The Longest Journey falls inexorably, I believe, into a unique category of adventure game, where there is a stable female at the center of the story from beginning to end. Not many adventure games occupy this place, although there has been a slight surge of them recently - most notably
Syberia I and
II and now, of course,
Dreamfall. Things are slightly better in the action-adventure category, with Lara Croft of
Tomb Raider and Nico Collard from
Broken Sword coming quickly to mind.
April Ryan, an 18-year old art student, is on the longest journey, but she doesn't know it at all at the beginning of the game. I know 5 dozen young women like April. She is familiar, yet not mundane; she reminds me a bit of Claire Danes, or a character out of My So-Called Life. She is a little bit lost, but has figured out enough to know she wants to be in art school. She is alienated from her family - an all too real situation - and she is on her own and not too terribly sure about it, but knows she must be. April is, in other words, remarkably credible. And she is immensely likable.
In fact, many of the characters are astonishingly familiar: April rents a room from a lesbian couple, and shocking as that may seem, there are in fact lesbians in the world. This detail makes the game both real and representational - that is, it takes realism a step further (or maybe someplace else) by placing a heterogeneous cast of characters in the mix. April is living in an art community - as such, a diverse group of people tends to be attracted to the art milieu. There are several ethnic groups represented, as well. And there is a man who has no legs who is doing quite well for himself - he, incidentally, is the character with the worst language of all.
That April goes into art is kind of interesting - it almost seems kind of archaic, like some part of Stark is lapsing into its own prehistory. Everything looks like it could stop working at any moment - the subway, while controlled by card access and retinal I.D., is still covered with filth and graffiti. And the subway is deserted, except for the usual cast of weirdos. I like the game's suggestion that technological advance does not necessarily mean progress.
While some reviewers have cautioned parents of very young children about the homosexuality in this game, I suspect the 4-letter words are probably more a matter for concern. The lesbians, astoundingly enough, don't have wanton sex on the sofa in the living room - in fact, the game rather realistically portrays them sitting on the sofa chatting, quite dressed and quite unperverse. As far as slightly older children are concerned - I think they know more than we think they know; if I place a prohibition here, then I will likely generate more interest in the game than anything else. Post Mortem, for instance, actually represents the lead character waking up after a night of casual (hetero)sex - and is a game much more worthy of a caution label for its violence, morbidity, and sexual theme. No such representations occur in The Longest Journey. In fact, April Ryan is a young woman who is deeply and personally concerned about doing the right thing by other people and for the world.
April has a long quest ahead of her, and it begins in Stark - a place that strikes me as reminiscent of a futuristic decaying Connecticut. She will eventually cross over into an alternate world - Arcadia - and continue her quest there. The house where April lives (in Stark) exists on some kind of fault line between Stark and Arcadia; April's residence at the house is not accidental, but a feature of her destiny. You will participate in the fulfillment of this destiny during the course of gameplay. Trouble is brewing in the two worlds, and the crucial connection between the worlds is seriously threatened. April will be drawn into this cataclysmic struggle. Stark is the world of science and Arcadia is the world of magic; neither world is perfect and neither can exist independently of the other. As the connection between them unravels, the balance between them is eroded. April’s struggle to restore this balance will immerse you in several hours of gameplay.
