One of the great things about how Dreamfall's story unfolds is that much of what the player is asked to do on behalf of Zoe corresponds to very natural human reactions that any one of us would probably exhibit in the situations described. A lot of the time Zoe finds herself dropped into unknown circumstances where she has to figure out what's going on starting with almost a blank slate. This puts her on the same exact footing as the player, and there is a great natural logic to the actions she undertakes. This eliminates any feeling that the character knows more than the player which can often be a problem in story-based games.

Through the looking glass

   From the very beginning, Dreamfall is a distinctly beautiful game. Sporting a vivid color palette, meticulously modeled characters and environments, and a strong focus on rich, exotic locales imaginatively blended with the sci-fi setting makes it stand apart from your standard run-of-the-mill video game [which are well-known to be cobbled together from feces and spite - ed.] In this ability to successfully blend the comfortably present-day and futuristic elements of visual presentation Dreamfall is similar to Ubisoft's Beyond Good and Evil - another terrific action-adventure game (albeit one with a heavier focus on the action aspect) which was released in 2003. Thanks to its constantly moving storyline, which frequently shifts the action geographically as well as dimensionally, Dreamfall completely enthralls the player with its great number of environments, which, while not all cheery, do all sport rather imaginative and distinctive looks. The twists and folds of the Dreamfall story are such that we don't often find ourselves in a single environment for too long, which helps re-enforce the effect of the visual variety present in the game. What's more, in the later chapters, in addition to Zoe the player also gets to occasionally control two secondary characters: April, the heroine from the first TLJ, and Kian, a new character, whose greater purpose remains under a shroud of mystery. Seeing some of the same environments and interacting with some of the same NPCs from these different perspectives is often rather fascinating and goes a long way towards maintain the player's curiosity about their surroundings. [You know, no child left unscarred, no beggar left un-kicked kinda thing - ed.]

   What's more, this sort of triangulated perspective has the additional effect of not over-trivializing some of the overarching themes of the game. One of the strengths of Dreamfall lies with some of the serious social and intellectual issues that the game raises as a part of its story. Many of the themes are universal (including eternal questions like faith vs. knowledge, order vs. freedom, liberation at the cost of repression, etc.) and there are plenty of subtle parallels with some of the current goings on in the world. Plenty of resonant personal issues are explored as well. Frequently, the views of the three characters, instead of being completely complementary, exhibit a great degree of conflict, which makes the player really consider a given situation from multiple points of view. This goes a long way towards adding terrific emotional depth not only to the situations themselves, but also to the characters. For instance, once Zoe finally meets April, she finds that April is none to eager to help her in her struggles, and would rather spend her energy dealing with her own problems. This theme re-occurs again and again in new situations, with additional backstory and perspectives of other characters added to both sides. In the end, the player is really given a chance to explore both points of view and understand the underlying complexity of April's decision, rather than simply passing a trivial judgement on it.

The toils of adventuring

   Dreamfall being an (almost) pure-blood adventure affair, a lot of the power of the game lies in the story itself, which succeeds at being intricate and intriguing without becoming cryptic. Following the trail of Reza as best she can, Zoe finds herself in multiple locales in her world, Earth-of-the-future Stark, and the fantasy-themed, magic-laden world of Arcadia, with an occassional freaky (and often unscheduled!) mini-vacation in the dream-space that lies in between [check out those swanky brochures! - ed.] Her exploits in both worlds feature a lot of character interactions, as well as the inevitable slew of puzzles. The puzzles tread on the simple side, which is good news for casual gamers who will largely be able to avoid frustration and concentrate on exploration and the rich story. While you will inevitably get stuck in a few places (which can be easily dealt with by an occasional, disciplined peak into one of the many walkthroughs available online), the game for the most part does a good job of constantly progressing the story while giving you the feeling of actually being in control.

   With this much character interaction, not to mention all the self-imposed commentary as Zoe applies her inquisitive nature to the world around her, good voice acting is absolutely paramount, and here Dreamfall doesn't disappoint. All the voices are top-notch, especially Zoe's, which comes complete with a sexy British accent [aw, Zoe, you saucy minx! - ed.] Similarly, the dialog is well written and the flow is often structured in a way that is conducive to letting you exercise some control over your character's attitude and emotions. The conversation tree walks a nice line between getting you the information needed for the task at hand and being able to express some personality - anger, cuteness, deceitfulness, etc. This ties in to some of the gameplay situations in interesting ways - for instance, when caught red-handed sneaking around a boarded up hotel being used as an underground drug testing facility, Zoe has the option of choosing an "offense is the best defense" approach to the situation, actually slapping the man who accosts her for talking to her in a rude manner. [It's a mean bitch-slap, too, mind you! - ed.] While this mechanic ultimately doesn't result in the story going in a whole different direction, it still goes a long way to strengthen your emotional attachment to the main characters.

Kicking some adventurer ass

   Being an "almost" pureblooded adventure game, Dreamfall does sport occasional combat and stealth sequences. Some adventure genre purists will undoubtedly frown at this "contamination", but in our day and age, a little genre mixing is practically the norm, and Dreamfall is actually quite careful not to overdo it with the fighting and the sneaking [unlike my alcoholic cousin Philip - man, were those cops pissed! - ed.] For me, the presence of these elements added a nice change of pace in strategic places. The combat mechanics (Zoe fights barehanded and April and Kian use a staff and a sword, respectively) are appropriately simple - there are basically just two attacks, a block, and special movement to deal with. I actually found the combat quite enjoyable, with the only complaint being that the computer AI is too passive - in most fights your opponents spend way too much time simply standing around waiting for you to attack. Overall, the fighting felt natural and comfortable from the get go (i.e. not like in Oblivion!). Similarly, the stealth element works just like you would expect it to, and also figures in some environmental puzzles. While Dreamfall is no Thief, a little 'sneak up on an unsuspecting guard' action keeps your dirty side [well, THAT dirty side, anyway! - ed.] nice and satisfied.

At the risk of using the word 'adventure' for the third section headline in a row...

   ...I'll still go ahead and pronounce Dreamfall a supermodel of adventure gaming. Given that the whole genre (probably more so than any other) is basically a multi-dimensional balancing act, constantly struggling to stay story-driven, yet interactive, emotional but not clichéd, challenging but not frustrating, complex but not convoluted, etc., Dreamfall gets so amazingly many things right that any of its missteps (which are truly very tiny and few) can be summarily ignored. Its engaging characters, gripping story, occasionally off-the-wall sense of humor, brilliant visual style, great voice acting, intuitive and easy to use interface, and most of all, ability to avoid most pitfalls of the adventure genre, propel it straight to the top of the relatively short list of adventure games that have become instant classics. If you are a fan of the genre, you are probably done with the game already and are just reading this to keep the warm and fuzzy going for a little while longer. If you aren't - but are still someone who enjoys great stories in any form, Dreamfall gets my highest recommendation. It will capture your imagination and open your eyes onto the true possibilities of gaming as a medium of storytelling expression.

       ... Vaga