dmarusz's Full Review: The Longest Journey for Windows
There's a lot to discuss in this game: good, bad and otherwise. It's a system of ups and down, in which the industry has labeled it the new era of adventure games. It definitely ushers in some new ways, but I don't see it as the new Myst or other groundbreaking games. It takes a different approach to a school of games that has been slightly antiquated in that manner.
The first thing that pops out at you is that you are playing in third person. They must of have read the History of Laura Croft or something. I'm not sneering. I think that this is a good idea to poke something new into the adventure genre. They stick to static loaded places (as opposed to a continuous environment) but fill them with people to talk to. That is definitely a breath of fresh air.
The breath is short unfortunately when you find that even though there is much to discuss, the repetition comes rushing in after the first rich layer. So, you go from, "Wow, what do I ask?" to, "Are these guys going to say anything new, soon?" quickly. This gets worse as some character are insistent to drone on without remorse. It's kind of like that friend that who loves to talk. After a while, you're not even sure if they even know your present. It would be nice for the characters that you interact with to break their comments up into smaller parts so that you are allowed to ask more questions and take an active participation in the interaction. Playing the game can sometimes feel like you are listening to a book on tape sometimes, which obviously is not the intent of any PC game.
You play a character called April Ryan. I say the name because you are probably not her. Like I was saying before, she can ask a lot of questions, and she has a nice initial choice to pick from. However, how she answers, or the bevy of possible questions to choose from will not give you the options that you want (or want to ask.) There were times when I didn't feel a connection to April. It's almost like making decisions for the guy down the street. You can make him go one way, but he won't be any nicer or act differently because of your choice. Now, I'm saying this as a man. Women may feel more in touch with April. Although, I highly doubt every woman or most every woman will feel this way.
Her tone can seem downright haughty and aloof at times. She's like the Meg Ryan of video games (hmmmm ... Meg "Ryan". April "Ryan.") This leaves you to question, "Is this the hero of the story?" Unfortunately, this haughtiness gets coupled with a dense intellect. You end up with someone who is talking down to everyone, but can't even understand the simplest of plot development. You can get to a point where you are begging her to "get it" so that you can move on to next step. The game itself likes to pace you slowly such that you have to go through a slow path, when you know where to go and just want to get on to the next step.
Did I mention slow? That is what your character will seem to you as you move from place to place. If you double click on a spot you can run to it. However, I didn't see that anywhere in the instructions. I bought this game used, so maybe I was missing an instruction manual, but if this was not explained it should have been. Why, you ask? Well, in one instance I timed the April character at 43 seconds to go from one end of the screen to the other. Now, imagine doing that 50 times through the first third of the game. I was starting to bring reading material as I played this. I was actually beginning to think that "The Longest Journey" was referring to the unending walking that I did. I only accidentally figured out the double-click when finally getting frustrated and going on a binge of right button mashing.
Otherwise, the game is not hard to play. In fact, it is easy to pick up. This can lead to mostly good things but some bad. You get an inventory like most adventure games. In this game, though, there is a lot to pick up. When you no longer need the items you picked up, it conveniently removes them from your inventory. This is nice to not have to organize it constantly but at the same time enjoy having things to use and try. You can even use the items more than once, which is a wrinkle many games don't use.
Keeping it simple in the small loaded areas makes for short load times. On today's computer, these will be minor. So, the game's intent I think is realized and it becomes easy to play as well as reduces a lot in-game troubles that you might have.
The weakness of the simplicity comes from the lack of ultimate direction. In the beginning, I normally talked to people and you would give them an item for the inventory (through the dialog screen.) Later, I found that you actually had to take the item from the inventory and physically give it to them through the interface screen. It would have been nice to have some consistency, because (as I mentioned) you are always one step ahead of the character's understanding. So, at times, I thought that I just had to wait for another happening before the person would take it. I ended up wasting a lot of time trying to find that next happening. Oh well.
The game's simplicity and long speech make it very dry at spots. In fact, I found playing FreeCell more enjoyable overall. Now, I like FreeCell, but a PC game should be more attractive, overall.
It's overall performance, even though lackluster, is not a total wash. The reason being more than just the good points that we just mentioned. The plot starts out slow but ends very strong with good shifts that make it interesting. The ending isn't a let down or a shameless "non-ending" that really sets up the next game.
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