Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
| Dreamfall: The Longest Journey | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Original title | Drømmefall: Travel the longest | ||
| Studio | Funcom | ||
| Publisher |
    KE Media Anaconda Micro Application Empire Interactive Aspyr Media     
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| Senior Developer | Ragnar Tornquist | ||
| composer | Leon Willett | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
April 17, 2006 | ||
| platform | Microsoft Windows , Xbox , Xbox 360 | ||
| Game engine | Shark 3D | ||
| genre | Adventure | ||
| medium | DVD-ROM , download | ||
| language | German, English, French, Norwegian | ||
| Age rating |
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Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is a computer game from the Norwegian development studio Funcom from 2006. The adventure is the successor to the award-winning The Longest Journey by the same developer from 1999 and continues the story of the game world with mostly different characters. From October 2014 to June 2016, the game continued with Dreamfall Chapters in episode form. The two titles together represent the Dreamer cycle , a completed part of The Longest Journey .
action
The universe of the Longest Journey games primarily consists of two parallel, interlinked worlds called Arcadia and Stark. Arcadia is a world dominated by magic, Stark is the real world dominated by technology, in the first part of the game in the year 2209. Shortly after the events of the first part, in which the player took on the role of the art student April Ryan, a vaguely defined event called a "collapse" occurred in Stark, which largely paralyzed the technology and infrastructure in Stark, while the Azadi in Arcadia -Reich rose up and established a theocratic and racist tyranny over a large part of the world, which was welcomed by not a few in the capital of the northern lands, Marcuria, because the Azadi there drove out the invasive barbarian race of the Tyrs and created a volatile peace.
In Casablanca in 2219, 20-year-old Zoë Castillo is in a coma. Looking back, she tells the player her story, which begins with visions of a little girl who can only be seen by her and who asks her to go in search of an unknown April Ryan. For her ex-boyfriend Reza, a journalist who says he is working on a large investigative report, she fetches documents from a company in whose office she can save researcher Helena Chang from contract killers. When she returned, Reza disappeared. She herself is arrested and questioned about Reza's whereabouts. After her release from prison, she sets out to investigate the fate of her ex-boyfriend. First she follows his trail to Newport, a fictional metropolis on the US west coast, where The Longest Journey began. In the former Victory Hotel, where Reza is said to have stayed and where April Ryan lived ten years earlier, she discovers that the Japanese technology company WATIcorp, for which Helena Chang had worked, is testing a kind of game console on people there. Zoë is captured by agents of WATIcorp and forcibly connected to such a console. While her body is sleeping in Stark, Zoë gains a physical presence in Arcadia, where she wakes up in Marcuria and, after a phase of orientation, involuntarily comes across the April Ryan she is looking for. This has joined a rebel group directed against the Azadi, which is secretly in Marcuria to get supplies for their camp east of the city. April refuses Zoë the requested help on the grounds that she has lost the ability to switch between worlds and also has obligations in Arcadia. Disillusioned with the events in The Longest Journey , she has finished her old life in Stark and lives only for the fight. At the same time, the Azadi hit man Kian is on his way to track down and kill a notorious rebel leader who is de facto April Ryan.
After an uncontrolled passage from Arcadia to Stark, Zoë wakes up in Newport. Witnesses testify that all the time she believed she was in Marcuria, she slept in Newport. A friend from Casablanca informs her that Reza was apparently on the trail of machinations by WATIcorp and visited its headquarters in WATI City, Japan. Zoë also makes his way there. In WATI City, she found out from a contact person in Rezas, the whistleblower Damien Cavanaugh , who was employed there , about "Project Alchera", an invention of the WATI group that was about to be published: It was the game console that she saw in Newport in test use to which she was then forcibly attached. The console, called the "Dreamer Console", is connected to a computer network called "DreamNet" and a gigantic organic computer called "DreamCore". Using the console, the user can experience lucid interactive dreams . In addition to gigantic economic potential, the invention offers WATIcorp another benefit that the company absolutely wants to keep secret from the public: Using the console, the company can not only read the dreams of the users, but also influence them, and even give the user new ideas and Plant values. However, the project is not running 100% satisfactorily: A kind of virus has spread in DreamNet and is causing "Static", a global phenomenon of static interference that temporarily disrupts electrical devices connected to the grid.
Looking for help, Zoë goes back to Arcadia, but is captured there by the Azadi. Kian Alvane arrives in Marcuria and meets April without knowing that she is his intended murder victim. The two get into a heated argument about politics and religion, which leaves Kian thoughtful - he begins to question his motives and beliefs. April can free Zoë but still refuses to help her. So Zoë desperately turns to another resident of Stark, Brian Westhouse, who helps her to find the mythical White Dragon, one of the four Draic Kin, ancient beings who once created the balance between Arcadia and Stark. The White Dragon, who has now assumed the shape of a white-haired woman, cannot help Zoë either and teleports her to a swamp area east of Marcuria, where she helplessly watches as the rebel camp there is destroyed by the Azadi. April is killed by the Azadi. Kian, who tries to stand by April, is arrested for treason.
Zoë wakes up again in Stark. She learns from Damien Cavanaugh that the static interference can be traced back to an abandoned toy factory in Saint Petersburg . Under this, Zoë discovers an abandoned WATI laboratory, where she discovers the cause of the static interference: Faith, the girl from her visions who asked her to find April Ryan. Faith is a girl on whom WATI tested a hallucinogenic drug as part of the development of DreamNet. Faith died of an overdose but was able to transfer her consciousness to DreamNet and has been causing the static interference ever since. According to documents, Faith is a creation of Helena Chang, the former WATI researcher from Casablanca. Zoë seeks out Chang, who asks her to contact Faith and convince her to delete herself from the network in order to prevent another "collapse". Zoë joins a Dreamer Console and meets Faith, who reveals to her that Zoë is also a creation by Helena Chang. She injects the sleeping Zoë with an overdose of the drug that she gave Faith. Zoë then falls into the coma she was in at the beginning of the game.
Characters
- Zoë Maya Castillo
Born in January 2199, Zoë is the Casablanca-based daughter of bio-engineer Gabriel Castillo. Her mother Helena Chang, also a bio engineer, allegedly died at the age of four. As the game progresses, it turns out that Zoë is the result of a genetic experiment that her father abandoned and that he started a new life with Zoë while her mother continued the ethically questionable research.
- April Ryan
Ten years earlier, April Ryan was a shy art student who reluctantly got involved in the events of The Longest Journey and only made friends with her ability to move between the worlds of Stark and Arcadia towards the end of the game. After many of her friends were violently killed in Stark, she stayed in Arcadia and gradually lost the ability to walk between worlds. At the beginning of Dreamfall , she is a disaffected, homeless, and hardened rebel leader in Arcadia.
- Kian Alvane
Kian Alvane is an "Apostle", an elite soldier of the Six, the six rulers of the Azadi Empire. He is sent by the Six to Marcuria to kill a rebel leader known only as "Scorpion", who is April Ryan. While Kian is working on fulfilling his mission, he begins to question his belief, which until then has been the sole leitmotif for his life.
- Reza Temiz
Reza is Zoë's ex-boyfriend; the separation came from Zoë, both remained in close friendship. At the beginning of the game he asks Zoë a favor, then he disappears. She follows his trail to Newport and WATI City. Alvin Peats, CEO of WATIcorp, told Zoë that Reza died under unworthy circumstances. Reza reappears in the end sequence of the game; Zoë's voice off-screen suggests the possibility that he has been brainwashed .
Game principle and technology
In contrast to its predecessor, which had three-dimensional characters composed of polygons act in front of a two-dimensional backdrop as a “2.5D adventure”, Dreamfall is a pure 3D adventure: The game world is displayed in three dimensions and calculated in real time. The presentation is from the third-person perspective : the imaginary camera that captures the action is suspended behind the player character so that they, unlike games of first-person view can always be seen. While the predecessor still worked with a point-and-click control optimized for PCs , Dreamfall is designed for the use of a gamepad , but can also be controlled on the PC with a mouse and keyboard. The respective character (mostly Zoë Castillo, occasionally Brian Westhouse, April Ryan or Kian) is moved through the game world with the joystick or direction keys. If the character is in the vicinity of an interaction point, the player is drawn to this graphically. Interaction points can be objects, people or exits, and the player is offered context-sensitive options to interact with them. As a rule, the interaction points can be examined, people can be addressed, doors can be crossed, objects lying around can be picked up, etc. Objects previously collected can also be applied to interaction points. A possible interaction with NPCs is the dialogue, which is controlled by the player by selecting from a selection of given topics.
Some non-adventure elements are integrated into the game. A rudimentary combat system is included in the game, which must be used successfully in some places in order to continue the plot. A stealth game-like stealth system is used several times: The playing figure has to be moved from a starting point to a destination, but the direct path is blocked by static or patrolling opponents, from whose field of vision the playing figure must stay out. The chopping to a foreign computer system is by a mini-game represented, must be found in which a number of symbols in a field of similar symbols. Other puzzle games open z. B. electronic door locks.
Production notes
Author Ragnar Tørnquist was responsible for the game world and background story of the MMORPG Anarchy Online between The Longest Journey and Dreamfall . He names the science fiction and fantasy authors Neil Gaiman and Joss Whedon as influences for the development of the Dreamfall story . In terms of gameplay, the action adventure games Silent Hill and Shenmue had an impact on his work. Tørnquist states that, in his opinion, epic stories in film, literature and games must be based on spiritual and philosophical concepts and that he tried to implement this principle in Dreamfall (as in The Longest Journey ). Furthermore, he sees more development opportunities in female game characters than in male characters, which is why women are preferred to be heroines in his games. The predecessor, The Longest Journey , received critical acclaim. After Tørnquist had given up a good part of the players in the middle of the game and his observations were responsible for the length and puzzles of the game, he decided to make Dreamfall simpler and less extensive - about ten hours of play were targeted. According to Tørnquist, the central motif of the story is belief - belief in a thing as well as belief in oneself. The main characters would go through a " journey of faith " during the game . It is up to every character to regain their faith; if he did not, at the end of the journey there would be either a transformation to a new being or death. While Zoë saves herself in the course of the game, April is destroyed.
For the Funcom studio, the development of the game was a great financial risk, since the adventure genre at that point in time and no significant numbers of adventure games could be sold for personal computers . As the studio took great pride in the positive reviews and financial success of The Longest Journey , Tørnquist's project was tackled anyway. In order to mitigate the financial risk somewhat, in addition to the development for Microsoft Windows, a parallel development for the Xbox game console was decided, which brought with it a large customer base, but was not saturated with adventure games. Work on the game began in summer 2003 with a team of around seven people. At the end of the production phase, the Funcom team had around 30 employees; there were also employees at suppliers and sales companies. The budget was about $ 5 million, which was roughly double what the predecessor cost. The production of the game turned out to be more difficult than planned as the team used a new game engine ( Shark 3D ) and had to learn how to use it during production. Due to time constraints, several storylines around the third main character Kian have been shortened.
The British composer Leon Willett is mainly responsible for the score , for whom Dreamfall was the first professional commissioned work and who only joined the production team in 2005. The work on the score took ten months. The audio director was Morten Sørlie, who had already contributed to the score for The Longest Journey and who first took on the role of audio director in an expansion of Anarchy Online in 2004. Willett's Score was nominated for the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards in the Best Video Game Score category. Some of the tracks on the soundtrack were contributed by the Norwegian singer-songwriter Even "Magnet" Johansen. The soundtrack was released separately as an audio CD in August 2006.
It was first published on April 18, 2006 in the United States; in the following weeks the game was released in Europe. The Dtp sub-label Anaconda was the sales partner in German-speaking countries . In 2007 it was published on online distribution platforms such as Steam or GamersGate . The Xbox 360 version appeared in 2008. The continuation of the game story, which took place in Dreamfall Chapters in 2014 , had already been planned in 2006 by Ragnar Tørnquist.
In retrospect, author Tørnquist coined the term “modern adventure” for Dreamfall in order to distinguish the mechanics of the game from classic point-and-click games. Like the British adventure author Charles Cecil in 2002, he declared the genre of point-and-click adventure games to be dead. Although such games would continue to be published in the indie sector, they would no longer be perceived outside of the dwindling circle of die-hard point-and-click fans. Tørnquist himself says he is trying to modernize the adventure genre by using new technologies and game mechanics. In retrospect, he admitted that the stealth and combat elements in Dreamfall were a rather frustrating experience for players because they disrupted the natural flow of the game and made them feel like obstacles.
speaker
| role | place | German speaker | English speaker | French speaker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anae | Marcuria | Kerstin Draeger | Nathalie Spitzer | |
| April Ryan | Marcuria | Stephanie Kindermann | Sarah Hamilton | Mara Labadens |
| Ary Kinryn | Marcuria | Mark Bremer | Dougie Wallace | Patrick Borg |
| Awad | Casablanca | Sascha Draeger | Patrice Melennec | |
| Benrime Salmin | Marcuria | Katja Brugger | Cordis Heard | Hélène Vanura |
| Blind bob | Marcuria | Sven Dahlem | André Sogliuzzo | Patrick Borg |
| Brian Westhouse | Marcuria, Dark People's City | Mark Bremer | Ralph Byers | Marc Alfos |
| Calia | Sadir | Kerstin Draeger | Nathalie Homs | |
| Carlita | Casablanca | Joey Cordevin | ||
| Charlie | Newport | Sascha Draeger | Daryl Alan Reed | Thierry Desroses |
| Crazy Clara | Marcuria | Carla Becker | Ruth McCabe | Danièle Hazan |
| Damien Cavanaugh | WATI City | Till Demtröder | Victor Burke | Damien Boisseau |
| Diane D'Amato | Casablanca | Carla Becker | Katrine Blomstrand | Barbara Tissier |
| Dr. lee | WATI City | Carla Becker | Roger Gregg | Nathalie Homs |
| Garmon Koumas | Sadir | Sven Dahlem | David Goodall | Patrice Melennec |
| Hanna | Sadir | Joey Cordevin | Naïké Mellerin | |
| Helena Chang | Casablanca | Carla Becker | Mari Maurstad | Nathalie Spitzer |
| Kian Alvane | Sadir, Marcuria | Christian Stark | Gavin O'Connor | Adrien Antoine |
| Minstrum Magda | Marcuria | Katja Brugger | Deirdre Donnelly | Danièle Hazan |
| Nia | Casablanca | Joey Cordevin | Barbara Tissier | |
| Nina | Casablanca | Katja Brugger | Hélène Vanura | |
| Olivia "Liv" de Marco | Casablanca | Kerstin Draeger | Mary Healy | Naïké Mellerin |
| Sela | Casablanca | Kerstin Draeger | Hilary Cahill | Véronique Desmadryl |
| Shadowguide | Marcuria | Michael Bideller | Philippe Dumond | |
| Sharif | Casablanca | Michael Bideller | Bruno Magnes | |
| The Chinaman | Newport | Sven Dahlem | Wes Parker | Serge Thiriet |
| Vinnie | Newport | Mark Bremer | Len Firth | Thierry Kazazian |
| Warden Murron | Marcuria | Michael Bideller | Jo Dow | Pierre Tessier |
| Wonkers | Casablanca | Sven Dahlem | Jack Angel | Martial Le Minoux |
| Zoë Castillo | Marion von Stengel | Ellie Conrad Leigh | Laura Blanc |
reception
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Dreamfall received mostly positive reviews. The Metacritic review database aggregates 45 reviews to a mean of 75.
The specialist magazine Adventure-Treff emphasized that locations from the first part of the game were not simply reused, but expanded, while characters who reappeared played new roles. The magazine praised the "great and fantastic story", the cleverly interwoven storylines and the detailed and lovingly animated game world. In addition to minor graphical inadequacies, it was criticized that dialogue options had no influence on the game, but merely created an illusion of relevance. The German PC Games praised “fantastic visuals and dramatic action”, but criticized a small number of puzzles. Reviewer Felix Schütz pointed out that Dreamfall has an over-the-top storyline full of intertwined topics and time and place jumps, but takes a lot of time for the representation and development of the characters and never slips into the absurd. In sum, Dreamfall is setting “new signs in adventure heaven”. The US magazine IGN noted negatively that Dreamfall used the traditional elements of an adventure game only to a very limited extent, while at the same time "a lot of unnecessary gameplay elements" were grafted onto the game. The game is very linear and always tells the player where to go. The combat system is also one of the most boring and imprecise systems ever created, a "total joke". On the plus side, IGN recorded an "extremely strong story" and complex social fabric between the characters. The magazine warned impatient gamers that in-game dialogues could take up to ten minutes - impatient gamers would "hate" Dreamfall .
The IGN magazine GameSpy awarded Dreamfall the prizes in the categories "Adventure Game of the Year" and "Best Story" as part of its annual PC Games Awards 2006. The game is listed in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by former Edge editor Tony Mott.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Red Thread Games: Dreamfall Chapters ( Memento from October 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved September 18, 2019.
- ↑ Ragnar Tørnquist on Reddit AMA . Retrieved September 18, 2019.
- ↑ a b AdventureClassicGaming.com: Ragnar Tornquist. Retrieved May 5, 2019 .
- ↑ a b RockPaperShotgun.com: Ragnar Tørnquist On ... Dreamfall & Faith. Retrieved May 4, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c AdventureGamers.com: Dreamfall Chapters - Ragnar Tørnquist. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ LeonWillet.com: Leon Willett - Composer. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Discogs.com: Leon Willett - Dreamfall - The Longest Journey (Original Soundtrack). Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Handbook, p. 24 f.
- ↑ MobyGames.com: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey: Credits. Retrieved April 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Minstrum.net: DF - Les Voix. Retrieved April 28, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Adventure-Treff.de: Test. Retrieved May 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Gamespot.com: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
- ↑ a b IGN.com: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Retrieved May 5, 2019 .
- ↑ a b PCGames.de: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Retrieved April 29, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Metacritic.com: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Retrieved April 28, 2019 .
- ↑ Lanthrax.com: Gamespy PC Games Awards 2006. Accessed May 5, 2019 .