BaconIsGood4You

So I just played Dreamfall...

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And I have to say, I'm very very disappointed. This is certainly some of the sloppiest storytelling and game design I have seen in a while.

Literally, 75% of the story should have been cut. The game tries to hit so many thematic points and introduces so many mysteries, the whole is lost. Between the three characters, the multiple plots intertwined that each deals with, and just haphazard introduction and dismissal of characters and events, the story leaves a lot wanting. Granted, some of the basics of the themes/plots are interesting, such as Zoe's search for meaning and drive or April being a used former messiah, but you can only do one properly.

Its kinda' like the reverse of Half Life 2 in that HL2 presents the user with a very simple and economical story (join the Resistance and fight the Combine) but has so much underneath that, if they want, they can find. Dreamfall gives you a cluttered mess of story, ranging from a prophet, crazy fat guy, etc., that are not part of the real core story of Zoe. It plops down a pile of bits (not developed or critical to the larger arc) and depends on the viewer to pick out the important ones. HL2 gives you those and teases you to look for the more minor parts.

As they are, they are implemented terribly. They are so blunt, cliched, confusing, or unnecessary that it throws you out of the fascinating world of Stark/Arcadia. Yeah, I get it, the whole Westlander vs. Eastlander is related to the conflict between the West and Islamic fundamentalists in the east (etc. etc.), I don't need to hear "insurgent" and "terrorist" every few sentences (words that have only come into common use in the last decade or so, its very awkward that middle ages-types are using it).

Not to mention that aspects are nearly plagiaristic. Between Faith (ripped directly out of the Ring) and the whole Azadi soldiers/tower (ripped from Half Life 2 in that its the first thing you see, mysterious, invaders build it, etc), I had a hard time taking it seriously.

Not only is the storytelling sloppy, but the game design gets in the way of the good stuff. I love the art direction and audio (voice work and ambient music). Really, I love it. But I never get to immerse myself or enjoy it. My best example is the Dark People's city. Really great stuff, but you've got some annoying guy always telling you to follow him. I want to get lost in the place, soak it up, not just run through it so I can watch another cinematic, which, by the end, I was sick of. I felt like I didn't play the game, I watched it.

I will admit I never played the first one, but then again, I shouldn't have to know it other than skimming a Wikipedia article (and I understood it as not needing it, that the stories intersected, but were not serial).

Am I missing something here? Does anyone feel the same?

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Yes, I think it's common consensus on these forums that Dreamfall is pretty terrible as a game. I think that, in general, it's given some credit for trying to do things that most games don't, but certainly not for succeeding at them on any level.

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It was interesting though: I knew I was playing a bad game, but I couldn't stop playing until it was over.

I don't finish many games either. I beat this one in 2 days.

That was exactly my feeling. I had problems with...many, many things. But none of them detracted from my wanting to continue.

Personally, I think Dreamfall should have been a PC-RPG in the vein of Planescape: Torment or Fallout. Keep the graphics and "core" storyline, but put all that extra stuff in as sidequests. I wanted more dialogue options and less dialogue forced on me via cutscenes. Instead of implementing a half-asses stealth and combat system, just give me stealth and combat "skills" and some dice rolls to see if I succeeded or not. (No leveling or stat tweaking necessary!)

It's hard to explain, but in my head, the RPG approach makes more sense. It would have broken up the linearity by giving the player more things to find, optionally, and in a potentially different order. It could have kept the main story in the cutscenes and put the rest in dialogue trees, sidequests, etc. And just using stats and checks instead of direct-combat and direct-stealth would have eliminated frustration as well.

Anyway, I liked the idea of the game, if not the game itself.

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I enjoyed Dreamfall, but it was pretty disappointing. It felt like a sequel that didn't need to be made.

Which is a shame, because I really, really, really wanted a sequel to TLJ.

It wasn't so bad that it takes away from TLJ, but it just seemed like the best parts of the story were the ones that tied back to the original, and all the new stuff just wasn't as interesting.

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I will admit I never played the first one, but then again, I shouldn't have to know it other than skimming a Wikipedia article (and I understood it as not needing it, that the stories intersected, but were not serial).

Am I missing something here? Does anyone feel the same?

I don't think it's too unreasonable to have needed to play the first game, other than the fact that it's six years old, has dated badly and is hard to find. Still. Probably no developer/publisher will ever admit upfront that you might need to play the previous game, though.

But I agree with pretty much everything you wrote, and could add a further page or two full of complaints (I actually probably have already.) Even so I think I might be in for a Dreamfall 2, even though I don't like the series all that much. I tend to think of Dreamfall as less of a game and more like The Longest Journey: The Complete Second Season on DVD, and that kind of helps.

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I don't know about Dreamfall, but in The Longest Journey the characters just would not stop talking. I begged!

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I enjoyed a lot Dreamfall when it wasn't trying look like a game; and I really hated how it sometimes tried to keep its adventure game label or its multi-genre label, by sometimes throwing bad or generic features of those genres at the playerand out of nowhere.

When there was no gameplay but keeping the game moving forward by dialogs and simple actions that makes sense, it was nearly perfect at what it did.

Not perfect because on the whole, I enjoyed much more the pace and the construction of the story, than the story and the themes themselves. The character were nice too, but there 'function' inside the story was sometimes too obvious.

But I nearly completed it without going away from my computer so I can't deny I had a fantastic time.

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I really like Dreamfall, and it made me crave for the third and apparently final part of the story. It didn't have the best gameplay ever, but as an adventure game it worked decent enough. I preferred this over Broken Sword 3, that's for sure.

When a sequel is made to a game as old as Longest Journey, hype as built up during all the years between them to extreme heights. It will more often than not turn out to be a disappointment, and too different from what you expected. I think MGS2 "failed" because of this, MGS1 was the game of the century for some people, and the story of MGS2 was ripped apart by the fans of the first. Too much hype damaged the enjoyment. When MGS3 came out, there was nowhere near as much expectations, and many people consider this to be the best of the three (though I would probably put it right behind MGS1, 'cause the boss battles were so incredibly pointless and the characters you fought were dumb).

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Not to derail the thread, but how are The "I'm COVERED IN BEES!" Pain and The "I'm old and sneaky" End any more dumb or pointless than Sniper "Love blooms on the battlefield" Wolf or Vulcan "I've got a really big fucking gun" Raven? Don't get me wrong, I actually love all of the MGS games, but to me the bosses from MGS3 were one of it's main high points.

The bit with The Sorrow, though not really a boss fight, stands out in my mind as a brilliant piece of interactive storytelling. Having to wade through a river surrounded by the ghosts of everyone you've killed in the game to that point was just so fucking cool.

So yeah. Sorry 'bout the totally off-topic post, but I felt I had to stand up for MGS3's bosses here.

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So this is a random thread from the past, but I've finally decided to collect all my thoughts together on this game and write a proper

Dreamfall Review-Like Thingy

*ahem*

Anyway, here it is, as the first post of what may be a blog but what will probably never be updated and just sit there as a lonely review of dreamfall. I've been meaning to do this for like 2 years or something, but only now have finally gotten around to it.

http://wapmmbah.blogspot.com

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Liked that review a lot.

Just finished trying to play Dreamfall (it crashes on my xbox everytime it autosaves on the section with the dark people's library) and I definitely found myself enjoying despite some of the glaring annoyances and fatal crashes.

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