With Funcom still toying around with how to continue their saga, I take a long sigh once more. Longest Journey was one of those games that everyone talked about as being the best of best of a dying industry. In 1999 with the adventure genre dying out, Longest Journey was the proof—in the worlds of the immortal Kurgan—“Its better burn out than to fade away.”

Then 2006 came around, and FunCom gave us Dreamfall…

The aspect that made this title unqie was forcing you to fight on both sides of a conflicts by changing your POV character, making this title different and exciting, but it was still unsatisfying. Ironically, I had played this one first, and had to seek out the original.

TLJ lived up to every bit of its hype. Excellent characters, perfect environments, and a captivating storyline all
came together to provide an experience that manifests all of the best things about the adventure game genre.
So, what the hell happened to Dreamfall. Well, the game had its moments. It served as a virtual family reunion for those who loved the original—nice to see a 28 year old April snapping Azadi necks—and the interesting storyline made the game playable . Some amusing mini-games also occur when you need to hack locks and such, ala Bioshock but not as cool. 3D environments added a new fresh layer to the game, and a snow covered Marcuia never looked so good. However most of the soul was gone. The game itself does what may modern sequels and titles have the tendency to do these days and sells its soul to try and fit into a current popular genre.

I understand gamer interests change, but Funcom’s answer was a rushed combat system and poorly done stealth missions.The brilliant battle system is like fighting a guy holding a cardboard shield with a shotgun. If you keep attacking something good is bound to happen soon. The few incorporated stealth based missions have about as much substance as the combat system. I know Solid Snake is watching these dippy chicks from the shadows, shaking his head.

I can some up the worst part of the developers choices to progress their saga into a new age of gaming with one word, Zoe. She is about the most unlikable main character since Harry Potter. While I assume the audience is supposed to accept this a girl as a new April Ryan, it’s hard to swallow. April was a struggling, artsy college student, that lived in a crappy apartment, and worked in food service. Yeah, been there. Somehow, I find a girl living in an exotic city in a beautiful apartment with her own private balcony and no job that mooches off her father who lets her throw parties in the house when she’s not busy bitching about how much her life sucks, a little harder to relate to. Not to mention her plot plays out like one of those teen drama—the kind that air on second rate network stations—complete with trendy music, and awkward kisses new boy love interests. Who were they trying to market this to? Maybe, fourteen year old girls that cry when they watch Dawson’s creek reruns would have been a good target audience.

But I digress, and I do understand that complex puzzles are out these days and I know TLJ received some criticism about the Puzzles being too complex in that MacGyver sort of way, but Dreamfall swung way to far the other way. The game practically spoon fed solutions to the player. Adventures games are about combining a balloon, a paperclip, a stuffed owl, and putting them all in a microwave until—poof—they turn into something that allows you to get an ID out of that space behind the counter it fell down.

With all kinds of rumors(everything from episodic DLC to MMORPG) floating around about the format of the next chapter, I honestly don’t know what the future of a very promising saga holds. Talk about the balancing being upset, Jeez. The important thing is to improve on where Dreamfall went astray instead of just throwing together half assessed combat, half assed stealth missions, half assed storylines. Dreamfall had more cliffhangers than 1940s cinema. That alone makes Dreamfall feel more like a marketing pitch for the next game than a standalone game itself.

Funcom had an original vision going, an exciting and captivating universe with likable and unique characters.
Writer and Director, Ragnar Tørnquist, needs to give us more talking birds with inappropriate sexual humor, jerky legless-half insane computer hacker and less whining girls with horrid accents.

TLJ3 or Dreamfall Chapters or The Longest Journey MMORPG needs to be a complete experience. Give us the rich 3D environments of Dreamfall, with the soul of TLJ. This is a beautiful universe and I think most fans of the series need more, but I also want a complete experience if that’s not too much to ask for these days.