Dreamfall Chapters
| Dreamfall Chapters | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Original title | Drømmefall Kapitler | ||
| Studio | Red Thread Games | ||
| Senior Developer | Ragnar Tornquist | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
Book One: October 21, 2014 Book Two: March 12, 2015 Book Three: June 25, 2015 Book Four: December 3, 2015 Book Five: June 17, 2016 |
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| platform | Windows , macOS , Linux , PlayStation 4 , Xbox One | ||
| Game engine |
Unity 4.6 (up to version 3.0.5.1) Unity 5.2 (from version 3.2.9) |
||
| genre | Adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Gamepad , keyboard & mouse | ||
| medium | Download , DVD-ROM | ||
| language | English , German , French | ||
| Current version | 5.7.2.1 | ||
| Age rating |
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Dreamfall Chapters is an adventure computer game by the Norwegian game designer Ragnar Tørnquist and his studio Red Thread Games. It is the direct successor to Dreamfall: The Longest Journey , which is linked to the point-and-click adventure The Longest Journey . The game was released in five episodes, the so-called books , between October 2014 and June 2016 , which were published every few months. The books are each divided into two to three chapters and have their own titles, which are in chronological order as follows: Reborn , Rebels , Realms , Revelations and Redux .
Dreamfall Chapters marks the end of the Dreamer cycle , a series that began with Dreamfall . Further sequels to the overarching series The Longest Journey are not excluded.
content
The story of Dreamfall Chapters continues seamlessly from the end of the previous part. The player accompanies Zoë Castillo in her attempt to start a new life with her partner Reza in the futuristic city of Europolis , where she soon gets into ominous entanglements during an election campaign. At the same time, in the fairytale Marcuria, the player leads a rebellion as apostle Kian Alvane against his own people, the Azadi, who after conquering the capital Marcuria are pushing back the magical peoples living there. In a third storyline, the player slips into the role of Saga, a new actor who grows up with her parents in a house between worlds. Flashbacks to previously told moments from different perspectives shed new light on the story.
Gameplay
Like its predecessor, Dreamfall Chapters contains a mix of puzzles, discovery, conversation, mini-games and action. Fight scenes tend to take a back seat. A special feature are the numerous decisions that the player has to make in the course of the game. The spectrum ranges from small, initially seemingly inconsequential decisions to decisions about life and death, which have a decisive influence on the further course of action.
development
On November 1, 2012, pre-production of the game was confirmed. For the production of the game Tørnquist temporarily stopped his work on his MMORPG The Secret World . From February 8, 2013 to March 10, 2013 it was possible to participate financially in the project on the Kickstarter.com platform . For this purpose, the former team from Dreamfall reunited as an independent development team under the name Red Thread Games .
Contrary to earlier ideas about an episode adventure, the game was initially announced as a completed title. In the course of development, however, the development team decided, for various reasons, to split the game into several episodes as originally intended.
After the appearance of the third episode, an update was released on November 25, 2015 that replaced the Unity engine 4.6 of the books that had already been published with version 5.2. According to the developer, this engine change with improvements in graphics and performance cost around $ 150,000 and took four months of work.
reception
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Reviews
The game received mostly mixed to positive ratings.
According to the specialist magazine PC Games , the game is “ fan service in its purest form”. Fans of the predecessors would therefore hardly be able to avoid the title, while newcomers are put off by a confusing story.
"I also think it's a shame that the developers with a little more accessibility missed the chance to win a new generation of players for this mystical world."
While the online magazine 4Players gave the first episode Reborn a rating of 59%, Book 2: Rebels scored only poorly with 39%. Both tests praised the “fascinating, multi-layered game world”, interesting characters and dialogues and the decisions and their effects, but the episodes were full of bugs. In addition, undemanding puzzles and quests were criticized. This point of criticism remained in the test of the complete version for the consoles. And even if the worst bugs were fixed there, there would still be technical defects such as wooden animations and clipping errors.
"Complex decisions make the fantasy world interesting, but are disturbed by banal puzzles and many technical problems."
In comparison, the Xbox One version has slightly stronger stuttering and fewer details than the version for PlayStation 4 .
Benjamin Danneberg from GamePro criticizes loopholes in the logic, a multitude of inconsequential dialogues and frustrating puzzles, but admits that “the game left him feeling satisfied and touched in the end”.
Sales figures
According to game designer Ragnar Tørnquist, the game had sold half a million times by early 2019.
Web links
- The Longest Journey Wiki (English)
- Dreamfall Chapters at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ PC Games - Dreamfall Chapters - first episode will be released October 1, 2014.
- ↑ Steam Community - Dreamfall Chapters Book Three arrives today!
- ↑ Steam Community - Dreamfall Chapters Book four is now available!
- ↑ Kickstarter: REDUX is live!
- ↑ Steam Community - Dreamfall Chapters Unity 5 version exits beta, available to all . Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Funcom : Pre-Production begins on new game in 'The Longest Journey' Saga ( Memento from November 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved September 18, 2019.
- ↑ Kickstarter: Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey by Red Thread Games . Retrieved September 18, 2019.
- ↑ EuroGamer.net : Dreamfall Chapters will be a single-player adventure game for PC and Mac . Retrieved September 18, 2019.
- ↑ Kickstarter Update # 52: A message from Ragnar. Retrieved September 5, 2014 .
- ^ Jan Wöbbeking: Dreamfall Chapters: Engine switch improves graphics performance of current and upcoming episodes. In: 4Players . November 26, 2015, accessed September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e Jan Wöbbeking: Test: Dreamfall Chapters - Bulky conclusion. In: 4Players . May 5, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Antonio Moss: Dreamfall Chapters - I'm just a dreamer! In: Adventure-Treff . July 24, 2017, accessed September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Dreamfall Chapters - All information, release, PC system requirements. In: GameStar . Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Benjamin Danneberg: Dreamfall Chapters in the test - What takes a long time, somehow still turns out to be quite good. In: GamePro . May 5, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Matthias Dammes: Dreamfall Chapters in the test: Fanservice in adventure form. In: PC Games . May 5, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Dreamfall Chapters for PC Reviews. Based on 11 reviews. In: Metacritic . Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Dreamfall Chapters for Xbox One Reviews. Based on 6 reviews. In: Metacritic . Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Dreamfall Chapters for PlayStation 4 Reviews. Based on 25 reviews. In: Metacritic . Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Dreamfall Chapters for PC. Based on 3 reviews. In: GameRankings . Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Dreamfall Chapters for Xbox One. Based on 3 reviews. In: GameRankings . Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Dreamfall Chapters for PlayStation 4. Based on 10 reviews. In: GameRankings . Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Jan Wöbbeking: Test: Dreamfall Chapters - Book 1: Reborn - Freedom or technology nightmare? In: 4Players . October 31, 2014, accessed September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Jan Wöbbeking: Test: Dreamfall Chapters - Book 2: Rebels - Rebellion of Technology. In: 4Players . March 23, 2015, accessed September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Emily Morganti: Ragnar Tørnquist - Draugen. In: adventuregamers.com. April 5, 2019, accessed on September 18, 2019 : “Not really, because Dreamfall Chapters has done very well; it's sold half a million copies. "