Dreamfall Chapters Review

Welcome back, Dreamer:

“Dreamfall Chapters” has been a long time coming. It’s the sequel to two popular adventure games – the first of which released just before the turn of the millenium – and fans have been waiting a long time to get their hands on this one.

Story:

Dreamfall Chapters was originally an episodic affair, with five episodes being released between 2014 and 2016. Chapters is the amalgamation of that work, and presents a generous amount of content for a surprisingly low price.

Now, I usually leave the following sorts of statements to the end of the reviews, but this issue is so intrisically tied to narrative that I’ve got to talk about this early: If you’ve played the previous games in the series, Chapters is an absolute no-brainer. After the cliffhanger that Dreamfall ended on, you’ve basically got no choice but to pony up and settle in for the ride. Thankfully, you’re going to be pleased with what’s on offer here. Narrative is where Chapters really excels, and it goes to really surprising places in its five-epsiode run.

Fundamentally the story is about the dichotomy between two worlds, one of science and logic, and another of magic and fantasy. Zoë is a ‘Dreamer’ – a being able to straddle both worlds – but during the events of the last game (released in 2007, but beware of incoming spoilers) she was put into a coma. Your second playable character is Kian, an elite officer who was investigating conspiracy and corruption in the Earth-like world of Stark, and got in big trouble for it. In chapters, you start his storyline in prison, and must escape.

There’s a lot of great themes in the narrative offerings of Chapters, and I really dug the way the story was spun right up until it’s conclusion. But here’s the rub: if you haven’t played the other games, I’m not sure Chapters is a great place to start. You’ll be pretty lost in its lore immediately, and whilst a quick YouTube video could probably catch you up to speed, you’d be robbing yourself of a great overall experience. Ultimately, however, it might not be worth getting into the franchise just to play Chapters, which already feels quite dated.

Gameplay:

Adventure games have had to evolve a lot in the last decade or so. People aren’t as willing to forgive clumsy game design, trial-and-error puzzling or momentum breaking gameplay sections. Strangely for a videogame, this is one genre that benefits from a more hands-off approach, and you can see these successes exemplified by Telltale in their interactive works of fiction. Games like Broken Age and the recent rerelease of Day of the Tentacle show that, whilst these ideas were great for their time – and nostalgia helps them get away with murder to initiated fans – they might not be the greatest template for modern game design anymore.

All of this is to say that, in its journey to eventual release, Dreamfall Chapters forgot to change with the times. We have some fairly obtuse puzzling and and ‘classic’ gameplay that sometimes serves, and sometimes hinders the storytelling that should be taking center stage. Old school gamers will be able to see past these peculiarities, but if you’re new to the genre Dreamfall might not be the best place to start – especially if you haven’t already played the originals.

It’s a shame, because I think if this game had followed a little sooner after the release of Dreamfall, Chapters could have had a shot at relevancy – and offering a little salvation to the series after the tepid reaction that release garnered. Unfortuneatly, I don’t think there’s much place for a middling adventure game in the industry today, especially with titles like Life is Strange and the Telltale games succesfully streamlining the genre and showing a more comprehensive understanding of their audience.

Presentation:

Luckily the presentation for Chapters isn’t a let down. It’s not going to blow you away visually, but a lot of the design here makes up for the shortcomings of its graphical prowess. It’s all rendered in 3D – a nice change from the original and expanding upon Dreamfall’s vision – and I was surprised at how nicely designed even the, well, stark world of Stark was – to say nothing of the lush, magical world of Arcadia

The voice work is stellar, too. There’s a whole lot of it, and for the most part it’s all really solid. The music also scores the game’s important moments very well.

 

Conclusion:

I don’t see “Dreamfall Chapters” pulling many new fans in, such is the classic nature of its gameplay and its heavy reliance on previous installments (the first of which is nearly two decades old). If you’re already a fan and have been eagerly awaiting this release, it’s an absolute no-brainer (especially at such a cheap price), but if you’ve yet to be enamoured by the world of the Dreamer, it’s a much harder sell.