Pretty much agree with everything you said. There's definitely some great aspects to the game but some notable flaws/some confusing story issues that mar the experience bit. Still, I think it was worth playing, especially for fans of the series.
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Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey |OT| Book One: Reborn
- Thread starter ab.aeterno
- Start date
Pretty much agree with everything you said. There's definitely some great aspects to the game but some notable flaws/some confusing story issues that mar the experience bit. Still, I think it was worth playing, especially for fans of the series.
Can someone tell me if that eyepatch lady is in the game a lot? I absolutely abhor her character, her introduction where she makes fun of disabled people and autism turned me off so much that I uninstalled the game. If I have to endure more writing like that I'm not even going to bother, as much as I like the atmosphere of the world.
I understand that could be a troubling character. There wasn't a ton of interaction with her, at least in my play through. However, I can say it handles subjects like racism, sexism, homosexuality, etc. with more maturity than most games I've seen, but your mileage may vary.
EastOfEden
Member
She's only minimally in it if
you choose to follow the familiar path rather than the unknown path near the beginning. At least, that's what I chose and Zoe was working at the science lab and you didn't meet Mira til quite a while later.
andrerobot
Member
Man, I need to play the last chapter!!!
Thanks, I'll be sure to do that path when I play it after the patch comes out.
EastOfEden
Member
Oh cool, the final cut patch for PC comes out later this month. I missed this news.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/redthread/dreamfall-chapters-the-longest-journey/posts/1920395
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/redthread/dreamfall-chapters-the-longest-journey/posts/1920395
Nice, time to finally hop in. Seems weird that I only played parts of the first episode and then called it a day - looks like it will be worth the wait tho.
Plumpbiscuit
Member
A pretty surprisingly emotional Final Cut trailer for PC.
Gonna give the game another go with this new version sometime this year, I wanna experience the ending again...
Gonna give the game another go with this new version sometime this year, I wanna experience the ending again...
It's crazy that the backer goods they promised back in 2013 had an estimated delivery in 2014 and they're only going to start focusing on that now. I guess it makes sense when it comes to the physical discs they're using to print the Final Cut on, but otherwise it seems incredibly underdelivered.
Finally. I'll be tackling the game now. I previously played through the first chapter which I thought was okay. The overall impression I'm getting is that it's a deeply flawed, overlong game which is worth playing if you're a fan of the series (for closure). So that's what I'll be doing.
I remember when the first episode came out, i got into it a bit and liked it, but somehow got distracted, and now the final cut is released i think its the best time to start. Was a huge Dreamfall fan and i backed this. Wish they just released it as one big game instead of episodic.
I remember all sorts of wacky lens flares when I played it but I don't remember chromatic aberration at all. I guess that's new to the final cut? If so, I really hope there's a way around it.
In other news, I *loved* the first episode (Europolis is such an interesting location, and that music!) but the obvious budget issues really hurt the rest of the game. I wonder how much the Final Cut helps.
In other news, I *loved* the first episode (Europolis is such an interesting location, and that music!) but the obvious budget issues really hurt the rest of the game. I wonder how much the Final Cut helps.
Weird I never posted in this thread.
Great game with so much heart, people should give it a chance especially if you played some of the previous games.
I like how it actually manages to close the story instead of ending on some bs cliffhanger type shit.
Interesting, I never got that feeling.
Great game with so much heart, people should give it a chance especially if you played some of the previous games.
I like how it actually manages to close the story instead of ending on some bs cliffhanger type shit.
Interesting, I never got that feeling.
Felt pretty obvious once I hit Marcuria. So much open space, almost nothing to do. And the game often requires you to walk a LOT to progress, even if you know exactly what you have to do. Marcuria just isn't as interesting as Europolis either.
I think I stopped playing after the third episode but I'd like to go back and finish. I really loved the dialogue and voice acting and I wish the best for Red Thread.
Cheezeman3000
Member
I think the entire premise and execution of the game were off from the very beginning.
Very minor spoilers for the entire series:
The first game in the series follows April Ryan and her magical journeys.
The second game starts you with a new protagonist, Zoe, who has to find out what happened and you grow with that character.
This third game has you using the same protagonist as the second game. That was their first mistake. The precedent of starting from a new perspective and protagonist was a staple of the, well, 2 game series so far, one that actually worked really well. You start out finding out about this character, their friends and their world. Starting out with a returning character is not in and of itself a bad idea, but they have to balance the line of, how much do we fill in the gaps, vs assume what our audience knows. And considering there was a huuuuuuuuuuge gap between games, I had forgotten a lot, and didn't feel connected to Zoe anymore. They would have had to start from the beginning with her, and obviously they didn't because, the beginning was already set in the second game.
I would have made the entire game center around Saga instead.
So.... a big missed opportunity there.
Their second mistake was making these huge hub worlds with minimal interactions available in them. The few things they did have were so spread out it felt like you were just running through empty space 90% of the time. Smaller locations are totally ok. Don't create huge spaces for the sake of having huge spaces.
Their final mistake was their implementation of puzzles. They basically gave up on them in favor of a more Telltale experience. Look, I love Telltale games, but those games are in a specific genre and it's not the genre I was promised. The puzzles they do have in this game are weird, loose (gameplay-wise) and not very fun.
All of these add up to: a game about characters you don't really care about, walking through big empty areas with a kinda interesting story that you don't get to experience the most interesting parts of, with minimal puzzles that suck. So. I was not very impressed.
Very minor spoilers for the entire series:
The first game in the series follows April Ryan and her magical journeys.
The second game starts you with a new protagonist, Zoe, who has to find out what happened and you grow with that character.
This third game has you using the same protagonist as the second game. That was their first mistake. The precedent of starting from a new perspective and protagonist was a staple of the, well, 2 game series so far, one that actually worked really well. You start out finding out about this character, their friends and their world. Starting out with a returning character is not in and of itself a bad idea, but they have to balance the line of, how much do we fill in the gaps, vs assume what our audience knows. And considering there was a huuuuuuuuuuge gap between games, I had forgotten a lot, and didn't feel connected to Zoe anymore. They would have had to start from the beginning with her, and obviously they didn't because, the beginning was already set in the second game.
I would have made the entire game center around Saga instead.
She has the most interesting story by FAR, and yet we only get to see little parts of it. I really just wanted to run around with her and explore other worlds. Plus, it would have been really cool narratively when you think about her as being on a 3rd plane of existence, in comparison to the science and magic worlds, and it's the 3rd game in the series. It also would have worked great with the episodic structure, as each episode could be sectioned off in a different world or something.
Their second mistake was making these huge hub worlds with minimal interactions available in them. The few things they did have were so spread out it felt like you were just running through empty space 90% of the time. Smaller locations are totally ok. Don't create huge spaces for the sake of having huge spaces.
Their final mistake was their implementation of puzzles. They basically gave up on them in favor of a more Telltale experience. Look, I love Telltale games, but those games are in a specific genre and it's not the genre I was promised. The puzzles they do have in this game are weird, loose (gameplay-wise) and not very fun.
All of these add up to: a game about characters you don't really care about, walking through big empty areas with a kinda interesting story that you don't get to experience the most interesting parts of, with minimal puzzles that suck. So. I was not very impressed.
Even when playing this game in 4K and some extra LumaSharpen to combat the blurriness, and the game still has absolutely atrocious IQ. Whoever worked on the visuals need to lay down the crack, because no matter the reasoning, it is an eye-sore to have such blurry visual presentation.
How can I be playing this in 4K and the game still has jaggies and is blurry on top of things with background Chromatic Abberation.
EDIT: Fiddled with regedit and forced the rendering resolution. It should be better now., but the CA and ring-blur are still there.
How can I be playing this in 4K and the game still has jaggies and is blurry on top of things with background Chromatic Abberation.
EDIT: Fiddled with regedit and forced the rendering resolution. It should be better now., but the CA and ring-blur are still there.
Already did that. And minimal post-processing as well. It's still a bit blurry and still has that god-awful CA, but I'll make due, I guess.
Do we know if any of this is coming to the PS4 version?
This is the new stuff they added for the PS4 port, added to the PC version as a patch
Playing this after years of waiting (more than a decade went by since Dreamfalls disastrous ending) and I'm both happy and sad. There are good things about this and I'm impressed what they managed to achieve with such a little budget.
But at the same time there are so many failures or mistakes that simply shouldn't happen.
Like just look at the font that Red Thread chose. It's so boring and drab and it gives off a cheap and careless impression, as if the developers couldn't even be bothered to use a font that corresponds with the aesthetic they're going for. Changing the font shouldn't be expensive at all, so it just comes across as a rookie and/or careless design decision.
But at the same time there are so many failures or mistakes that simply shouldn't happen.
Like just look at the font that Red Thread chose. It's so boring and drab and it gives off a cheap and careless impression, as if the developers couldn't even be bothered to use a font that corresponds with the aesthetic they're going for. Changing the font shouldn't be expensive at all, so it just comes across as a rookie and/or careless design decision.
a 534 MB patch was just implemented on Steam - anyone knows what's in it?
Red Thread is so incredibly disappointing in this - a complete lack of transparency and communication. They even mentioned that the backer rewards was in this final cut, but we still haven't received the codes for e.g. the extra content (outfit for example). It's super unprofessional and their silence is offensive towards the people who spent a lot of money to back this.
Red Thread is so incredibly disappointing in this - a complete lack of transparency and communication. They even mentioned that the backer rewards was in this final cut, but we still haven't received the codes for e.g. the extra content (outfit for example). It's super unprofessional and their silence is offensive towards the people who spent a lot of money to back this.