The greatest story that was never finished - this game leaves players hanging and clamouring for more in a bad sense
Why are people giving this game such a high score? It's most probably due to Zoe Castillo, Dreamfall's female protagonist wonderful character. She is only one of only three good things going for this game. I can already imagine Zoe as the poster girl for many player's ideal girl: cute, wholesome, strong-willed and simple. She was also arguably the most realistic character I've played as in a while. It's easy to relate with her (although I am a guy).
The music is the only award-worthy accomplishment from this game. Leon Willett, Magnet , Simon Poole and the rest of the musical and sound department did a fantastic job crafting beautiful music. In fact, Dreamfall's soundtrack is one of a few video game soundtracks I have acquired. It's just that good.
The other ace this game has is the story - or at least up until the ending. Dreamfall is one of a few games that can totally immerse a player and make them lost in it's own world. The environments and characters just seem to jump out of the screen and grab the player's attention from the colourful rendering of Casablanca to the winterly depths of Marcuria, everything looks nice.
The plot kicks off right away as well. Within an hour or so into the game, Zoe gets involved in a huge international conspiracy that will have her traveling across the globe and across worlds working with the likes of April Ryan (the prequel's protagonist) and others.
The two-world story arc is very interesting and makes it feel like there's two stories happening at once. The characters are all interesting enough to empathize with. But overall it's the plot constructed to fit epic proportions that drives the game forward.
The only reason to play this game is for the plot. If you're a player who hates sitting through a game and listening or reading dialogue, you might as well skip this game. Dreamfall is 90% dialogue, 10% gaming.
The majority of the gameplay involves doing three things: walking, interacting with people or objects and puzzle solving. The former two make up around 85% of the gameplay. The puzzles are easy and a smart grade two student could solve it.
The part where Dreamfall totally flops is around the end. So you have a grand story going on for most of the game but what happens when you get to the end and nothing happens? Let's take this as an example: How would you feel when you were watching the greatest fantasy epic ever and suddenly just as it got interesting, the film rolls into the credits.
That's how Dreamfall is. If you're expecting a grand ending or at least closure to explain the convoluted story then forget it buster. Dreamfall leaves you hanging. You and I actually need to wait for the sequel to get our closure.
Since the only thing Dreamfall has it going for itself is its story, then why bother when the story itself doesn't appear to be finished! Am I missing something here?
Dreamfall presents one of the more interesting and complex themes but what is the point of going deep when the game doesn't even bother explaining or telling players why such and such happened? It felt as if the script was abandoned three quarters through it.
The bottom line is: Why play a game with an epic story that doesn't finish?