This week's addition to the Xbox Originals library is an interesting choice: Dreamfall, Funcom's sequel to the much-beloved adventure game The Longest Journey.
Although the adventure gaming community has much affection for The Longest Journey, Dreamfall's blend of classic adventure game mechanics with action elements didn't really resonate with the Xbox crowd when it was released in 2006.
Its story and characters are simply superb, but Dreamfall does suffer from a bit of a split personality. It still has the puzzle elements of a classic adventure game, but tries to update the genre by throwing in combat and stealth sequences that never feel quite right.
About a year ago, Funcom announced that it would be creating episodic content for the game in the form of Dreamfall Chapters, though that never seems to have come to fruition. It's probably too much to hope that we might see some new content appear on the Marketplace in the future, but my fingers are crossed, anyway.
Dreamfall is certainly not without its flaws, but don't let that dissuade you from giving it a try, especially if you enjoyed its fellow Original, Indigo Prophecy, which similarly blurs the line between adventure and action games. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey will cost you 1200 Microsoft points ($15) to download.
Image courtesy Funcom.
Source: W.I.R.E.D.