In the 80s, adventure games – where you take the role of a fictional character, solve puzzles and live a story – were quite popular – never a “mainstream” genre, but one of the most successful “niche” ones. Most games then were text adventures, where descriptions were text-based (possible with a static picture at the top of the screen), and the game had a parser which was able (up to a point) to understand what you want. I’ve talked about one of them, The Hobbit, before.
In the early 90s, as more powerful computers became available, the genre shifted a bit, to graphical adventures. Many of them were from Sierra (Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, etc.) and from LucasArts (then LucasFilm Games) (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Monkey Island, etc.). These were much more successful, as players no longer had to do that scary thing called “reading”, or that even scarier thing called “imagining”. One of the best ones, which I’ve mentioned here before, is Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
But in the late 90s, adventure games mostly vanished off the face of the earth. People, it seemed, wanted only first person shooters, and endless revisions of sports games. Thinking, solving puzzles and interacting with other characters were, apparently, out of fashion.
Then, in 1999, there came two amazing adventure games which, while not making adventure games highly successful, at least were a blast to play, and sold very well for adventure games. One of them is Gabriel Knight 3, which I’ll talk about in the future (hint: “The Da Vinci Code” is but a watered-down version of it). The other is Funcom’s The Longest Journey.
And what a magical game it was.
In TLJ, you play as April Ryan, an 18-year old art student, living in a world much like our own, though in the near future. However, strange things begin to happen – strange, magical things. As April investigates it – while going on with her life, with all the worries, fears and dreams of an 18-year old girl -, she learns that there’s a world in parallel to her own – a world with magic, not technology. And she is special, she is a shifter, one who has the power to travel between the two worlds.
In the technological world, which is in fact called Stark, she already has a circle of friends; in the magical world, Arcadia, she will make new ones – one of the most interesting being Crow, a bird with a great sense of humor – and great voice acting, too. In fact, everyone in the game has great voice acting – much better than many games today.
Hmm, I must play this game again, soon. So many games, such little time…
Really, try it out, if you haven’t played it yet. It should be cheap, as most old games are. And take a look at the official site, too.
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good game !!!
Please HELP!!!
I have a question that really bothers me! I just can’t go to sleep nor eat…
I once had a graphical adventure game. It was somewhere between 1992 and 1997. I played it for a bit the lost the CD. Forgotten about it. Lived happily…
Recently it (this game) somehow arose from the furthest part of my mind AND I CAN’T
REMEMBER THE NAME of the game! PLEASE HELP!
I only remember how it starts. Here it is…
You play as a cat, a human like cat. You walk out of some kind of shed to the dark street with a beggar laying on the road. Walk past the club where you can’t get in. You also can’t cross the road because police will grab you. One of the first requisites you get is a ladle. You can work in a public canteen. Then you meet a poliman in an underground. You don’t have enough money to go through…
Well, that’s what I can remember. But the name. I desperately need it. I need it for the health of my mind.
If you played it some time please tell me the name of the game. THATNK YOU in advance. You will be my best friend (for some time).
My e-mail: bola.abola@yahoo.co.uk
Don’t really know it, sorry. Does anyone?
If it helps… For some reason I have the word ASYLUM in my head when I think about the game
The Longest Journey is the great graphic adventure game ever written on any PC (and that includes it’s follow-up ‘Dreamfall’!). This had a real character with real emotions and thoughts. This was the only adventure I ever played where the character grew as a person, matured and leaned about herself, here fears, her desires. It was amazing! Never in an adventure have I said to myself ‘this is pretty scary’ and had the character say out loud ‘this is pretty scary!’!!! I have never said to myself 2 hours further into the game ‘This is unbelievable!’ and had a NPC say to my character ‘you must find this unbelievable!’. How can a game do this? Unless of course it is the best story, the best characters, the best detail of TWO worlds, the best voicework and the best ending of any game. Period!
If this game was a FPS it would be compared with Half Life. If it was a simulation it would be compared with Microsoft’s Flight Simulator, if it was a RTS it would be compared with Command and Conquer and if it was a turn based game it would be compared with X-COM! But as an adventure, it is so far ahead of anything else in it’s genre, it has no comparison. It is therefore, the best graphic adventure game ever written!
Keep working ,great job!
thanks !! very helpful info!impressive stuff thanx
wanna find a fellow who can satisfy my needs… Lol.
really bored and cute ^^.. Anyone want to chat with me
What’s captcha code?, pls present me captcha code codes or plugin, Thanks in advance.
Guess what I’ve just posted one thing similar relevant to The Longest Journey (PC, 1999) | The Games of my Life on my website last week. How tiny is the net
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