Dreamfall Chapters

released on Oct 21, 2014

Dreamfall Chapters is an episodic, story-driven adventure game about choices and consequences, dreams and reality, magic and science, chaos and order, and the broken heroes whose actions will shape the course of history in all worlds. With a brand new storyline, Dreamfall Chapters introduces new players to The Longest Journey Saga, while returning players will get the conclusion they have been waiting for ever since the end of Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.


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Awake. Alive. Amnesiac. Výtečně napsané (charaktery tu spolu mluví jako lidé a nikoli jako videoherní postavičky, témata jsou dospělá, analogie promyšlené, politika i světy fungující, postavy nečernobílé), převážně skvostně nadabované, ještě lépe „ohudebněné“ a legendární úroveň kvality hlavní dějové linie/postav nastavená předchozími díly byla ve všech směrech udržena.

V čem je tedy problém? To co by mohlo fungovat jako několika málo hodinový interaktivní film, nefunguje jako plnohodnotná rozsáhlá do kapitol rozdělená hra. Důvodů je celá řada. Adventurní pasáže jsou do počtu a tak jednoduché, že jsou až vyloženě směšné, nepropracované, nedomyšlené a působí vyloženě násilně naroubované „protože se od nás čeká, že tam nějaké ty puzzly prostě budou“. Jaký to úpadek oproti dodnes v tomto ohledu legendární jedničce. Tolik ke gameplayi; žádné jiné herní prvky v tom nejsou.

Dalo by se však ještě přejít, že to nefunguje jako pravověrná klasická adventura, kdyby to aspoň fungovalo ve stylu dvojky jako krátký, úderný a na ději i postavách stavící interaktivní film spíše než hra. Jenže ani tak to neobstojí. Na vině je absence jakéhokoli tempa hraní/vyprávění. Telltale a podobní to řeší filmově; tedy střihem mezi jednotlivými scénami „kdy se něco děje“. Tady je obsaženo i to „vystřižené“; tedy sáhodlouhé, neustálé a v důsledku toho záhy otravné přesouvání z místa na místo. On je dobrý důvod, proč obvykle nevidíme postavy jedoucí několik hodin z místa A na místo B či jak si na hodinu odskočí na oběd. Tím důvodem je tempo vyprávění. A tady žádné není.

Nejvíce času (krom přesunů) zaberou dialogy, které jsou alfou i omegou a každý zabere dlouhé minuty. A ty dialogy jsou skvostně napsané. Což je dobře. A nemáte během nich co dělat ani na co koukat. Což je špatně a to tak že hodně. V době, kdy je zvykem dialogy (a speciálně pak takto časté a dlouhé) podávat filmově střižené, dynamické, interaktivní, plné filmových záběrů, které střídají postavy, úhly snímání, nebojí se zaměřit na nějaký detail v podobě tiku či tváře projevující emoci, tak zde máte dvě ztuhlé postavy proti sobě a dlouhé (jakože opravdu d-l-o-u-h-é) minuty můžete tak akorát točit analogovou páčkou kolem hlavy protagonistů a jednou za čas zvolit další téma hovoru či učinit nějaké rozhodnutí (která zpravidla mají důsledky, to je třeba uznat). Čímž se zbytečně devalvuje to dobré, co na dialozích po scenáristické stránce nesporně je. Na papíře chyba není, ta je v realizaci a chybějící režii.

Když k tomu všemu přičtete, že čtvrtá epizoda působí do značné míry jako nastavovaná kaše před finále a první zase postrádá „vtahující“ efekt a skončí dříve než se rozjede, tak se nelze ubránit ambivalentnímu pocitu, že jakkoli je uzavření trilogie více než důstojné po dějové stránce a je radost vidět, jak to s charaktery a světy po těch letech čekání dopadne, tak je ostudně nedůstojné po té herní.

Firstly I don’t know how this was given such positive reviews. The game is painfully slow with some dialogue being unskippable on top of slow drawn out scenes and voice acting. Going into this as a new player without playing prior game makes the story vague, messy and downright confusing. The performances from the cast are down right offensive with no passion behind any line. Poor graphics and gameplay segments make it a slog. Yes the game started off interesting but as the story progresses it’s just hogswash.

The fact that this game exists at all is a miniature miracle; I never though we'd ever get anything else in this franchise after the first Dreamfall game

What a game it is, too! Just like its predecessors, you have a wonderful, lived in world and some fantastic characters, with honestly some of the best implementation of the whole Telltale Games style you're going to find; it's not quite as good as the first game (very few things are), but I'd definitely put it in front of Dreamfall: Longest Journey

It absolutely kills me that we're never going to see the end of this/The Longest Journey home, but hey, I suppose I'll just be glad that this exists at all

Ending a trilogy is never easy. Heck, ending a story is never easy. Both gaming and cinema have had a long and messy history of not being able to stick the landing with the final act. However, despite certain reservations I'd had going in, I'm happy to report that Dreamfall Chapters brings everything to a wonderful close, giving closure to nearly every lingering plot thread or absent character from the previous two entries.

I can very easily see why many find the end result of this finale convoluted and messy; however, when you play each entry in quick succession, as I just did this past week, it's truly impressive to see just how much series creator Ragnar Tørnquist and the team at Red Thread Games manage to address and wrap up in just under 20 hours.

It's not all sunshine and roses, though; there are a few key underlying problems with Dreamfall Chapters.

For one, it takes quite a while to pick up steam narratively, especially compared to its predecessors. The first couple of episodes (or "books," as they're called here) aren't quite as interesting as the last three. It gradually gets better with each episode. Don't get me wrong, it starts off fairly solid and ends very strong; however, it could have used some edits to the pacing from both a narrative and gameplay perspective in a lot of the first half.

The story also handles a key character's sexuality in a messy and confusing way, not really knowing what to definitively do with them half the time. While I fully acknowledge that one's sexuality, and especially finding it to begin with, is not always a resolute thing, it's clear here that the developers were having trouble with this particular character's identity, more so than the character themselves were. That being said, it does improve as it goes on, so efforts were definitely made to correct any errors before.

Gameplay-wise, it's essentially Dreamfall: The Longest Journey's systems, sans the unnecessary parts like combat and stealth. Mixed into it this time, though, are Telltale-esque choices. While I understand that the choices here are largely cosmetic and don't change the overarching story in many, if any, significant ways, I've played so many Telltale-adjacent games that it's just something I'm used to at this point. Still, a little more active shaping of the narrative from player choices would have been appreciated.

All in all, though, Dreamfall Chapters provides a daring, emotional, and incredibly satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. While there are minor and moderate bumps and hurdles along the way, it ends strong while still managing to keep certain threads open enough for the story to potentially continue somehow.

The Longest Journey might still be my preferred entry, but Ragnar and the rest of Red Thread should be immensely proud that, for me and I'm sure many others, they created an entry that comes so close to the greatness of the original that calling it the best one is a statement that would be hard to argue against.

8.5/10

The Dreamfall series followed very much the same trajectory as Shenmue. The first two games are masterpieces. The third game that exists mainly through crowdfunding? A damp squib.

I did not have a good time with this at all. It was janky as hell and performed like shit on the PS4. And its lack of budget was very showing. Expect a lot of backtracking, aimless wandering and stilted animation.

Such an unfortunate finale for an otherwise excellent saga.

What an epic and breathtaking journey. Like Final Fantasy XIII, the epic length combined with a still densely woven story really does make it feel like a journey. The sheer variety of characters, places and themes is almost overwhelming. The characters are funny and charming without it becoming overbearing, and they work well together once the two worlds start fusing. All while this happens, it does not shy away from heavier topics which I'm thankful for. An absolute recommendation for general adventure fans.