The Longest Journey

The Good
I love practically everything about The Longest Journey. The quest is one as engaging as those of JRR Tolkien. The characters are great, especially your unofficial sidekick/comic relief, Crow, and the chronologically-omnipresent Abnaxus, whose lack of time perception makes conversation interesting. "I will. I did. I invite you to my home...my home was in the Marcuria city green and you will find it in the morning...I am explaining everything and you understood"

The pre-rendered background scenes are beautiful. Arcadia looks like a Yes album cover, and Stark looks like something from Blade Runner. The 3D models of the characters react well to their environment, especially in terms of lighting. The inventory system is the mostly-standard "Big-box-o'-stuff" that most adventure games use, and when you pull an item from it and use it something, the icon of the selected item flashes as you move it over your target to verify that your attempt is valid. This ereases some of the tedium of trying to figure out what item you should be using, and eleminites entirely the annoying "I don't really want to do that." type dialogue that accompanies an incorrect item usage.

The Bad
Several people have said that the dialogue is too lengthy, but the story is one of the pillars on which this game relies, thus long dialogue is an asset. My only gripes are that the ending leaves you wanting more, and the language is a little coarse, with no option for filtering it. The former problem is fairly subjective, as a good story SHOULD make you want more, while the latter is problematic only in that it narrows the playing audience, making it inaccessible to those of more sensitive constitutions.

The Bottom Line
It's not all fantasy, it's not all futuristic, it's not all internal or external struggle, it's all of these things, and even a little more. There's no point at which you really have everything figured out, even if you think you do.

The Good
This game is regarded as a minor classic. It put its then-young designer on the map, and became one of the bestselling adventure titles of its era. It certainly has great production values, an epic story, plenty of conversation and plenty to do. Other reviewers do a great job heaping praise on it, so I'll just skip to the next part.

The Bad
The three basic elements that arguably make an adventure game tick are story, characters and atmosphere. So let's see a rundown.

Story: 'The Thirteenth Floor' and 'The Matrix', two films with a similar basic idea both came out about a year before the game was released, but the 'parallel universes' premise was already considered age-old in the 80's ('Labyrinth', 'Ultima 1-6' etc.). This game turns out to be yet another variation on the theme. Nothing groundbreaking.

Characters and Dialogs: this is a biggie. In terms of classic adventure games, it apparently takes a Ron Gilbert or a Jane Jensen to dream up memorable heroes and supporting players, and this game simply doesn't have what it takes. The characters and their dialogs are either lifeless or even worse. In fact, April Ryan of The Longest Journey may well be the single most irritating protagonist in a major adventure game ever. For me anyway. The author clearly made a grave mistake by turning her both 18 and a bland partygirl. Her incessant cries and whines of 'Duh!' or 'That is so... uncool.' along with her overemphasized hipster attitude were probably designed to appeal to, well, fellow hipsters I guess. Monkey Island 1-2 or Gabriel Knight did not resort to similar gimmicks and still drew in quite a fanbase. Guybrush Threepwood in particular was 19 without being annoying. Gabriel Knight was a brooding charmer. Zak McKracken was something of a lonely young bachelor. My point is that if you can't grow attached to the protagonist in an adventure game, your experience goes downhill quick. That's what happened to me here. April Ryan is the kind of vapid-girl-in-tight-pants that I wouldn't want as a steady girlfriend -- and even less so as a heroine in an epic adventure game I intend to play through to the end. She does write a diary throughout the story but the things she writes in it read like bits of throwaway chitchat from some high school party. The diary feature adds no layer of much-needed depth to the proceedings, because April has no layer of depth. In turn, none of her friends or associates are fleshed out either: we get two run-of-the-mill best friends who have nothing substantial to say or contribute at all.

Atmosphere: starts great, goes downhill once I realized the earlier points. In other words, the combined lack of a tight, original story and that of full-blooded, endearing characters result an inevitable lack of a strong atmosphere.

The Bottom Line
I wanted to like this game, as fans of elaborate and serious-minded old-school adventure games are not exactly spoiled since the late 80's to mid 90's boom of those great LucasArts, Sierra and Legend titles. I think The Longest Journey was a nice try, but I couldn't warm up to its semi-recycled story and especially to its blasé hipster heroine. So it's purely up to personal taste. Your mileage may vary, especially if you regard yourself a hipster, I suppose. Deck tassel, cronkite.

The Good
Likeable main character, nice art and backgrounds, plenty of interesting dialogue and immersive gameplay. The puzzles border on the simplicistic but are consistent with the setting and don't feel forced. The plot is nothing new but moves along smoothly despite being unoriginal. Streamlined and unobtrusive interface that rarely gets in the way. Great Introduction and first part, with very high production values.

The Bad
3D characters lack polygons and don't look very great against the 2D backgrounds, especially in close-ups and cutscenes (that are few, blocky and poorly done). Some of the characters share the same voice actor (that does a poor job of trying to alter his voice) and some sections seem rushed (especially towards the end) with too few locations/things to do. The final part and ending seem hastily done (like the publishers wanted to get the game out of the door asap).

The Bottom Line
A great addition to the adventure games genre and a very engrossing experience.