[quote author=BacardiJim  link=1066970655/0#2 date=1067032073]This is the greatest game in the history of Mankind!

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Exactly!!! Not only because it "packs 30 minutes of information into 3 hours of talking", but because the characters were perfectly developed, the story beatiful, and a lot of thought went to every single detail. To this day I still listen to some of the tracks/songs from the soundtrack, and that's saying a lot.
It didn't feel like a game, but like a book or a movie, where you are the hero.

BTW: First post! Hello!  

I'm new too!  

TLJ is definitely the best adventure game I've played (bar only perhaps Grim Fandango?)... plot that kept me gripped to the end... good puzzles... and one of the few games I've played recently that doesn't seem too short. I can't really think of much to complain about... apart from the ending - I was crying out for it not to finish like that...   ???

Possibly the fact that it leaves so many questions unanswered? The game doesn't conclude satisfactorily. It just stops, with a blatant buy-the-sequel tag at the end. "Oh well, the next part of the story will have to wait for another night."  

A good ending doesn't leave the player in the throes of a major emotional attack. In literature, the climax is followed by a resolution which explains the loose ends of the storyline.
If the resolution isn't offered, the "ending" is incomplete without a sequel. And that's what happened.

Ok, this game is definitely one of my favourites.  I played Dreamfall first actually, because I had this bug in The Longest Journey outside of the police station which made me abandon the game for a while.  Until of course I discovered that this is a common bug which has a patch on the cd itself.  Duh.  
So the following is my impressions of the game and the highlights and weak spots in my opinion.

*Spoiler all the way!*

First of all I quite liked the personality of April in both games - she's definitely my favourite character.  I loved the initial set up of the game...the dragon scene and then her life in Venice...and how she discovered Arcadia for the first time.  Arcadia itself on first impression wasn't that impressive - although it does reflect a certain division in our actual world today between spirituality and science quite clearly.  I found the market place and port to be reminiscent of other games somehow.  Arcadia only began to be more interesting the second time round when she entered the JourneyMan, got acquainted with the forest and after she eventually took the sea voyage.  My favourite part of the game is this entire Arcadian section - and although I found the under-sea empire to be short and uninspired (also a nick off the film The Abyss), I enjoyed the part on the Island very much.  The part where she had to listen to the stories of the Alasians invloved a lot of talking but I think is one of those essential parts in an adventure game that you remember.  It was also wrapped up nicely with the two species making peace again.  
Back to Stark and McAllen in the tower.  I think that moster that kept grabbing April on the roof wasn't scary at all, but quite funny.  And the whole section of the game is a downer after the great adventures in Arcadia.  Then we go up to the space shuttle and that was an entertaining part for me up until the ending.  I think the part with her father wasn't effective enough, and I don't quite see how she managed to over turn that guy who became the keeper of the balance into a nice guy in a blink of the eye.  It was just a bit of a rushed job.  The ending is alright, but I had already guessed the old woman was April on their second meeting in the game.  

I think Dreamfall made a bigger impression on me, but TLJ is still a brilliant game.  

Next on to the puzzles.  The main puzzle which I found to be irritating is that puzzle in the cave underwater.  I mean the possibilities were many and it's just difficult to guess that the face of each stone which faces the drawing does NOT have to be similar to the drawing itself.  It's just unnecessary.  Also, in the other puzzle when you have to bring the four stones together into one (the dragon's mouth was stuck), I somehow never tried calling Crow in that specific screen - maybe it's because the dragon seemed to be not somewhere high above, but in one corner of the screen!  I went all over Arcadia to find a solution and it was very annoying.
Another difficult puzzle was the one with the telephone poles on the island but I quite liked that one because I eventually solved it

I'm pretty much a newbie at adventure gaming (although it's about the only type I play) and I understand the kudos for Longest Journey, but I had serious problems with it.

SPOILERS


1)  At the end, April forgives her abusive father and says it wasn't his fault.  This nearly made me slam my monitor on the floor.  I understand that April's challenge was to face her "greatest fear" but to excuse her father so completely--a complete cop-out.  Makes me think the game designer was a child abuser seeking forgiveness.  Forgive her father--okay--saying it wasn't his fault -- NOT OKAY.  That was one of the creepiest scenes I have ever viewed and I was disappointed that April didn't say something like "You are a schmuck and I will never forgive you but I have moved past it."

2)  Very unsatisfying ending--too many loose threads.  What happened to her friends in Stark?  Did Cortex really die?  She said she loved him, then he falls...  How does she make things right with Emma?  At the end, I wanted her to be able to reconnect with all her friendly encounters from the past.

3)  STUPID puzzles-- I don't mind if puzzles are non-reality-based, but they should have some context in the game.  That telephone thing on the islands was a bunch of running around and trying stuff with a stupid result.  (My bias, perhaps--I like puzzles that can be solved with one item in your inventory that makes you feel clever for thinking of it)

4)Walking.  Walking.  And more walking.  I hate games that make you just walk around and back and forth and yadda yadda.  every time I had to visit Burns Flipper I about had a conniption.  Five different screens to get to him!  (Game designers, once a character has gone a particular place, don't make him repeat it every time. . . over and over again)

That being said--the story was fine, I liked April, and I didn't get board except when wandering around in Arcadia.  (Stark was fascinating--I liked it better)

Okay--enough yammering--I'm off to seek the perfect game. . .