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top 20: #11: The Longest Journey
"April. Daughter. I have been waiting for you. Because it begins here, with you, as it always has." The design was top-notch as well, instantly immortalizing the name of Ragnar Tornquist among adventure fans. I still am in awe of how one person could write this much dialogue, never mind such a vast and expansive story. The dialogue (which is unfortunately profane and adult-oriented in what could have been a successful family adventure) never descends into corniness, quite a feat in such a large-scale world-in-the-balance story. This game could honestly be broken up into three parts and released as a trilogy, it was so huge. And unfortunately, therein lies the largest flaw of The Longest Journey; there's just too darn much of it. You have to admire all the work that went into creating this masterpiece (and that it is), but unfortunately Funcom may have bit off slightly more than they could chew. Right around Chapter 8, the game runs into serious pacing problems and becomes an exercise in patience, especially for a gamer not generally able to devote more than one or two hours to gaming a day. I myself nearly lost interest in the game completely during the insomnia-curing Alatien tales sequence. Long games walk a fine line, and even though most modern RPGs are pushing 40+ hours of gameplay, how many of them actually stay moderately interesting for that whole time? Very, very few. The Longest Journey would have been a much better game if it had been trimmed by about three hours (which is not to say an adventure this length could not be perfect with better pacing). Still, The Longest Journey is a brilliant game, and I had a terribly difficult time rating it in the countdown because its place in history has not yet been determined. How will it hold up over time? It's impossible to know. Was it really the catalyst in an adventure renaissance that we appear to be on the brink of? That also remains to be seen. It certainly would rank no higher than #7 in any case due to the pacing problems, but since a game's place in history is an important part of these rankings I may have undershot it a bit. I freely admit this ranking is open to criticism. Until history proves me wrong, however, it's not an insult to say that this game is a breathtaking experience, and the #11 adventure game of all-time. Last time: At the time of the last countdown, The Longest Journey hadn't even been translated into English yet. If only we knew... Click here for the complete top 20 of best adventure games of all time! Where to Buy [affiliate links]
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