Dreamfall too fragmented, not as introspective.

From what the various comments around the net have to say regarding the length, I’m guessing I’m about 3/4 the way through Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, and I’ve figured out what I don’t like about it.

At first I despised the combat and stealth purely on academic grounds; that the game is of the vein of point-and-click adventures, and these elements do not fit in well in the genre. This was clearly evident in a recent Quantic Dream title Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in North America). More and more though, I’m finding that the stealth and combat in Dreamfall isn’t bad because it’s poorly implemented, but because it further fragments the experience. Not only does the combat for the most part feel inserted at awkward points in the narrative (not all of it is poorly introduced… just most of it), but it doesn’t flow smoothly with what is happening in the narrative. Furthermore, the narrative itself unfolds in a quite piecemeal way compared to the first game (The Longest Journey). Chapters that are played are quite short and generally end with a comparatively long cut-scene in reference to actual play-time, and sooner than later the game moves on to either a different character or location.

I continue to warm to Zoe; her responses are realistic, and I sense that the concern that she has for Raza her friend is growing in an honest, earnest and justified way. The problem I think is that this story is less about her character and more about the story-arc. Being into anime, especially the more articulate and mature presentations, I’ve grown a love for works whose characters and symbolism transcend the narrative. Fair-enough this is extremely rare in games, but it’s not entirely impossible. The original ‘Longest Journey I thought approached this level of story-telling quite well. It wasn’t perhaps as deeply representative as anime like Haibane Renmei, but it subtly achieved a good level of character in April Ryan. I miss being able to click on her character-model and hear her say things like ‘I feel strangely aware of myself’, or ‘I look like a sailor! Arrr me hearties!’. Everything that happened to her had a small effect on how she thought, on how she felt about herself and her experiences. The final culmination of some of those feelings in the scene that addressed some of the issues with her father was for me a triumph of gaming. It was almost totally separated from the core-narrative, and began to delve into deeply intimate issues within the main-character. This for me was what was at the heart of The Longest Journey, and it’s something I often revisit.

Dreamfall lacks this grace, and I can’t help but think that it’s partly because there is an extended cast of playable characters. To be honest, all of them seem like great characters, deserving of honest time to be spent with them, but encounters with them are simply too brief, and Zoe lacks the awareness of herself that April had in the first game. Now I don’t mean the awareness that I referenced above in regards to clicking on April (though it was greatly amusing), but the fact that April constantly gave little insights into her thoughts every time something happened; her scepticism, her disorientation and her emotional confusion. It really did feel like I understood what she felt, that these were real experiences for her in this fictitious context. It was less about the destiny and safety of the world, and more about her emotional engagement by it.

I don’t totally hate the new control scheme that stays away from traditional point-and-click, I truly believe that the gameplay – including the combat and stealth, could have remained the same. What I’m missing is the strong emotional bond with the main protagonist and now of-course the additional characters. This isn’t to say that Dreamfall has been a total disappointment, many of the environments have been stunning and really beautiful. Even in that sense though, I just felt that April was more aware of her surroundings and expressed how they made her feel, whereas Zoe seems cheated out of this depth by becoming yet another 3D character running through a contrived game-space. Perhaps the only half-hearted attempt at her noticing her surroundings thus far has been her comments on the wooden-wheel in the basement of The Journey Man Inn, and the steam-engines in the city, but these were passing statements at best.

I still love Zoe, I really do, and of-course I can’t expect her to be a carbon copy of April Ryan who for me is a very precious character – I’m actually quite afraid of how she will be portrayed in the final chapters of the game, but by many accounts she seems to be fine. I do believe though, that Zoe could have had quite a different character to April, but still give as many insights into her thoughts as April did. She is quite different to April: where April was an aspiring art student, Zoe reflects some of the very true-to-life issues of being a young adult and feeling directionless, restless and without motivation. These are wonderful facets of her character, why can’t we slowly see them challenged through her experiences? True, the narrative is driving her towards being more involved in the events that are unfolding, but that’s what it feels like: that the narrative is driving her, not her own realisations and personal growth. It feels like the narrative is telling her to grow up, rather than creating a solid sense of change in her own character.

Enough.
I’m sure to write a brief wrap-up once I’ve finished it. These are just my thoughts after coming as far as I have. I’ve replayed The Longest Journey several times, but I’m not too sure whether I will replay Dreamfall once I’m done. I understand there is to be sequel, but I don’t like that as an excuse as to why certain elements have been executed with less grace than the first game. I’m a firm believer that whenever we do anything, we should do it to the highest standard and not hope for an opportunity later-on to justify in retrospect where we perhaps knew we weren’t performing, or didn’t even plan to.