I had hoped that I would be able to get these The Longest Journey pieces out a bit before Dreamfall Chapters released, but as it turns out The Longest Journey is…well…long. But I still managed to finish my replay of Dreamfall: The Longest Journey one night in advance of the release of its sequel. For better or worse, it was much as I remembered.
It was with no small amount of relief that I decided not to write this piece as a review. At first I thought maybe I would, but I realized, quickly, that I might not like what I had to say in it – not always. Not everything.
I read comics. I also tend to draw certain comparisons between the comics industry and the video game industry, whether it’s their history of being accused of corrupting their consumers through violent content, or the general stigma of being “kids’ stuff” despite all evidence to the contrary.
And like video game players, comic readers – certainly those that consider themselves fans – tend to be very passionate about the medium and the characters and creators they follow. It’s easy still to discount comics as all capes and costumes, if you’re on the outside, because that’s still where the money (relatively speaking) is, and that’s what gets made into movies. But as a medium, comics host many nuanced and personal stories across all genres, things that speak to readers in ways that stuff with a higher budget – television or movies, say – often cannot afford in their quest to appeal to the broadest audience possible.
But hey, there’s nothing wrong with superheroes, either; Marvel, in their new Ms. Marvel ongoing, has recently premiered a title character who is an American Muslim teenager, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants. How many places in American culture, even now, can you find that very real part of the American population represented, much less in a positive, leading role?
Regrettably, though, I’m not compelled to write this because of my favorite media moving forward. I’m compelled to write this because of my favorite media being held back.
In April of 2000 I installed an adventure game called the The Longest Journey on my puny little Widows 98 laptop and began to play. Almost immediately I was swept into a fully imagined classic fantasy world. Well, two worlds actually. Stark, a futuristic totalitarian place where the few lord it over the many and where magic does not exist. And Arcadia, a sprawling magical land crammed with impossible races and dream-like settings. The Longest …
Review by Jen The Longest Journey Developer Funcom Publisher Empire Interactive (English) Released November 17, 2000 Available for PC Time Played Finished Verdict:5/5 Gold Star …the outside world was completely shut out by the little world on my monitor. My peripheral vision ceased to exist. My kids got ten thousand “shaddups” and “go aways” and “outta my faces” as I played.