The Longest Journey (Story-Adventure)
We did a GROUP PLAY of this one, which you can find
HERE. To start off the review, a little bit of information that I added to that thread:
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I recommend reading the manual. It has some great information, as well as some extra story to enjoy. (No spoilers!)
Manual in PDF formatThe cursor:
- Blue - The standard cursor.
- Red - Indicates an exit.
- Broken - "Non-active". Means that you cannot currently interact with the scene.
- Active - Indicates a hot spot. Left-click to bring up a floating menu:
- - Eye - Inspect
- - Mouth - Talk to or use mouth to interact with an item.
- - Hand - Interact physically. Use this to pick up items and add them to your inventory.
Double-click to make April run
Right-click to open your inventory.
Press the letter
X to show all possible exits. Press again to take down the exit signs.
Items will
flash when they can be used on the scene, or when there's a possibility to combine items.
Keyboard Shortcuts: (all not listed)
- F1 - Diary Menu
- F2 - Quick-save; F3 - Quick-load. There are 99 save-game slots available. You MUST SAVE before exiting to the main menu!
- F4 - Conversation Log
- F5 - April's Diary (have to learn how to use it in-game before this will work) - Can save and load from here, too.
- F6 - Video Replays
- F7 - Game Settings
- F8 - Save Screenshot to your local game directory
- F9 - Toggle Subtitles
- F10 - Quit game and return to Main Menu
- P - Pause
- Esc - Skip video sequence or dialogue
Universal Hint SystemGameBoomers Walkthrough by MaGtRo_______________________________________Options include separate sliders for Voice, Music, and Sound Effects. I recommend turning Voice up as far as you can, keeping Music and SFX turned a bit lower, and turning your volume UP. While there are
subtitles available (make sure you have the option checked before you start the game!), there are some transition scenes that do NOT have subtitles, so if you don't want to miss any story...
There are also options for High Quality April Model, Special Effects, Shadows, High Quailty Video, and Enable Time Skip. I had all of them checked except the last one -- not sure what that one's for
If you have any trouble with things lagging, try turning off some of these extras. The manual (see PDF link further up in the post) will explain what all of these options mean.
As usual with true adventure games such as this, SAVE and SAVE OFTEN!! I can't stress this enough! We have 99 save slots -- USE THEM! While April cannot die, and the way the game is made we can't progress and accidentally leave behind something that we MUST have in order to progress in the game, if you experience a glitch or power outage, you'll be kicking yourself for certain... if not cursing a blue streak
lol~
On the main menu of the game is something called the
Book of Secrets, which we can't access. There is an easter egg that will allow us access, and it is described (with HINTS on how to do it in spoilers) in
THIS POST. The Book of Secrets contains
BONUS CONTENT for the game, including outtakes (audio of the actress playing April messing up -- very funny!), eight music tracks (which you can listen to, but not save to your computer), and a bunch of very cool concept art!
The graphics looked great stretched to fit my widescreen. As RenaissanceMom mentioned, the character design is pretty dated, but this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the game in the slightest. The story really draws you in, and while not an
intense experience like
Cognition,
The Longest Journey is compelling, and I found it hard to stop playing!
The game is set in the future, but it's a future that's easy to relate to -- it's not heavily sci-fi, and there's a strong fantasy aspect to it. As a matter of fact, the separation of sci-fi and fantasy is at the core of the story, and brilliantly handled. The game took us places I NEVER expected to end up, and is all the better for it! While I did have parts of the story figured out, I also was surprised more than once!
Rmom and I both got TLJ from GOG, and we both experienced the same
glitch: The game closing down when we tried to access a certain scene. TO GET PAST THIS GLITCH,
single-click on the exit to take you to that scene.
Every time I was trying to run to the next location (by double-clicking) and it crashed, but walking got me past the glitch. After you get past it that one time, you'll be able to double-click to run to that location as usual.
This would be a good time for me to remind you of the importance of SAVING!
Remember that you can speed things up by double-clicking to make April run, and the other shortcuts at the top of this review will be a LOT of help, believe me!
I really enjoyed the time I spent on this game, and absolutely recommend it... Assuming that you don't get irritated by LOTS of conversation and reading. The core of
The Longest Journey is the story, and it is absolutely integral to your enjoyment of the game!
