Multiple Dreamfall previews, gameplay footage
Major gaming sites, IGN and Gamespot, have just gotten some (minor spoilerish) hands-on experience with Ragnar Tornquist's sequel to The Longest Journey and couldn't wait to tell us all about it.
Dreamfall, developed at Funcom, is certainly shaping up to be a great experience, judging from these write-ups of the demo they were presented. One of the main sources of discussion in these articles is that the game will contain some combat and sneaking portions. While this is true, most of these scenes will be optional, in that players will be always be presented with an alternative that puts brains over brawns. Tornquist insists that the story is such that it really requires direct control and involving the player in some action. He assures, however, that these will not merely be some tacked-on action sequences with no real ties to the story and atmosphere.
Speaking of the controls, the demo finally showed the focus cone in action. Those who never actually understood how the focus field worked should check out the streaming video in Gamespot's preview. It's Funcom's solution to the main problem when putting adventures on consoles and they promise it'll be as intuitive on both the PC and X-Box. Lastly, Tornquist mentions the camera problems that often plague third-person direct-controlled games, and their hopefully total absence in Dreamfall. The team has scripted the camera completely throughout the game, so that players see what they want to and need to see.
The game is scheduled for release later this year, although no date has been set in stone yet.
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