The Longest Journey

Although it probably doesn't mean anything in the cosmic sense, there was little doubt that I'd be playing the 2000 adventure game "The Longest Journey". That title has been coming up in my life over the past few months. First off, I'd finished the game 'Grey Matter', and if you are so inclined for that sort of thing, feel free to read my feelings on the subject below. Long story short, it rocks. Secondly, I'd been contracted to translate/edit a story with was later to be titled "The Longest Journey" as well. This was just a happy coincidence, but still interesting. And I'm all about patterns and pattern recognition, so I thought this might be a good time to pick up the class game and give it a whirl.

Now I've had this game floating around my collection for the better part of a decade, but hadn't played it. Part of the problem was the title, I'm ashamed to say. Yes, it's never a good idea to judge a book by its cover, and yet the title filled me with concern. Longest Journey? For those of you who have played adventure games (particularly the point and click variety) you'll know that there are brick walls that the player encounters that can make the game VERY long indeed. Using a walkthru to breeze through the game defeats the purpose, and I like to give myself every chance to solve the game 'straight' before utilizing a third-party resource to solve any hurdles (cheating).
But when the game out and tells you that it's The Longest Journey, well I take notice. And so the game has sat on my shelf for years. Until now.

The game is awesome. But what really strikes me is how much the actual language of more recent gaming titles has become dumbed down and politically correct. Right off the bat, The Longest Journey tells you that many of the characters speak "blue", and aren't ashamed to use extremely crude and graphic language to give their opinions on various matters. GTA has become the national benchmark for violence and for lack of a better word "adult themed material" in a game. But my jaw dropped as I was playing TLJ. This game mingles vulgarity with high-concept metaphysics and philosophy. And I don't mean any of that garbage armchair "Can't we all just get along" philosophy. Or "We're all connected by universal energy" stuff. I mean real, nuts and bolts pondering of the deeper meanings of what it means to be alive. Very good stuff.

And there's some of that "universal energy" talk thrown in for good measure. I'm glad. I'd have missed it had it not been there.

But Ted Puffer, I hear you say. What about the game itself? Does it live up to it's title?

Ummmm. Yeah. I'd say it does. It does start out at a gentle pace, and the game is broken up into a series of days, of which the story arc crossed about two weeks. The first few days are long, but the other ones only contain a handful of puzzles each and can be whipped through very easily. If anything, the only 'padding' in the game is in the form of dialog. For everyone's sake, the dialog is excellent and the voice work above par. So this is one journey that's a joy to take.