Fatal Frame 1 Review (Xbox/PS2)

Killer Photography

I don’t really enjoy western horror films. I seldom find such movies entertaining as they’re usually predictable and downright boring. Most of them achieve their scares with shock value alone. While the “boo” factor works to an extent, the most effective means of delivering fright are psychological – what you can see can be scary, sure, but the best scares come from that which you can’t see. This is the basis for Tecmo’s Fatal Frame series.

Out of the dozens of choices for survival horror video games, Fatal Frame stands out from the rest with a unique outlook on what’s scary while avoiding many of the common trappings of the genre. Still, Fatal Frame still fetches a pretty penny. Is it worth the cash and more importantly, your time? Let’s find out.

Story

It is September 24, 1986. Sixteen year old Miku Hinasaki travels to the supposedly haunted Himuro Mansion on the outskirts of Tokyo to search for her older brother Mafuyu, who had been missing for a week after visiting his novelist mentor, Junsei Takamine at the Himuro Mansion.

Junsei Takamine as Miku discovered, had also gone missing in the mansion, together with his assistant and editor, whilst conducting research for a new novel.

With so many people missing in one old, decrypted manner and its smaller surrounding buildings, Miku is sure the task of finding her brother will be easy. Soon after she arrives though, she quickly realizes all is not right with the Himuro Mansion. After finding a mysterious camera able to banish evil spirits, young Miku ventures into the darkness, where both her fate and the true secret horrors that the mansion hides await her.

Graphics

Fatal Frame is a genuinely creepy looking game. The visuals haven’t aged quite as well as other survival horror games of its day such as the Resident Evil remake, but Fatal Frame does still catch they eye more so than other examples like Silent Hill 2 or The Thing.

Character models are well animated and rather realistic looking rather than cartoonish or stylized. One could argue that Miku looks out of place in her school uniform, but hey, at least she isn’t wearing a Sailor Fuku. Actually, from a technical standpoint, her white uniform greatly helps the player locate her position on screen under even the worst lighting conditions.

As one would expect, the game looks significantly better on the Xbox. The PS2 build looks a lot blurrier, muddier, and there are fewer ghost verities and unlockable costumes for Miku. For these reasons, I strongly recommend the Xbox version over the PS2 build. The Xbox version also supports 480p and is fully backwards compatible with the Xbox 360 with no known issues.

The Himuro Mansion and surrounding property is huge, but you are often restricted to narrow paths and only be able to access some areas per chapter. This is likely due to the limitations of the PS2 rather than the Xbox.

When you leave the game running for a little while, a built-in screensaver appears smearing bloody hand prints all over the screen. It’s both creepy and cool.

Audio

Fatal Frame is light on musical compositions and instead focuses on guttural, moody, and atmospheric pieces that greatly amplify the horror theme factor. You’ll usually find that the music is nothing that is memorable, but is loud and present enough that it can’t be ignored either. It’s a delicate balance to build a soundtrack that’s sole purpose is to enhance mood, and Fatal Frame does this very well.

The game’s voice acting is in English with no option to switch to the Japanese. This is a shame, as the English voice acting is all pretty poor. The voice actress for Miku does an acceptable job in most cases, but Mafuyu and a few others have such horrible delivery that it breaks the fourth wall. Of course, no matter had it gets, nobody ever points out that the dangerous situations Miku finds herself in almost resulted in a Miku sandwich.

Here’s an example of the voice acting from the game’s opening sequence.

Gameplay

As the name suggests, Fatal Frame is a survival horror game that revolves around photography. As you progress, Miku will be constantly attacked by malevolent ghosts and lost souls, all earthbound due to the horrific ways they died on the Himuro property.

To battle these spirits, Miku is armed with the Camera Obscura,  an antique camera and family heirloom passed down from her mother. This camera has the unique ability to damage and capture spirits. However, the camera also relies on “ammunition” – film. There are different types of films scattered throughout the mansion, and each type of film possesses a different strength. The camera also contains several special abilities, which must be unlocked using spirit points, which can be gained by capturing ghosts. More spirit points are rewarded for photographs that capture ghosts at close range, often just prior to them attacking.

Special abilities range from wider lenses to abilities such as paralyzing and vision to see ghosts through soild objects, making it easier to deal with the tougher ghosts Miku encounters throughout the game.

As mentioned, the game is broken up into several chapters called “nights”, even though the game takes place over the course of just one single night. The chapters progress as Miku reaches particular locations, usually after completing a puzzle or fighting a boss ghost.

As seems to be the general rule for survival horror, Fatal Frame has its share of logic puzzles that must be completed to progress though the game. I personally found the puzzles to be either mind numbingly easy or frustratingly difficult and just no fun. Your mileage will vary depending on where you fall on puzzles in your non-puzzle gaming.

Occationally, one of the porblems with the game is the camera. Fatal Frame is a third person survival horror game that doesn’t rely on fixed camera angles like Resident Evil does, but it nevertheless does not allow for manual camera control. The Right stick instead of moving the camera, only slightly adjusts Miku’s flashlight, allowing her to scan the area. The degree of movement is less than 15 degrees and it’s a wonder why Tecmo even bothered to include this ability at all.

Control

One of the many ways Fatal Frame is comparable to Capcom’s Resident Evil are the “tank” controls. While They aren’t as awfully slow as in RE, you’ll still find yourself getting into situations where you can’t see well due to fixed the camera angles and ridged controls.  The controls themselves are as follows:

Left Stick: Movement, scroll through menus, adjust camera aim
D-pad: Scroll through menus, adjust camera aim
Right Stick: slightly move flashlight Movement in camera mode
LT: Enchant film
RT: Shoot
A: Confirm menu choices, open doors, interact with objects, Shoot
B: Cancel menu choices, Change to first person camera view
X: Run in direction you are facing
Y: Third person view: Options/First Person View: 180 degree turn
White: Zoom In (higher difficulties only)
Black: Zoom Out (higher difficulties only)
Start: Pause
Back: View Map

Considering they were designed with that awful controller F Xbox pad in mind, the controls do function rather well. The PS2 controls are nearly identical, in case you are wondering.

Frustration

Fatal Frame isn’t a particularity difficult game, but it can be frustrating because the game never tells you where to go or what to do next, which more often than not can be rather unclear. Some of the game’s puzzles are rather involved mind games that are just no fun for me personally. You can look up solutions on gamefaqs but the mathematical puzzles just have no place in a horror game in my opinion. There are also occasional issues with the the way the fixed camera and the controls respond when under attack by ghosts. Truly, this is the most horrific aspect of the whole game!

Availability & Price

Fatal Frame was released in 2001 for the Playstation 2 and a year later for the Xbox. Both versions were produced in limited numbers, resulting in much higher prices than most other games of their generation. For either version, except to pay $30 for a used copy. The price varies a little, with the PS2 version usually selling for a few dollars less due solely to its inferiority to the Xbox build.

History

Fatal Frame was released in Japan under the title 零 (Zero) and in Europe as Project Zero. Much of the game’s creepfest impact was due to the cover of the North American Fatal Frame which claims it is based on a true story. As it turns it out, the game is instead based on a Japanese urban legend.

According to the urban legend, just beyond the city of Tokyo is one of the most haunted locations in all of Japan. The rocky region is said to be location of where the Himuro Mansion (or Himikyru Mansion as it is sometimes known) once stood.

The Himuro Mansion was the scene of some of the most gruesome murders in modern Japanese history. Local lore has it that for generations, the Himuro family had participated in a strange, twisted Shinto ritual known as “The Strangling Ritual” in order to seal off bad karma from within the Earth, every half century or so.

The most popular version of the tale states that bad karma would emerge each December (other versions simply say “toward the end of the year”) from a portal on the Mansions grounds. In order to prevent this, a maiden was chosen at birth by the master of the household and isolated from the outside world in order to prevent her from developing any ties to the outside world, which would in turn, jeopardize the effect of the ritual.

On the day of the Strangling Ritual, the maiden was bound by ropes on her ankles, wrists, and neck. The ropes were attached to teams of oxen or horses to rip her limbs from her body, quartering her. The ropes used to bind her appendages would then be soaked in her blood and laid over the gateway of the portal. They believed that this would seal off the portal for another half century until the ritual had to be repeated.

During the last recorded Strangling Ritual it is said that the maiden had fallen in love with a man who tried to save her from the ritual. This “tie” to Earth tainted her blood and spirit and ruined the ritual altogether. Upon learning of the maidens love, the master took up his sword and brutally murdered all of his family members, before finally, in fear of what would soon happen, fell upon his own blade.

This is the basis of the “haunting” of the Himuro Mansion. Local legend has it that these souls of the murdered family wander the mansion attempting to repeat the failed ritual using whomever enters the abandoned building. Blood splashes on the walls are reportedly seen, as if they were flicked from the blade of a sword that had recently sliced through flesh. Many had reported seeing spirits and apparitions dressed completely in white, rinsing cloths and preparing the grounds for the ritual.

When asked about the basis of Zero, Chief Producer Makoto Shibata had the following to say:

“In an area outside Tokyo, there lies a mansion in which it’s said seven people were murdered in a grisly manner. On the same property, there lie three detached residences that surround the mansion, all of which are rumored to have ties to the mansion’s troubled past. It’s said there is an underground network of tunnels that lay beneath the premises, but nobody knows who made these tunnels or what purpose they served. Many inexplicable phenomenons have been reported occurring on the property. Bloody handprints have been found splattered all over the walls. Spirits have been spotted on the premises… even in broad daylight. A narrow stairway leads to an attic where a spirit-sealed talisman is rumored to be locked away. Men have sought this talisman, only to be found later with their bodies broken and rope marks around their wrists. There’s a crumbling old statue of a woman in a kimono, but its head is missing. If you take a photo of a certain window, a young girl can be seen in the developed picture. These incidents have provoked fear in the people of Tokyo, and many believe that those who live near this area will become cursed. The deaths of those seven people are unexplained to this day.”

However, the true validity of the urban legend remains largely unfounded. Assuming the horrific events took place even one hundred years ago, it is highly unlikely that no public records of this mass murder exist, especially so close to Tokyo. The “real” Himuro mansion no longer exists, but Tecmo based the location seen in the game on very traditional Japanese architecture of buildings that would have been built from in the 18th century or earlier.

Original Advertising

As usual, I couldn’t find an English trailer, but here’s the original Japanese version to scare the pantsu off you. 恐いです !!

Also, proof that j-pop can be applied to anything and still work:

Overall

Good

• Great Graphics
• Cute main character
• Some genuinely scary moments
• Japanese to a fault

Bad

• Occasionally, your goal can be unclear
• Lots of backtracking
• Controls take a bit of getting used to
• Expensive to buy even just second hand

Conclusion

Fatal Frame is an unusual survival horror game that few have had the chance to experience. It goes for a pretty penny on both the PS2 and Xbox, but it’s well worth a look if you’ve got slightly deep pockets and are looking for an experience that is every bit as enjoyable as other survival horror games you’ve probably already played like Resident Evil or Silent Hill. If you can, pick the game up for Xbox rather than the PS2 for the benefit of having better controls, cleaner graphics, fewer bugs, shorter loading times, more ghosts. and unlockable costumes to put Miku in a veriety of kimonos.

Data

Platform: Sony Playstation 2 & Microsoft Xbox (works with backwards compatible PS3s and Xbox  360s)

Genre: Survival Horror

Release Date: November 22, 2002

Developer: Tecmo

Publisher: Tecmo

Also from the developer: Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden Black, etc.

Game Length: ~10-12 hours

ESRB: M

Buy/Skip: Buy

Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate Review (Xbox)

Super Fighting Tits

The fighting game genre exploded with the arcade boom in the early 1990’s thanks to the overwhelming success for Capcom’s Street Fighter II. Since then, many companies have tried to recapture the same thunder and copy whatever successful formula Capcom’s game had. Tecmo’s answer was to make the game more simple yet keeping it robust, make it 3D like Sega’s Virtua Fighter and add in a secret ingredient: large amounts of sex appeal.

Enter Dead or Alive, the textbook example of a game with ludicrous breast physics.  In the origianl arcade version of Dead or Alive 1,  even the slightest motion any of the female characters took would send their frontal globes bouncing like they’d been operating a jack hammer naked.

Obviously the game was a hit. In 1999, a sequel was produced adding even better “visuals” and tuning the gameplay to make the experience even better. Soon after, console ports began to materialize, each one better than the last. In 2005, Tecmo revised Dead or Alive 2 once again on the most powerful console at the time, the Xbox, and made Dead or Alive 2 ULTIMATE. What makes the Xbox version the ultimate version? read on and find out.

Story

As a fighting game there’s really no story at all, but I suppose it’s vaguely about a mysterious fighting tournament held by the oh-so-mysterious DOA-Tech, and a menacing evil tengu threatening Japan. What are a bunch of extremely well endowed young ladies and a few dudes including Ryu Hyabusa from Ninja Gaiden to do but enter the tournament and kick ass?

Graphics

Not surprisingly, the main appeal of the Dead or Alive series are the visuals. Since 1999, the visuals for each successive port of Dead or Alive 2 have increased, making the Xbox version by far the more advanced.

The fully 3D Stages showcase incredible, life-like detail that make the static 2D stages of other fighters seem amateurish in comparison.  There is a waterfall stage set in China, a beautiful aquarium,  a safari in Africa, a disco hall, and many more. Each locate really just blows everything other fighting games have to offer.

As great as the locales look though, the main *ahem* attraction are the character models, particularly of the various ladies. Each of the females have dozens of outfits you unlock by playing more and more of the game, with the final outfits being as skimpy as possible, often just being bikinis. There’s nothing like two girls in bikinis kicking each other’s ass atop a snowy mountain, all the while with the breast physics in full swing. Tecmo sure knew their audience!

Given the fact that it’s on the original Xbox, you might be concerned that the game doesn’t look that great now, but your concerns would be unjustified. DOA2:U looks in my opinion even better than the Xbox 360’s Dead or Alive 4, though the two do look rather similar.

Audio

Surprisingly, Dead or Alive 2 has a rather good soundtrack. The opening cutscene for the game plays AeroSmith’s Dream On and all of the original music is fun to listen to, if not a little silly. Of particular strangeness is the names of many of the songs. Tina’s theme for instance is called “YES OR YES”. One of the coolest parts of the sountrack is that there are dance/trance remixes of every song that play randomly int he disco/trance stage.

As far as the voice acting goes, the only voice track is in Japanese, but the subtitles translate what is needed to know and honestly, I couldn’t image the DOA girls in English. Don’t get me started on the DOA movie…

As per usual, here’s my favorite track in the game, Ayane’s theme played with the trance stage remix.

Gameplay

Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate is a fighting game with simple controls and require serious skill for mastery. You will use the typical street fighter motions to move around, and there’s 360 degree turning like in the Soul Calibur series. One of the coolest aspects to Dead or Alive is environmental damage, where you can punch, kick or throw your opponent in several really cool stages. For example, you can knock your opponent through stain glass in a church, down a flight of stairs on the Great Wall of China, of even off the cliff of a snowy mountain! All of these attacks do major damage and might be a little overpowered, but goddamn are the fun to look at.

As the game roster is 70% female, you’ll soon realize the girls in the game aren’t as weak as most female characters in various other fighting games. Katsumi and Ayane are both kunoichi (female ninjas) and move about lightening fast but are relitively weaker than slower characters like Hitomi, Helena or Lei Fang. Once again, it’s a beatiful ballance…as long as you pick from the chicks.

All of the male characters are much slower and just can’t compete with the speedy kunoichi or even the other mildly speedy ladies. Then again, you don’t play Dead or Alive to play as a dude.

Of course like any fighting game, the game really shines in multiplayer.There was Xbox Live support once upon a time, but since the original Xbox Live is no longer supported, call up a friend plug in a second controller and enjoy multiplayer the way it was meant to be played – lag free, 12-year-old free and still with all the banter you’ll want.

Control

The controls for Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate are pretty much standard fighting game fare. You have just three basic attacks: Punch, Kick, and Free, which is Guard/Throw/Reverse. Learning to master when to attack, guard, throw or chain a reversal is the key to winning matches against tougher A.I and skilled players.

Left Stick/D-pad: Movement
Right Stick: No Use
LT: Moves camera slightly
RT: Free and Kick together
A: Throw
B: Kick
X: Free
Y: Punch
Black: Free and Punch and Kick together
White: Punch and Kick together
Start: Pause
Back: Cancel menu choices

On the most basic level, Dead or Alive 2 can be played with just the Y and B buttons. The others are only occasionally used by more skilled players. This means that Dead or Alive 2 is much more friendly to novice gamers would might tend to button mash than many other fighting games. Even so, there’s a significant amount of depth to the fighting system that will make the game far from boring to expert fighting game fans. It’s a great ballance very few fighting games achieve.

Frustration

Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate has a ton of things to unlock, from customs to even a developer interview. In order to unlock everything, you will be required to beat the single player game multiple times with every character on every difficulty. As some characters are just not as good as others you will find it’s somewhat of a chore to have to play to unlock extra costumes for some of the male characters that are just slow and useless. It doesn’t help that Katsumi and Ayane both have a total of twenty different outfits, eightteen of which need to be unlocked. In fact, all the female characters have many more costumes than the male characters do. Oh Tecmo.

Availability & Price

The best news of all is that Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate can be found extremely cheaply for often $6 or less. It was even packaged with the Sega Saturn version of Dead or Alive 1! Dead or Alive 1 isn’t NEARLY as good, but hey, it’s free and who doesn’t love free?

History

Dead or Alive 2 was first released for arcades in 1999. It quickly became noted for it’s graphics and devotion to detail for the girl’s breasts. It was soon revealed that Tecmo had written a physics engine just for the ladies juggy region. Of course, the game became a smash hit.

Within a year, console ports began to show up for the Dreamcast and PS2, with several revisions to add in small tweaks. In 2001, Tecmo announced Dead or Alive 3 exclusively as a launch title for Microsoft’s Xbox, a very unpopular choice in Japan. Nevertheless, the game sold well worldwide and when Xbox Live was proven to be a success, Tecmo began development of a enhanced remake of Dead or Alive 2 that would incorporate Dead or Alive 2. When the game arrived in 2004, fans were unexpectedly pleased to learn that by far the most popular character in DOA3, Hitomi, was going to be added into the DOA2 Ultimate character roster.

In Japan, Dead or Alive 2 was sold as Dead or Alive Online, advertising that for the first time, Dead or Alive 2 was playable over the internet on the original Xbox Live. In 2009, Microsoft discontinued service of Xbox Live for the original Xbox, thus forcing any stragglers in the community to switch to the somewhat less impressive Dead or Alive 4. From what I remember of the online content, Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate was a fairly decent fighting game to play online with no batches of extremely terrible lag. Of course, it’s still fully playable with a friend on the other end of the couch, so don’t count this one down yet!

Original Advertising

I tried my best to find the best version I could, but this is all I could come up with. Enjoy!

Overall

Good

• Even now, Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate is one of the best looking fighting games of all time, and no, its not just because of the girls.
• Simple to learn, difficult to master fighting system that is more casual friendly than even Street Fighter, but isn’t so watered down hardcore gamers will hate it
• Can be found on the cheap
• dem tits

Bad

• As with most fighting games, some characters are overpowered while others are underpowered. Not nearly as unballanced as say, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, but it’s still kinda noticeable
• Even after countless revisions of the same game, the male characters are more or less an afterthought.

Conclusion

Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate is by far my favorite 3D fighting game. As we still await the shaky future of Dead or Alive 5, Ultimate retains its namesake and remains both the best in the series and one of the best looking, most enjoyable games on the original Xbox. It’s also fully compatable with the Xbox 360, so there’s really no excuse for not giving this one a go.

Some of the character costumes are…questionable…, but even without all the obvious sex appeal, Dead or Alive 2 is still a great fighting game, and Ultimate is by far the best of the many versions out there. Go pick it up.

One final note is that this is a great game to cue up at a party. It’s pick up and play, looks awesome even now, and has the sex appeal to attract just about anyone. Even some girls like this game, and that‘s an impressive statement.

Data

Platform: Microsoft Xbox, also playable on Xbox 360

Genre: Fighting

Original Release Dates: October 26, 2004

Developer: Team Ninja

Publisher: Tecmo

Also from the developer: Ninja Gaiden Black, Ninja Gaiden 2, Dead or Alive 4, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball

Game Length: ~35 hours

ESRB: M. dem tits.

Buy, rent or skip: Buy if you can, pirate if you must, but damnit, just play it!

Dreamfall The Longest Journey Review (Xbox/PC)

 

The best adventure game on the Xbox, and one of the best adventure games, period

 

Videogames sure have changed over the years. Once just simple screen-driven versions of tabletop games and basic, basic shooters, today’s games exist in a multifaceted world of complex genres and styles. Mirroring the history of film,  a key question is often asked now: are videogames art?

While that is potentially arguable both ways in the general sense, one thing  cannot be argued – Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is indeed art.

Dreamfall is one of the last, best games for Windows and Microsoft’s original black Xbox. My computer isn’t gaming quality by any stretch of the meaning, so I’ll be reviewing the Xbox title.

Genre

Dreamfall the Longest Journey is a 3D adventure game that plays like many menu and text-driven adventure games but with all the text dialogue carefully and skillfully spoken making the wonderful writing even more enjoyable. There are plenty of places to explore, things to investigate, people to meet and interact with, and yes, classic adventure game puzzles.

Story

“They say that  every story has a beginning and an end. That may be true in most cases, but sometimes however, the two are one and the same.” – Zoë

Without going into too much detail, Dreamfall is the story of a young woman named Zoë Castillo who lives in futuristic Casablanca. She’s your average gal with average problems – she’s looking for her place in school, love, and the world at large. Although her life starts out completely average, soon she’ll be caught up in events far more important than her trivial problems and her world will never be the same…

Zoë keeps seeing visions of a small young girl in a white dress in various monitors wherever she goes. The girl telling her to save someone named April Ryan and cryptic remarks about a place called “Arcadia”. What does this all mean?

Like Final Fantasy VI, the story of Dreamfall centers around multiple characters that each have a story to tell that is every bit as interesting as the main story, but also like the classic Square game, Dreamfall does generally focus most of its efforts on the central character, Zoë Castio. She is such a well flushed out character that during the times when you don’t play as her, you will actually miss her.

Gameplay

This is what really separates Dreamfall from other games – its not really a “game”. Dreamfall focuses on long, exquisitely detailed in-engine cutscenes to move the story along. For the most part, this is the kind of game that sweeps the player off their feet and takes them on a long journey – just as the subtitle would suggest.

Some people hate this idea and feel they should be in control. If that’s you, then stop reading this and go play something else. You will not enjoy Dreamfall.

If this does sound like something you would enjoy, then you’ll find yourself in true gaming bliss.There are cleaver ways the game engages players allowing interaction in the story which few games employ so well.

Occasionally you have command over how Zoë will respond to someone during a conversation, which can effect the course of events to come. Some entire events can be avoided or altered through speech, and it all feels natural. Everyone in the whole game reacts as you would expect real people to.

The game has some stealth sections that are really just there to break up the gameplay so you’re not always doing the same kind of thing. It’s as fitting in Dreamfall as it would be other adventure games, say Phoenix Wright for instance.

The biggest flaw with Dreamfall is the fact that it has a fighting system. Incredibly simplistic, robotic and awful, there are thankfully only a handful of fights in the entire game. It’s not a big enough problem to worry too much about though.

Of course, what would be an Adventure game without puzzles? Dreamfall’s involve using a small set of inventory items to solve problems. This usually takes the form of combining two or more items together to create something useful or using Zoë’s black market cellphone to hack into digital locks. The hacking mini game is along the idea of Bioshock’s use of Pipedream, but this time its more like Simon Says than anything else.

Audio

Dreamfall has a stunning score. Composed by Leon Willett, the tracks are extremely atmospheric and greatly help drive the emotion of each scene. Since Dreamfall has more in common with movies than other games, this aspect is crucial and is executed extremely well.  Songs are mostly instrumental with plenty of piano, strings and other soft instruments, but there are also a few vocal tracks sung by Norwegian singer Even Johansen, aka Magnet.

Dreamfall is also without a doubt, the host of some of the most impressive and largest voice cast in gaming history. There are literally dozens and dozens of voice actors who each deliver unique lines, and everyone in the game is voiced. You will never encounter two people with the same voice as you do in other games such as Oblivion. Each of the main characters espically have voices that fit their characters are the acting is spot on. There’s something both fitting and exotic about a girl from Casablanca with a distinctly English voice.

Check out this video for an example of the superb voice acting in Dreamfall, and to see how the game first begins with Brian Westhouse, a character long time fans of the Longest Journey will already know:

Controls

As I don’t have the PC version, I can only comment on the controls for the Xbox. Dreamfall is a 3D Adventure game seemingly tailor made for the Xbox controller S in mind. You move with the left stick and can rotate your surroundings with the Right stick. If you click the left stick in, a blue “scanning beam” will appear and when it highlights an object you can interact with, the object will gain a green box around it and a simple press of the A button will allow you to examine it more closely. The +pad is used to manage inventory, the right shoulder button toggles stealth, and the A button is used for general advances.  When given different ways you can respond in conversations, simply tilt the left stick toward the one you want and press A. It all works extremely well.

Availability and price

As with all PC games, Dreamfall will cost more or less depending on where you look. I’ve seen it for as low as $10 and as high as $30. As for the Xbox version, expect to pay around $20. Dreamfall was released almost a year after the 360 was, so it may be slightly difficult to find, but you should be able to find it wherever you can find Xbox originals.

Audience

Mature – Dreamfalls deals with some pretty heavy stuff, including death, drugs and more, but the game is best played by adult gamers because they can best relate to the various situations Zoë and the other main characters find themselves in, and be able to appreciate what drives their actions.

History

Dreamfall is the middle chapter in the Longest Journey narrative created by Norwegian game designer/writer Ragnar Tørnquist. The first game in the series, 1999’s The Longest Journey told the story of April Ryan, a young woman from Stark who unintentionally shifts to Arcadia and learns she has a pivotal role in the future of that world. The Longest Journey may be aged, but it’s still such a fantastic game to go into further detail would be a disservice to that wonderful game. Track it down it you can.

Dreamfall picks up several years later and features many of the same characters and places from the first, but Dreamfall does a good enough job that you don’t need to have played The Longest Journey to appreciate Dreamfall and understand what’s going on.

Most everyone who finishes Dreamfall has a single complaint in that the game ends almost as prematurely as Halo 2. The reason being is that Dreamfall was never intended to be the end of the story, rather instead just like the end of a novel.

A sequel is in development called Dreamfall: Chapters which should resolve all remaining issues.

Pros: Excellent voice acting, excellent story, beautiful and memorable set pieces, some cleaver puzzles. Long for adventure game standards. Around 8-10 hours.

Cons: Clumsy combat system, some awful puzzles, unsatisfying ending.

8.5/10

Data

Platform: Xbox, PC

Genre: Adventure

Release Date: April 17, 2006

Devoloper: Funcom

Publisher: Aspyr Media

Developer’s notable other works: The Longest Journey, Anarchy Online

ESRB: M

Buy or skip: Buy