The Longest Journey Begins

The Longest Journey and its sequels, Dreamfall and Dreamfall:  Chapters are games of deep stories and emotion that I've enjoyed a lot over the years.  It's been almost a year now since the last chapter of the last game was released, bringing an end to the saga.  For some time now I've been meaning to chronicle a playthrough of all the games, making note of my thoughts on the games' interconnections, artistry, and all the various little things I dislike or love.

All the games are conveniently divided into chapters, so I'll try tackling them one post per chapter.  I'll try not to bluntly spoil anything, but I will be pointing out some foreshadowing.

The Longest Journey is still one of my favorite games, but before I truly start the game, let's examine the menu screen (...I suspect the chapter posts will be long.)  Here it is:

There are children's drawings (and April's diary), with each a different menu choice.  Children's drawings are a recurring motif in all three games, so it's great to see them right from the start.  I'm not exactly sure what the grate or stone background represents.  Stark in general?  April's room specifically?  But the dark, cold CGI contrasts nicely with the warmth of the drawings (a dichotomy that will be repeated in the game, although I don't think the poorness of the CGI is intentional.)

Looking at the drawings in detail, there are some sort of water and flying creatures (credits), April's diary (settings), a sea monster (the Book of Secrets, the bonus material), a person with a stick bundle setting out on a journey towards mountains (starting the game), a campfire scene from a certain point in the game (continuing the game from a save), and the House of All Worlds (exiting the game.)  The same stick person (dressed in red) is in the last three, and I'm assuming it's April.

I'll talk more about what the drawings might mean or represent when I get to certain points in the game.  Now, to actually start a game!

"King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones" Review

Publisher:  AGDInteractive Studios

Website:  http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/kq2/about/about.html

Genre:  Adventure

Summary:  After having a vision of a beautiful woman trapped in a tower, King Graham travels to the treacherous land of Kolyma to seek three magical gems to free her.

Gameplay:  Among the updates to the 1985 original version is a point-and-click interface, which is very welcome.  There is also voice acting, which I don't generally bother with (I don't mind characters being voiced, but narration generally annoys me.)  It can be turned off in favor of text, but I can't seem skip past the text boxes in some scenes, which is irritating.

Numerous puzzles are also changed or added.  Some of this is welcome to flesh out the story, but sometimes it's a bit much.  A lot of the puzzles are finicky (items that only have one use, for example) or the solutions don't feel very intuitive (granted, this was also true of the original.)  There's too much backtracking, and the game overall feels longer than it needs to be.

Style:  The graphics have been updated and look nice.  Sometimes close-ups are rather awkward, however.  I greatly enjoyed the music, especially when it used cues from other games in the series in appropriate instances.

Story:  An early game like "King's Quest II:  Romancing the Throne" was pretty bare-bones when it came to plot, so I appreciate efforts to add more, and many of the ways the AGD team ties together the very disparate plot elements of the original are quite clever.  As the game draws to a close, references to future King's Quest games and some more dramatic plot elements really enrich the story.

Not everything works, however.  There are some bits that could have used a bit more set-up.  And, most importantly, I think the game feels a bit too dark and violent for King's Quest, especially the "second" game in the series.  The original docked you points for killing a snake.  In this game Graham threatens several people with a sword and definitely kills one person (getting points for it.)  I can't help but feel there could have been some lighter solutions to problems (particularly in the area of Count Caldaur.)

Conclusion:  Although an improvement over its simple predecessor and containing some great moments, "Romancing the Stones" is dogged by too many puzzles and some rough plot elements.