Games: Funcom - Dreamfall

Ragnar Tornquist / Funcom
Dreamfall
[Adventure]






Ok, let's get the big one out of the way right now; this game has a story that kicks ass. If you aren't familiar with the name, it's a sequel to a game called The Longest Journey. Released six years ago, it grew a cult following of gamers looking for "classical" graphic adventures (an increasingly niche genre) and story-based gameplay. It concerned the endeavours of a girl called April Ryan to save conjoined worlds of magic and technology called "Stark" and "Arcadia". (Guess which is which...)

"Wait a minute!" I hear you cry. "He said this had a story that kicks ass. This sounds like the usual sci-fantasy hokum brewed up by dozens of immature game designers."

Hear me out, reader. What really elevates these titles above the average fodder is the characters. All of which, without exception, are well written and voice acted. That's right, kids, these games have good voice acting. Further, lots of the most interesting aspects of The Longest Journey centred around the character development of April herself; starting as an art student in Venice, a small, bohemian corner of a futuristic city, Newport, we spent a lot of the game watching her progress from carefree dreamer to a woman with the weight of two worlds on her shoulders.

She returns, older and disillusioned, in Dreamfall, along with two new protagonists, Kian, a warrior who begins as April's enemy but must re-examine his own faith and allegiances, and Zoe, a privileged college-dropout whose life is stuck in a rut until she discovers the existence of the parallel world and becomes embroiled in intrigue involving lucid dreams, robotics corporations, and a creepy little girl in the style of The Ring.

By turns, the plot of Dreamfall is clever, funny and heartbreaking. The ending led me as close to tears as a game ever has, and there's even some time for a spot of bush-bashing/nazi commentary. The art direction, also, is superb; this game will leave stunning images burned on the back of your retinas for a long while after. The music is tasteful and suits each scenario well.

With so much good, what can I say stopped me giving this a full two-thumbs up? Well, firstly, there's not actually that much to the gameplay. There are some trivially easily puzzles (apart from one unfair music puzzle which only lets you hear the cue once) and a little bit of sneaking and fighting. The fighting has clunky, unresponsive controls, but is either easy or skippable. Most of the time you'll be walking about from point A to B, clearly signposted, or talking. Boy, is there a lot of dialogue. I'm talking fifty per cent of the game length, here, no exaggeration. You'll be thanking your lucky stars there is good voice acting and writing, because without it you would be bored out of your skull. As it is, it would merely have been nice if the developers had put more interaction into the conversations.

Now, believe me, I would rather have easy challenges than bizarre, illogical puzzles any day. But there are so many opportunities for puzzles to have been naturally integrated into this game that the designers missed, even a plot-centric guy like me was longing for a bit of an intellectual workout. Without the innovations of Fahrenheit, this game does seem very much like simply a My First Adventure - with very good writing, sound and art.

You'll enjoy it, and it's a blast while it lasts. But don't expect much of a challenge, and don't expect a neatly wrapped up ending either. The story is part two of a trilogy - and you'll have to wait another six years or whatever for the end of the story. But the key point here is that it's a story you'll want to finish, not another shooting gallery you couldn't care less about. 87