Dreamfall Chapters Takes a Turn for the Cyberpunk

Cognimancer

Imperial Intelligence
Jun 13, 2012
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Dreamfall Chapters Takes a Turn for the Cyberpunk



Prepare to point and click your way through the rain-slick, neon-lit streets of Europolis.

Red Thread Games has found success [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122152-Red-Thread-Games-Reveals-Dreamfall-Chapters-Stretch-Goals] Kickstarting Dreamfall Chapters, the long-awaited sequel to the hit adventure game Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Having already surpassed their original $850,000 goal and two stretch goals after that, the developers have released some information about the game's setting to drum up support as they approach the million dollar mark. While previously detailed locations have been high fantasy cities locales full of magic, the newly announced city of Europolis takes a hard left into the grim realm of cyberpunk.

The story of The Longest Journey is set across two parallel worlds: Arcadia, a place of magic and fantasy, and Stark, a world of science and order. Europolis, as you can probably guess, is located in the latter. A vast city stretching over the remains of Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Belgium, and the Netherlands, Europolis is a dark city full of shady characters. "Europolis is not just the dark heart of Europe," explains the game's Kickstarter page [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/redthread/dreamfall-chapters-the-longest-journey], "it is the filthy bowels and bloodied entrails of Europe."

The city will be, to some extent, free-roaming and fully explorable (though you likely won't need to point-and-click across the entirety of central Europe). Europolis had originally been planned as a visitable location in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, but didn't make the final cut. Now, it joins locations like the fantasy city of Marcuria and the magical forests of the Northlands as key environments in Dreamfall Chapters.

You can get an early peek at the gritty streets of Europolis in Red Thread Games' reveal trailer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST6wSCnWzls&feature=youtu.be], running on an early prototype of the game engine. It's certifiably cyberpunk, complete with shadowy, umbrella-wielding people drudging through the neon-tinted rain. The seedy streets should act as, well, a stark contrast to the markedly brighter environments of Arcadia.

It's not certain what kind of business Dreamfall Chapters' dual protagonists will have in Europolis, but it's safe to assume it won't be pleasant. Studio head Ragnar Tørnquist describes The Longest Journey's alternate Europe as "a poverty-stricken and thoroughly corrupted wasteland," so it's certainly ripe with cyberpunk tropes already. Fans will have plenty of time to speculate, as the game's Kickstarter will keep running until March 10 with more information sure to come.

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Proverbial Jon

Not evil, just mildly malevolent
Nov 10, 2009
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Cognimancer said:
Dreamfall Chapters Takes a Turn for the Cyberpunk
Wasn't The Longest Journey, and by extension Dreamfall, already pretty much cyberpunk to begin with?



Kinda follows that Chapters will be too. Good to know their on the right track though.
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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Proverbial Jon said:
Cognimancer said:
Dreamfall Chapters Takes a Turn for the Cyberpunk
Wasn't The Longest Journey, and by extension Dreamfall, already pretty much cyberpunk to begin with?
Kinda, but they never made a big deal of it and you didn't spend much time in the seedier parts of the setting.
 

Deshin

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Aug 31, 2010
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Oh god it's already started hasn't it? With the Cyperpunk game and the Deus Ex movie the industry has already started rubbing its hands together thinking of ways to over-saturate the market with the "next big thing." They're going to turn Cypberpunk this decade into what they did to zombies in the last decade. :/
 

anian

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Sep 10, 2008
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LJ had parts in a distopia/cyberpunk future, but Dreamfall had a kind of idealic future parts where you were in a kind of a Star Wars type city, where ancient meets high tech. It looks good either way.

Deshin said:
Oh god it's already started hasn't it? With the Cyperpunk game and the Deus Ex movie the industry has already started rubbing its hands together thinking of ways to over-saturate the market with the "next big thing." They're going to turn Cypberpunk this decade into what they did to zombies in the last decade. :/
...but I like cyberpunk :(
 

Harker067

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Sep 21, 2010
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Proverbial Jon said:
Cognimancer said:
Dreamfall Chapters Takes a Turn for the Cyberpunk
Wasn't The Longest Journey, and by extension Dreamfall, already pretty much cyberpunk to begin with?
Yup I had a big huh moment there too. Stark has always been heavily flavored by cyberpunk or post cyberpunk in a lot of ways. With powerful shady corporations, personal robots, advanced electronics, dreamfall even added brain machine interface entertainment. So saying dreamfall chapters was going to be cyberpunk was kind of a well yeah moment.

Deshin said:
Oh god it's already started hasn't it? With the Cyperpunk game and the Deus Ex movie the industry has already started rubbing its hands together thinking of ways to over-saturate the market with the "next big thing." They're going to turn Cypberpunk this decade into what they did to zombies in the last decade. :/
I know right and they are so hopping on the band wagon which they started doing in their world in 1999! This is kind of like saying you're making another system shock game and it's cyberpunk? Well you're just hoping on that cyberpunk bandwagon!
 

l3o2828

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Mar 24, 2011
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Harker067 said:
Proverbial Jon said:
Cognimancer said:
Dreamfall Chapters Takes a Turn for the Cyberpunk
Wasn't The Longest Journey, and by extension Dreamfall, already pretty much cyberpunk to begin with?
Yup I had a big huh moment there too. Stark has always been heavily flavored by cyberpunk or post cyberpunk in a lot of ways. With powerful shady corporations, personal robots, advanced electronics, dreamfall even added brain machine interface entertainment. So saying dreamfall chapters was going to be cyberpunk was kind of a well yeah moment.

Deshin said:
Oh god it's already started hasn't it? With the Cyperpunk game and the Deus Ex movie the industry has already started rubbing its hands together thinking of ways to over-saturate the market with the "next big thing." They're going to turn Cypberpunk this decade into what they did to zombies in the last decade. :/
I know right and they are so hopping on the band wagon which they started doing in their world in 1999! This is kind of like saying you're making another system shock game and it's cyberpunk? Well you're just hoping on that cyberpunk bandwagon!
I must agree with this man or woman's delicious sarcasm. There isn't that much Cyberpunk as of late, on any art or medium.
'Sides, TLJ was always a little bit Cyberpunk, so nothing really changed here as far as setting goes.

And as for what little they are showing i'm getting REALLY interested in what will happen.
But for god sakes, Tornquist. Start answering some questions before not finishing the new protagonist story with a cliffhanger and then calling your fans thick or stupid because they didn't get your masterful use of narrative.
YES I AM STILL MAD ABOUT THE DREAMFALL'S ENDING AND HIS COMMENTS ABOUT IT, SUE ME.
 

shiajun

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Jun 12, 2008
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Yeah, I'll echo the sentiment with a "huh?". In TLJ you spent a great deal of time in the dark, hackerish, poverty stricken part of Newport, as well as its hip-ish parts and the high tech upper level of the city....much like Hengsha in Deus Ex:HR. In Dreamfall you also visit Venice in Newport again, now also a trashy, seedy part of the city, the brightness of the place all gone. Even from the get-go in this whole world it was established that Europe had really fallen far from grace and other places rose (which I also find refreshing, placing Morocco and also South Africa as rich tech centers).

Plus, we've already gone over 1 million! Yaaaaay!
 

Lethos

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Dec 9, 2010
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Landis963 said:
Adding "*SPOILERS*" to a sentence that small is pretty pointless because most people will see the spoiler as they skim down. Use spoilers tags dude.

OT: I love me some Cyberpunk. It's probably my favourite them, so I'm certainly not complaining.
 

Monster_user

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Jan 3, 2010
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He probably doesn't know for sure, and it is just fan speculation, and the game is still in development anyway.

Is that really that big a deal? Sure Zoe was a main character, and that is what everybody wants for her, but her story arc is pretty much complete. Sure there was that "cliffhanger", which added a whole new plot, but Zoe is not necessary for that new plot.
 

flying_whimsy

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Dec 2, 2009
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I didn't even know there was a kickstarter. Since The Secret World hasn't exactly panned out for Funcom, I'd sort of given up hope of ever seeing another Longest Journey game. This is so awesome I can't ja;sdoijrfad;kjsljf

*foams at the mouth*