Comments on: GoG Releases The Longest Journey

By: gamer

gamer — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:04:39 +0000

Perfect game!

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:30:26 +0000

I played this a few months ago and…hm, I still loved it. I guess I understand why some people’s reactions are so overwhelmingly negative about it. But sort of in the same way that those faults push them away regardless of what else the game has to it, TLJ’s good parts are strong enough to pull me in, and keep me in for its all length ( and several playthroughs over). I’m still entranced by the surreal storytelling, imaginative visuals, beautiful music, and hilarious exposition pieces (the map-maker’s guidance through Marcuria, April twirling in the camera behind the news-reporter’s story about the transport crash, ALL of Flipper’s dialogue, etc). I still click through every dialogue option in each conversation just because I WANT to hear it all. And yes, I used a guide to get through several puzzles, and the underwater statue/island totem puzzles was a terrible double whammy to get through. Still love the game as a whole. Not by any means perfect, but a favorite of mine still.

So, yeah, I’ll be buying it at gog for sure. I left my copy in my home country and I doubt my family would be able to find it to mail to me if I asked. I’m thrilled I can get it now.

By: KBKarma

KBKarma — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:16:04 +0000

I bought the Special Edition of Dreamfall, which came with the Dreamfall OST as well as The Longest Journey. A lovely game. I’m beginning to see why Walker plays it at least once every year: I’m beginning to want to play it again as well.

By: KindredPhantom

KindredPhantom — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:50:42 +0000

I haven’t played it. I shall put it on the list of “game that i should one day play but probably won’t”.

By: Ozzie

Ozzie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:36:21 +0000

BTW, the best review I ever read about TLJ was from a guy who doesn’t even like 3rd person, story-focused adventure games very much: http://www.eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/longestjourney.html

By: Ozzie

Ozzie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:18:34 +0000

I played TLJ just recently again, for the first time in English.
Oh boy, April is much more sarcastic in the original and swear words are abound everywhere!

I already tried to play this game again one year earlier, but was put off by the extreme amount of needless exposition and the unvaried, monotonous gameplay. In the beginning it’s nothing more than overlong dialogues, which you have to click your way through, and ridiculous puzzles. The whole puzzle complex involving the rubber duckey and the iron key is terrible, yes.
I stopped playing when I first came to Arcadia and had to listen to the tales of the guardians, and the realms and stuff. It made me sleepy.

But this time around I endured. Hearing the game in a different language made it also a bit more interesting, especially since the voice-overs were better. But, yeah, talking about pointless exposition: When Fiona gives April her ring back, April goes on and on about her daddy who never cared for her except this one time. I mean, sure, it would be believable if she sighed and then said to herself “The only time my dad cared about me.” But no, then she also says that she’s not even angry at him. Fiona doesn’t go Uh-huh, no, she asks “Why?”. Gah!
That was terrible.
And Manny Chavez also loves to talk to no end. The whole “This is how you save the world” part. He says the same things five times over, not coming to a point. I just clicked through it.
And yeah, the 10 minutes about the worlds and the guardians by Vestrum Tobias. It wouldn’t have hurt to cut it down a bit, right?
April’s diary was a good location for all the stuff that couldn’t be said in the dialogues, but that the author kinda wanted to say. But apparently that wasn’t enough. Overall, TLJ is too wordy, especially in the first half. There are just too many charactes to talk to and they love to talk, all of them!
But, playing it from beginning to end for the second time, it was good to know which characters I had to talk to and which I could leave alone. I never said a word to Emma if I didn’t have to and barely a word to Charlie.

TLJ has some insane puzzles at the start, actually, ONLY insane puzzles. There are barely any and when you encounter one it’s insane. Like the rubber ducky one. Or the puzzles at the cinema. Or the eye swap puzzle at the police station…all terrible!
Okay, some of them could have found their proper place in a comedy adventure, but in a serious one? That’s also the problem with TLJ: it can’t decide if it takes itself seriously or not! The dumb son of the cinema owner, the incompetent police officer, they’re terrible, unfunny comedy characters. I still can’t believe that they have found their way into such a supposedly serious game.
Oh, and at some point we have to read a ton of books. Actually, only one of them is important, but we don’t now that beforehand, do we? And they are all terribly written, I guess to make them appear like they are out of a fantasy world. It failed, definately. Okay, it seems magical that some letters are written beyond the edge of the paper. But why do Arcadians only write on the first half of a page? It’s really weird.
And then there’s the old sailor guy. He of course tells his terrible stories of his adventures in a terrible accent, in a terribly uninteresting way. And no, it’s not funny.

Okay, but I still liked the game. So, sooner or later, something had to change. Well, gameplay-wise, it definately did. When you arrive at Roper Clack’s castle you will find the first puzzles that make totally sense AND are fun to solve! Going on there are less characters to talk to and thus less chance for overlong dialogues to appear. I loved the island, the game had its best puzzles there. Crow was also an endearing character, though I loved him a bit more in the german version. We already met Burns Flipper earlier on, and yes, he’s awesome. Actually, the dialogues do become a bit better the longer the game goes on, though we’re never safe of over-exposition (the Alatien tales, for example…).
Also, the ending is quite beautiful and moving.
It’s just sad that the first half is not very good. You want to play further, because the story seems promising, and yes, it fulfills its promise later on. It may be too late for many, though, since it’s really such a long game. To a big part this is because of many, many words.
So to summarize, weak first half, strong second one. It’s the opposite with Dreamfall. Ragnar Tornquist never seems to get it right. At any rate, I like TLJ. I hated Dreamfall, with passion. But that’s a topic for another post…

By: Ozzie

Ozzie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:50:37 +0000

Together with Gabriel Knight 3 and The Last Express perhaps, yes

By: mike

mike — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:08:26 +0000

barvo.

By: pilouuuu

pilouuuu — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:18:05 +0000

@LlamaFarmer

Try giving Plant Vs. Zombies, Peggle or The Sims 3. Is she doesn’t like any of those then you may lose hope of her liking games at all.

By: Thants

Thants — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:43:07 +0000

It’s my theory that no one has ever actually beat any adventure game without a walkthrough.

By: Vinraith

Vinraith — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:22:40 +0000

Sands of Time had a story? Honestly, I remember some good platforming but there was nothing memorable about the narrative. Don’t even get me started on Bloodlines (which was brilliant until it stopped being) or Silent Hill 2 (which had great atmosphere but nothing else). The Legacy of Kain series, on the other hand, really was some of the best story and presentation I’ve ever seen in a game. Other aspects of the series faltered from time to time, but never that. I wish they’d bring it back. :(

By: Mr. Sinister

Mr. Sinister — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:22:15 +0000

I bought this game for my little sister for her birthday a couple of years ago, since she’s kind of an adventure game fanatic. Sadly, it wouldn’t play nice with Windows XP, and she never got past some point halfway through it because it would constantly lock up. I’m going to have to email her about this GOG release. :)