Six years ago, designer Ragnar Tørnquist rocked the adventure game genre by introducing The Longest Journey. An epic tale featuring a down-to-earth female protagonist, compelling supporting characters, and fantastic worlds of science and magic. This theme was not only continued, but made infinitely better in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.

Dreamfall revisits the world of Stark, Arcadia, and introduces a new dimension, The Winter. Stark is essentially our world set in the distant future. Arcadia is a sister world to our own, occupying the same space but on a different plane of existence where magic takes the place of science. The Winter appears to be an "in between" land where all dreams begin and end. The lore of the series holds that at one time, Stark and Arcadia were both one world, but a cataclysmic event triggered by human ambition caused the two worlds to be separated and made ignorant of each other's existence to prevent another cataclysm.

At the start of the game we are shown the metropolitan city of Casablanca where we meet Zoë Castillo, one of the game's three main characters. Zoë is a young woman who has become disillusioned with her life. She has left her boyfriend of many years (on good terms), she has dropped out of college, and she can't find a driving ambition or ideal to guide her life to - a problem far from uncommon in young adults today, which only makes her more relatable to from the offset. Through a series of strange events, she is put on the trail of a corporate conspiracy related to an upcoming product that will use dreams for entertainment. While under the effects of this product, Zoë is able to project herself into Arcadia, and learns that the barrier between the worlds may not be as strong as its creators intended.

Meanwhile, April Ryan - the main character from the previous game - has cut herself off from all contact with her old life and has become a freedom fighter against an oppressive nation trying to expand its influence in Arcadia, the Azadi Empire. While playing as April, there is the impression that the uncertainty of her old life is still there, but hidden behind her mission to defeat the Azadi. There are times when she and Zoë end up working together for a common goal, but it is always short lived as April cannot bring herself to get involved in the affairs of Stark again.

The last main character to fill out the cast is Kian Alvane, an Azadi soldier and essentially a crusader/assassin. His motivating force is his faith and loyalty to the Empire. The Azadi themselves are an interesting culture that have Middle Eastern themes supplimented by a matriarchal class structure. Kian is dispatched west to combat the insurgent forces that have been delaying the Empire's efforts in the region, though he will learn that the lines between right and wrong are not as thick as his faith once made them.

It may be difficult to see the connections between the various plot lines and, unfortunately, many are left unresolved at the end of the game. Dreamfall was, I suspect, designed to be akin to the second film in a trilogy. It expands on the themes set out in its predecessor, but leaves it to the next instalment to tie up all the loose ends. This is a first for games as far as I know and, sadly, makes Dreamfall frustrating at the end as you might get the urge to scream at your computer, demanding that it tell you the rest of the story. However, in my opinion that only makes the storytelling all the more masterful.

Dreamfall will make you truly care about its characters. There are strong themes throughout the storyline that are really delivered well; life, death, faith, dreams, freedom, love...my male ego will never let me say anything beyond this; people who say video games won't be an art form until they can make someone cry should play this one.

Storyline aside, Dreamfall features a top-notch voice acting cast to add life and depth to its characters. The musical score uses an interesting blend of modern styled songs and classical orchestral themes depending on where you are or what's happening, and it's all appropriately presented. The graphics are superb, on par with anything you would expect from current gaming systems. The gameplay for the PC version is a little difficult, it appears better suited to the Xbox controllers but a little fiddling with the mouse and keyboard control settings should get make it manageable if you're having trouble.

Being fully 3D, Dreamfall does an excellent job of carrying over the mechanics of a point and click adventure to the new medium. Unfortunately there are not as many things to "look at" or have described to you as there might have been with the older method of using pre-drawn backgrounds, but its not a bad trade off. The puzzles are less difficult than they were in The Longest Journey and while there is a combat system, it is not very complicated and requires very little skill to master. I would have like to see those two elements fleshed out a bit more as a fair amount of the game revolves around going through dialogue trees or watching scripted in-game cut scenes, at times making it more of an interactive movie than a game.

The Longest Journey and Dreamfall have set the bar for interactive storytelling. Designers who tout their game's campaign should look here first and see how they compare before getting too cocky.

I can't wait for this series to continue.