Summary
Sub-LucasArts in every respect.
The Good
'The Longest Journey' was essentially the lengthy labour of love for one Scandinavian young man infatuated by the classic point-n-click adventure games of the early 90's. Regrettably, that's all the end product essentially turned out to be: a fangame helmed by a young amateur that, by definition, doesn't reach the heights of its inspirators. For a fangame however, it is hopelessly overblown (and overpriced).
I was looking for this title in vain for years, based on all the appraisal it received from adventure players worldwide. I finally found a copy five years after its release, and now keep wondering if this was the very game everyone used to talk about.
The Bad
I'll be brief and to the point, focussing solely on the three basic elements that arguably make an adventure game tick: story, characters and atmosphere.
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.). My first shock came when realized that this game turns out to be yet another variation on the theme.
Characters and Dialogs: it apparently takes a Ron Gilbert or a Jane Jensen to dream up memorable heroes and supporting players, and the creator of this game simply doesn't have what it takes. The characters and their dialogs are either lifeless or worse. In fact, April Ryan of 'The Longest Journey' may well be the single most irritating protagonist in a major adventure game. 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 general 'hip' attitude were probably designed to appeal to a young teenage audience of 11-15 year-olds. The problem is that Monkey Island 1-2 or Gabriel Knight 1-2 did not resort to similar gimmicks and still drew in flocks of young teenage fans (and, perhaps more significantly, older fans as well). Guybrush Threepwood in particular was 19 without being annoying. Again, it must be a question of being a gifted writer. April is the kind of hollow-girl-in-tight-pants that you don't want as a steady girlfriend (even less so as a heroine in an epic adventure game you intend to play through). She does write a diary throughout the story but the things she writes in it read like bits of throwaway chitchat from a 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: the combined lack of a tight, involving, original story and that of full-blooded, amiable characters result an inevitable lack of overall atmosphere. I quickly stopped caring...
The Bottom Line
...but the creator of the game is now working hard on a quasi-sequel. Here's sincerely hoping that he has evolved into a more skillful game designer in the past years and this second adventure will be a worthwhile one. He is one of the few in gaming still believing in elaborate adventure games -- so his success would be the benefit of us all.
