Dreamfall demo

By Robert Purchese Published 2 January, 2007

Finally available.

If you've been waiting a hefty eight months for Funcom to release a demo for Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, then your wait is finally over.

In fact it's not a demo at all, but a trial version that allows you to play an early portion of the game. Then, using the magical properties of money, you can purchase a licence key to unlock the rest of the content if you're that way inclined.

All you have to do is download the whopping 3.5GB file, and enjoy it. Unfortunately this may also give rise to some problems.

The first hitch you may encounter is down to the sheer size of the download. Most standard browsers don't support files larger than 2.0GB, so a download accelerator or an old fashioned FTP client may be in order.

The second hurdle to overcome is enjoying the game. It's a pity this isn't a proper bite-sized demo of the game, because when we reviewed it, we weren't particularly impressed.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • LlamaFarmer #1 5 years ago

    ...Well I like it...

    It's a shame that it's such a huge download, as it's definately got lots of problems, but some people would still enjoy it for it's great story and characters, but are unlikely to give it a go when it's so bulky.

  • Hunam85 #2 5 years ago

    The game is fantastic, you guys are clearly dead inside.

  • Crea #3 5 years ago

    Does anyone know if this 2Gb download size limit thing has been fixed in firefox? I know it was a design limitation rather than anything else, but there was some talk of getting it fixed.

    I can't remember off the top of my head whether I've downloaded anything bigger than that using just the firefox download manager. I'd hate to get to 1.99Gb and have it fail on me...

  • BrokenSymmetry #4 5 years ago

    Dreamfall was my game of the year (I played the Xbox version on the Xbox 360, it was backwards compatible very soon after release). Best game characters in years. So I agree with Hunam85 that EG's 5/10 score indicates that EG don't care anymore about the characters they play...

  • mkreku #5 5 years ago

    I don't care about the news as I bought the game last year. But 5/10 for Dreamfall? That score just plain sucks. It only shows the incompetence of the reviewer in question, not the game.

  • Hunam85 #6 5 years ago

    Also, a hilarious note about this: It costs more than buying it from the shop, the buy screen has $39.99 slapped onto it, which is about a tenner more than you'd pay for it in the shops, then you hit GBP, and it just switches the $ to £39.99, oh how i laughed, then hit uninstall.

  • dolphan #7 5 years ago

    Don't listen to them, amazing game. Well, amazing story and world, and the gameplay doesn't get in the way, mainly by not being there.

  • Crea #8 5 years ago

    £39.99?

    That is ridiculous, this game is going for under £10 in some of my local game stores...

    I definitely want to try it, though. What style of adventure game is it?

  • Kiigan #9 5 years ago

    Dreamfall wass one of the biggest disappointments of the year in my opinion. Really, I cannot un-recommend it enough, and I am a massive fan of adventure games. I'm speaking of the PC version here - I haven't tried the Xbox version.

    Reasons not to bother with it:

    - The story makes no sense if you can't remember TLJ, and still makes only a little sense if you do remember TLJ
    - There is no resolution of the story - you'll need to wait for the third game, if it gets made
    - The PC version controls are probably one of the worst examples of "let's hastily adapt the console version control system for the PC version" since... Obscure.
    - Funcom have managed to crowbar in possibly the worst combat system ever seen in a game, into a fucking adventure game. And you can't avoid it. And if you do somehow manage to defeat an enemy, they get back up a few minutes later and you have to fight them all over again.
    - Funcom saw fit to infect the European PC release with the notorious Starforce "copy protection", which can and probably will fuck up your PC

    But if all that sounds appealling to you, go right ahead :)

    As a fan of adventure games, we're a starved lot. It doesn't take much to satisfy us - anything even slightly decent is snapped up greedily and gratefully by fans of this under-appreciated genre. Dreamfall didn't need to be great game to satisfy fans - it just needed to be adequate, and it didn't even manage that.
    Edited by 1 at 02/01/07 @ 18:24

  • mikewl #10 5 years ago

    I got this earlier in the year and really enjoyed this game, it was a real change of pace.

    Its not got alot of depth in gameplay but its like an interactive story that you are along for the ride.

    As for controls I had no issues using a control pad, 360 pad worked fine.

    The combat sections are very very short and so infrequent that they dont really matter, most the game is about forwarding the story.

    Overall it was one of the more enjoyable games of the year for me, not taxing on the mind, just a nice pleasant story that was good to go through.

  • BBIAJ #11 5 years ago

    So far, playing the console version of Dreamfall, and I'm loving it!

    Not as good as Fahrenheit mind, but that shouldn't put you off checking it out.

    A little part of me died inside though when I saw this going so dirt cheap on the X-Box in gamestation the other day, it's a travesty/insult...

    Still, on the plus side, hopefully it might encourage those that had previously avoided it, to check it out.

  • Kiigan #12 5 years ago

    Sorry mikewl - I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I strongly disagree.

    Its not got alot of depth in gameplay but its like an interactive story that you
    are along for the ride.

    Well that'd be fine if the story was worth bothering with, but it is an absolute mess. The story is a muddled unintelligible nonsense, and every character utterly unlikeable. Don't make me quote Liv's "sweetie" lines at you :)

    I guess the story makes slightly more sense if you just played TLJ last week or something, but it came out years ago - I really can't remember much about it. Without knowledge of TLJ, I'd argue that Dreamfall is to be skipped if you're playing for the story (and as you suggested, there isn't much more to this than the story).

    As for controls I had no issues using a control pad, 360 pad worked fine.

    Well that's still a problem though, isn't it? Most PC games use a keyboard and mouse. And adventure games certainly do. The fact remains that Dreamfall plays like shit with a keyboard and mouse - that is quite a problem for an adventure game, I'd say. Even with a game pad, the controls still seem idiosyncratic to say the least.

    The combat sections are very very short and so infrequent that they dont really matter, most the game is about forwarding the story.

    They may be infrequent, but they DO matter because you can't just skip them. The combat system really detracts from the experience of the game and can act as a significant barrier to progress - I am honestly amazed that there isn't a patch that turns it off.

    It's cool that you enjoyed it, but I'd argue that anyone looking for an adventure game will not find what they are looking for here.
    Edited by 1 at 02/01/07 @ 18:47

  • JediMasterMalik #13 5 years ago

    Jesus, I'm not downloading that!

  • Daikon #14 5 years ago

    Notice: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying
    that may conflict with some disk and virtual disk drives.

    And I'm not installing that.

    Btw why not use Bittorrent for distribution? Seems to work fine for large Linux DVD downloads.

  • Fyzzu #15 5 years ago

    It's a decent game, and I tend to disagree with the general scores for it (and the review texts, too, before someone goes all anti-number verdict on me). That's not to say it's not flawed, but it deserves a hell of a lot better than it's been getting. I dunno; a lot of the complaints mentioned didn't stick too much with me. I had no issues with the control system after five minutes or so, though I happily played Psychonauts on keyboard and mouse, so maybe I just have a tolerance for shite control systems.

    I do remember TLJ, and the story made sense, though as was said there's a lot hinted at which won't be resolved until the third game (or comic, or book, or whatever; Tornquist has said that he's going to get the rest of the plot out there in some way shape or form if the third game is never made). All I can really do is paraphrase what he said, as it's not like I have SuperInsiderInformation, but Dreamfall is part one of two, and it's all about Zoe. Zoe's role in the whole thing is now apparently pretty much over. I do wish there was more resolution, but the more I think about it, the less annoyed I am, so long as there's more.

    Playing TLJ is pretty much a prerequisite, though, and you have to be able to put up with a lot of story and not a lot of game.

    If anything, my major irritant was that a lot of the game revolved around walking through four locations, talking to someone, walking back four locations, talking to someone, walking back through those same four locations... all the while with some ridiculously long loading times between screen (and, on occasion, before and after each conversation).

    Starforce didn't bug me either. Was this the latest version that apparently doesn't break your computer?

    The combat system was, indeed, unutterable shite. It didn't crop up much, though, and I don't think I ever had someone getting back up again after I killed them. I still loved the game to death, though. Definitely not for everyone, but I adore it.

  • mikewl #16 5 years ago

    I will agree the story is a bit confusing and alot of stuff is left open but that doesn't mean the journey through the game wasn't enjoyable, anyways its story will be concluded so that doesn't really bother me.

    Its a game with very mixed reviews, opinions are probably more divided on this game than any other released last year, 5/5 from Gamespy then 5/10 on Eurogamer, this really is a marmite of a game.

  • ZuluHero #17 5 years ago

    "BS: The Angle of Death"?

    Well I suppose some of those right angle's would have some nasty pointy bits on them, bah-dum-tish :p

    I really loved DF:TLJ, as seems to be the general consensus in here, the story was quite good, with lots of twists and turns, making it really compelling to play. I played TLJ a good few years ago now - even if you only remember bits of it (as i did) then to see old characters returning, with lots of reference to TLJ, it soon brings those memories flooding back...

    On saying that though - the size of this DL is insane, newcomers who download it on the pure basis of wanting to try it out might end up disappointed, as someone pointed out, it does rely heavily on having played the first game and the size of this DL will only fuel that dissapointment further... I just hope it doesn't damage the franchise too much - as i really want the third game to find out what happens! :)
    Edited by 4 at 03/01/07 @ 08:53

  • mkreku #18 5 years ago

    I really enjoyed the story, even though I hadn't played The Longest Journey before this game (I have now). I really liked the main character Zoë so the ending really got to me. I absolutely loved the setting of the game with the two worlds and their interaction. The other characters were diverse and well-written, some likable and some not. The story did have a real resolution, for Zoë. It did, however, not solve the main mystery of the world and everything around it (which I guess could be called the main story). I assume that comes into play in the next game (if it's made).

    I do agree that adding a combat system into an adventure game was a bad idea though, but I am suspecting they did that to attract the console kids into thinking it was almost an action game. Or something. Still, it wasn't as bad as some of you exaggerators on this forum are proclaiming. And yes, it did have Starforce. No, it doesn't fuck up your system. That's one of those Internet myths that's being constantly passed on by game pirates and clueless people. Yes, it is a hassle if you haven't bought the damn game, no, it's not worse than Tages or Securom if you have a legit copy.

  • zendragon #19 5 years ago

    TLJ was my favourite adventure game by far.
    Haven't played this dreamfall yet.
    So it has been consolized?!
    No gameplay, that means it doesn't have any puzzles?

  • space_ace #20 5 years ago

    it's got extremely long stretches of story, otherwise the best ever voices

  • mikewl #21 5 years ago

    Zendragon it does have puzzles but they are way easier and more straitforward than TLJ.