The Longest Journey
$19.95		(Win95/98ME/XP) (Retail) (LONGESTJPR)

Publisher: Funcom / Empire Interactive

Ratings:

A+ from  Just Adventure

9/10 from  EuroGamer

Take the First Step on the Most Amazing Journey of Your Life

The Longest Journey takes place 200 years into the future in a world based on science and technology. You play the 18 year-old art student April Ryan. She's an ordinary girl who all of a sudden gets her life turned upside down as she discovers the existence of a parallel world full of magic and strange creatures. April Ryan has the power to shift between these two worlds, and she soon discovers that she has a very important mission in life.

The Guardian of the Balance has abandoned his throne and the armies of Vanguard are advancing...

Between Stark and Arcadia there is an ancient balance. For thousands of years this Balance has weighed the scales of the cosmos evenly, ensuring harmony between science, magic, order and chaos. But, now in an age of great turmoil, chaos threatens to tip the scales and bring terrifying dreams to life.

As the tides of chaos gain momentum the fate of everything lies in the hands of one person.

Her name is April Ryan. She is a Shifter. The power to walk between worlds is within her grasp and her destiny is foretold in a hundred tales.

The journey ahead is treacherous, winding and shrouded in mystery, this is the longest journey of them all.

There Are Two Worlds

One we know as our world, a world of science and logic and stark reality.

The other world lies behind the veil of sleep; an Arcadian realm of magic and chaos, a realm where dreams may come true.

An epic futuristic tale of adventure, magic and intrigue

Become immersed in an exciting and original story-line, featuring over fifty unique characters.

Explore over 150 beautifully detailed locations spanning two distinct worlds

Solve a huge variety of story-oriented puzzles

Over 50 hours gameplay

Each scene featuring multiple 3D characters with up to 1,000 polygons each.

Motion captured animations with real-time interpolation and real-time lip-synching.

An exciting mix of 2D and 3D graphics in high-resolution.

Supports both 16- and 32-bit colour depths in software and hardware.

Dynamic colored lighting in both software and hardware.

Real-time lighting with detailed shadow-effects and moving light sources.

Support for most 3D accelerators through Direct3D.

20+ minutes of high-resolution pre-rendered video footage.

Cinematic musical score.

Requirements:

Minimum System Requirements: Pentium 166 mmx 32 mb ram 4x cd rom Drive Mouse and Keyboard 640*480 SVGA high colour (16bit) video card with 2mb ram Windows compatible sound device 300 mb free hard drive space.

Recommended System Requirements: Pentium II, 266 mhz 64 mb ram 3d accelerator card (Direct 3d compatible) with 4 mb ram 8x cdrom drive 1gb free hard drive space.

Tested on Windows XP. I got the error "not a valid win32 application" when I tried to start the game. There is a solution, however:
You need to start the game in the following way: From your desktop click on Start then select the Run option and enter the following: C:\Program Files\The Longest Journey\game.exe now click on OK. Note: C: is the drive that the game was installed to this may vary depending on where you installed the game to. The game should now start correctly. If this works you can then change your shortcut to use the new path.

There is also a patch available if your game crashes at the police station in chapter 3. You should only use the patch if you have that specific problem.
http://www.xplosiv.net/support/faq.asp?ProdDetailID=28

Raves:

JustAdventure

"...Overall, The Longest Journey is a must-have game. It brings strong story-telling, good puzzles, and great graphics... The Longest Journey has what it takes to be a family classic for all generations of adventure gamers."

GameOver

"...one of the best games I've ever played, and definitely my choice so far for game of the year" Rating: 94%

Gamerspress.com

"...This game is a sensory masterpiece! Its visuals, sounds, and story line will grab your soul. You will want that 21 inch monitor after seeing this beauty!"

Adventure Gamer

"...Beautiful graphics, many in-jokes, atmospheric music, an original story, tough puzzles, dozens of characters... need I go on? TLJ is likely to become one of this year's hottest adventure games. Pre-order this game if possible, because you won't want to miss out on it...."

The Adrenaline Vault

"...There is no forthcoming adventure title I know of that I am anticipating as much as this one. On top of the truly incredible graphics, there is the promise of great ambient sounds, beautiful orchestral music and excellent vocal effects..."

Betabites

"...The Longest Journey in its 13 chapters will be a great game. What pushes the marks up are the wonderful storyline, the motion capture animations and graphics, and the music. I also really enjoyed the writers sense of humor throughout the game...."

pc.ign.com

"...one of the most visually attractive and engaging worlds yet devised."
"...the writing in The Longest Journey is a cut above normal gaming fare."
"(a) literate and refined adventure game..."

gamelinks.net

"Once in a while a game so beautiful and so visually stunning comes along that you have to pinch yourself to make sure that you are not dreaming (...). Funcom is doing just that in it's new Adventure title - The Longest Journey"

For an interview with the producer/designer of The Longest Journey, visit:
http://www.voodooextreme.com/Alteredworlds/interviews/Longest%20Journey.htm

Reviews:

Just Adventure, by Randy Sluganski

"Exactly what is it that allows The Longest Journey to transcend the normal limitations of the adventure genre? First and foremost is April, the central character. Though the shell of the plot is your cliched "save the world" (or in this case, two worlds) theme, the framework upon which this story is composed delves much deeper. For April is entering upon a rite of passage; a maturation from the indecisive, self-deprecating teenage years into a hesitant adulthood that is at first shunned and then gradually embraced. Her reluctance to face responsibility, as evidenced by her leaving home, forces her eventually to confront a confused past. Yet, these universal themes of adolescence, femininity, and sexuality are presented so subtlety that the game can be enjoyed on many different levels. If one were to extract the superb dialogue and scripting from The Longest Journey, we would still be left with a game that is the equivalent of any of the King's Quests or Monkey Islands. That is how much better this game is than anything on the market. Finally, the game's conclusion and epilogue are masterpieces of subtlety. A dazzling ending is surpassed by an even more surprising epilogue."

"Top-notch writing, memorable characters, beautiful 3D animations against 2D backdrops, and a musical score that is more complementary than ornamental all unite for a once-in-a-lifetime gaming experience."

EuroGamer, by John "Gestalt" Bye

"Every now and then a game comes along that sucks you into its world so completely that you vanish into it for days at a time, surfacing only for food and sleep when you just physically can't play any longer. Last year we had Outcast to rob us of sleep and social life, and this year we have The Longest Journey.

"Produced somewhere in the depths of Scandinavia, and only reaching our God forsaken shores some months after it had been released across most of the rest of Europe, The Longest Journey is quite simply one of the slickest and most involving adventure games I've ever had the joy of playing."

"The Longest Journey is not without its flaws. the humour may not appeal to everyone, the conversations can be rather long and meandering at times, and the labyrinthine plot is occasionally hard to follow.

"Also the 3D characters don't look as good as they should do because of the low resolution, and although the game still looks gorgeous and runs silky smooth even on my old RivaTNT, you will really need a graphics card with support for full-scene anti-aliasing to make the most of the game's visuals.

"At the end of the day though, The Longest Journey is an engrossing and highly entertaining adventure game with characters that you can care about, an involving storyline to keep you hooked, and settings and characters that are both beautiful and bizarre. What more could you want from an adventure game?"

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