![]() ![]() I'd forgotten how heartbreaking the final scenes of that game are too, really powerful stuff. I found that the themes of Dreamfall are also still very resonant for a game that came out in 2006, stuff like corporations hoarding and exploiting personal data, the detainment and persecution of minorities by the ruling government, etc. TLJ introduces the world expertly and has a lot of great twists and turns in its own right, but ultimately it's much more of an archetypal hero's journey sort of story (think prophecies and world-saving heroes), whereas the narrative structure of Dreamfall is more varied and dynamic and constantly leaves you guessing as to what's coming next. I will say on playing them again I found that while I still have a fondness for the first game, Dreamfall was by far the better and more interesting of the two for me. Each character has their own unique perspectives and stories to tell, even the more minor side characters. (PS- Burns Flipper is the best character in TLJ canon, prove me wrong) Dialogue for the most part is really well-written and feels like an actual conversation, which is good because there is a lot of it. I want to avoid spoilers in this post, but the variety in the characters, their motivations and backstories, the questions about the nature of the world and how the material relates to dreams, and the weird and unexpected directions the story takes all make for a really intriguing narrative that makes you want to keep discovering more. On its surface it doesn't sound like anything special- Stark is a just-shy-of-dystopian future Earth where corporations run everything (heard that one before?) and Arcadia is basically Narnia, but the attention to detail and design of these worlds make them feel completely foreign and unique. The main thing that made me fall in love with these games was just how interesting and creative the world is, and that remained completely intact on my recent playthrough. Dreamfall uses multiple protagonists, but arguably the main character is Zoe Castillo, whose journey begins when she starts to see the girl from Ringu (basically) on her TV telling her to find and save April. The first game, The Longest Journey, follows April Ryan as she becomes aware of this other world and of her ability to 'shift' between them. ![]() The two exist in a balance, and when that balance becomes threatened our heroine must save the day. Very basic story outline is that there's a parallel world to our own called Arcadia, and while our world (Stark) is bound by the laws of science, Arcadia is a world of magic. The main gameplay difference between the first two games is that the first is a fixed camera point-and-click while the second and third use behind-the-back third person controls. Just in case anyone reading this hasn't played the games before, they're adventure games very much in the typical Monkey Island mold- collect objects, talk to people, solve puzzles, etc. But story, dialogue, and worldbuilding are the heart of these games, and let me tell you, those aspects were just as engaging and creative as I remember. And in some respects that was true- graphically they really show their age (particularly TLJ), and a lot of the gameplay mechanics are clunky and obtuse, such as the combat in Dreamfall which adds nothing to the game and I would even go so far as to say detracts from it. It had been many years since I last played them and I was worried that they wouldn't hold up. To prepare, I've been playing through the first two games (The Longest Journey and Dreamfall) over the last couple months. I made a promise to myself that I wasn't gonna play Chapters until I got the Kickstarter version, and so though it's been out for years at this point, this will be my first time playing. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |