Blog FeedDreamfall
A couple weeks ago I was buying a new book and CD on amazon.com. The total came just shy of $25. If you spend over $25 on amazon.com you get free “super saver” shipping. The saver shipping is pretty slow (5-13 days I think), buy I was in no hurry. So I hunted around for something small I had been meaning to buy to get the free shipping. I stumbled upon The Longest Journey.
This game is something I have been meaning to buy for years. Adventure gaming has never been my forte but for some reason I’ve always wanted to play this game. However, its shelf life in game stores was about a month if that. Now it seems to only exist in obscure bargain bins or online. Thankfully I grabbed it before it dissappeared forever.
The Longest Journey is less of a game and more of an experience. Something I think everyone should play, not just gamers. It is not to say that there is no gameplay there, but it takes a backseat to the extrodinary story, world and presentation. Immersive just isn’t the word.
Anyways Dreamfall is soon to land (the sequel). An interesting aspect of the game’s development is that Dreamfall was produced on a grant from the Norwegian government. More specifically the Norwegian Film Fund ponied up the money to get the game made. The Longest Journey never sold terribly well; adventure gaming is far past its glory days. This marks one of the first times a government has taken active interest in gaming as a productive and meaningful medium. I just thought with the current blaze of criticism on games (Jack Thompson, Hot Coffee etc) it would be refreshing to remind people how far we’ve come.
7th August | Reply
I played TLJ and am looking forward to Dreamfall as well. Unfortunately, as society goes, only the most controversial topics get the attention. I fear that the only people you’ll “remind how far we’ve come” are gamers who know how far already.
7th August | Reply
Makes me proud to be a Norwegian gamer for a change.
9th August | Reply
I loved TLJ, I played it through without stopping, and played it again vicariously when I let my friend play it. I’ve been looking forward to Dreamfall, although the announced twists in gameplay concern me a bit.
12th August | Reply
sorry guys, but i hated the longest journey. the setting and the story were beautiful, but the puzzles were god awful. i have nightmares about the ridiculous device you had to build to fish the keys from the rails in the subway station. the puzzles were just too completely random and unguessable. adventure games where you end up randomly combining things to try and solve a puzzle are not my bag. i love the ones where the puzzles are eloquent like The Secret of Monkey Island and not ‘gabriel knight’esque.
13th August | Reply
Oh come on! That one wasn’t the worst, how about the one with the toy monkey’s shadow?