Humdinger
Member
Fifteen years ago, I played Dreamfall: The Longest Journey on the Xbox 360. I loved it.
Two days ago, I bought Dreamfall Chapters for six dollars on PSN. I am not loving it.
I think it's mostly me, not the game. Fifteen years ago, I loved immersive story-focused games. These days, I realize that if I want a good story, it's a lot easier to find one in a book than in a videogame. I still value a good story, but I don't have any patience for games that are mostly about the story and only incidentally about the gameplay.
This game, at least so far, seems that way -- more story than game. The game elements seem very simple and rather dull: some point-and-click, "combine the things" type puzzles, which get annoying. Add in long stretches of walking around and clicking on stuff, to get random information.
Even the story, which I assume is the strong point, isn't grabbing me. It seems very slowly paced and disjointed. There is a ton of dialog, but it's very ordinary stuff, almost at the level of chit-chat. Plot-wise, I feel no urgency about anything, no interest in any particular outcome. I keep thinking, "Can we get on with it, please?" I'm impatient for something interesting to happen.
The tone also seems off. In Longest Journey, there was a palpable but subtle sense of melancholy, which I liked quite a bit, because I'd never encountered a videogame with that atmosphere before. That sort of tone is missing here, and in its place is an amalgam of heaviness and affected flippancy that doesn't quite gel.
I'm about two hours in, so maybe this changes over the course of the game. All I can say is, so far, I'm not feeling any sense of engagement or interest. I'm close to giving this one up and turning to a different game. Before I did that, though, I thought I'd post and check to see if anyone thought I should press on. Do things shift and become exciting in hour 3 or 4? 5 or 6?
I think my taste in games has changed, and I just don't enjoy these types of games any more.
Anyone play this? Thoughts?
Two days ago, I bought Dreamfall Chapters for six dollars on PSN. I am not loving it.
I think it's mostly me, not the game. Fifteen years ago, I loved immersive story-focused games. These days, I realize that if I want a good story, it's a lot easier to find one in a book than in a videogame. I still value a good story, but I don't have any patience for games that are mostly about the story and only incidentally about the gameplay.
This game, at least so far, seems that way -- more story than game. The game elements seem very simple and rather dull: some point-and-click, "combine the things" type puzzles, which get annoying. Add in long stretches of walking around and clicking on stuff, to get random information.
Even the story, which I assume is the strong point, isn't grabbing me. It seems very slowly paced and disjointed. There is a ton of dialog, but it's very ordinary stuff, almost at the level of chit-chat. Plot-wise, I feel no urgency about anything, no interest in any particular outcome. I keep thinking, "Can we get on with it, please?" I'm impatient for something interesting to happen.
The tone also seems off. In Longest Journey, there was a palpable but subtle sense of melancholy, which I liked quite a bit, because I'd never encountered a videogame with that atmosphere before. That sort of tone is missing here, and in its place is an amalgam of heaviness and affected flippancy that doesn't quite gel.
I'm about two hours in, so maybe this changes over the course of the game. All I can say is, so far, I'm not feeling any sense of engagement or interest. I'm close to giving this one up and turning to a different game. Before I did that, though, I thought I'd post and check to see if anyone thought I should press on. Do things shift and become exciting in hour 3 or 4? 5 or 6?
I think my taste in games has changed, and I just don't enjoy these types of games any more.
Anyone play this? Thoughts?
Last edited: