Rating: 
Summary: The Longest Journey is nothing short of a classic!
Review: (This review is written about the UK version. Certain discrepencies may or may not appear in the US release.)The Longest Journey has apparently received much international attention, spawning numerous translations of the game abroad. Some go so far as to call it "the best adventure game ever made." Happily, nearly without a doubt, the title is very well-deserved. Players follow the adventures of wisecracking April Ryan as she slips between parallel universes connected by a common history. Stark, or a fully-realized futuristic Earth, is the universe ruled by technology. Arcadia, a lush forest world, is ruled by mystery and magic. The two form a complete circle, like yin and yang. But this is all threatened when. . .well, actually watching the story unfold is part of the fun. And fun it is! The plot is multi-leveled and completely engrossing. Hours melted away and time spent apart from my computer was surrendered in anticipation of finding what happens next to good ol' April. It's a page-turner, only in video game form. Dialogue is quite possibly The Longest Journey's greatest strength--and greatest weakness. Of course, it allows the game to unfold--and that's a good thing. The actors deserve kudos for being quite good when given proper lines (some of April's friends are so...salty!). However, on repeat play, some of the dialogue is a little goofy and a little too yuk-yuk. And good Lord, some of the characters can talk FOREVER! You'll want to listen the first time you play The Longest Journey, though. Graphically, TLJ is nothing short of breathtaking. These are fully-realized environments in many ways. Players will want to stare for long periods of time as the wind rustles leaves in the dark recesses of Arcadia's forests, or as a castle drifts by on the breeze. April's home of Stark, on the other hand, is forboding and mechanical, a computerized society encrusted with grit and splashed with neon color. My only gripe with TLJ stems from something so many adventure games suffer from: weird items and item combinations used to play puzzle with. Poor April probably doesn't know she'll need that inflatable ducky she fished out of the sewer in the future...but, she does! Good thing she never leaves home without it. Still, fashioning a key out of soap and an iron peg found in the back room of an antique shop has never been my thing in any adventure game. Hopefully, designing realistic puzzles and combining them with great everything else like TLJ will be the next challenge for the genre. But the puzzles are, strangely enough, really secondary to the story. With its merits and despite its small flaws, The Longest Journey is simply an excellent game.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Game Ever!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This game is truely amazing! I can't remember the last time I played a computer game that was so engrossing. You can almost feel yourself growing along with the character, April Ryan, and by the time you've finished the game you will be totally understanding of her. I know that sounds kind of stupid, but this game real brings you in.The Longest Journey will be enjoyable to anyone from ages 13 to 80! From teenagers to adults. The puzzles range from dreadfully easy to taking you days to figure out (for those of you who won't run to the nearest walkthrough or hint page). I hope anyone that likes adventure games (& those that don't) will by this game. I really, really hope you do, 'cause the creators of The Longest Journey have the story for both a sequal and a prequal already written, but they won't make them into a game unless The Longest Journey sells well in the states. I imported the game from Britain & now I'm kicking myself for not waiting. Well, anyway the game's awesome! Buy it!! :) (PS, sorry for any spelling errors!)
Rating:
Summary: Where's the sequel, Funcom?!!
Review: What a find this game was. I stumbled across The Longest Journey while I was chasing reviews on other games. In adventure gaming, for those of us who have been doing it for a while, certain games tend to clump together for their genre and quality. When a few reviewers of games I like mentioned it, I thought I would check it out. The Longest Journey falls inexorably, I believe, into a unique category of adventure game, where there is a stable female at the center of the story from beginning to end. Not many adventure games occupy this place. The Longest Journey has been out for about three years, but it has not been very high profile. Usually with games that are a bit older, the graphics and interface are something to be desired. This is not so with The Longest Journey. Games that are coming out now in 2003 (like Black Mirror, for instance) are of a similar quality. While The Longest Journey is not like Syberia in graphic quality, it is nonetheless equally as engaging. April Ryan, an 18-year old art student, is on the longest journey, but she doesn't know it at all at the beginning of the game. I know 5 dozen young women like April. She is familiar, yet not mundane; she reminds me a bit of Claire Danes, or a character out of My So-Called Life. She is a little bit lost, but has figured out enough to know she wants to be in art school. She is alienated from her family--an all too real situation--and she is on her own and not too terribly sure about it, but knows she has to be. April is, in other words, remarkably credible. And she is immensely likable. In fact, many of the characters are astonishingly familiar: April rents a room from a lesbian couple, and, shocking as that may seem, there are in fact lesbians in the world. This detail makes the game both real and representational--that is, it takes realism a step further (or maybe someplace else) by placing a heterogenous cast of characters in the mix. April is living in an art community--as such, a diverse group of people tends to be attracted to the art milieu. There are several ethnic groups represented, as well. And there is a man who has no legs who is doing quite well for himself--he, incidentally, is the character with the worst language of all. While some reviewers have cautioned parents of very young children about the homosexuality in this game, I suspect the 4-letter words are probably more a matter for concern. The lesbians, astoundingly enough, don't have wanton sex on the sofa in the living room--in fact, the game rather realistically portrays them sitting on the sofa chatting, quite dressed and quite unperverse. As far as slightly older children are concerned--I think they know more than we think they know; if I place a prohibition here, then I will likely generate more interest in the game than anything else. Post Mortem, for instance, actually represents the lead character waking up after a night of casual (hetero)sex--and is a game much more worthy of a caution label for its violence, morbidity, and sexual theme. No such representations occur in The Longest Journey. In fact, April Ryan is a young woman who is deeply and personally concerned about doing the right thing by other people and for the world. April has a long quest ahead of her, and it begins in Stark--a place that strikes me as reminiscent of a futuristic decaying Connecticut. She will eventually cross over into an alternate world and continue her quest there. The house where April lives exists on some kind of fault line in between Stark and Arcadia; April's residence at the house is not accidental, but a feature of her destiny. There is a lot of inventory work in this game, and a lot of character interaction. I personally liked the character interaction--it gives the landscape depth. There is more to discover than just things and places. Granted, if you are stuck at a particular point in the game, you will hear the same thing over and over and over again from the characters until you solve the riddle. But at least you know where you stand. This is the duplicity of the linear game: you can piddle around forever (if you don't go to a walkthrough) trying to figure out what to do next, but at the same time you may be assured that you will not have to return to a saved game because you forged on blindly without some thing that you needed. The inventory work is on the whole quite logical, if somewhat frustrating at times. I did find a favorite walkthrough and consulted it on occasion. But, oh the places in this game!!! There are just a vast number of places to visit, and again, much of it is something we will recognize as our own future. Stark is just as its name would suggest; while technology has advanced considerably, other things have decayed. Drugs and urban stagnation are slightly more visible than our present day world--but it is certainly plausible enough to think that we could end up like the world in Stark. That April goes into art is kind of interesting--it almost seems kind of archaic, like some part of Stark is lapsing into its own prehistory. Everything looks like it could stop working at any moment--the subway, while controlled by card access and retinal id, is still covered with filth and graffiti. And it is deserted, except for the usual cast of weirdos. I like the game's suggestion that technological advance does not necessarily mean progress. There is a bug in the game--it involves a subway track, a rubber ducky and a rope. It causes trouble for some folks but not others. If you do find yourself trying a myriad of inventory gymnastics with a rubber ducky and a rope on a subway track, visit the Funcom website--I got a quick and friendly response from them that resolved the problem. The game is also huge; you need about 3 gigabytes to do a full installation. You do have a choice to do a minimum installation of about 300 mb, but you need the disks to play, of which there are four, and the game runs more slowly. I recommend a full installation for the best experience. The Longest Journey is one of my favorite games of all time. I give it five stars for its portrayal of real and familiar characters; for its representation of a young woman struggling with her life and making it on her own; for its representation of a diverse set of people, which is a more accurate representation of the world we live in than many other games that strive for realism; for its vast landscape; for its logical inventory and puzzle work; and for its premium on the joy of discovery. I here publicly announce my request to Funcom to produce the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely long and fun
Review: This game *is* worth the 95/100 ratings it keep getting. It's easiest the most beautiful adventure game ever made, if not one of the best ones overall. This is definitely more serious (and with mature material) than any LucasArts title, it won't make you laught your pants off but it has a more down-to-earth, more real-life kind of humour that keeps the game very enjoyable. There are so many places you can explore in the two worlds it's breathtaking... and they are filled with characters who feel alive, not just there to answer one question or two. April herself is very lovable, you grow to care about her and her world, and feel sad when the game is over and when she only lives on in your head. And yes, these world do feel like they are still out there somewhere even AFTER the game is finished. This game reminds me of the age when adventure games were big, when character development and intricate plot and DETAILS are what makes a game world amazing. If you call youself an adventure gamer, this is a *MUST*. If you are just looking for a great, interactive story and looking to try things out, this one is a great one to start too (with its easy interface). Though it may spoil you for life, for there isn't that many game much like it out there I'm afraid.
Rating:
Summary: Long and engrossing
Review: I really liked this game and couldn't wait to get back to it every night. It really did offer the extended gameplay advertised; it took me over a week to get through it, whereas most games only last a couple days despite purporting a zillion hours of play. The voice acting was PHENOMENAL -- probably the best I've ever come across -- the scenery was lovely, the story well thought-out. I particularly liked the use of philosophy (especially the Bandu's). This game served up a number of life-truths along with its puzzles and settings. The puzzles themselves range from very simple to quite complex. A few were annoying in that their solutions involved pixel-hunting, which sometimes led to a hint page just to be sure there was really something to hunt for. A few others could not be solved unless you had had a particular piece of a particular conversation, even if you otherwise knew the answer. I found this frustrating, as I several times had to go visit every character to determine what piece I was missing. Too, there were a few places where I expected a puzzle of some kind, but found instead that clicking on the object in question simply solved it for you. The interface suffered from some inconsistencies. It would have been helpful if the "eye" icon always switched to a "dagger" icon when you could interact with something, and if the "dagger" icon always meant something could happen, not just that April would make a comment. Ocassionally the extended dialog got to be a bit much, especially when the characters/programmers found it necessary to repeat certain information ad nauseam (as in the Maerum section), or spell out answers that you sould easily get on your own. If you are easily annoyed by running back and forth hunting inventory items and/or bits of information, you will probably not like this game much. On the other hand, if you are willing to be involved in the characters and their story, "The Longest Journey" will give you a lot of enjoyment. Be sure to check out the "Book of Sercets!"
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite games of all-time.
Review: Absolutely beautiful and surreal. Like so many woven dreams and breathtaking vistas and grand accomplishments... this game is everything I hoped it would be from the time I first spotted the box to the final credits. There is also no false advertisement in the title, as this is an extremely long journey. After dozens and dozens of diverse characters and locations and victories, you realize you have three discs of game left to go through. I played this game for months, though not always at the computer. I would get stuck on a particularly devious puzzle or plot point and wouldn't play for a while, but found myself brainstorming possible solutions all the time. There are many hours of dialogue and monologue (April tends to talk to herself about whatever is on her mind, which are often the same questions you find yourself asking) and most of it has some comic relief, usually from April's understandable cynacism (she does see and hear some very strange things).
If you want an awesome adventure game that will stretch the limits of your imagination and that will take for-freakin'-ever to finish, I highly recommend this game, although you'd probably love it regardless.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this game
Review: Ambience and atmosphere are important to adventure games, and 'The Longest Journey' has lots of both. It is an extremely immersive experience, thanks to its top-notch writing, pacing, graphics, voice-acting and well-designed puzzles. A very well-polished title. I can't wait to get my hands on a sequel (and they do have plans for one). There are a few technical issues:
1)some game copies (specifically the #2 disk) were defective when shipped. It should be easy to get a replacement from the retailer, etc.
2)some people are impatient over the length of dialogue, and from waiting for April (the heroine) to run from point A to B across the screen. It's no problem: just turn on subtitles and you can hit 'esc' to skip through chunks of the spoken dialogue once you've finished reading it. 'Esc' also allows you to skip frames of action, such as April running around.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST GAME EVER
Review: This is the best game i have ever played. It doesnt matter if your not a big fan of point and click adventures your gonna luv this game anyway. Story 10/10
Gameplay 10/10
Graphics 9/10
Sound 10/10
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding and different game style
Review: I was accustomed to the tired, old "Myst" clones in the adventure game field, endless array of first-person views of weird landscapes, eerie background music and little cahracter interaction.
The interaction here is fantastic, every character has personality and history. The dialogue is excellently executed and informative.
The adventure side of the game is intriguing, you visit interesting areas, both urban and rural, one minute you'll be on a deserted shoreline, the next, inside a police station.
It's an absorbing game and the story moves along very well. And it's a fun, visual treat for the eyes.
The puzzles aren't very hard... which is good. Many adventure game designers build puzzles that are ridiculously hard to solve, but not logical; just hard. These puzzles make sense. For example, to open a police station door, you have to distract the workmen, connect the wires while they're not looking, and enter. Not too hard, but it makes sense. Many adventure games will present you with something like a board that has 500 pegs on it, and they have to ba arranged in a peculiar pattern in order to proceed... and there may be thousands of combinations of patterns. This type of senseless puzzle is not in TLJ.
Do not hesitate to buy this game, but it IS an adventure game, and it's LONG, so use patience.
I gave this only 4 stars because some of the dialogue parts are just too long. Also, the characters don't look quite as good as the backgrounds (but the DO look good)
Rating:
Summary: Charming Story
Review: As a long time adventure addict it was a real pleasure to find a new adventure story. The tale tells of April Ryan, an 18 year old woman, who runs away from home to become an art student. The Longest Journey is both a lovingly depicted tale told with a great deal of verve and imagination and the symbolic telling of a young woman's coming of age. I found much to love about the game. Not only April, but many of the lesser characters are well developed, showing a depth far beyond the typical computer adventure game. Characters like Crow and Cortez have a real sparkle. The two worlds are extremely detailed in a style reminiscent of Jack Vance or Roger Zelazny. The puzzles are almost all solvable by reasonable experimentation. It's a relief to find a game where you do not also have to by the 'guide.' On the whole, this is a very fine effort. Several things keep me from giving it five stars though. The action is a little to slow for modern tastes. There is a great deal of dialogue and it is a bit too didactic for me. Finally, several of the characters use very strong language - hence the game's rating for mature (17+) players. Had the language been softened a bit The Longest Journey would have been a superb experience for any child or adult. On the whole though this is a complete winner. Very rarely does a game come to market this well crafted.
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