The Longest Journey
FunCom, 2000
By Diana Poulsen
I felt that itch, one I hadn’t felt in years. It just wouldn’t go away and it could only be filled by one thing… After about eight years I finally decided to return to PC gaming, in particular adventure gaming. I am not sure why I felt this need — but I was drawn to The Longest Journey. Despite the fact that it had won numerous awards I had never heard of it until I saw the box at the store and thought, “Okay, I’ll give that a go.”
You play as April Ryan, a young art school student stressed about her year-end class exhibition. On top of all of that, she begins to have strange dreams about another world that feels just as real as her own, but is filled with mythical creatures. As April you (reluctantly) set out on a series of adventures. This game filled my adventure game thirst and made me wonder why I stopped playing them. Well, the long periods of not knowing what to do, I suppose, was one reason. This game kicked butt; the only downfall is that the first few puzzles are a little weird and irrational, but after that they get a little more simple and logical. There’s something about taking a random flotation duck, deflating it, and using a weird combination of a few objects to throw a switch. It seemed a little odd to me.
The dialogue is well acted and surprisingly interesting. Throughout the game you are in the same position as April, wondering what the hell is going on. The mystery of April’s adventure kept me going through the game and drawing my own and often wrong conclusions. TLJ is an example of masterful storytelling. The story got me sucked into the intricate relationship between the two established worlds: Stark, the world of science, and Arcadia, the world of magic. The narrative sets up a collection of memorable moments. My favourite is the encounter with the Gribbler and April’s reaction to the Gribbler. Let me set this up for you. A fallen-down Gribbler says to April, “I was picking bones… I mean berries, yes I was picking bones… Berries. Yes.” April’s response: “If you can’t trust an old lady, who can you trust?” Oh April, never trust the old lady with a Freudian slip. My other favourite part was April challenging the evil Alchemist to a game of hopscotch. Classic.
On top of all of that there’s the nice adventure game humour: sarcasm and pop culture references. April’s voice actor does a terrific job and that is bloody awesome because April and I spent a lot of time together and I never got sick of the sound of her voice.
The puzzles for hardcore adventure gamers will probably be dead easy but for those of us coming back to the genre they will vary from obvious to challenging. Luckily, it seems as though it’s near impossible to die in the game. However, as the game progresses you’ll get into the adventure game mindset and remember to look at everything twice and the puzzles will become more fluid.
The visuals are stunning. The two worlds are well thought out and just plain interesting. There’s a perfect balance between the colourful, magical world of Arcadia and gray, technological world of Stark. However, both worlds have an overarching sense of impending doom. As a treat, when you complete the game you can look at the concept art and listen to the outtakes.
It made me very excited to hear that there is a minor possibility of an MMORPG and I am dying to play the sequel Dreamfall: The Longest Journey but of course I am held back by an old but reliable computer. Overall, the best adventure game I have played in years (Quest for Glory IV being the last one). Remember kids, never trust old ladies who pick bones and never challenge an evil alchemist to a hopscotch duel or a spelling bee.
