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The real adventure game is back

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: November 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If anyone is reading this right now, looking for a good adventure game and lamenting the demise of the good old-fashioned adventure game that is so hard to find nowadays as they always seem to want to throw something else in such as an arcade sequence that requires fast reflexes, then keep reading this review and then order this game, because your wish has come true. A long, deep, involving, classic adventure game is what you will find with the Longest Journey. And better yet, the game designers have left out all of the things that annoy me the most in an adventure game: There are no irritating mazes, and it is not a game where death approaches at any moment and you will have to reload. What they have given us here is a great game with a great story, interesting characters, and puzzles that are neither frustratingly difficult or ridiculously easy, and most are logical as well. Imagine that! I have been playing adventure games since 1982 and this is definitely in my top 10. You are going to have a blast--order it now!

The best adventure/fantasy game I have ever seen

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: February 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

"The Longest Journey" is immensely satisfying on a variety of levels: visually, aurally and its ability to tell a most incredible tale. The writing is better than any other game, book, or movie that I have played, seen or read. Ragnar Tornquist's story makes you care about *every* character, from the protagonist April Ryan to the most minor characters, both human and, well, alien.

+ Visuals are impressive both in quality and imagination. Panoramic vistas of sea, twisted fantasy landscapes, sleazy future metropolis Newport, bohemian Venice, and medieval Arcadia shine. Cutscenes are movie quality, although playback from my hard drive was choppy at times.

+ Sound was excellent, both music and ambient sounds. Background noises were excellent, including nature sounds and the sounds of traffic and city noise. Not much in the way of music but the music matched the moods of the scenes.

+ Controls were easy to learn, inventory system was simple and effective

+ Cast of characters was large and extremely memorable. Some of my favourites include April, Crow, Charlie, Fiona, Cortez, Captain Nebevay and Burns Flipper (the *extremely* foul-mouthed hacker).

- There are no patches available for the US version. I did a full install (over 2 GB) and only encountered one fatal glitch (outside the Newport Police Station) that caused my computer to lock up every time

-/+ Full install is over 2 GB but does not require CDs after installation

- Objectionable langauge (the two worst offenders are Zack (foul-mouthed mysogynistic border) and Burns Flipper (superfluously foul-mouthed hacker who utters several f-words every sentence)

- Game can be wordy in spots (everyone has something to say...a lot of something to say actually) but it is possible to skip dialogue/animations by pressing the esc key

+ Good ending, although there are several obvious hints and setups for a sequel. Ragnar Tornquist promises that one day "The Longest Journey" will continue.

This is the best adventure game ever in terms of creativity, interest, settings (subways, ships, undersea, outer space), writing, characters and playability. Long live "The Longest Journey" !

It's a good game, but...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: December 08, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I purchased The Longest Journey a week and a half ago and I was really impressed by many aspects of the game. The animated sequences are rich, the voice acting is superb, and the story is well done. There are several things that annoyed me greatly about this game and others in the adventure genre. The puzzles that the character, April Ryan, encounters are either too easy or too frustrating based on design elements. Quite often a key element needed to solve something and move on further in the story is so hidden and requires going back and talking to the same person for the eighth time. This can make the game bore quickly at those points. Dialogue though well performed is at times so full of chit-chat and unneccesary details I had to skip past it. And although the game is good to look at and interesting to follow along with for the story elements I can't really say it was fun. However the pluses far outweigh the negatives and I commend its originality.

Good effort

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: July 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Pros:

1. Wonderful, beautiful, amazing graphics

2. Good character controls

3. Breathes some much-needed life into the adventure genre

4. Interesting premise for the story

5. Game lasts a good long time

Cons:

1. Takes it a while to get interesting. Too much "buildup."

2. Voice acting is painful at times, suffering from the "B-grade talent" syndrome that unfortunately afflicts so many games.

3. Some puzzles are downright exasperating. Others are no-brainers. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground here.

4. Profanity for the sake of profanity. (Or probably more accurately: profanity for the sake of a "mature" ESRB rating.) The profanity is basically just there. That's it. There is no real reason for it. It does nothing to enhance the dialog, or flesh out the plot (which fairly resembles swiss cheese anyway, with HUGE unexplained holes left in the story), and it doesn't enhance the characters in the story at all. It's just profanity...and it doesn't need to be there. Shame they felt the apparent need to throw it in.

All in all, a good purchase, though. The pros still outweigh the cons.

Great adventure

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: November 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game has gotten universal good reviews from the Adventure community, and it's easy to see why. The story is told in a very effective way; as the game progresses you really start to care for some of the characters in the game and you want to know what happens next. This is professional story telling at its best.

The puzzles in the game are mostly great, but sometimes the sollutions are a little obscure. This doesn't really distract from the fun, and is only a minor spoiler. The sound and graphics works very well and the cut-scenes will leave you breathless.

The only thing I don't really like about the game is part of the dialogues. While some of it is really interesting, other parts are dire boring. FunCom should have a look at LucasArts adventures to see how dialouge is supposed to be written. Also, while there are a lot of interesting characters in the game, there are a few that might as well could have been left out.

All in all I would strongly recommend this adventure for anyone who likes great storytelling. It's without a doubt the second best game I've played this year after Escape From Monkey Island.

Great adventure game for adults

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: December 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Finally an old fashioned adventure game with a plot! This game isn't named "The Longest Journey" for nothing. It is a long game, but the adventure is worth it. The main characters are likable and you really want to take the journey with April Ryan. This game has none of the arcade style puzzles that take a fast mouse and a quick right-click but add nothing to the story line. As a mater of fact nothing is added just to fill in the game, everything adds to the plot. The game also helps you with dialog clues to help you find what you need and in most cases you don't need to run all over the game to find something you need. The interface is natural and there even a few shortcut keys to help you with trying multiple items with an object or finding an exit in the many scenes.

The scenes are varied and nice to look at and there are a lot of them to keep your interest up. You aren't going over the same area again and again. Don't worry though the game restricts you to only a few at a time to keep your searches manageable.

With all of the good what's bad? This is not a kids game so beware of the very strong language. While I'm not a prude and the language does fit some of the sleezy characters, but I'd check it out before letting younger kids play. Playing it yourself may give you something to talk about with your kids and it is a great game. The other negative I have with the game and with most of the people I've talked with who have played it is that there are a lot of long conversations. One chapter of thirteen is mostly reading and talking with people and you feel restless to get going again. But in the end all of the information adds to the depth of the game as well making it real and not just a scavenger hunt.

I gave it 5 stare and it deserves every one. "The Longest Journey" is an interactive adventure I was glad to take and would recommend it to any older adventurer out there.

The best game I never heard of.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: March 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Wow! How come I've never heard of this game before? A puzzle based RPG that requires some very advanced thinking. Fantastic story that could easily be adapted to a movie. One or two of the puzzles require more luck and persistance than skill to solve and can therefore be a bit frustrating. The Longest Journey: Adventure Game of the Year Edition

Admittedly, this isn't the kind of game that will appeal to everyone - no fighting, very limited violence, no gore, sex appeal is limited to seeing an animated eighteen year-old girl in skimpy bedclothes in two or three dream sequences. (Graphic quality is way out of date.)

It also has a tendency to CRASH frequently on Windows XP with certain hardware combinations. (Setting Windows 98/Me compatibility mode reduces the crashing to a minor annoyance and saving frequently resolves the rest of the problem.) Thankfully, load time is nil and the game is so absorbing I really didn't mind at all. The stability problem is the only reason I deducted a star and some systems may never experience it at all. (I'm not going to go into this here, but it's not the game that is responsible for the crashing problem. It's hardware and operating system.)

Once I started this game I had to finish it. Great puzzles and an amazing story. Perfect if not for a slight instability problem.

The Longest Talk-fest

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Yes, this is a beautifully rendered game. It is, at the very least, a milestone in the genre, if not a major step forward. But my gosh, how much talking can a person take? The dialog seemed endless in some parts. I did not object to the profanity of Flipper and Zack--at least it made the dialog interesting, which is not a word I would use to describe a lot of it.

The puzzles, on which the flow of the game depends, range from easy to what-the-heck-were-they-thinking?! But in 13 chapters of play (12 chapters really, one chapter is all, what else--talk) a game is bound to run the gamet.

You definitely get your money's worth in playtime, and the visuals and the music are wonderful. Now if we could just get some of those characters to shut up...

Unforgettable

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: October 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I'd like to say that this is one of the best adventure games I have ever played, and i am very critical when it comes to adventure games. Some adv. games i stop playing in the middle and then maybe pick it back up a month or week later, but not this game. I couldn't let it go, the story and the beautiful graphics kept me pulled in for more. That's what games are for aren't they, to keep interest and maintain entertainment until, or in this case, beyond the ending. For example, i just passed the game, yet I'm here writing a review because I am still thinking about it, something unforgettable. Now by unforgettable i don't mean this game will haunt your memories, but the game will always come up when you think of the best games ever made.

Now technically the game had some problems. Sometimes I would get booted out of the game for no reason, only to load back and have to catch up. One feature I love is the option to skip animation, like walking from area to area, because yes the areas are extremely huge. As for difficulty, this game was really easy, and there is an extreme amount of dialogue. It was very clear that the people who made this game aimed it to entertain and preserve the story for the player as much as possible without creating frusteration of difficult puzzles and situations.

The game has a very "Blade Runner"-esque meets "Never Ending Story" sort of feeling, which may sound strange but harmonizes well in this game. And the music is amazing, fully orchestrated with a full orchestra, like any motion picture.
But I must fore warn, the ending is not satisfactory, I was angry because the ending does not give closure and there will never be a sequal.

So if you like fantasy, intrigue, science fiction, philosophic issues, graphics, good storylines, and most important "FUN" then get this game NOW!

loved it!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: June 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I absoultely loved this game! Not since Gaberial Knight 3 have an enjoyed playing a game so much. If you like adventure games I highly recommend this game. This game starts out introudcing us to April Ryan a seemingly ordanariy girl, until she begins her path towards her destiny. She is called a shifter, she has the power to walk between worlds. There is the world she lives in Stark (earth) and Arcaida. Arcaida is a place of magic and mytholiogy. April belives herself to be a normal person with work, freinds and school so having learned of Arcaida she begins to wonder about her sanity. But the fate of 2 worlds is a stake so she begins her quest. I really like the way the puzzles pretty much came together and you knew what you where looking for, her diary which she writes in throughout her adventure is a help as well. The characters are all interesting and the entire story is really a breath of fresh air. My only disappointment was once I had finished the game. Not that it was too short after all it is "The Longest Journey", but this game made me greedy I want more. I sincerely hope there is a second at some point in the future.

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