Dreamfall Chapters

(Spoiler-free)
Dreamfall Chapters is a story-driven adventure game set in two parallel worlds. It is a game based on choices and their consequences. I must confess that this is the first game of the series that I played. I haven’t had a chance to play the previous two titles but I plan on catching up. I feel like this particular title is one of those games that are better played with a walkthrough guide because of how dreadful the gameplay was made. That’s how I played it and that’s how I recommend playing it. I decided to leave a recommended rating because I enjoyed the story that much but I do not completely agree with it. Something in between would be more suitable. The game is far from being perfect but it is still well worth your time.
The game mainly focuses on the story so it is only natural that I start with that. The story in this game is intriguing, deep, interesting, complex and out of the ordinary. I really liked discovering it. I was hooked from the start and the more I played, the more I enjoyed it. Despite the complexity of it, I believe it is well done. There are two main characters whose shoes we are going to step into in this title. One of them is a lady going by the name of Zoe. She is an interesting, intelligent and a nice character that’s hard not to like, however, her personality is not consistent. Allow me to explain, in general she is an extroverted person but sometimes she speaks and behaves like an introvert. It is followed by voice acting and animations as well. You can clearly see that she was written by more than one person. One moment she is confident, happy and a people person and the next, she is faltering and unable to express herself. It felt like her personality was questionable and contradicted itself. That was the impression I was getting throughout the first half of the game. In the other half it kind of faded away and everything got better. The other main character is Kian. He is a simple introverted man who used to be a soldier in command. Kian doesn’t speak much but he is one of those people who analyse everything thoroughly inside. Those traits stood out for me the most. Both main characters are likeable and you will likely root for them both throughout the story.
As for the other characters in this tale, those that are not important for the story were uninteresting and annoying to interact with. The world is filled with a lot of insufferable and lifeless characters. At the beginning of the game you are going to come across a lot of characters like that. The deeper I went into the story, the more satisfying interactions with citizens became. Those at the beginning of the game were often enforcing their political opinions on you without even asking. You would just start a conversation with them or even pass them on your way somewhere else and you will hear a monologue about what political side they are on and why. There are also quite a lot of Polish curse words being used to call other people names but none of those was done phonetically correct from voice acting perspective. That is coming from a native Pole. Before I wrap up talking about characters I must say, and this can be considered a spoiler, that I don’t understand the decision to make Kian be attracted to people of the same gender while there is more than one character to romanticize with from the opposite one. That is a waste and feels like a lazy approach. I was pretty disappointed to discover that.
The decisions in this game are tough. I often found myself being unable to decide whether I should do something or not because I was afraid of the consequences. I was often picking safer choices or those I fully agreed with. The game has shown that the consequences for your decisions can either be harmless or catastrophic. I feel like this part of the game has been done well. When you make a decision, the game informs you of the balance changing. There are plenty of choices and other ways to affect the outcome which makes this game good for replayability. If you replay the game making different choices you are there for a completely different experience because everything around your character will be different except for their main objective which remains the same. I couldn’t often tell if something was happening because it was simply a continuation of the story or a consequence. The choices are heavy and consequences are even heavier. That’s definitely a strong suit of this game.
When it comes to first impressions, mine weren’t particularly positive. I would even go as far as to say that they were underwhelming. The beginning of the game introduces the story and characters. That in itself is fine but the fact that we have to solve difficult puzzles from the very first scene is not. It already took me a couple of minutes to find a solution and leave the first location. It kept getting worse from there. Not long after that I was thrown in the middle of the city with a bunch of quests. This is where the dreadful part began. There is a ton you have to do in order to proceed with the story in this situation. The game enforces that on you. Problem is that those quests/puzzles get ridiculous in length and difficulty. Aside from that, we receive only scraps of information to go on. You can endlessly run around this big area trying to figure things out and I did. When I decided that I’ve had enough, I looked up what I should do next in a guide. I believe it to be the best decision I could have made. I continued to use the guide from that point and I feel like it saved this game for me.
While on the subject of gameplay, I don’t think it was well thought through. As I already mentioned, we are thrown into the middle of a big location (usually a city) with a bunch of quests and barely any information to go on. Those quests get ridiculously long in length and difficulty because it is up to us to figure out the next step. They get so complex that you can spend literally hours running around and come up with nothing. Even with a guide it was usually taking me the longest to overcome those huge location segments. The time it took me to complete them varied from 2 to 3 hours with a guide. It means despite knowing which steps to take next, there were hours of running around and talking with lifeless characters before we could get a small scrap of story again. I didn’t find it particularly entertaining. For a game that mainly focuses on the story, there is too much dreadful walking and figuring things out involved. It takes fun out of this game. I played mostly for the story and this is not the experience I was looking for. The gameplay highly affected my experience in a negative way.
To sum up, I played a game with an exceptional and very interesting story. This is definitely the strongest suit of this game. There are also two likeable main characters but others that are important for the story are not bad either. The other characters that fill the world are rather boring. The decisions you are going to make will be tough. Their consequences you may experience much later in the story and every detail missed can haunt you. When it comes to gameplay, I feel like it is a misunderstanding. I was unable to play this game normally without falling asleep or fighting the urge to quit. I decided to use a walkthrough guide and I believe it to be the best decision I could have made. Without it you can endlessly run around a big location trying to figure things out and fail miserably. After I picked up a guide, my overall experience strongly improved. The game is definitely worth trying for the story. If you will be struggling with gameplay, feel free to follow in my footsteps and use a guide. There is no shame in that.
You can find more detailed reviews on my curator page Malfour's Choice.

Fantastic game, especially for those who are familiar with the Dreafall series. Interesting storyline that combines a cyberpunk, futuristic style with an ancient, medieval one.

First, I must mention that I did it with a little help of a guide found here on steam. That's why it took only 15 hours to complete, I guess it would have been much longer without.
Now that is settled, I have to say that I really enjoyed the game. I've played the Longest Journey when it came out back then, I must confess I do not remember it well but still have the feeling of a good game. So I've decided to give the sequel a try.
After Dreamfall, that was a bit clumsy, I found Dreamfall Chapters really well done in every aspect.
Technically, I played this at the end of 2024 and the game is still very enjoyable, graphics are really good. Gameplay is fluid and the point and click feels natural. Voices are well sync and well played. Thumbs up to the voice actors.
Story wise, it's really great. All characters have a strong background, the story is captivating, very well tied (no flaws as far as I can tell) and they use a lot of cut scenes to explain everything. The choices are impacting too (mention to the choice that may ends the game almost at the beginning of it ^^). In short, it's clever, it's emotional, it's brilliant, with good writing and lot of humor.
After this, I feel the whole story is complete, even though I would love another game. Can only recommend it.

I can't remember why I picked this up as it's a bit off my normal RPG preferences. However, I really enjoyed revealing Zoe's story despite the fact that I totally failed to figure out Saga's part in the overall plot. Ooops. Not that it was critical or anything... The end result was that I went back to the second one in the series and enjoyed that too, then went hunting for the original one. Unfortunately I never finished April's origin story because of a bug in the emulator.

It's very rare for me to go back to original games that are decades old, so AFAIAC that says a lot for the entire trilogy.

Mixed emotions with this one, 7/10

Really cool visuals! Story has a brief horror element, which I very much appreciated :) Some unexpected sexual talks that made me giggle but also was a bit off putting - 'I am harder than Azardi steel'.. Game isn't focused on that but touches on sex good several few times.

I would only recommend to play it if you are a fan of the series. If you have not played Dreamfall the longest journey (at least) you won't understand nor enjoy the game as much.

Sadly the game is actually not that much fun, all that captivates you is the original story and seeing where things go, since last game had loads of unanswered questions. I appreciate loads of dialog but there is hardly any puzzles 85/15, comparing to the previous game where it was a fairly good balance, for my liking 60/40. It also felt a lot shorter due to lack of actual game play and spending time figuring puzzles out.

Thank you devs, for addressing all the unanswered questions from the previous games. Sadly, you went with the trendy at the time 'choices matter' too much, instead of sticking to the original concept and focusing on puzzles.

some very unexpected plot twists but ending wasn't anything to write home about. I suppose it never is, when it comes to finales.

This game is absolute masterpiece! I had opportunity to play it in 2024 and I was amazed by the story, memorable characters and visuals. I cried here and there because of emotional connection with the characters and what is happening to them. I most certainly will replay it in the future with different set of choices just to see what the outcome will be at the end!

Absolutely recommend this game. It's a gem of a game, and a shame it's not as universally known as many others. I loved Detroit: Become & Beyond: Two Souls, and was looking for something similar story wise to play, and this game definitely delivered. It's most similar to Beyond: Two Souls I'd say.