Going against attercob's advice (if you haven't read that article yet, I highly suggest it - if for nothing else but for his description of Syberia's main character), I purchased The Longest Journey last week. See, I had a hankering for a good ol' adventure game and it's going to take my LucasArt's Adventure Collection a little while to arrive on my doorstep.

Well, I probably should have listened to attercob. He wasn't kidding when he said that the game feels like its main character's dialog was "not only written, but also TRANSLATED by a group of adolescent males with limited or zero knowledge of the female sex." Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if April, Emma and Mickey all ended up having a 'pillow fight' during a 'sleepover' later on in the game. Hell, just rename half the characters 'Ms. Larry Laffer' and be done with it.

While so far that's the most criminal facet of the game, I'm also disappointed in the game's 'tell, don't show' apparent character development ethos. Essentially, the in-game characters go on for what feels like hours just talking bluntly about each other's attributes. It's forced and cheap, a shoddy excuse for storytelling. Being told that one of the primary supporting characters "likes to act like a teenage girl, but harbors the soul of a true artist" is simply sad hackery, when her own damn dialogue should show that loud and clear. Well, it would if she weren't busy sounding exactly like the other prominent women in the game.

While attercob disdained Syberia, I believe it to be a cut above The Longest Journey, simply because it isn't nearly as heavy-handed and tactless as Ragnar T