The Longest Journey - Clasic in Point & Click Adventure Genre?!

Cryxo · Fri 24/04/2009 12:24:41

I just bought the Dreamfall & Longest Journey in a limited ed. box with goodies and stuff a couple of days ago. At first I was a bit aprehensive to buy it but I had heard great things of TLJ.

I played it for about 45 mins and didn't think it was too bad. But I never ever hear people talking about it anywhere (apart from PC Gamer UK's John Walker). Is it really a classic in the point and click adventure genre? Or is the reason why its talked about so little is because it just simply sucks in other peoples' eyes (to put it bluntly)?

thezombiecow · Fri 24/04/2009 12:39:11

I thought they were both pretty weak. TLJ gets better, and is interesting at times but ultimately quite dull.

Dreamfall isn't an adventure game, it's a conversation-'em-up. Walking and talking and running from A to B.

Snarky · Fri 24/04/2009 13:29:54

TLJ is well enough regarded by enough players that you pretty much have to call it a classic, deserved or not. I personally think it's quite good, but it wouldn't go on my list of favorite games or anything.

Dreamfall got a lot of good reviews, but I agree with zombiecow that it's hard to call it an adventure game. Hell, I think it's barely a game at all. The meager gameplay in Dreamfall is, in my opinion, so horribly broken that it makes all its other qualities--graphics, story, writing, music, voices, etc.--moot. (And the story isn't that great in the first place.)

Intense Degree · Fri 24/04/2009 16:25:52

I bought TLJ a few years ago and although I have tried to play it maybe 3 or 4 times I have never got further than the first 10 - 15 minutes!

I really can't explain why as I have completed quite a few games that are much worse (at least then what I have seen of TLJ so far). I really want to like it as I have also heard much good said about it but something always stops me from playing. It might be the way you start in that fantasy landscape (dream) solve a couple of puzzles and then you're straight to a modern room in Venice (or wherever). I don't know why but it just puts me off for some reason.

...hmmm this has made me feel like trying it again now, wonder how far i'll get?!

Cryxo · Fri 24/04/2009 16:47:02

Quote from: Intense Degree on Fri 24/04/2009 16:25:52...hmmm this has made me feel like trying it again now, wonder how far i'll get?!

Good luck with that

I mean, I quite like it, but it's not the kind of game where you feel the need to have to finish it. It would be one of those games you play and finish on a hot summer holiday - day.

Stupot · Fri 24/04/2009 17:56:44

I really liked TLJ... but it is incredibly conversation driven, which is something I'm not a fan of. But I really got sucked into the story.

Is it a classic? I think it could be described as a personal classic in some people's eyes, but from where I'm standing I don't think it's incredibly high on this genre's 'classicness scale'. At least not yet.

Babar · Fri 24/04/2009 18:26:54

I don't remember if there was no way to skip speech or cutscenes or something, but I remember getting up to do something on a replay of it (some bug had gotten be first time through), and returning about 10 minutes later or something, and the conversation was still going on. SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.

ManicMatt · Fri 24/04/2009 22:35:47

I played Dreamfall on the xbox, and I quite enjoyed it, even if it wasn't much of an actual game. I've never played TLJ, so when the same LTD edition box came in my shop second hand, I thought "what the hell, it's cheap enough, especially with my staff discount." and bought it myself.

Eggie · Fri 24/04/2009 22:56:20

I never got past the first few screen of TLJ either. Everything just took so damn long, there was reams of irrelevant dialogue and it didn't seem in too much of a hurry to give the player any kind of objective that that might incent them to keep playing.

All I got was that there was this girl walking around in her underwear who everyone thought was a REALLY GOOD ARTIST and SO PRETTY and that her flatmate wasn't a bastard but he was a wanker and that she dreamt in annoying 'use available inventory with available hotspots and see what happens' adventure game 'puzzles'.

passer-by · Fri 24/04/2009 23:33:12

Quote from: Stupot on Fri 24/04/2009 17:56:44
But I really got sucked into the story.

That's why I liked it.
Was it a game?

Anian · Fri 24/04/2009 23:50:51

I'm sorry, but even if I didn't like TLJ (but I do, it's pretty good and interesting story wise), an opinion of somebody who played it for 10-15 minutes is not really worth all that much, the game is on 4 freakin' cds and you really can't say you came to understand it and analyzed it by playing it 15 minutes. Not saying you have to agree with me and that everybody has to like it but come on...if you go with "I don't think I'll like this" attitude than it's no wonder you don't like it.

Dreamfall is a bit more of a story than a game (except for that underground maze part which I just didn't get, I couldn't finished it even with a walkthrough

) but I was so interested in what would happen next and the fact that it's supposed to be a trilogy, that I played it through. Still all throughout I was expecting that I would be able to do more stuff than I could, but it was an alright game, with graphics helping a lot.

xenogia · Sun 26/04/2009 05:52:57

You had trouble getting through TLJ, completed Dreamfall though. The writers for the game are amazing and story wise it really gets you sucked in. As for the third game, they haven't even started making it yet (damn conan issues!)

Cryxo · Sun 26/04/2009 18:55:30

I started playing for a bit without the disk because for some reason it worked. I then get to the subway and it starts asking for disk 2, but I only installed it on one disk

LimpingFish · Sun 26/04/2009 21:28:10

My disdain for TLJ is well documented. I always thought it was a bloated snore. Many people disagree. Such is life.

Igor Hardy · Mon 27/04/2009 15:08:01

I also didn't like TLJ very much. Rather boring, cliched story, average puzzles. Too much unimaginative talk about balance, chaos, storytelling and the like. Also, the focus on a teenager leaving her alcoholic father behind, starting to live independently and hanging out with friends is something off-putting for me personally. Feels like I just switched on TV.

The only thing I truly liked was the ambition to present a complex, epic tale that celebrates the art of storytelling in many different ways. Too bad the game wasn't better written.

xenogia · Tue 28/04/2009 03:36:50

I personally think that Dreamfall hit the mark better, despite the easier puzzles.

Alarconte · Tue 28/04/2009 10:50:45

There is much skepticism in this post about the quality of TLJ and Dreamfall.

Adventure games go about puzzles? I must be forgotten anything. Adventure games don't are about going from A to B (with more or less complication) and seeing a wonderfully written story full of enjoyable characters, moods and conversations?

I think The Longest journey was one of the best adventure games since the classics died in computer gaming terms. TLJ was extraordinary LONG (a great thing, I think about adventure games), with a great fantasy world (such fantasy and sci-fi) to explore, infinite conversations and enjoyable characters.

And Dreamfall is the better and more depth "interactive movie (to say easy)" I played ever, It's not simply a movie; You can watch Dreamfall complete in 40 videos of 10 minutes in youtube, and it's not the same that actually playing the game; suffering with the depth of characters, the sad story, the MOST FRUSTANT ENDING EVER.... wha... no words.

Ozzie · Tue 28/04/2009 15:08:18

To summarize the game in 4 words: Great story, badly written.
4 more: excessively talky, inane puzzles

Hm, sounds pretty negative. I loved this game on my first playthrough. It tells a moving tale and you sympathize with April and many other characters. But the game has so many small and bigger shortcomings that add up over time...the dialogues are long-winded. No, there's not only much to talk about, but they never move forward, they're stuck on the same topic for eternity.
On my second playthrough I capitulated when I went through the portal the first time. The thought of endless exposition forced on my made me feel sleepy.
The game is wonderful at moments! The forest with its inhabitants, Rupert Clacks castle, Burns Flipper, the island....there were really awesome set-pieces.
But you have to expect that it's not the best game ever.

xenogia · Tue 28/04/2009 22:57:51

I'd have to agree, it is definetly not one of the greatest games out there. But enjoyable none the less.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Wed 29/04/2009 01:46:31

I think the game's title says it all, only you could easily switch 'longest' with 'most tedious' without anyone noticing. Played the game for about 3 hours and realized more than half of that time had been consumed by dialog (I happen to think these things people say in games should have important information so I tend to read them). I think I actually fell asleep at one point during the game. I should start making that a review element: fell asleep x times during game.