Most of these see her voicing her thoughts. In this point-and-click adventure set in 3D, objects of note reveal prompts when brought to the centre of the screen, a sideways glance denoting her focus. From over her shoulder, we poke around a city dense with interesting details. As a new player, it’s easy to catch up, even if the exposition on past events grows a tad dense at times.Įventually, events transpire to place Zoe in the mundanity of a futuristic waking world filled with polymer comforts and cheap, vat-grown organs, with no memory of the time her mind spent wandering the other place. Perhaps the game’s greatest success is the sense of exquisite history and continuity carried through in the excellent writing: it’s easy to step into the stream of strange and compelling things that began before you arrived and trust that it knows its course and destination. It might seem obvious that this should be the case, given her veterancy, but there’s a big difference between merely adhering to somebody else’s prescribed set of adjectives and expressing a confidence in a character’s legacy and environment to the player. Even through such a brief stint with her, she’s easy to know. There are no ostentatious displays of character, no hamfisted methods of twisting your ear and shouting “Isn’t our character unique and interesting?!” As you interact with the objects scattered about and draw comments out of her, who she is is softly and deftly present in her word choices, mannerisms, and thoughts. Similarly, Zoe’s personality feels so strongly established that the game felt no need to explain her to you. The laws of the lore will define themselves naturally and you needn’t worry, it assures. Rather than feeling lost, though, it’s like falling into the stream of a tale whose details simply aren’t necessary right now. She’s adept at this – she knows the rules of this world, even if I haven’t a clue what’s going on. I suspect that the months she’s spent discouraging its use has bled the venom from her effort. Her small palette of dreamwalker’s powers are used to solve simple sequence puzzles and guide the frightened minds of sleepers back into wakefulness, her exhausted sarcasm warning them against the dangers of addiction and personal consumption tied to the use of a Dreamachine. We follow her into the fizzling, angry blips that represent unpleasant dreams. She’s spent her time in spiritual exile by helping others, easing the nightmares of dreamers. We join her in a world between others – a jagged snowscape where gateways to dreamers’ worlds flit into existence. Zoe Castillo, the heroine of this game and the last, gazes down at her comatose body, her tale indefinitely suspended by the tragic turn of events in Dreamfall. The life of a raven-haired woman is honoured with a strikingly beautiful burial at swamp and a man, appearing as a streetwise greaser tempered by a decade’s adulthood, waits to welcome his child into the world. The game speaks of rebirth, of beginnings and endings and stories. It’s an adventure that speaks to many of the strengths of its predecessors while stumbling through other key efforts. Now, a month ahead of expected delivery dates (fancy that!), we have the first episode of Dreamfall Chapters. In early 2013, the clamour was answered with a Kickstarter campaign run by the series’ creator and his mix of faces old and new. From what I’ve gathered, the previous title closed in a way that stoked a burning hunger for continuation with a few cliff hangers. I hear praise lavished upon the writing, the characters, the lovely lore built into the world. The previous two The Longest Journey titles are remembered by many with passionate fondness.
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