The “Break it Down” Blog

If you are a fan of the old-old Sierra adventure games (old-old school, Heroes Quest, Kings Question, etc) and old Lucas Arts adventure games (Grim Fandango, Monkey Island?, etc) then you might have thought that the genre died with those publishers… but it didn’t.

In my hunting around for a kick ass adventure came I came across The Longest Journey (2000), probably one of the highest rated adventure games in history. I grabbed it off of Steam for $9 and have been playing it over the last few weeks and I have to say… it itches the right spot.

All the dialog is spoken, story line is epic in nature, with very memorable characters and twisty-and-turny… always keeping you on your toes. The only down side is that the graphics are definitely old-school:

I didn’t find it too hard to get past them and just enjoy the game though.

Following up The Longest Journey is Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (2006). Actually a loose sequel to the first (you can play it without the first, but playing the first before gives more depth to it) it continues the same epic story line between Stark (modern, science/machine world) and Arcadia (modern magic world).

It’s a more modern game with better graphics so it’s got some longer legs under it:

For the folks that were clamoring for the 3rd installment of The Longest Journey, in March 07 there was an announcement out of FunCom that episodic releases of followups to TLJ would come out, which would eventually finish the story leading up to some big MMO they were going to announce.

However it looks like FunCom is set to release a new title completely called The Secret World.

The one big saving grace is that it’s by the same guy that did both the TLJ titles (both produced and wrote): Ragnar Tørnquist. CVG has an interview up with FunCom about the upcoming title for the folks that are interested.

One of the things I loved about the TLJ series is that there is no combat (except maybe 1 scene?) and really no way to die or “loose” or use up potions or screw your inventory up… it’s just all about experiencing the story and enjoying it… the new title looks like it’s going to be like a more classic RPG… I can’t say I’m too pumped about that, but we will see.

FunCom is also doing the M-rated adult MMO, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. So… swords and boobs… and plot twists I guess.