However, if you, like me, remember old text based games (the unappealingly named MUDs anyone?), then you might still retain a fondness for a peaceful old puzzle. It's a speciality that adventure games have thrown out time and time again, often with a fantastic story attached. And, while I haven't played a vast number (Grim Fandango, ironically, died on me), the ones I have experienced have been full of character and atmosphere, and I'd like to recommend them here, in my very first miniseries, starting with my favourite adventure game of all time; The Longest Journey.
The Longest Journey: High Camp and Wombles
Funcom are a bit like Bioware in my mind - they (historically at least) really do prize a good story. Unlike Bioware however, the gameplay often suffers for it, and so do sales. At the time of writing, after the general failure of Funcom's MMO 'The Secret World', it's unclear if the company can survive - a shame, because any game with both the Illuminati and mythical beasts really deserves to do better.
However, as many fans of The Longest Journey will have noticed, it means that Funcom (if it lives) will now be free to work on the long awaited next installment of the series. Because, while the original may have had a fair share of Ewok people and sarky wizards, there was a mad charm and innocence to this fantastically creative production.
('The Longest Journey' - superb art (as usual) by ~Marrylie)
The Longest Journey came tailing after the Golden Age of Adventure Games, largely because Scandinavia is fashionably late to any party (and indeed most decades). But oh my are we glad they came.
As you play, you're introduced to April Ryan, an art student living a quiet life in the city, with friends and neighbours, rents to pay, romances to pursue, and creepy old man named Cortez with some less than usual hobbies. Magic, for one, an unusual find in the scientific, futuristic and rabidly capitalist cyberpunk world of Stark.
("Eurgh...Why would you want to live there?" My sister asks. "There are spaceships, why wouldn't you?")
And so, just as you've got to grips with the wonderfully fleshed out characters and humour of April's everyday life, you're introduced to a second world, a magical world named Arcadia. And it's in trouble. Somewhere along the line, the glowing blue chaperone who kept the two worlds apart has vanished for unknown reasons, and now the two realities are nuzzling up together like there's no tomorrow, causing all sorts of catastrophes.
And it's up to April, one of the few who can switch between worlds, to fix the problem. You couldn't shoot your way out of this one.
(Arcadian Super-Yachts. Abramovich, eat your heart out)
That's the basic premise, but the plot is a lot, lot more than that. Indeed, along with the exquisitely arty backdrops, music, and casual wit, it's the story, and the characters within the story, that really make the game.
(Forget Skyrim. Here dragons are deep and soulful. And they barely eat you at all.)
It's not one for those who don't care for their dialogue - half the game is in the talking, and even if you skip every line, that cuts out at least half of the content. Neither is it a game for hardcore puzzlists - the conundrums are simple, if not always logical. However for a visual style that's ageless, a story that's timeless, funny and touching, along with an almost uniquely long and satisfying playtime, The Longest Journey is a very special creature indeed. Try it, and try it now. Like every old game, it's cheap, and in this case, it's also on Steam.
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