Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
- Platform: PC, Xbox
- Published by: Aspyr Media
- Developed by: Funcom
- Release Date: Q2 2006
- Genre: Adventure
- Multiplayer: No
- Online: No
Dreamfall Feature Preview
-- March 16, 2006 by: Chris Remo
By most accounts, the graphic adventure is not in the best of shape. There are actually a surprisingly high number of traditional adventure games released on a regular basis, believe it or not, but the genre is a far cry from its heyday in the early 90s, when it outsold any other type of game on the PC. Adventure games started to become less dominant in the mid 90s, in a sense inversely corresponding to the rise of realtime 3D in games. The new graphical technology was arguably one reason for the decline in the number of quality adventure games. It posed technical and financial obstacles for the genre, a hallmark of which was a huge amount of varied visual content rather than a reliance on tiled textures and low-polygon models. By the late 90s, the two juggernauts of adventure gaming, LucasArts and Sierra, had largely moved on to other things. Each company had its swansong: Tim Schafer's Grim Fandango from LucasArts in 1998, and Jane Jensen's Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned from Sierra in 1999. However, ask a lot of modern gamers, and they'll tell you the last great graphic adventure game was Ragnar Tørnquist's The Longest Journey, from Norweigen developer and publisher Funcom in 2000.
The Longest Journey told the story of heroine April Ryan, who embarked on, appropriately enough, a rather long journey that straddled contrasting worlds of science and magic. The game was released to rave reviews and gained a devoted following. In the years following its release, Funcom has mainly been known for the MMO Anarchy Online. In 2003, however, the developer started working on a followup to The Longest Journey, fully titled Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Dreamfall is set for release on Xbox and PC this spring. Having seen the game in various stages of development over the last couple years, I recently had the opportunity to pick the brain of designer Ragnar Tørnquist to hear his general thoughts on the game as well as some of the reasoning behind the significant changes between the first installment and its sequel.
Set ten years after the original game, Dreamfall begins with a new protagonist, Zoë Castillo. Zoë, like April at the beginning of the prior story, is a young woman lacking real direction or goals in her life. She lives in Casablanca circa 2219, a locale that is realized in a way that blends what we would recognize as current geographically appropriate architectural and environmental elements along with the 
series' established vision of the not so far future. Zoë begins seeing strange static interference manifesting in various pieces of technology, and it appears to be a delivery mechanism working to send Zoë an urgent plea. It's not long, of course, before she gets caught up in events that will lead to her own journey, uncovering a conspiracy spanning several worlds and centuries. The magic-infused Arcadia and the science-governed world Stark remain from The Longest Journey, and a mysterious third parallel realm, Winter, is introduced.
In many ways, Dreamfall represents a departure from its predecessor. It retains the focus on strong characters and story, as any adventure game should, but is much more ambitious both in its setting and, rather unusually for the genre, its gameplay. "I never wanted to make a straight sequel to TLJ--not when I first wrote it, and certainly not after it got such positive reviews," said Tørnquist. "Seeing as TLJ told a complete story from beginning to end, we did, in a way, have to start from scratch when writing and designing Dreamfall." This attitude is immediately apparent upon playing the game. The Longest Journey was a strictly traditional graphic adventure, with prerendered environments and a point-and-click interface. Dreamfall cannot be so easily categorized. The game is rendered in full realtime 3D, but it is not simply a 3D version of a graphic adventure; while it has strong adventure elements at its core, the game makes use of direct character control, context-sensitive actions, and even---much to the dismay of hard-lined adventure purists--some combat.
Tørnquist noted that the switch was borne out of necessity with respect to the subject matter, not because there are inherent flaws in the old system. "It allowed us to focus on story and characters instead of mechanics [in The Longest Journey], which was important. Dreamfall's shift to a more multi-genre direction was a consequence of the storyline," he said. "I wouldn't call Dreamfall an 'action-adventure'. Rather, I would call it a 'modern adventure', something that mixes genres in a brand new way--and yes, absolutely, this was a conscious decision." As well as the previously mentioned elements, the game features multiple protagonists and varying degrees of nonlinearity in conversation and when working through situations.
Control between the three playable characters switches in accordance with the game's plot. "It would have been fun to create a game where you could switch freely between characters--and in some 
scenes you do switch back and forth, although, again, these are scripted changes," explained Tørnquist. "The story is complex enough as it is, and we didn't want to confuse anyone." Coincidentally enough--or perhaps not coincidentally at all?--it turns out Ragnar's favorite adventure game of all time happens to be one featuring three playable characters: LucasArts' Day of the Tentacle, designed by Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. ("No contest. It's a brilliant, brilliant game.") In Dreamfall, the player controls Zoë, who will be the most prominently featured character; Kian, a man who is dedicated to his faith and to the sword; and April Ryan, who in the years since the events of the first game has become disenchanted and bitter. In addition to allowing the game to seamlessly tell a multi-threaded story, the different characters have an effect on gameplay. For example, Kian, a trained swordsman, is significantly more capable in combat than Zoë, a college-aged girl from Casablanca.
This leads into the game's structured nonlinearity, so to speak. While you won't be unlocking fifteen alternate endings, or determining any overriding plot elements by way of your actions, individual scenes can unfold in radically different ways depending on how you handle the situation. Since Zoë is not particularly well equipped when things come to blows, it may well be in your best interest to attempt to avoid combat altogether when using her. An early scene has Zoë delivering a package to a corporate office and encountering a rather suspicious receptionist. Depending on how the player carries on the conversation and reacts to some surprising events occurring in the background, the scene will play out in one of three ways, one of which is Zoë and the receptionist duking it out, and one of which is Zoë talking her way out of a confrontation. Again, these choices are fairly isolated; beating up an office worker is probably not going to have a butterfly effect on the rest of the game. Tørnquist does suggest that there may still be lasting consequences to player choices at times, but it is not the focus of the game. "Though actions taken--or not taken--in the first chapter may have ramifications in the last, Dreamfall isn't about changing the story: it's about living it, seeing it through the eyes of its three main characters, participating in its telling, and experiencing its twists and turns," he said. "Having multiple endings or a 'choose to be good or evil' type scenario would have detracted from what I believe to be the primary strengths of this game: the story, the characters, and the universe." Still, Tørnquist insists that to truly see all the content the game has to offer, players will have to give the game at least three dedicated playthroughs. Players won't miss anything crucial by not doing so, but it should be good news for those who like some kind of replay value out of their non-multiplayer titles.
Turn the page to learn about the game's control mechanisms, and to get some insight into what makes Ragnar tick.
