The Longest Journey is pissing me the fuck off

[ghostdog]

I really liked the puzzles in Shadow of Memories / Shadow of Destiny.

Hmmm... SoD was awesome. You've given me an idea for a LP. If I get some free time and finish Dark Earth, that is.

 

[yaster]

You know what? Why not stop plying games with shitty/unimportant gameplay and spent time with something without said gameplay but having everything else infinitely better - like movies, comics, books, graphic novels etc. Plenty of possibilities, huge back catalog, just swim in this sea and you might be shocked how much better it is.

So being "traditional" point and click means it is allowed to put gameplay on the back sit?

Who the fuck was talking about this? Pablosdog said Myst was tougher. I said yes. Neither of us said being point and click means you have no gameplay.

On the back sit = making it less important, with less care. As in shitty gameplay, not no gameplay.

Adventures are puzzle games, puzzles are its core, its engine, its everything.

No, no, no, and also no. Adventure game != puzzle games. Puzzles games have puzzles and NOTHING ELSE.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Applying color to faces of the cube doesn't mean it's not a cube anymore. Details doesn't change the nature of the beast. It is still puzzle game, the narrative is there to make connections between puzzles, set gaming space for puzzle solving. It's not there to take attention from puzzles.

Example: in my humble opinion story and setting of Day of the Tentacle are boring as hell. But I place it as one of LA best? Why? Because it has interesting puzzles and interesting placement of said puzzles, non-linear and what not. See, all puzzle mechanics. All there is to kick Full Throttle ass (imho).

All the crap we give Bioware and Bethesda is because a) they market their games as what they are not, and b) their games suck. Not necessarily because they're easy.

They call it next gen and accessible. In fact they are rather weary of hardcore. Today, I just saw interview with one of Bulletstorm devs, a game with seems more-or-less targeted at mid 90' shooters fans, yet the guy tried his best to cut himself from connecting his game with hardcore gamers (or at least of that period).

Also: difficulty is one of the most frequent argument around here, so plz no excuses that whole game sucks, I don't give a fuck.

 

[Pablosdog]

I really enjoyed The longest journey, moreso for its story/atmosphere than it's actual gameplay. The problem with having these needlessly convoluted puzzles is that oftentimes you have to skim through a guide if the answer seems to abstract. Some late 90s adventure titles were guilty of this.

Lucasarts titles at least, for the most part, had logical puzzles that could be solved within reason. Pixel hunting has always been a sort of problem for most adventure titles though.

 

[DriacKin]

Plenty of the old-school classic adventure games were pretty easy. Most of the old Lucas games were very easy. Some of them were even easier than TLJ. Instead, we loved them for the great settings, wit, dialogue, etc. TLJ fits this description pretty well, imo.

 

[Liberal]

The Longest Journey and Dreamfall are both masterpieces. As is written in the first article of faith, heathen.

 

[aleph]

The Longest Journey and Dreamfall are both masterpieces was an okay game. Dreamfall was shit

Here, fixed that for you.

Seriously, Dreamfall had a bad, incoherent excuse for a story, no real puzzles, and shitty combat and stealth sequences. This game didn't come anywhere near to be a masterpiece.

 

[Liberal]

Dreamfall had a bad, incoherent excuse for a story

Not really, the story was exciting, entrancing, branching across two worlds and a number of characters. The only flaw is that the game was too short, and too many questions were left without an answer or explanation. It felt pretty amazing navigating through the rich, colorful game world, an outstanding amount of thought and effort was put into every small detail and how they relate to one another. Which is the one thing that sets a masterpiece apart from a collection of successful marketing gimmicks slapped on a corporate chart.

I feel sorry that some people cannot see the forest for the trees, and think an action-adventure needs to rival Splinter Cell to be good.

 

[KalosKagathos]

too many questions were left without an answer or explanation

Which is a huge flaw. TLJ is a great game on its own, and seeing Dreamfall end on several cliffhangers that make TSL look like a game with no loose plot threads was infuriating.

 

[DriacKin]

I'm probably gonna get yelled at for saying this, but I actually would have preferred it if the first TLJ was a bit shorter. And although I still enjoyed it a lot, I felt that it dragged quite a bit near the middle. Imo, much of the second act of the game felt like filler that could have been removed without losing much.

 

[Donkey Balls]

Dreamfall was an amazing interactive movie. Great characters, interesting locations, excellent voice acting, etc, etc.

Doesn't have much gameplay, but who the fuck cares?

 

[Sceptic]

I'm probably gonna get yelled at for saying this, but I actually would have preferred it if the first TLJ was a bit shorter. And although I still enjoyed it a lot, I felt that it dragged quite a bit near the middle. Imo, much of the second act of the game felt like filler that could have been removed without losing much.

Nah no yelling, you're right. I think condensing the Arcadia bits would've made the plot tighter and improved the flow.

 

[Cassidy]

Here lies another case of a franchise's attempt to go totally dumbed down and draw consoletards that wasn't truly commercially successful.

TLJ is a good adventure game, but its "sequel" is a shitty interactive movie that sucks even as a movie due to lack of plot coherence and proper closure, only more bearable than Ass Effect interactive movie series because of the lack of popamole shooting range mini-games.

Games shouldn't be developed just because it is both cheaper and easier to sell shit CGI movies wrapped over empty husks of them than actual movies.

 

[DriacKin]

Probably, this post is out of place, but I really loved puzzles in "The Longest journey".

Really? Which ones?

 

[aries202]

In the newer adventure games such as Frogware's Sherlock Holmes games, players can click on the spacebar to reveal the game's hotspots - no pixel hunting necessary.And yes, the adventure games have long been declared dead - much like the pc gaming have been. Many times, I've seen it.

However, in recent years, it seems that the adventure game genre has had a recovery of some sort. Agon has released has have Art og Murder games along with sequels to some of the good (and great) games of yesteryear.

The problem is that even a 12-15 hour long adventure probably costs as much to make and develop as a 30-40 hour long adventure game. And so, graphics engine are probably 2-4 years behind say Call of Duty's graphics engine. And animations are sometimes cut a bit short. But the adventure game comminuty doesn't mind since we we either play adventure games for a) the story or b) the puzzles.

It is necessary, I think, to distinguish between to main types of adventure games such as 1) Puzzle games like Myst, Schizm etc. and b) point and click adventures like Dracula: Origin, Syberia andr The Longest Journey. Additionally casual adventure games called Hidden Object Games (HOG) are also being made today.

Gameplay is sort of king and queen in the HOG and puzzle games, while story, interaction and characterization have long been queen and king the the traditional point and click games. The puzzles and gameplay here solely exist to drive the story further along.

We, in the adventure gaming community often discuss, if it is a burden or a blessing that publishers and developers are not investing heavily in this genre. It always ends up in in a big 'it would be nice, but wouldn't it mean more games where thing either go boom (in the night) or games like Heavy Rain'

Not that there is anything wrong with games like Heavy Rain or things that go boom (in the night) - but we like that there still is game genre where you actuallu have to think - at least sometimes - before you act...

And why is this thread not in the adventure game forum? Oh well...

 

[Lesifoere]

"Things that go boom in the night"? What the fuck?

Do you mean "things that go bump in the night"?

 

[aries202]

No, it was a failed attempt? to be a little amusing referring to shooters....and how people playing shooters like to shoot things and in shooter games as well as throw explosiives in the game.

 

[Data4]

Posting to simply make the notably absent Bladerunner reference.

Oh and I played TLJ back in the day. I liked it alright, but it screamed "Lifetime Channel Presents:". Clearly a chick game.