Review of The Longest Journey

Our new reviewer and decent adventure dude has gotten his hands on The Longest Journey, and here are his thoughts on the title.

Tested and written by Anders "Twilight" Steinlein, published 2nd May 2000

"Dreams are only the first step at the most amazing journey in your life."

If you have been paying attention to the gaming industry the last year, chances are you have heard of The Longest Journey. It was one of the most anticipated adventure games last year, certainly here in Norway, as the Norwegian company FunCom actually developed the game. Because of its Norwegian origin, it got a lot of free media hype, which resulted in huge sales here in this beautiful country. Now, nearly half a year after its Norwegian release it is ready for the English market. I've taken a closer look at this exciting product, to tell you whether or not it is worth the money.

The plot in TLJ evolves around the 18-year-old art student April Ryan. She has the ability to "Shift" (travel) between the parallel worlds of Stark and Arcadia. Between these distinct worlds there is a Balance, which sees to order and harmony in cosmos. But in these revolutionary times, the Balance is falling, and without it chaos will erupt and give life to our most terrifying dreams. Of course, there is only one person able to restore it, and you guessed it - April Ryan…

To say it first but not the least, this game has one of the most complex and involving stories I've ever encountered in a computer game, and I play quite a lot of them! The story unfolds the way it should - gradually. You find yourself constantly eager to find out what happens just that little bit further into the game. Even though this is mostly a Good Thing, this is unfortunately also where the game has one of its biggest drawbacks.

The story is too complex. It can get quite hard to remember all the different people, and what they have said. Fortunately, you have a "dialogue journal" at your disposal for forgetful people like myself. Another bigger drawback, though, is the talking itself. It is just so darn much of it! Like I said, the story is complex, and it is mostly driven by dialogue, but it should have been possible to shorten it down a bit anyway...

Since there is a lot of talking it better be good, right? Well, it is. In the Norwegian version, as I played, the voices were performed by many "famous" Norwegian actors, which blended perfectly into the game. What I have heard of the English version sounds just as good, so you have probably nothing to worry about. FunCom has luckily put in some witty things as well, which actually do work pretty well. There could with advantage have been more of them, though.

Despite the successfully exciting story, the little grey ones should get some work to do - that is after all the point with adventure games, right? This is unfortunately where the games' biggest drawback is. The game is simply too easy! Fortunately, all the puzzles have a logic solution, but they are pure and simply too easy. In addition to that, it is too few "big" puzzles, which often are the ones providing the biggest challenges. If FunCom had put a little more work into this, the game had jumped one point up the scale.

Finally, the technical aspects... These three words should sum it up: Oh-my-God! This is definitely the most spectacular graphics I have ever seen in an adventure game. Presented in high resolution and 32bit colour (where available), everything from gloomy, sad, dark to incredibly bright and colourful places looks absolutely fantastic! The cut-scenes are also spectacular, and collaborate to increase the overall tension. What I hear of music is just about as good as the graphics, that means very good. It fits perfectly to the locations in the game. Unfortunately, there is way to little of it - too many locations carry the "quiet" sound. I want more music!

Overall, this is a very good game. It combines a complex, yet very exciting story with excellent graphics and sound. As noted, the game does have its drawbacks, such as quite easy puzzles and too much talking. However, overall this is such a good game, that I hereby give it my "Choice of Excellence Award".

	Pros		Cons
	Complex, exciting story Good voices Incredible graphics Very good music		Too much talk Too easy puzzles Too little of the good music

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