The Longest Journey

by Funcom

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000507UR
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 17, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (196 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,317 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Before embarking on The Longest Journey, check your preconceived notions of reality at the door. While this may play like a traditional adventure game, the story is anything but conventional. As art student April Ryan you'll soon discover you have the ability to bridge two worlds--the 23rd-century, science-oriented Earth that you live in, and its counterpart, Arcadia, where magic is reality and technology is the stuff of legends. Telling you more than that would spoil the story, but suffice it to say that your ability to cross between the two worlds must be used to save both.

The game spans four CDs and needs all that space to hold both the gorgeous graphics and hours of high-quality speech. Everyone you meet has plenty to say, and you'll want to listen to everything because the game contains some of the most brilliant voice acting ever recorded. Each character has such a distinct and engaging voice that you could play this game with your eyes closed and it would maintain much of its beauty, although you likely won't want to blink after your first glimpse of the game's detailed environments. The graphics run at a feeble maximum resolution of 640 x 480 but are packed with enough atmosphere and animation that they look great even on a large monitor.

The Longest Journey obviously excels from a technical standpoint, but it's the writing that really makes it memorable. April maintains a diary that can be read to give players further insight into the game's strange events, and into April's mind as well. Lengthy conversations that seem tedious at first later serve to really make you care about the game's characters. They become more than simply people who exist to dispense items or tell you where to go next, and it's fascinating to watch April develop as she slowly absorbs the gravity of the situation into which she's been thrust. This game may seem like the longest--and most boring--journey at the beginning, but after a few hours adventure fans and anyone else who likes a good story will probably wish it would never end. (Note to readers: this game has an ESRB rating of Mature, and contains a lot of adult language.) --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Outstanding production values
• Terrific writing
• Should run well on practically any computer

Cons:

• Many of the puzzles are too contrived
• Game gets off to a slow start

Product Description

This game is an epic futuristic tale of adventure, magic and intrigue. Now, an age of great turmoil and chaos threatens to tip the scales and bring terrifying dreams to life.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Game So Good, You'll Want to Share It, November 2, 2000

By 

William Cuthbertson - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Longest Journey (CD-ROM)

The Longest Journey is the type of game that isn't supposed to get made anymore: intelligent, affecting, host to dozens of fantastic locations and believable characters, and unforgettable. I'm a big fan of adventure titles like Grim Fandango, Zero Critical, and The Curse of Monkey Island, but comparatively The Longest Journey doesn't seem like a game at all: it's a whole lot better. You could say it's like being in an interactive movie, but most movies aren't even this good.

Unlike Myst-type games, where you pan through still shots to go from scene to scene, in the Longest Journey, you follow the story by directing a single character, April Ryan. The interface is almost identical to The Curse of Monkey Island, except that it's in a more-detailed, more three-dimensional world. With out giving anything away, the plot is somewhat familiar but terrific nevertheless.

Put succinctly-since every review here so far is five-stars-The Longest Journey is must-have stuff. That expression is overused, but it's titles like these that keep it around. There is material that some adults may find distressing, but it's much tamer than a typical day in high school. I'd recommend the game to anyone fourteen or older, especially younger folks who can empathize with April Ryan and her feelings of displacement, confusion, and amazement in settings that can be both magical and ultra-realistic at once.

If The Longest Journey were a young adult novel, it'd be an instant success. Don't let the format keep you away from enjoying the strong story or truly genuine characters of The Longest Journey-stuff this good is just too hard to find.

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should I spell my thoughts as "amazing" or as "mindblowing"?, November 14, 2000

By 

Peter T. Winters - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Longest Journey (CD-ROM)

I just browsed through the games rack when this box caught my eye. The description on the back was promising and so it wasn't long before my bank account was emptier and I was siting before my little silverscreen and enjoying the first scenes of this breath-takingly beautiful and absolutely mesmerizing story.

The begining informs us that we are going to hear a story that ends where it begins, as all good stories do, and so we are introduced (well, not exactly) to the Guardian of Balance and a little bit later to Ms. Ryan and her weird dreamworld. The quality of movies, areas, and overall graphics is very good and that is one of the things that makes you want to follow the story, to see more of the (un)real worlds. But soon you understand that the story that you are playing/watching/living has swallowed you so completely that it is hard to get away from it even for a few minutes. Yes, it is THAT good and it gets better with every step you take (literally) and every word you say.

Two of my friends have played it and they said that it was the best came they had ever played, and I'm afraid that I have to say the same. For first, there has never been a game so emotional: I'm the type of guy who will soon download a walkthrough if he gets stuck but this game was different - I got stuck sometimes for 2-3 hours but I never downloaded the ticket to freedom because it wouldn't have been fair, wouldn't have been real. Secondly comes the environment; the visuals, the audio, the little details... everything is right. And last, but not least, is the story that is one of the best I've ever experienced. In the end, when you almost only watch the screen and listen to the dialogues, you don't mind the fact that you can't be the one who wins the game, because the game shows you what happens in the end, tells you the story's grand finale.

So, there is nothing bad to say about this game (and that deffinitely is a good sign) and very many good things. I'll only tell you this: if you don't play it, you'll loose the longest and the greatest experience of your life.

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Time-consuming, but well worth it., February 17, 2001

By 

Brian Schoner "game/music/computer geek" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Longest Journey (CD-ROM)

I'll be brief; The Longest Journey is the best adventure game I've played in a long time, possibly ever. The plot is interesting, the voice acting excellent, the graphics attractive, and the world(s) immersive in the best sense. That said, there are a few issues that have been raised by other reviewers.

DIALOGUE: Oh, yes, there is an awful lot of dialogue in this game, gobs and gobs of it. There are sections in the game where you will spend some minutes just listening to the characters talk. Much of it is critical to the puzzles or the plot, but some is just used to develop the characters. This, to me, is part of the game's charm; the characters in the game really ARE characters, and not just tools used to solve puzzles. My advice is to treat these moments as extended cut-scenes; stand up, stretch your legs, rest your mouse hand and enjoy the show.

PROFANITY: Yes, several characters use copious amounts of profanity. It's not necessary to the game, but it does reveal a lot about the characters in question, and makes them feel more real. One commercial review I read referred to this game as "the HBO of adventure games"; that seems about right to me.

DELAYS: The one issue that did trouble me about this game was the necessity to run across large, empty screens each time you wanted to get to a certain destination. These screens served to set the scene nicely when first encountered, but could be skipped afterwards with no harm done to the plot.

TLJ is slow-paced, large in scope, and (for me at least) engrossing. It's not for everyone, as some of the other reviews on this page will show, but those who are willing to put in the time will be well rewarded. If you're impatient to get to the end of a game, TLJ is probably not for you. However, if you treat the journey itself as the destination, you'll really enjoy the ride.