Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12476 in Computer & Video Games
• Number of discs: 1
• Platforms: Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP
• Subtitled in: German
• Dimensions: .44 pounds

Customer Reviews

A unique and hypnotic game
Although Dreamfall may seem to be an RPG, it's an adventure/puzzle game set in both in a fantasy universe and a futuristic version of the real world. The story is fixed and, although you are often presented with up to four dialogue choices, they always lead to the same result. You can interact with objects, though this mostly allows the character you are playing (the story has four of them) in that scene to vocalise her or his inner thoughts. You spend more time watching cut-scenes and walking between one cut scene and the next than actually doing anything, although there are several puzzles to complete and some rather basic fight scenes along the way.

So given all that, why on Earth did I enjoy it so much? It's down to four things - the story, the graphics, the voice acting and how simply unhurried it is.

This is actually a sequel to a previous game called The Longest Journey, but you don't need to have played that and I think that not knowing only adds to the wonderment of it, as the mystery and the ambiance of the story is its main attraction. You'll be left with loose ends, be warned, but it seems not to matter as you get the feeling that the worst thing this game could offer you is a sense of closure.

The graphics are only dated by comparison with today. In all other respects they are rich and imaginative. Futuristic Casablanca in particular is stunning, the characters are well designed and move naturally, and the voice acting of the two main characters - Zoe and April - is some of the best you'll find. Zoe's voice and delivery is so natural that you almost feel you know her from real life. She has less polygons than many modern heroines, but her face is so expressive and her personality so well realised that I've fallen a little in love with her. Two other characters - a robot toy called Wonkers and a talking crow called, well, Crow - will also stay with you long after the game itself has ended.

The relaxed nature of the game means that after a while you find you have no idea how near to the end it is. It feels like it could go on forever, and you're mostly just sitting there watching it all unfold. Listening to Zoe or April chatting to other characters as if they have hours to spare becomes, after a while, almost hypnotic. Sadly, because of the nature of the game - as something to be experienced more than something to be played - it has zero immediate replay value, but playing through again could only detract from the memories it leaves you with.

I hope I've conveyed a little of just how good an experience Dreamfall is, but if I lost you at "mostly cut-scenes" you're not going to enjoy this game anyway. It's not a kid's game either - there's adult content and swearing in it, but a lot of innocence too. The narrow audience is probably why work has not started on a sequel yet, but apparently the story is in pre-production and I for one will be buying when it's released.

dreamfall
This game, I found, was not as good as The longest journey! It is a good game but I was dissapointed by the fact that it includes fighting..I buy from this genre to get away from all of that nonsense and was VERY dissapointed to have it included in the game. Saying that, the graphics are very good and the game flows well, providing you dont get stuck in one place, (in the longest journey, you could go back to other places)something you cannot do in this game, which made it more interesting if you did get stuck for a while. All in all I enjoyed it..but please dreamfall.. cut the fghting its a puzzle game!!!