With still no GPU fit for modern games, I’ve started knocking items off of my list of old games that I’d always wished I’d played. This starts with The Longest Journey, one of the most highly praised adventure games of all time and one that has gained renewed prominence recently due to its female protagonist and the KickStarter campaign to fund a sequel.

This is a game that was first released in 1999 so the graphics are understandably not the best. Still, they do an adequate job and the sheer amount of it is impressive. This is a massive adventure game, easily the longest of any I’ve played. What’s more, it’s a game that takes its story seriously, as opposed to only using it as a platform for jokes. Sure, there’s a healthy sprinkling of humor throughout but it’s still the story of a real adventure, complete with danger, death and a world-ending threat.

The protagonist here is April Ryan, a young arts student living in the 23rd century. She soon learns that the world that she lives in is only one half of an ancient Earth, the half in which science and logic reigns supreme. The other half is Arcadia, the realm of magic and chaos. She also learns that she is a Shifter, with the power to travel between the two realms, and that she is strong in the Balance so that it is her destiny to fight against the evil Vanguard who wish to reunite the two worlds and thereby bring chaos to everything.

It’s the usual prophecy-laden heroic fantasy tropes, except that April is a woman and that for the most part problems aren’t solved with violence. I’m also not too fond of how they just skipped over the debate over why exactly the Vanguards are the bad guys for wanting to reunite the worlds and the Sentinels are the good guys for wanting to preserve the status quo. With these caveats in mind, the writing is decent in the sense that the dialogue feels natural, you do come to care about the characters and you feel like you have a stake in what happens next.

As for the gameplay, I’m pleased to report that in general the puzzles and the flow of events make sense. There are a few notable exceptions and there is still some pixel-hunting involved but for the most part this game should be playable for the average person without needing to refer to walkthroughs. Personally I prefer the scenes set in scientific Stark to magical Arcadia because using magic to solve problems always feel too much like a deus ex machina to me.

My biggest disappointment with the story is that April’s friends in Stark never get to really help her or even understand what is really going on. I suppose that’s going to be covered in the sequel. I did enjoy myself and I’m still a bit flabbergasted by how huge this game is and how many places her journey takes April. Still, I’m not a huge fan of adventure games and I’m really just passing time while waiting for my GPU to be fixed. I also got the sequel as a bundle so I guess I’ll have to play it to satisfy my completionist instincts.