things that move in this dialogue shots are mouths and eyes, and with a delivery that feels very much read rather than expressed, Dreamfall comes across as a game whose idea was far bigger than its budget.
The action was supposed to bring new players into the point and click adventure genre. It's not working. Not at all.
Like the combat system, the story has the elements of something, but they just aren't coming together into a final form that I care about, and Dreamfall is running out of reasons to keep me playing. Let's deliver this package to Reza and go to a party where we tell everyone how bummed out we are.
Our first dialogue choice was to co-operate with their demands for my name. No reason not to.
Not really got the hang of this, have you, Zoë?
I said I'd give Dreamfall one chapter to win me over, and while the chapter sure did ramp up towards the end, this is still the start of the next chapter, titled 'Lost', and it's not managed to do what I gave it a chance to do.
Reza isn't picking up his phone, our Dad isn't picking up either, and now I'm putting down the controller too.
Final Word
What do I know about Dreamfall's story? Next to nothing. It's wordy, it's waffly, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense even after an hour. What do I know about Dreamfall as a game? That it probably isn't a bad point and click, but it is in no way a shining example of a third-person adventure done right.
And that's quite a problem. In trying to bring new players to a genre by incorporating more common video game practices, Dreamfall, for me certainly, fails to elevate either point and clicks or third-person adventures. It's merging of the two doesn't highlight the strengths of each. It instead makes the whole thing feel generic.
The only thing going for this generic game is its story, which is out there and bonkers and the only reason you'd play Dreamfall, but to get there you've got to get through gameplay that doesn't thrill and characters who are experts in boring you.
If that sounds like something you want from a game, knock yourself out, especially if you want more of The Longest Journey. I think I'd have to finish playing/watching that first to know whether I could do it all over again in a sequel such as Dreamfall, and the chances of that happening are slim, I've got to admit.
Dreamfall just doesn't grab it. It doesn't amaze or amuse, it doesn't command my attention. It just exists for someone, somewhere. Good for them.
Fun Facts
The developers have apparently admitted that they 'failed to make [the combat and stealth] mechanics fun', which is bang on the money from what I've seen - and I haven't even been tasked with anything stealthy yet.
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, developed by Funcom, first released in 2006.
Version played: PC, 2006.