Yet despite the better story, Dreamfall was a commercial failure, and though chief writer Ragnar Tornquist may promise a sequel, with the troubles facing The Secret World, hope seems slim.
But why did this chilling, touching story fail so badly? And could it ever be revived? With this second post, it's time to take a look at The Longest Journey's successor, and what exactly went wrong.
('Dreamfall' by ~Marrylie)
Zoe Castillo is young, rich, and listless. A strong intelligence has found itself with little to do, as she is now living from home, jobless, hopeless, and not entirely sure why. It's a situation that a lot of recent graduates might identify with, but at the time her lack of motivation annoyed me - it's something so unusual to any videogame.
But that oddity raises two points. 1) Dreamfall isn't much of a game, and 2) It's a story - where the overarching theme is the search for faith, identity, and meaning.
This is one reason why Dreamfall failed. True adventure game mechanics were torn out, alienating the traditionalist adventure gamers who were the most likely market. It's odd, but there isn't a single challenging puzzle here; instead Funcom opted for stealth and combat mechanics that were dull at best and infuriating at worst. As a game it is perhaps closest to Beyond Good and Evil, but in the latter, getting spotted didn't end everything.
If the truth be told then, it's not the gameplay that Dreamfall still retains a cult fanbase for. I consider the story here to be one of the best I've ever seen in the game, and to be honest there are actually two.
There's the story of Zoe herself, disturbed from her purposeless life by the disappearance of her former lover, and by the increasingly freaky apparitions appearing on screens. Enter the girl from The Ring, except that this one isn't horrid and merciless, this girl is vulnerable, lost, and in need of help - help finding April. And so, on her way to her own tragic end, Zoe begins a journey that no-one will ever forget.
Meanwhile, April Ryan, main character of Dreamfall's predecessor, seems to be doing fine on her own, following the second storyline of the game. She never returned to her own world, she seems happy to lead a resistance movement against the occupying force of Azadi (a variety of overly-zealous Fascists), that are busy bringing both new technology and order to the world of Arcadia, while marginalising the magical races within.
And there's a third character that the player takes control of, Kian Alvane. He's a member of the Azadi forces, basically a nice guy. And he's tasked to save Azadi lives, by hunting down the leader of the resistance/terrorist forces who keep slitting Azadi throats. Needless to say, said leader is April, and when the two finally meet, the conversation gets deep, and just a little bit uncomfortable.
(Graphically, Dreamfall seems more dated than The Longest Journey)
It's the interplay between these three characters that helps the story excel. We like all of them, and, through playing as each, we can see both their opinions of the world around them and their interactions with other people. Each has friends, from Zoe's own endearing (yet ever-so slightly suspicious) Wonkers to April's fellow resistance members. You don't know who to root for.
Kian and April's story, as they play a game of cat and mouse through the occupied city, is a reflection of the time the game was developed - when the occupation of Iraq was underway, and causing serious protests and national unease, not least in Norway, Funcom's base, where troops had been withdrawn from the country only the year before. It's a dark theme, but it's also one whose time has passed - and I imagine it will be tricky to get into the same spirit as a sequel is developed. But that's another story.
Zoe's tale however is quite different. While you wait eagerly for her to meet the other players in the story (particularly Crow. Oh Crow), her tale doesn't really concern the occupation, or anything else. It's just something that she's caught up in the middle of, as she pursues her own quest, to save a woman who doesn't seem to need saving.
(My favourite feathered friend - meet Crow)
In the end, the story centres around faith. Kian's is challenged, as he begins to question his own cause, whereas, as we come to see, both April and Zoe have lost faith in themselves. It's a story that we can all identify with, and it's a shame that it ends both so badly, and on such a cliffhanger. A shame in a good way, because it's a tale that stays with you forever.
It only remains to be seen if, even after so long, that story can be picked back up. But there's one reason it might not be.
Dreamfall was pirated, it was pirated to an almost ludicrous degree. It's almost no wonder that after the experience of being fleeced by unscrupulous story lovers, that Funcom moved to other funding models. You can see why the MMO looked so tempting to them - games like The Age of Conan, and The Secret World - it would require a monthly subscription, and constant online connection. It's hard to pirate those sort of games. Sadly, as Funcom have found out, it's also all too easy to make a loss.
When a sequel to Dreamfall was last discussed, Funcom suggested a more episodic format, in the form of Dreamfall: Chapters. This again was a method of minimising the effects of piracy, but even this method has recently fallen out of favour. After all, while companies such as Telltale Games seem to have managed well enough, you only have to look at Valve and the Half Life series to see where episodic gaming can go wrong. Companies like Valve and Funcom spend a lot of time in pre-production, and technology advances in this time. And if you don't upgrade your graphical capabilities, and in many cases even the game engine, then you risk falling behind.
(While an amusing irritant to music moguls, piracy did serious harm to Dreamfall)
It's not impossible that a sequel could be released. It's just unlikely that it will be in episodic format. Rather, it is hopeful that Funcom will have watched the success of crowdfunding with something of a beady eye.
Take DoubleFine for instance. If adventure gaming had famous historical figures, you'd find a lot of them behind DoubleFine. And so, when the company couldn't obtain funding from publishers to develop a new adventure game (unfashionable apparently), they turned to crowdfunding sites instead, and asked for fans to donate the money they needed to begin building something new.
In just over a few days, they had over £3 million, with no strings attached. I understand that it's roughly a tenth of what a typical 'AAA' game costs to make, but as DoubleFine said, it's more than enough for an adventure. Funcom should take note. The Longest Journey and Dreamfall still have plenty of fans out there, ready, and waiting.
So take our money will you?
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