Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderfully Fun Game!
Review: I received this game for Christmas and have been having a wonderful time with it. The storyline is engrossing, the characters are believable in their language and behavior. The game requires you to pay attention to the clues the characters give you as you go along, but if you miss something, you can refresh your memory by looking at the main character's "diary." There are 4 CD's with this game, so it will take you a while to play. I have a strong feeling I will be disappointed when this game is over!
Rating: 
Summary: A Story-Only Game
Review: We found the story of The Longest Journey to be engrossing, but thought the game play was lacking. There are almost no puzzles of the sort found in Myst. Advancing in the game consists of talking to everyone and determining which inventory item will work in the situation. It took quite us quite a while to finish only because the speeches take such a long time. The background graphics are excellent, though the rendering of some of the characters is poor (e.g. some have no fingers, just mitts). The language in the game is needlessly very blue. We had to ban our children from the room while playing.
Rating: 
Summary: The Longest Journey- Beautiful but Long
Review: This game is one of the best i've played, no doubt. The graphics are like real footage of humans, the dialogue is beautifuly acted, the false worlds seem like parallel worlds to ours, and the charachters are so real and understandable, from the sleazeball Zack to April herself who is always showing insight to important things. The Longest Journey, however, is made even longer by the length of the travel scenes (getting from the border house to the fringe cafe takes like 5 minutes) and by the complexity of the puzzles. That makes little difference but i found myself frusturated with the time it took just to advance a little.
Rating:
Summary: Good game marred by too much talk
Review: I just finished playing "The Longest Journey," and I liked it. I didn't *love* it, and here's why:- There's way, way, way too much talk. I love to read, and a certain amount of conversation doesn't bother me at all in a game. This was just over the edge, though. There were conversations that lasted more than 15 minutes, and ultimately weren't really very interesting. - There's no good way to skip animation. April (the main character) walks from place to place, and you have to sit and watch her walk. You can make her run, which is a little better. You can also hit the escape key to skip the animation, but it only skips it ahead a little -- so to get her from one place to another fast, you have to keep hitting "escape." It would have been nice -- and pretty darned easy -- to make it possible to click from one location to another once they've already been visited. - Some of the puzzles are entirely based on "hunt the pixel" -- success hinges on finding the one tiny pixel that's hidden behind something else. I want puzzles to require intelligence and flexibility on my part, not keen eyesight and infinite patience in moving the mouse over the screen. The game *was* good. The voice acting was excellent, the graphics were pretty, and the characters were engaging. The story was also very good (though some threads never got resolved, which was annoying). "The Longest Journey" has very little replay potential -- it would be too tedious to watch April walk around and talk to people once you know how the story turns out. If you buy this one, just be ready for a lot of chit-chat on the way to a satisfying story.
Rating:
Summary: Digital storytelling at its finest
Review: This game was clearly designed with the ambition to be more than "just" an entertaining and challenging game - it was designed to tell an epic story and to tell it in a manner to rival the best fantasy literature you will find. In a way, perhaps, their job was easier than that of the writer. They could give their characters voices and faces without the need for the poetic touch that writers must have to make their characters come alive. And they could guide the reader through the story, fully knowing that the interactivity of a game would draw him into it and make him identify with the story. Nevertheless, I find the game a staggering success. It told a captivating story filled with rich characters. It left me missing a "playback" function so that I could replay the story without interactivity just so I can reminisce, much as I will often go back to a good book to read it again. If you are planning to pick up a book with which to fill your spare time, consider trying The Longest Journey in stead. A game, it is different from a book, but the experience you get is much similar. Of course, there were good challenges, it was technically very good, etc. But the one factor that makes this my game of the year was the story.
Rating:
Summary: Game of the Year
Review: All I can say is wow. This game has totally blown me away! It makes Final Fantasy look like childs play and could very well become the best adventure series of all time if there are sequels released. You are at complete control to interact with everything around you; it is amazing. I have not even completed the first chapter and I am in total awe. I reccomend this game to any gamer looking for something refreshingly different than every other game on the market this year. Only place that I can offer some caution is the space you'll need on your hard drive; there are minimal installation options, but for the full experience, delete some stuff to free up some space. I think you've all been meaning to give up on Sim City 2000 by now anyway...
Rating:
Summary: Game that I'll never forget
Review: My impressions of this game were the most wonderful ones. I've never played any game that was so absorbing before. "The Longest Journey" has a beautiful story, nice characters, and awesome graphics. You'll be "hooked" with the game until you finish it. I personally experienced the withdrawal effects when I completed it. Being not a great fan of adventure games myself, I really liked "The Longest Journey." I would recommend the game to everybody who likes to play computer and video games because it is impossible to get bored playing this one, no matter how fiercely you hate adventure games.
Rating:
Summary: The Longest Talk-fest
Review: Yes, this is a beautifully rendered game. It is, at the very least, a milestone in the genre, if not a major step forward. But my gosh, how much talking can a person take? The dialog seemed endless in some parts. I did not object to the profanity of Flipper and Zack--at least it made the dialog interesting, which is not a word I would use to describe a lot of it. The puzzles, on which the flow of the game depends, range from easy to what-the-heck-were-they-thinking?! But in 13 chapters of play (12 chapters really, one chapter is all, what else--talk) a game is bound to run the gamet. You definitely get your money's worth in playtime, and the visuals and the music are wonderful. Now if we could just get some of those characters to shut up...
Rating: 
Summary: A linear adventure game...
Review: After playing this game to completion, I have a few comments on the good, bad and ugly that this game contains: The Good: The storyline is very engaging, with a deep plot that unravels as you continue on your journey. Each NPC is unique in appearance, mannerisms, and voice, creating a more realistic set of worlds that you will explore. The graphic detail and musical score are both first-rate, adding to the realistic and deep worlds that the designers are attempting to convey to the audience. The Bad: The dialog "sessions" with NPCs are tiring. You can actually eat lunch during some of the exchanges, periodically having to click on a response. I found that the dialog choices I made were inconsequential to extrapolating all the needed information from each NPC, although I would sometimes have to bug the NPC a second or third time if I chose a nasty comment. This is not an RPG, so your character's decisions do not have an affect on the game, except to waste more of your time as noted above. The "M" rating on the game was appropriate because of the language, but why was the spasely lewd language even included in the game? This would be a better game (without the profanity) for the younger teenager who is willing to endure dialog and hasn't dealt with many puzzle games. The Ugly: The puzzles were simple to figure out, and did not seem to have that "logic of the environment" feel that Myst provided to its puzzles. The shame is that, if you did not want to solve a particular puzzle, you would not have any other paths (or other puzzles) to explore. So, you are faced with either getting past the particular puzzle, or exiting the game to read a book. As good as the environment looks in each world, most of it is backdrop, leaving only a few select spots for you to enter. Since the storyline controls your character, you do not control travelling between worlds. This leaves the gameplay flat and restricts player creativity so treasured in non-linear RPGs. I guess I've been spoiled by non-linear RPGs that earn an "M" rating. Only buy this game if you've never played Quake, Fallout/Fallout2, and Myst before. And, make sure your spacebar is in good operation to skip all that dialog.
Rating:
Summary: Great adventure game for adults
Review: Finally an old fashioned adventure game with a plot! This game isn't named "The Longest Journey" for nothing. It is a long game, but the adventure is worth it. The main characters are likable and you really want to take the journey with April Ryan. This game has none of the arcade style puzzles that take a fast mouse and a quick right-click but add nothing to the story line. As a mater of fact nothing is added just to fill in the game, everything adds to the plot. The game also helps you with dialog clues to help you find what you need and in most cases you don't need to run all over the game to find something you need. The interface is natural and there even a few shortcut keys to help you with trying multiple items with an object or finding an exit in the many scenes. The scenes are varied and nice to look at and there are a lot of them to keep your interest up. You aren't going over the same area again and again. Don't worry though the game restricts you to only a few at a time to keep your searches manageable. With all of the good what's bad? This is not a kids game so beware of the very strong language. While I'm not a prude and the language does fit some of the sleezy characters, but I'd check it out before letting younger kids play. Playing it yourself may give you something to talk about with your kids and it is a great game. The other negative I have with the game and with most of the people I've talked with who have played it is that there are a lot of long conversations. One chapter of thirteen is mostly reading and talking with people and you feel restless to get going again. But in the end all of the information adds to the depth of the game as well making it real and not just a scavenger hunt. I gave it 5 stare and it deserves every one. "The Longest Journey" is an interactive adventure I was glad to take and would recommend it to any older adventurer out there.
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