It’s been a very long time coming for fans of the series
that started with The Longest Journey way back in 1999. Finally, the last instalment
of an adventure that started out as a classic point and click game before
moving into the realms of 3D in Dreamfall is here in a new episodic format.
The story follows only two of the three characters present
in the previous game. Zoe Castillio, is trapped in a coma in Stark and must
struggle to reconnect with the real world. Klan Alvane, a soldier in Arcadia, is imprisoned
after turning on his former masters. There are hints at another character but
at this stage it seems unlikely that April Ryan will be returning anytime soon.
The game has removed the fiddly combat and stealth sections
of Dreamfall and is now a fully-fledged 3D version of a point and click
adventure game. You guide you character around and when they see something of interest
icons will appear to allow you to interact with it in various ways such as
looking or using an item. It’s a smart approach as the previous game was only
ever hindered by anything that broke the flow of the story.
In their place is a new choice system which see’s certain
decisions remembered by characters in the game. Whether these choices will make
any grand difference or merely provide an illusion in the vein of The Walking
Dead we’ll have to wait and see. You can also check to see the choices other
players have made throughout the game at each section.
The game looks beautiful and there is a clear distinction
between the scientific world of Stark and the high fantasy of the world of
Arcadia. The real strength of the game though is the writing and there is some of
the best we’ve seen here. It can be a little uneven at times by Zoe Castillo is
a beautifully realised character and her voice actor has nailed the role as
well. Klan Alvane is sadly a bit lacking in comparison and this creates a slightly
unbalanced game. There’s also a fair few repeated sound samples that we could
really do without.
Other multiple character games have suffered with this in
the past and it is clear that Dreamfall Chapters currently has one character
who is much more interesting than the other. Zoe wipes the floor with Klan
currently in terms of her world to explore, her character and how she is
written and as a result whenever you are moved over to play Klan interest does
drop. This isn’t helped by the fact that the first section featuring Klan is
incredibly drab and also very fiddly to navigate.
Luckily, the first chapter seems to spend more time with Zoe
and allows us to explore her world and her as a character much more fully.
Hopefully Klan will develop as the story goes on as he was an interesting and conflicted
character in the last game. We have a sneaking suspicion though that the most interesting
part of his life may have already taken place as it will be hard to top the
story arc which leads him to become a traitor to his cause.
It’s only a fairly minor issue though as the game is a
lovely re-introduction to the two worlds. There is certainly a lot of promise
here and Zoe especially shows signs of turning into a wonderfully realised character
as she progresses. There are some performance issues and we did have to do
quite a bit of fiddling to get the game to run at a half decent speed but all
in all any fan of the original games should be very happy with what they have here.
Overall, this is a highly promising start of the new
episodic format. It may not be one for newcomers to the series as very little
of the back story is explained and at this point there’s about one hundred
hours of it. For fans though it’s like meeting an old friend and their slightly
less interesting cousin. Zoe is simply magnetic and once you’re drawn into her
story there’s no way you’ll be leaving before you reach the end.
Overall 7/10
Overall 7/10
L3056
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