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Radiofloyd's Retro Thread - Dreamfall The Longest Journey


radiofloyd
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This is a pretty unusual game. You interact with objects in the environment by playing music notes. Some objects teach you patterns when you click on them, and then you play these patterns on other objects and stuff happens.

loom_zps044a5713.jpg

You start off with only three notes, c,d and e, but I've just picked up f by turning straw into gold...

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I also started Fallout 2 today, it's already sunk its claws into me so I'll keep going with if for a while. It's the last game in the sort of "holy quintet" that I have to play (Fallout 1 & 2, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 and Planescape Torment).

I completed a few quests around the starting village Arroyo and have now arrived in this first hub town Klamath. Absolutely nothing seems to have changed gameplay-wise from the first game. But thankfully there is no time limit to get anything done. It will be interesting to see if any of the characters from the first game make a return (if I remember them).

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Will go back and finish Loom but I'm balls deep in Fallout 2 now, it's great. I've probably put 10 hours into it since Saturday. Currently in Redding, where the first semblance of a plot has appeared. I have three options on the world map, Vault 13, New Reno or San Fran. Will probably head to Vault 13 first.

I have two followers, Sulik from Klamath and Vic who I rescued in the Den.

One minor negative is the music, it's terrible. Well, there isn't any. Only a few ambient swells now and then. It's still not as bad as the music in Shadowrun Returns though...

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This is the best rpg of its era I think, it's huge. The gameplay foundations are rock solid - exploration, quests, dialogue, looting, bartering, skills, perks, combat.

They've made one significant fix to Fallout 1, you no longer have to "barter" with your companions, instead you can just trade items back and forth. In the first game you had to steal from your companions to do this effectively. They've also introcuced a combat control option which is pretty useful.

One problem from Fallout 1 remains - companions blocking doorways. This is a predictable occurrence if you enter a small room. If you get caught you pretty much have to reload your last save because you can't trigger your companions to move. The game also has a minor graphical glitch (who said Fallout 3 wasn't a faithful reboot?) which is more amusing than anything else.

But other than that, it's great. I explored Vault City and picked up a third companion, Cassidy. One of my companions, Vic, had a funny run in with his daughter. My group is a small army now - my own character using a hunting rifle/shotgun, Sulik using a sledgehammer, Vic using a pistol and Cassidy using a shotgun. I have lots of new locations marked on the world map and am currently in Gecko which seems to have a bit of a radiation problem. One of my favourite things about this game so far is the story ties between towns and locations.

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Made huge progress in this today, solved the power plant problem in Gecko and Vault City and discovered the location of Vault 15.

Also cleared up some smaller quests around the various towns I've visited. Even gave an apparently beneficial sperm donation in Vault City...

The locations I have to visit now are Mordoc, New Reno, NCR and Vault 15.

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Ok so I'm going to give this game a coveted, extremely rare 10/10. It's amazing.

Today I solved the problems in Modoc and Ghost Farm. I kitted out my party to be more battle ready, my own character has a scoped hunting rifle and assault rifle and my three companions are using a Sawn-off Shotgun (Cassidy), Desert Eagle (Vic) and sledgehammer (Sulik). All characters are wearing Leather Armour and the main character has some some improved leather armour that I got from a quest in Modoc. And most importantly, I got a car! Allowing me to zip around the world map.

To give you an idea of the level of detail in this game, a funny scene played out where I ran over a ghoul when I arrived in Broken Hills in my shiny new car...

This is one of the greatest games and rpgs ever made!

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Made more good progress in this over the weekend. Met a familiar face from Fallout 1 in the New California Republic a.k.a. Shady Sands. Finished the quests involving Vault 15 and the NCR. Added Marcus the super mutant to my party so now we are pretty much ready for anything. Everyone is wearing metal armour or better, my own character is using a sniper rifle and combat shotgun, two more characters are using combat shotguns (or better), Sulik is using a wakizashi blade and Marcus is using a flamethrower/minigun. I now currently have $12,000 in cash and probably $20-30,000 worth of stuff to trade.

Quest wise, I could do a bit more in NCR, or head out to Vault 13. A few NPCs have mentioned San Francisco which I think is on the western edge of the map so I may go exploring there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's seems there's more left to Fallout 2 than I thought but I've reached the point where I can't play any more of the game so I'm going to move on. Finishing games isn't strictly the focus of this thread anyway! Both Fallout 1 & 2 were great games, but I think it's fair to say that they've been largely superseded by Fallout 3 and New Vegas, unless you're some kind of isometric-turn-based-rpg die hard.

On to Dreamfall. I loved The Longest Journey so I'm looking forward to this. It starts off with a scene with Brian Westhouse (a character April meets in Arcadia in the first game), and then switches to Zoe Castillo, a new character, living in some kind of slightly futuristic Cape Town. Seems like she's going to be the main character of the game. So far it seems like's there's going to be the same strong focus on characters and story.

The default camera settings are hilariously bad but luckily I was able to fix them by switching to inverted and turning down the sensitivity...whoever chose those default settings was crazy.

Introducing...Zoe.

Dreamfall%2002.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

I decided to download all my Steam and GOG games and start them all and then play the ones I was most interested in. I've the downloading part done and now I'm doing the second part. So for the next few days I'm just going to post my first impressions of each game I try.

Tonight I played four games:

  • Betrayal at Krondor - old rpg based on Raymond E. Feist's Midkemia books (which I loved). I just figured out the interface and moved around a small bit. Seems like a good game that will have a good story.
  • The Blackwell Legacy - The first episode of an indie adventure series by Dave Gilbert. I played through the introduction and the dialogue with the boy outside her apartment. Very impressed with this, seems excellent.
  • Europa Universalis - The original, released on GOG today. I figured the best way to understand Paradox games would be to start at the beginning. Brilliant opening cut scene, and I loved the music. You play as Ireland in the tutorial, it must be fate. I quit the tutorial after accidentally setting the game speed to ridiculously fast, but it seems like a game that I will love.
  • Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers - as impressed as I was with the previous three games - this game has the wow factor. What I played screams a classic. Graphics and music, beautiful. I love the voice acting. I played through the introduction and then talked to the girl that works in the shop. The game has a lovely tape recorder function where you can listen back to conversations.
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More impressions:

  • Harvester - Never heard of this game but it piqued my interest when it appeared on GOG. It's a point and click adventure that seems to have a strong Twin Peaks/Deadly Premonition vibe. I played through the opening scenes where you talk to your family. There are numerous buildings around the town of Harvest you can visit, with a mysterious Lodge in the centre. Seems like a very interesting game.
  • Heroes of Might and Magic 3 - I picked this up since it's supposed to be the classic HOMM game. I played the tutorial, which doesn't actually give you any instructions but just seems to put you into the game at the lowest possible difficulty level. There's a lot going on in this game between town-building, exploration and combat. I tried a bit of everything and I think I had a fair grip on it. Probably worth reading the manual.
  • I Have no Mouth, And I Must Scream - Like Harvester, another game I'd never heard of before I saw it on GOG. What I played was great. There's a brilliant opening cut-scene. I couldn't possibly explain it. In short, this evil talking stone appears to have trapped a bunch of people underground and has been torturing them for over a hundred years. When the game begins you can choose which of the five characters you want to play his "game". The writing and voice acting are excellent. I assume each character has separate scenarios that will somehow intertwine.
  • King of Dragon Pass - This game is really cool, but I will definitely have to read the manual! I think The Banner Saga took some inspiration from this. Basically you have to plan ahead for your community for the coming season. There involves making a million and one decisions on things like war, diplomacy, production, religion etc.Then you see how it all pans out. Aside from the planning stage, events crop up where you have to make decisions. Seems really good, and ridiculously deep.
  • Little Big Adventure - I was persuaded to buy this when Edge randomly re-posted their review from the archives (they gave it 9/10). What I played was baffling. The game has tank controls for movement. My character was stuck in a room and some guy came in and beat the shit out of me. I'm sure if I figure it out there's a good adventure game here...
  • Pier Solar and the Great Architects - This isn't retro but actually it kind of is. It was originally released a few years ago as a (late) rpg for the Mega Drive. Last year they re-released it with HD graphics (and I assume some other improvements). I absolutely love it. The music and graphics are beautiful. You can toggle between 16-bit and HD graphics. The default is HD and it's absolutely gorgeous. Something will have to go badly wrong for me not to love this game.
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Brief impressions. About 5 or 6 more games to try in my GOG collection.

  • Sanitarium - Point and click adventure with a psychological/horror theme. I played as far as activating the statue with carries you out of the tower. Seems like an interesting game.
  • Septerra Core - Played through the introduction and walked around town a bit. Seems very much in the vein of a science-fiction jrpg (except developed by an American company).
  • Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Played a few turns as the scientist faction. I got as far as about my third "tour" of the interface before I had to give my brain a rest! But it seems like a really good game.
  • Stronghold Crusader - I'm cheating here. I played this too briefly to have an opinion. But it seems like exactly what it says on the tin and I've seen people on Steam that have racked up crazy hours on it so I'm sure it must be good. I started the first tutorial mission, won the first battle in two seconds and then was asked to "place my granary" but my brain has had enough for the day.
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My opinion on some more games:

  • Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon - I had this on PS2 but didn't play it much and barely remember it. I remembered the crash landing at the beginning of the game. Obviously it was a game designed for consoles with its awkward control system. It's funny hearing the same voice actors speak and yet everything has totally changed with the jump to 3D graphics. Curious to see how this turns out. But I'm a big fan of the series so I expect I'll enjoy it.
  • The Cat Lady - Spooky side-scrolling adventure in the vein of Lone Survivor, without the pixel graphics. Very dark introduction...
  • The Dig - This game had a beautiful introduction. I love the dialogue and voice acting in these old LucasArts games.
  • Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis - Same goes for this and this game had a nice introduction as well.
  • Konung 2 - Fairly obscure early 00s crpg from Russia. I read an interesting article about it so I picked it up. Time will tell how different it is from the Infinity Engine games of the time. But for one thing there seems to be a village management component involved.
  • Syberia - Point and click adventure set in a French town in the alps which is obsessed with clockwork dolls... Or at least, that's where it starts. Seems like it's going to be a good mystery.
  • Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon - This is going to be one of the weirder adventure games I played. The movement system is bizarre. But it seems like a well written, funny game.
  • Thief - Played through the training mission. Hilariously outdated but it could be a fun game.
  • Total Annihilation - Played the demo of this to death when I was younger. I barely recognise it now. I played a couple of missions of the Arm campaign which introduced the basics. I remember the game being balls hard with some crazy battles so I look forward to getting back into it sometime.
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And last but not least:

  • The Shivah - I think a few of you have played this, it's from the same guy who made the Blackwell series. I was very impressed with what I played of the Blackwell game and this seems interesting too. I can't think of too many games that have a Yiddish dictionary in them...
  • Sid Meier's Pirates - The modern version. I really want to get this when it came out, for some reason I didn't. Anyway I'm finally playing it. I wouldn't say it has the depth of Civilization IV but it seems fun.
  • Still Life - Not to be confused with the Syberia series. Still Life seems to be more of a hard boiled, track the serial killer type game. Of the two I'd be more intrigued by the beginning of Syberia. Either way I can never get my fill of adventure games.
  • Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines - At the beginning you can create a character manually or answer some questions and the game suggests a class for you, I answered the questions and was branded a "Toreador", so I went with that... I might need to re-read Death in the Afternoon to brush up on my bull fighting lingo. Seems like a really dark game. The first thing you have to do is drink someone's blood.
  • Year Walk - This is the kind of game I love. The journal entries about Scandinavian folklore are a nice touch. Seems like it's going to be well worth playing.

That's it for now. Now I'm to start with the game that impressed me the most and that was easily Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father.

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Ok, I've ditched the numbers because it doesn't matter and I'll probably pass back and forth between games anyway.

Sins of the Fathers is a 1993 point and click adventure. Gabriel Knight is the main character, he owns a book store in New Orleans. At the beginning of the game he has been having vivid nightmares, and the story seems to be about a series of "voodoo" murders that have been happening in the city.

GK1_Main_Gameplay_Screen.png

I've played the opening few minutes of about 20 games in the last few days and this was easily the game that impressed me the most. Mostly because of the atmosphere and presentation of the game. The music changes from scene to scene and is really stunning. Here's the theme in St. George's Book Shop. That will give you a good idea. One of the most impressive things about the game is the detailed conversations you can have with people, which are really well voice acted.

9893-gabriel-knight-sins-of-the-fathers-

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Currently on Day 3 with a score of 108/342. The game gives you points for discovering information and forwarding the story. The level of detail in this game is incredible. It sometimes amazes me how much more ambitious old titles can be compared to modern games - I mean what is achieved here (and games like The Last Express and Ultima VII spring to mind) is light years ahead of modern adventure games.

And more than anything it is just such an immersive world and story. If you liked Deadly Premonition then you would love this.

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  • 3 months later...

Went back to this for the first time since March, now I'm on to Day 7. I'll probably just follow a guide to the end, I've been using a guide since around the midway point anyway, where you had to convince Mosely to reopen the case. It's a great game but it can be hard to figure out what to do. A bit like Fallout 2, I can fully immerse myself into these hardcore games up to a point, but then once you reach that limit - it's either a case of reach the end as quickly as possible, or give up.

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