Is 'Dreamfall' a game?

[Ali]

I've just finished playing 'Dreamfall'. It was extremely enjoyable and I was very involved with the characters and plot. It was, however, the easiest game I've ever played by a long way. I've never completed such a lengthy game in such a short space of time.

For all but a few puzzles, the solution is simply obvious. For many, you're explicitly told what you need to do. I can think of only two instances of not knowing exactly what to do to solve my current predicament.

Most unusually, during the middle portion of the game I felt I was simply stringing together a series of (quite entertaining) cutscenes. There's a sequence which lasts about 30 minutes where all the player has to do is move from room to room watching cutscenes. Plus you're usually following someone, so there's no danger of you not going to the right place!

I'd be interested to know how other people feel about this game's ressurection of 'interactive movie' experience.

[jetxl]

I felt un-interested after a few sneaking and fighting puzzles. Lots of walking, followed by lots of talking bored me too.

[vict0r]

I actually felt it the same way as you. It felt alot more like playing a movie, than playing a game.

[ManicMatt]

I've not bothered with getting it yet, and I also advised someone else not to get it! (Based on what they like)

But it does remind me of the most cutscene filled boring game I've ever had the misfortune to play. Xenosaga 2. First it came with a free DVD so I could catch up on the story of the non-europe released first one. A mind numbing three hours of pure cutscenes later I've caught up with the game. I play the game. Sorry, "play"? Ho ho ho. I WATCH the game, and play a bit inbetween the cutscenes. The game was also absurdly difficult, being the most difficult and unfair RPG I've ever played. I just wanted to rant. And incase you're thinking "I bet he just sucks at RPGs" let me say I completed FF9,10,11,1-2, shadow hearts 1 & 2, suikoden IV, dragon quest 8 etc etc without cheating. Yes, I HAD to cheat on Xenosaga if I was going to get anywhere and get my moneys worth. And even when I'd made everyone level 99 the bad guys STILL took ages to kill!!!!!!

Phew! Did anyone read that?

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I did.

[LimpingFish]

My hatred of anything connected to "The Longest Journey" is well documented (look it up, people! ) so any comment I make about "Dreamfall" will be tainted by bais.

...

I will say this, though...

It's a bloated pile of festering shite.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Coming from the guy who made Heartland, a story-based and story-heavy OROW game which consisted of listening to (reading) a lot of tapes that told you the backstory...

... :

[Domino]

I enjoyed Dreamfall until I got stuck. It wasn't the greatest game I have every played, but I spent a nice chunk of a Sunday playing it.

Ali had mentioned how easy the game was. I guess I must suck at adventure games because I got stuck big time and was doing nothing but wandering around talking to the same people. That is when I finally decided to call it quits with this game.

I got stuck on this part...

Spoiler

It was the part where you met that crazy lady and you had to return her baby or something like that, i can't even remember now because it has been months.  I could not figure out what to do with her.

[close]

Shawn

[Jimtbrit]

Domino

Spoiler Alert

Spoiler

Go back to the market square where you will find a guard blocking access to a side alley, you need to get down this side alley without being seen.Ã,  Is there anything here that you could hide behind as you move? Its all about timing.

[close]

Spoiler over.

I finished this game last night, and although I could not class it as a typical or even a traditional style Graphic Adventure.Ã,  It would fall more under the category of interactive fiction.
I compare Dreamfall to the 'choose their fate' feature on the Final Destination 3 DVD where you could change parts of the story, by acting in slightly different ways but overall not effecting the bigger story.
I really enjoyed Dreamfall and would like to see other games follow the same pattern, although at a glance it seemed a little on the short side, I preferred it to the Longest Journey, which seemed too long.
For Example I only started playing Dreamfall on Sunday and finished it yesterday (Thursday). Unlike TLJ (which I got to the stage where I got to the stage where I was using a walkthrough quite often because I had lost track of the storyline and just wanted to finish the game. ) Dreamfall kept the puzzles and story closely intertwined giving characters depth.Ã, 
Dreamfall finished on such a cliff hanger that it has left me desparate for more.
As already mentioned I find the puzzle concept similar to Final destination 3, combining this and with quality of the animation of Final Fantasy Advent Children, could Dreamfall be the precursor of a new entertainment genre - interactive movies?Ã, 

[LimpingFish]

Coming from the guy who made Heartland, a story-based and story-heavy OROW game which consisted of listening to (reading) a lot of tapes that told you the backstory...

... :

I didn't charge people to play it, though.

The Longest Journey mistakenly confuses length with quality, taking far too long to tell a mediocre story loaded with the usual cliches. It's about time people stopped treating it as some sort of holy beacon in the adventure game mileu.

Dreamfall manages to be even worse. It's nothing more than bloated nonsense.

Both are painful to play and, as such, only suitable for masochists with lead-plated buttocks.

Ragnar Tørnquist must be a colossal bore.

[Traveler]

I agree w/ LimpingFish. TLJ was a massive pain to finish. I like talkie games, but the amount of talking was sooo much in TLJ that it gave me a headache. And in many cases, the story was very linear. I, for one, will definitely skip Dreamfall, because I almost hated every character in TLJ.

[Helm]

The Longest Journey mistakenly confuses length with quality, taking far too long to tell a mediocre story loaded with the usual cliches. It's about time people stopped treating it as some sort of holy beacon in the adventure game mileu.

Agree. Games that fail at being games. They're still games. Just bad ones.

[sergiocornaga]

I enjoyed Dreamfall. It was pretty terrible as a game, but not bad at all as an interactive movie of sorts. What I didn't like about it was how horribly inbalanced it was in terms of interactivity, with most of the actual "game" parts occuring at the very end.

Also would have been nice if you could pause during the movie sequences that practically are the entire game... I remember I was just about to go see a film and I decided to play a small amount of Dreamfall before leaving. I walked for about a minute, then it launched into a 45 minute long movie sequence spanning all three main characters in which I couldn't find a time to save. That kind of sucked.

[Snarky]

The Longest Journey mistakenly confuses length with quality, taking far too long to tell a mediocre story loaded with the usual cliches. It's about time people stopped treating it as some sort of holy beacon in the adventure game mileu.

Agree. Games that fail at being games. They're still games. Just bad ones.

I can understand that some people don't like TLJ (I thought it was quite good, but agree that it's overrated), but it doesn't fail at being a game. It has solid, traditional adventure-puzzling gameplay.

Now Dreamfall, on the other hand, where the only thing for you to do 90% of the time is to walk from point A to point B, is just barely (or intermittently) a game at all. I'd call it an interactive movie, except it's not very interactive. It's more like a movie spread out in space instead of in time: you just walk around from cutscene to cutscene. (And then, suddenly, there's a ridiculously obscure puzzle, or an insanely lengthy stealth bit, or a pointlessly twitchy symbol-matching challenge, or a stupidly difficult chase sequence.)

Although the story was decent, Dreamfall made me want to claw my eyes out.

[Helm]

Yeah I should clarify I was saying Dreamfall -as far as I've been told as I haven't played nor do I intend to- fails as a game.

It has solid, traditional adventure-puzzling gameplay.

I remember TLJ being quite bad in that respect too, and that's saying something, but yes, it's not inherently any more a failure than 80% of all adventure games from the 'golden' period.

[Ali]

To my mind its greatest failing is the role cutscenes play in the game. A dramatic, well animated cutscene is a lovely thing to watch. It should be a reward, something a player earns by solving a puzzle.

Dreamfall treats the player like a spoilt child, you get visually rich cutscene for as little as walking from one room to another.

This means that the game's narrative is dramatised effectively, but there is no drama in the gameplay. You lose your sense of being an active protagonist, and are more like the characters' chauffeur.

Nonetheless, I will play the third game if/when it appears. If they can marry storytelling with a challenging and well developed series of puzzles it ought to be extraordinary.

Also would have been nice if you could pause during the movie sequences that practically are the entire game...

I believe you actually can save during some of the cutscenes at least. A similar thing happened to me!

[LimpingFish]

The need to save during a cutscene is just wrong.

To (mis)quote what Will Eisner once said about storytelling in comic books; "Don't tell. Show."

In the case of Dreamfall it should be, "Don't show. Play."

Cutscenes should be little snippets linking large chunks of gameplay, not the other way around.

[Davros]

Yikes.  People on here are harsh.  I like movies.  I like games - lots of games.  Spider is very different from Monkey Island, but I'd never accuse Spider of "failing" as a game.  I think there should be space for interactive movies, books, etc.  Granted, I haven't played Dreamfall, so it's possible that it's a very bad attempt, but sticking to "games look like this" isn't going to broaden the selection of games we have. 

[Ali]

I agree Davros, and I didn't mean for this to be a Dreamfall hate thread. I really enjoyed TLJ and the latest offering.

I suggest you play Dreamfall though, you'll be surprised at how little there is to do. I don't think it 'fails' as a game, I just think it's far closer to an interactive (but not a challenging) story. Adventure games have always bordered on interactive storytelling, but Dreamfall goes a step further than anything I've played.