The Longest Journey is a point and click, adventure game that became
available for Windows PC back in November 1999, and made a trip around
the world during the time of the new millennium. Developed by Funcom and
published by Entertainment Interactive. It stars April Ryan, a
struggling young artist from the country who came to Newport to get away
from her family and forget about her past. Set in the 23rd Century,
only with less Starfleet and more police officers who try to sell you
stuff while arresting you. The horror!
We open up in an elderly woman's house with her two kids in front of a
fireplace wanting to hear another one of her stories, and once again I
have to endure the game skipping while something important is being
said. What I get for not getting the Steam version, I suppose. The story
begins and we're introduced to April Ryan in an unknown magical world
in nothing but her underwear. “So not appropriate.” By clicking on parts
of the scenery you'll get commentary by April and explanations. You can
even click on April for additional commentary. This would be boring if
April didn't demonstrate so much personality from the get-go. It's
actually a treat to hear her thoughts on things.
You advance through the game through exploration and puzzle solving. Don't expect to get far with the latter if you don't do any of the former. This game punishes you for not being observant since you could miss something that's vital later on. Various items can be uncovered through exploration, and these items come in handy later to past an obstacle in order to advance. Some items can be combined together to create something new, and some times you have to inspect them more closely in the inventory screen.
As the genre would indicate, the game puts more emphasis on storytelling and puzzle solving than any other gameplay element. The large quantity of dialog from the main character and who she interacts with throughout the game is what makes the game and contributes to the setting. You also get your choices of dialog options when talking to various people. These don't amount to points or anything like it does on games like Knights of the Old Republic, or Mass Effect, since it's not a RPG, they're just there to give you more options and open up more of the conversation.
Like any good story, it's the characters and their interactions that can make or break it. April feels like a real woman that you could bump into on the street. Funny, sarcastic, friendly, smart, and fully capable of taking care of herself. She doesn't come across as a boy just for the sake of selling her to a male audience, and she doesn't feel like a poor man's attempt at writing a woman. In other words, she doesn't just like things because they're girly she likes things because that's what she likes. She's very easy to relate to and think of as a real person, and that compelled me to play more of the game just to see what she would do or say next.
Then we have Fiona and Mickey, a lovely lesbian couple who own and manages the Boarding House. I wouldn't normally mention their sexuality since I don't believe those things should have to have a light shinned on them, but the reason I'm mentioning it is due to the fact that homosexuality still has a lot of stigma surrounding it even today. This game originally came out in 1999 when homosexual and/or bisexual characters were practically unheard of in video games, so seeing it in here was a pleasant surprise, and seeing it depicted as a normal everyday relationship was more progressiveness than I've come to expect from my video games. Maybe it has something to do with the fact it was made in Norway. Either way, it's nice to see.
The Longest Journey is an enjoyable game with a good cast of characters and a strong voice cast to bring them to life. If you enjoy adventure games that puts more focus on the characters and story, then you won't be disappointed by The Longest Journey. If something like that is the kind of thing to bore you, then you're probably better off skipping it altogether.
Get it
You advance through the game through exploration and puzzle solving. Don't expect to get far with the latter if you don't do any of the former. This game punishes you for not being observant since you could miss something that's vital later on. Various items can be uncovered through exploration, and these items come in handy later to past an obstacle in order to advance. Some items can be combined together to create something new, and some times you have to inspect them more closely in the inventory screen.
As the genre would indicate, the game puts more emphasis on storytelling and puzzle solving than any other gameplay element. The large quantity of dialog from the main character and who she interacts with throughout the game is what makes the game and contributes to the setting. You also get your choices of dialog options when talking to various people. These don't amount to points or anything like it does on games like Knights of the Old Republic, or Mass Effect, since it's not a RPG, they're just there to give you more options and open up more of the conversation.
Like any good story, it's the characters and their interactions that can make or break it. April feels like a real woman that you could bump into on the street. Funny, sarcastic, friendly, smart, and fully capable of taking care of herself. She doesn't come across as a boy just for the sake of selling her to a male audience, and she doesn't feel like a poor man's attempt at writing a woman. In other words, she doesn't just like things because they're girly she likes things because that's what she likes. She's very easy to relate to and think of as a real person, and that compelled me to play more of the game just to see what she would do or say next.
Then we have Fiona and Mickey, a lovely lesbian couple who own and manages the Boarding House. I wouldn't normally mention their sexuality since I don't believe those things should have to have a light shinned on them, but the reason I'm mentioning it is due to the fact that homosexuality still has a lot of stigma surrounding it even today. This game originally came out in 1999 when homosexual and/or bisexual characters were practically unheard of in video games, so seeing it in here was a pleasant surprise, and seeing it depicted as a normal everyday relationship was more progressiveness than I've come to expect from my video games. Maybe it has something to do with the fact it was made in Norway. Either way, it's nice to see.
The Longest Journey is an enjoyable game with a good cast of characters and a strong voice cast to bring them to life. If you enjoy adventure games that puts more focus on the characters and story, then you won't be disappointed by The Longest Journey. If something like that is the kind of thing to bore you, then you're probably better off skipping it altogether.
Get it
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