Dreamfall chapters: downwards spiral?

[Alleged_Alec]

I just finished playing Dreamfall Chapters, and I was impressed. Not in a good way, which should come to no surprise, considering the title. It's a game I wouldn't recommend to anyone, and especially not to those who liked The Longest Journey.

I loved The Longest Journey. It had an amazing story, the world-building was well done and the characters were likeable and well developed. Dreamfall was a step down; the world felt less rich, and more a sight-seeing tour of places we'd visited before. Not only that, but the 3d system didn't work. It all felt stilted, and many of the puzzles suffered because of this shift, I feel. However, in spite of these problems, I still liked the game. The story and characters were still good.

In Dreamfall Chapters, however, story doesn't flow naturally from your actions and the responses of others to it. Rather, things happens because, well, they are what need to happen to move the plot along. This feeling is further enforced by the horrendous "choice" system, which has no place in this game.
Furthermore, the game's episodic nature is too noticeable. Plot threads are dropped abruptly between episodes and you get the feeling that Thornquist didn't know where he was going to go with it either. This is especially noticeable in the last episode, where they decided that suddenly everything had to be finished up pronto.
Characters were also suddenly introduced and dropped without rhyme or reason. The new cast was formulaic and over the top, and strange changes are made to the old cast that make the story jarring at times.

I'm not sure of what went wrong precisely. It could be the tonal shift compared to the The Longest Journey, it could be the aforementioned episodic nature or even something else. However, I am extremely disappointed with the entire game. This is literally the first time I think I've wasted my time playing this game and that I'm worse off having done so.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

It was a Kickstarter funded project, which came about as Ragnar Tornquist couldn't get publisher Funcom (who have been having all kinds of financial problems in the last few years) to fund it. It's fairly rough compared to the first two games because of the shoestring budget; I'd wager that the pacing and delivery is off due to them having to cut all but the absolutely essential parts of the narrative. Hopefully, things will improve for Funcom and they will be willing to fund the development of the final game that Tornquist has planned (The Longest Journey Home). We know he can write a great story, he just needs the resources to be able to make the actual game.

 

[Dalisclock]

I recently finished DC and I'm satisfied with it. Not impressed, but satisfied. Mostly because we finally got a resolution to the story Dreamfall started nearly 10 years ago.

I do appreciate the fact that they fixed some of the issues with Dreamfall, such as removing the shitty combat system and not having levels that were literally a short walk with a conversation at the end. I also appreciate the fact they quickly resolved the fates of the three main characters from the end of Dreamfall in the first book.

However, it does feel like the pacing was skewed at times, with the election BS in Europolis taking up way too much time in the early game(especially for something that really didn't end up mattering) which meant that Book 5 felt a lot like an interactive movie. And then, leading into the whole "taking the war to the Azadi" thing, which was meant to lead into The Longest Journey Home, which may never happen. But at least it's not nearly as bad as Dreamfall.

I was also annoyed that while they finished created nice areas to run around in both Europolis and Marcuria, it didn't feel like there was much to do in either and I wish we'd had more time with Saga to see just what she'd been doing over the years while growing up.

However, on the story/character front I'm mostly happy, even if they did end up sacrificing game-play for resolution. In short, Better then Dreamfall, not as good as TLJ.

No doubt in a few months or a year I'll play all three games, one after another in a short time so I can better see how the whole thing hangs together. Honestly, I can't remember much about dreamfall other then how it felt like a lot of a setup without any resolution. That, the shitty combat system and one entire chapter in the game was literally "Walk forward, have conversation" and then the chapter ends.

 

[Dalisclock]

It was a Kickstarter funded project, which came about as Ragnar Tornquist couldn't get publisher Funcom (who have been having all kinds of financial problems in the last few years) to fund it. It's fairly rough compared to the first two games because of the shoestring budget; I'd wager that the pacing and delivery is off due to them having to cut all but the absolutely essential parts of the narrative. Hopefully, things will improve for Funcom and they will be willing to fund the development of the final game that Tornquist has planned (The Longest Journey Home). We know he can write a great story, he just needs the resources to be able to make the actual game.

I had the impression Tornquist essentially quit funcom and founded Red Thread games to get DC made, because funcom wasn't interested in anything but failing MMOs anymore.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

It was a Kickstarter funded project, which came about as Ragnar Tornquist couldn't get publisher Funcom (who have been having all kinds of financial problems in the last few years) to fund it. It's fairly rough compared to the first two games because of the shoestring budget; I'd wager that the pacing and delivery is off due to them having to cut all but the absolutely essential parts of the narrative. Hopefully, things will improve for Funcom and they will be willing to fund the development of the final game that Tornquist has planned (The Longest Journey Home). We know he can write a great story, he just needs the resources to be able to make the actual game.

I had the impression Tornquist essentially quit funcom and founded Red Thread games to get DC made, because funcom wasn't interested in anything but failing MMOs anymore.

Funcom owns the The Longest Journey/Dreamfall IP, so Tornquist had to licence from Funcom to make Dreamfall Chapters. He did this because, as you said, Funcom likes throwing good money after bad trying to make The Secret World a thing and didn't want to/couldn't afford to fund a new TLJ game.

 

[Alleged_Alec]

It was a Kickstarter funded project, which came about as Ragnar Tornquist couldn't get publisher Funcom (who have been having all kinds of financial problems in the last few years) to fund it. It's fairly rough compared to the first two games because of the shoestring budget; I'd wager that the pacing and delivery is off due to them having to cut all but the absolutely essential parts of the narrative. Hopefully, things will improve for Funcom and they will be willing to fund the development of the final game that Tornquist has planned (The Longest Journey Home). We know he can write a great story, he just needs the resources to be able to make the actual game.

I would in no way call over 2 million dollars a "shoestring budget".

 

[Dalisclock]

It was a Kickstarter funded project, which came about as Ragnar Tornquist couldn't get publisher Funcom (who have been having all kinds of financial problems in the last few years) to fund it. It's fairly rough compared to the first two games because of the shoestring budget; I'd wager that the pacing and delivery is off due to them having to cut all but the absolutely essential parts of the narrative. Hopefully, things will improve for Funcom and they will be willing to fund the development of the final game that Tornquist has planned (The Longest Journey Home). We know he can write a great story, he just needs the resources to be able to make the actual game.

I would in no way call over 2 million dollars a "shoestring budget".

I was wondering about that. It presents itself as a AAA Adventure game and even hit most of the stretch goals(it didn't hit the one for starting The Longest Journey Home, sadly). However, I haven't seen some of the stretch goal stuff yet. Particularly the "Loremaster" one which apparently has in-universe books with backstory/lore to find.

And the Kickstarter apparently didn't reach $2 million, which was the stretch goal for TLJH. They got to somewhere around $1.5 million.

Still better then broken age though.

 

[Alleged_Alec]

SNIP

And the Kickstarter apparently didn't reach $2 million, which was the stretch goal for TLJH. They got to somewhere around $1.5 million.

They also had three government grants totalling over half a million.

Still better then broken age though.

A kick in the balls would've been preferable to how Broken Age turned out, to be honest.

I recently finished DC and I'm satisfied with it. Not impressed, but satisfied. Mostly because we finally got a resolution to the story Dreamfall started nearly 10 years ago.

True, but I'm not too sure I like the resolution they went for.

I do appreciate the fact that they fixed some of the issues with Dreamfall, such as removing the shitty combat system

That, indeed, really sucked. However, I think they also had a lot of stupid stuff added to make up for removing the bad combat. The choice system was completely unnecessary and actively removed my immersion at many points, especially since they chose to open with a recap of my choices and some generic message like "This will influence stuff".

and not having levels that were literally a short walk with a conversation at the end.

I still think there were enough of those. Hell, there were some 10 second cutscenes with two equally long loading times flanking them.

However, it does feel like the pacing was skewed at times, with the election BS in Europolis taking up way too much time in the early game(especially for something that really didn't end up mattering) which meant that Book 5 felt a lot like an interactive movie.

I think this is a problem for episodic gameplay in general. Several of the Telltale games had it too (I'm looking at you, Wolf Among us...).

And then, leading into the whole "taking the war to the Azadi" thing, which was meant to lead into The Longest Journey Home, which may never happen.

That was a huge slap in the face, imho. Given how long we've had between games so far, it's kind of fucked up they ended on a semi-cliffhanger like that.

But at least it's not nearly as bad as Dreamfall

Dreamfall had a cliffhanger, sure. However, I felt that the plot was way better though out in general.

I was also annoyed that while they finished created nice areas to run around in both Europolis and Marcuria, it didn't feel like there was much to do in either

Yeah. They were pretty much empty spaces. Fairly pretty spaces environments were fine, but they're just eating up budget if there's nothing to do in them. Also, while the environments looked fine, all the characters looked like they were made out of play-dough.

and I wish we'd had more time with Saga to see just what she'd been doing over the years while growing up.

I wasn't a fan of little miss Deus Ex Machina in the fifth book.

However, on the story/character front I'm mostly happy, even if they did end up sacrificing game-play for resolution.

Let's be honest: there was little or no gameplay whatsoever.

 

[Dalisclock]

SNIP

And the Kickstarter apparently didn't reach $2 million, which was the stretch goal for TLJH. They got to somewhere around $1.5 million.

They also had three government grants totalling over half a million.

I did not realize this.

However, it does feel like the pacing was skewed at times, with the election BS in Europolis taking up way too much time in the early game(especially for something that really didn't end up mattering) which meant that Book 5 felt a lot like an interactive movie.

I think this is a problem for episodic gameplay in general. Several of the Telltale games had it too (I'm looking at you, Wolf Among us...).

Yeah, I question their decision to do the taletell thing, especially where only a few of the choices make any difference(Who lives and dies during the HQ raid in book 4, mostly). The bombing in Book 2 was just kinda dumb, especially since you're railroaded into it.

If I hadn't helped kickstarted this, I would have waiting until it all finished before buyying, because
1.) What starts out as a reasonable schedule can turn into long delays with no explanation(I'm looking at you, Kentucky Route Zero)
2.) It's hard to judge the quality until you're close to the end, if not there and quality can vary significantly from episode to episode
3.) The occasional, infuriating case of "Well, we ran out of money/interest/cupcakes and now we're never going to release the rest of the episodes, and sometimes we won't even bother admitting this is the case"(Seriously, Fuck you, Valve).

But at least it's not nearly as bad as Dreamfall

Dreamfall had a cliffhanger, sure. However, I felt that the plot was way better though out in general.

To be honest, I haven't played dreamfall in years, so I don't remember to much of it. I remember it pretty much did a lot of setup and ended with dealing with Faith's plotline but little else. Mostly I remember the whole "Yep, everything/everyone is fucked cliffhangers at the end of Dreamfall. The bad guys are still winning and nothing you did even inconvinenced them".

No doubt in a year or so I'm gonna play though all 3 games in order, back to back, so I can get a better feel for whole it all fits(or doesn't fit together).

Yeah. They were pretty much empty spaces. Fairly pretty spaces environments were fine, but they're just eating up budget if there's nothing to do in them. Also, while the environments looked fine, all the characters looked like they were made out of play-dough.

I keep thinking they wanted to add a lot more with the kickstarter stretch goals and I'm still kinda hoping they'll patch more content in now that the game is completed, despite my annoyance that it wasn't included from the start. Does that make me a bad person?

I wasn't a fan of little miss Deus Ex Machina in the fifth book.

It does feel like she's meant to be the main character of TLJH and that's what her segments are leading up to. The problem is that we may never see TLJH, and we already got a hint of what it's going to be about(The reunification, and we already know at least Saga survives and the universes are successfully reunited).

I can accept she has wierd powers because of her heritage(especially not being bound to time the way everyone else is via the songlines) but I would have liked to see more of what she was doing when she left the House of all worlds. The only thing that saves it at all is that she's been part of the story(if a small part) since the beginning.

Other bits:

-I'm disappointed that Zoe starts out having the cool dream powers, because she's the dreamer, and then they more or less get forgotten about for most of the game, only to be brought back for the Yaga and for the bit at the very end with the Undreaming. Even after the resolution with Lux, when I figured "Cool, Now Zoe will have dream powers full time". Before Book 5 dropped, I imagined Zoe walking around, being able to swat soldiers aside with her powers. But apparently that sounded too awesome to someone.

-I'm gonna toss in that I wish they'd at mentioned the status of the Kin. The white is possibly KIA(or not?), the green and the red are still missing, presumed dead(or not?) and the blue is....still at the bottom of the sea.(Maybe?) I guessed initially that Queenie was the blue in human form and then the ending proved me wrong.

I do appreciate, looking at DF and DFC as two halves of a single story(which I heard they were conceived of as all along), that they at least dealt with the consequences of how TLJ ended, both for both worlds and for April. I also appreciate they chose to tell a different story then the first one, though still related. However, the TLJ is still superior to both, despite it's flaws(April is never in any real danger, which sucks the tension out of some of the encounters).

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

It was a Kickstarter funded project, which came about as Ragnar Tornquist couldn't get publisher Funcom (who have been having all kinds of financial problems in the last few years) to fund it. It's fairly rough compared to the first two games because of the shoestring budget; I'd wager that the pacing and delivery is off due to them having to cut all but the absolutely essential parts of the narrative. Hopefully, things will improve for Funcom and they will be willing to fund the development of the final game that Tornquist has planned (The Longest Journey Home). We know he can write a great story, he just needs the resources to be able to make the actual game.

I would in no way call over 2 million dollars a "shoestring budget".

In an industry where companies regularly spend tens of million of dollars on AAA games, $2-3 million is peanuts. You can't expect a AAA level of polish for that little money.