The Longest Journey – Retrospective

It’s difficult to look back on any of the classic PC games without a tinge of disappointment these days. More often than not, booting up the FPS that you fell in love with six years ago will leave a bad impression under the modern microscope of increased resolution and highly-refined game mechanics, but for a few titles out there, such technological dependency is simply a moot point. Adventure games fall firmly into this category. Will we ever grow tired of playing Monkey Island or Beneath a Steel Sky? Of course not. The artwork is still charming, and the dialogue is still a key component to the experience; neither of which will ever require a dual-core CPU and four gigs of ram to get the best out of. Such titles simply exist as frozen in time, able to stand on their own as fundamentally peerless examples of videogame production.

Contemporary classics
Of course, smaller developers are still cutting their teeth in this manner, even in 2008. Although the death of the point and click adventure was heralded many years ago, even a cursory glance through some of the reviews that our European counterparts have produced is enough to tell you otherwise. Sure enough, they may have died out in the US and somewhat in the UK, but across the rest of the world, this is a genre still very much alive and kicking; with a solid fanbase and some decent sales figures to boot. Non-dependency on the latest hardware is a plus point here.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a true classic though, and certainly nothing that’s come close to matching the sumptuous world created by lead designer Ragnar Tornquist back in 1999. Released to unprecedented critical acclaim, The Longest Journey went on to become one of the best adventure games of all time, and indeed can still be held up as an unmatched example of storytelling and character design. That may be a sad indictment of game development in the preceding nine years, but it’s also testament to the quality on show in Funcom’s epic, and it’s precisely those elements that make it worth playing through even today.

Ryan industries
The Longest Journey is a classic fairytale adventure. The central character, an 18 year old girl by the name of April Ryan, has the ability to ’shift’ between the technological and industrial based world of ‘Stark’, and the fantasy-infused dreamlike realm of Arcadia. We join the story just prior to her becoming aware of the power to cross between the two, and through the persistence of a mysterious old man by the name of Cortez, she soon learns that her role in both lands is one of supreme importance.

The overall premise here is of two worlds divided by necessity, with an ageing system of characters in place to keep the ‘balance’ until the two realms are ready to become reunited once more. Due to some unforeseen and catastrophic circumstances, the Guardian for this careful truce has gone missing, leaving an opportunity for a group of rebels (the ‘Vanguard’) to attempt to take control, and for the worlds of magic and technology to collide once more.

Young at heart
All of which sounds like a Saturday afternoon kids TV special, but that’d be missing the point entirely. Indeed, TLJ is a decidedly adult adventure, with a penchant for exploring themes rarely delved into within the medium. Character dialogue is sharp and witty, with issues such as sexuality and relationships running through the undercurrent of the story. It’s a game that doesn’t compromise or dumb down to the audience, and as a result features some of the most interesting, multi-dimensional characters that you’ll find in a videogame setting. These are neither stereotypically perfect or wacky caricatures, and it’s almost a novelty to be able to empathise with a game on this level.

The real genius here lies in the setting however. In fusing the two worlds within the tapestry of the storyline, Tornquist took only the best elements of some previously overused concepts, and avoided the rather worn-out Final Fantasy and Steampunk environmental stylisation that characterised most adventure games of the time. Those of you that love the Science Fiction influences of Phillip K. Dick will be well catered for here, whilst simultaneously the more Tolkien-esque elements are well-approached and avoid the more tiresome references that permeate lesser fantasy-based titles.

Working together, the two facets above create an atmosphere like no other. The message here is that it’s very much ok to step outside the confines of reality as an adult once in a while, and to remember what makes the process of youth so special. By recognising that not every adult wants to undertake this process with a tour party consisting of monosyllabic heroes or a cast of musically-inspired elves and gnomes, The Longest Journey strikes a fine balance between fantasy and reality, and affords a comfortable entry point for anyone above the age of 15 to appreciate.

A female perspective
A lot of credit for the narrative impact of The Longest Journey has to go to the choice of lead character also. April most definitely isn’t the typical example of a female form to be found in the adolescent universe that most videogames choose to inhabit. She’s a smart, direction-less teenager, without the accentuated physical appearance and the all-conquering firepower of her peers. Tomb Raider this most definitely isn’t, and whilst some may still argue for Ms Croft to be held up as an icon for female gamers everywhere, they’d do much better to look here for inspiration.

April is wonderfully portrayed (in both dialogue and voice acting), as being a normal girl, living out a normal life with all the trappings that ensues. At no point does she become objectified by the script, and at no stage does the reverse occur, with almost all of the male characters displaying the same grounding in contemporary reality. In hindsight, it’s a simple approach towards building common ground with the user, and especially for a multi-gendered audience. It isn’t condescending, nor is it overly sexualised, the entire script is simply tremendously smart.

Cosmetic damage
So how does it all hold up in 2008? Pretty spectacularly well in most regards. Graphically, despite the low resolution support, the charm and craft put into the environments still manages to shine through, with the only downer coming from the use of 3D characters with some pretty limited animation. The puzzles are logical for the most part, and the point ‘n click interface is as simple and elegant as it always has been. A word of warning though, for those of you used to modern games taking 6-10 hours to complete, you might want to look elsewhere. This is an epic title, and even with the occasional use of a walkthrough, it’ll last you a long, long time.

Thanks to some judicious patching in recent years, TLJ will also run without a hitch on both Vista and XP, and with a price point of around £5 in the UK (or £12 for the box-set with the sequel ‘Dreamfall’), there really is no excuse not to give it a try. As en example of the maturation of our chosen medium, it’s simply unparalleled. It’s just a sad fact that we don’t seem to have progressed very far in the meantime.