Dreamfall by ThePistonEngine

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Dreamfall

POSTED BY: THEPISTONENGINE
UPDATED: Friday, July 7, 2006 21:30
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VIEWED: 1227
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Friday, July 7, 2006 4:44 PM

Rant of the day:

Anyone else play Dreamfall: The Longest Journey? I bought it because all the reviews had it rated so highly, and I thought it was pretty dismal. Good graphics, terrible controls, terrible interaction. All I seemed to do was run from one cut scene to another, all the dialog options led to the same outcome. It was have been bearable if the voice acting was believable, or if the first 20 minutes of conversation consisted of something other than "I don't feel like myself lately" and "you've been through a lot, you need rest." And the worst part was none of the characters seemed to be able to manage a lie. I mean, if the game is strictly plot based, LIE to me once in a while. Not everyone has to be on my side.
The plot actually seemed promising until the very end, where the five different streams of plot failed to even come together, let alone make any sort of sense.

But, again, there was virtually no gameplay. Just a series of cut scenes with some nice scenery and loading screens in between. Every once in a while, you'd have to play a little puzzle to open a door. Here's an idea: lets make a game where the only actual gameplay is taking the time to do mundane actions most games speed past because they are MUNDANE.

My point is, how the hell did it get rated so highly?

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Carry the Nuttin'

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Friday, July 7, 2006 6:14 PM

WHITEFALL

I'm a big fan of basically any adventure game I can get my hands on, and I think TLJ (the original) was really incredible. It had it's odd puzzles, but I found it appropriately epic and original.

As for Dreamfall, now... it's different. I'm pissed that they had to make it play like a console port, but other than that, I liked it because there was some development for April (I know some people hate her in DF, me I like her progression, downward tho it may be.) True the opening was longish, but cant say much to that, gotta have background.

So it's no TLJ, but it's the best we got atm. Really tho, I liked it, storywise, except for the one simple reason, that I actually heard in advance: it's meant to be a cliffhanger. With the exception of the faith thing, all the plot points are unresolved because the idea is there will be another game.

So wait till the sequel DF was designed to operate with, it might be better then. I'd call it average but higher by association, being in the TLJ world.

"But, these strong women characters?"

"Why aren't you asking 100 other guys why they don't write strong women characters?" -Joss Whedon

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Friday, July 7, 2006 7:59 PM

THEPISTONENGINE

The story could make sense and be incredible with a sequel, but how do you address the absolute lack of gameplay. Run here, watch a cut scene. Pull a lever, watch another. There's a few Tomb Raider-esque areas where you have to do a couple things before you... watch another cut scene.

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Carry the Nuttin'

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Friday, July 7, 2006 9:00 PM

WHITEFALL

Well I really can't. On some level, that's what all adventure games are. At any one point, in any adventure game, what's your goal? To find some object, or some person in order to progress to the next cutscene, and then that cutscene will give you a new goal. Ok, admitedly some of those goals could do with more complexity in DF, but still.

Think of it this way: in any other adventure game, how much time do you spend without control of your character? DF does take it a bit far, but it's not exactly a new concept. Cutscenes are how they chose to tell the story.

"But, these strong women characters?"

"Why aren't you asking 100 other guys why they don't write strong women characters?" -Joss Whedon

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Friday, July 7, 2006 9:30 PM

THEPISTONENGINE

Quote:
Originally posted by Whitefall:
DF does take it a bit far

There's a fine line between too much play and not enough story, and too much story and not enough play. Dreamfall found that line and triple jumped over it.

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Carry the Nuttin'

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