Red Thread Games’ upcoming 3D point-and-click adventure title Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey is the third game in the series following The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.
Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey is said to be set in two parallel universes: Stark, a cyberpunk future Earth, and Arcadia, Stark’s magical fantasy counterpart. The game itself is set in 2220 CE and continues the story where protagonist Zoe Castillo had uncovered a criminal conspiracy threatening to enslave both of the in-game worlds.
Similar to the previous games in the series, the Balance between Dreamfall Chapters two parallel worlds prevents individuals and objects from traveling between them. The central plot, however, will focus on Castillo, whose consciousness is currently trapped in "Storytime" after she was left in a deep coma.
The game will see players help Zoe to control her dreams and use her newly discovered powers to escape "Storytime," and travel to a dystopian megalopolis called Europolis, and eventually reach Arcadia where Kian Alvane, an elite Azadi soldier and another protagonist of Dreamfall await execution for committing high treason.
If all that's a bit confusing, no worries, as Chapters will offer a recap of the previous games to help ease the new players into the story. Its narrative theme is described as "chapters of life" by the game’s writers.
The game was crowd-funded by a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $1.5 million, with additional funding provided by the Norwegian Film Institute. It's currently under development using the Unity 4 game engine that will help feature large 3D environments, compared to 2D backgrounds in The Longest Journey and smaller 3D locations in Dreamfall.
Dreamfall’s sequel was already announced back in November last year when Red Thread Games’ Ragnar Tørnquist revealed that the game would be funded by Kickstarter, telling Rock Paper Shotgun, “We will be doing a Kickstarter. Not right now, but we will be doing it in the near future, simply because although we received a grant from the Norwegian Film Institute, which was announced today, that is only for the preproduction phase.”
“That allows us to get started on a prototype but in order to fully develop Dreamfall Chapters we’re going to need more money and we will be going to Kickstarter.”
“I’ll still be contributing a lot to the story side, advising Joel and the team. I’m working on the master story document at the moment, making sure all the threads are coming together and we know where we’re at. I want to make sure the team are as independent as possible but I have no plans to leave. TSW is very dear to me and I plan to stay on as long as possible,” Tørnquist added.
While not an open-world title in the true sense, Dreamfall Chapters will still offer a number of free-roaming exploration levels, such as Europolis and Marcuria, and will eventually reward players for exploring the levels and finding the secrets hidden in each level.
The game is said to pan out via a linear plot with a set outcome, and will require players to make several choices in a number of instances throughout the game, each having a far-reaching impact on later events.
Additionally, an online-only "social" feature will allow players to find out the choices other players made when dealing with a similar level. In addition to Castillo, the game will also offer Kian Alvane and a yet-to-be-named third female as playable characters.
Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey is currently schedules for a November 2014 release for Mac OS X, Wii U, Linux and PC.
