Dreamfall The Longest Journey

The Longest Journey was a critical and financial hit when it was released back in 2001.  Now, Funcom has revealed its follow up, Dreamfall, which is set to hit the PC and consoles sometime next year.  Dreamfall will feature some great action-adventure gameplay, deep logic-based puzzle situations, and some pretty sweet eye candy.

Dreamfall is not a sequel to The Longest Journey.  Instead the title is a follow up with completely new gameplay and characters.  The game will be split into three main playable characters: Zoë, a streetwise young woman; April, a quiet, more shadowy character (who, incidentally, was also the heroine of The Longest Journey), and Kian, a tough warrior with a cool sword.  Dreamfall is based in a world of magic and science, so you will end up going through a variety of different fantastical worlds and some rooted in reality.

Many of the puzzles within the game can be approached logically.  For example, if you see an old and rusted door, typically you would have to search around for a key or maybe find a puzzle that would open it.  However, in Dreamfall, since the door is old and the wood is probably decayed, all you have to do is kick it open.  Although this particular example is pretty basic, it gives you an idea of how puzzles will be realistically approached in the game. Dreamfall, being an action adventure game, promises to have a fair amount of fighting in it and will also feature a pretty deep combat system.  Although not much was revealed, the developers cited The Legend of Zelda series as an influence, so it would be pretty safe to assume something along those lines. 

The game also has a pretty unique focus field, which allows you to scan the environment and determine objects, people and areas that you can interact with.

Dreamfall will make use of the new Shark3D engine, and even though the game has only been in development for eight months, the graphics were fantastic.  Dynamic lighting and shadows played a key role in setting up the atmosphere for the demo, and the character models and environments featured some really cool bump-mapping techniques.

While it’s still about a year and a half away, Dreamfall already has the potential to recapture the magic of its predecessor. 

For All E3 2004 Previews