Rating: Summary: Great concept but incomplete follow-through Review: The Longest Journey is a pretty unique RPG - it gives you the role of a teenage girl who lives in the future. You move through her world, dealing with her landlady, her classmates, her boss, her friends, and many others.Like other RPGs, you have to find items, solve puzzles, remember clues from conversations and in the end Save the World. As a base RPG, it's pretty fun, with good graphics and gameplay. If you love dialogue (a la Planescape Torment), then you'll enjoy this. There is GOBS of dialogue. Everyone you meet has lots of things to say, and they go on and on. Be sure to have lots of snacks and drinks nearby, because you could be there for a while clicking to learn more. On the downside, this can get tedious at times, and there are times when something is obviously sitting in front of a person's nose, but they won't do anything until you ask just the right combination of questions. I was also disappointed by the immature, "girly" attitude of the heroine. I was hoping this would be a realistic young woman that would help encourage people playing to respect her. Instead, she's ditzy, has the "ick" reaction to a lot of things, and is downright snotty at times. While this may be the *stereotype* of women of this age, it is hardly the reality. Still, the game definitely has a personality, and the characters and plot are well thought out. This might be a game that gets girls into playing who might not be interested in playing other games ... and it starts to encourage other game developers to work on this style of game. We can only hope that at some point in the future they'll have a game with a female lead character that doesn't involve torpedo-shaped breasts or unpleasant characteristics.
Rating: Summary: slow, slow, slow Review: could this game take any longer? And the conversations that you can't get out of... boooorrriiinnnnggg. Don't buy unless you have a lot of time.
Rating: Summary: Time-consuming, but well worth it. Review: I'll be brief; The Longest Journey is the best adventure game I've played in a long time, possibly ever. The plot is interesting, the voice acting excellent, the graphics attractive, and the world(s) immersive in the best sense. That said, there are a few issues that have been raised by other reviewers. DIALOGUE: Oh, yes, there is an awful lot of dialogue in this game, gobs and gobs of it. There are sections in the game where you will spend some minutes just listening to the characters talk. Much of it is critical to the puzzles or the plot, but some is just used to develop the characters. This, to me, is part of the game's charm; the characters in the game really ARE characters, and not just tools used to solve puzzles. My advice is to treat these moments as extended cut-scenes; stand up, stretch your legs, rest your mouse hand and enjoy the show. PROFANITY: Yes, several characters use copious amounts of profanity. It's not necessary to the game, but it does reveal a lot about the characters in question, and makes them feel more real. One commercial review I read referred to this game as "the HBO of adventure games"; that seems about right to me. DELAYS: The one issue that did trouble me about this game was the necessity to run across large, empty screens each time you wanted to get to a certain destination. These screens served to set the scene nicely when first encountered, but could be skipped afterwards with no harm done to the plot. TLJ is slow-paced, large in scope, and (for me at least) engrossing. It's not for everyone, as some of the other reviews on this page will show, but those who are willing to put in the time will be well rewarded. If you're impatient to get to the end of a game, TLJ is probably not for you. However, if you treat the journey itself as the destination, you'll really enjoy the ride.
Rating: Summary: Longest Journey - Not worth the cost Review: The Longest Journey has great graphics and the story line at the beginning is great. But the conversation between characters is too stereotyped and monotonous. And it's somewhat easy if you've played many games.
Rating: Summary: An engrossing adventure! Review: I enjoyed this game because it had an interesting storyline, well developed characters, beautiful animation and challenging puzzels to solve! One of the nicest features of the game is that the heroine cannot be killed! It is so frustrating to spend hours playing a game, only to have the main character die, necessitating replaying the game! There is some "bad" language in the game, which is why it is rated for mature audiences. There is very little violence. The main character can be sacastic and mouthy occasionally, which made me want to give her a smack, but except for that, the game was a ton of fun! This is a pretty heavy duty game, coming with 4 CD's, and it took over 45 minutes to load it onto my Dell Dimensions 4100! Be sure to read the computer requirements before you buy it to ensure your computer can push this software.
Rating: Summary: The best of its genre. Review: The Longest Journey is one of the best games I played last year. Its the best adventure game I'e ever played, except maybe there's a tie between this and Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series. But while many of Lucasarts adventures are more comedy based, this is more of a drama. It has humor, romance, action, and anything in between. The storyline is wonderful, the charecters so fleshed out you feel like you know them, the puzzles logical, and for once in a game, the main charecter is a female, yet is not a supermodel, and is not treated like one(If you like at many games, from Tomb Raider to Drakan, the stars are supermodels). While it may be slow to some at first, I actually liked it from the begining. If you have patience for some tough puzzles, this game is a must buy and is one of the best games of the century(Even if we're only 2 years into the century).
Rating: Summary: The adventure game to end all adventure games Review: This game had me sucked in from the first second to the very end. It's riveting plot, and incredible scenery is unprecedented, and you truly begin to care about the many characters you run into. The challenge level is just right with puzzles that challengic yet logical. Do yourself a favor and get the overnight shipping on this badboy!
Rating: Summary: Good, but too much dialog Review: In an effort to get their audience to "feel" for the main character, April Ryan, the authors of this game over did it on the dialog/interaction aspect of the character. I did really enjoy this game, but it crashed on my system a few times, so I suggest -- save, and save often. Over-all a nice change from games like Baldur's Gate. Not as many elements to keep track of..simplified, but still entertaining.
Rating: Summary: Great game! Review: Excellent graphics and fun to play. The puzzles haven't been very difficult so far (just starting Chapter 6), but most are hard enough to make the game interesting and challenging. I just have 2 complaints; too much dialogue and too much swearing. If it weren't for the swearing I'd buy it for my 13 year old niece. She would love the storyline, especially with a female heroine.
Rating: Summary: Great Game, Slow Start Review: This game, so far, is really very good. The graphics are impressive and the story line is tight. This game does have a very slow start though, and you have to listen to a lot of people talk about a bunch of stuff that doesn't seem to be important right away. Stick through this, and you will love this game.
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