Just a bit over four months after its preceding installment, the eagerly anticipated second book of Dreamfall Chapters arrived. And I am pleased to say that it drastically improved upon my chief criticisms of Book One - duration and content. The same masterful storytelling, sound design, character design, dialogue, and world building are once again on full display (see my previous reviewJust a bit over four months after its preceding installment, the eagerly anticipated second book of Dreamfall Chapters arrived. And I am pleased to say that it drastically improved upon my chief criticisms of Book One - duration and content. The same masterful storytelling, sound design, character design, dialogue, and world building are once again on full display (see my previous review for Book One,) but this time, thankfully, there is far more of it.
I easily spent 16 hours with this book, and was challenged by at least a couple of the puzzles to a far greater extent than I was in the first. More importantly, most of those 16 hours were spent immersed in a far better paced, characterization rich narrative that drew me in and held my attention the whole time. We also got to return to Arcadia (the magical counterpart of the cyberpunk, technological Stark, one of the two worlds in which DFC takes place,) with the city of Marcuria being opened up and explorable for the first time in DFC.
As a fan of TLJ and Dreamfall, my chief focus in this series has always been April and to a lesser extent Zoe. Zoe feels like a natural extension for the series, and it maintains a central female protagonist - something there is far too little of in gaming in my view. As such, my interest in the other playable character - Kian Alvane - was admittedly hard won. But in this chapter, win said interest Red Thread Games have done, and with aplomb.
Here we not only spend far more time with Kian than in Book One, but I finally feel that we find compelling reasons to empathize with, care about, and invest in his tale. This is critical, as it seems likely that he will play an increasingly pivotal role in the overarching TLJ mythos going forward. I no longer felt impatient for the game to skip back to Zoe's portions this time around, and that's a very good thing.
Kian's bits also introduce us to several new and interesting characters, one of whom you can particularly tell Ragnar Tornquist (and he has said as much on the forums) relished writing for. It's apparent, and immediately endearing, as is everything about the character herself. I won't spoil things by naming her, but you'll no doubt find out in due course and join the rest of us in our collective "Aww/giggle" response.
It's hard to create supporting characters that really resonate and end up being memorable for years - characters such as Crow from the previous games. The lady in question is such a character, and RTG are to be commended.
One thing both Kian and Zoe's tales share in common by Book Two, is the overwhelming sense that choices really do matter in this game. Many of the choices made in Book One felt a tad underwhelming because their consequences were not generally revealed. Coupled with the brevity of that episode, things fell a bit flatter than they really were, I felt. In Book Two, we not only get to see the consequences of those choices, but those consequences cause the stories being told to become increasingly divergent, with ramifications both subtle and profound.
The smallest choice truly can send the story careening off the rails we thought it was headed down, and that made Book Two a substantially more satisfying game experience for me. These characters have agency, and thus we too have agency. This is important (in ways I lack room to elaborate on here,) and it is very welcome in an industry which so often promises choice and consequence only to deliver superficial or token change.
All in all, more than ever I now feel that DFC will be a truly worthwhile interactive story, resplendent with choice, personality, genuinely mature themes (and language,) emotion, and surprise. If that's enough for you, then at this point I feel it's more than worth it to buy the season pass and begin experiencing this game (or at least picking it up once all five books are finally out later - we are told - this year.)
The game is not without issues.
The worlds (now truly plural at least) remain beautiful and atmospheric, but largely empty beyond the very spread out interactive elements. This makes for a lot of getting lost and backtracking, with little to interact with along the way between those points. It's a sight to see, but there's nothing to do within those sights at times.
There are at this stage also still some visual glitches, pop-in, and other oddities to report. And at least one puzzle requires some extremely unintuitive tinkering, which left me (and others I'm sure) feeling completely stuck at one point... and not in the good, challenging way. In the "this makes no sense, what do I do?" sense.
Those gripes aside, DFC Book Two improves on Book One in virtually every way, and if you crave a great yarn more than intricate hands on gameplay mechanics, I now feel much more comfortable recommending the entire game as it progresses. You can get it on Steam or DRM free on GoG. (Coming to PS4 and other platforms - potentially - in the future.)… Expand
Dreamfall Chapters Book Two: RebelsYour Score0 out of 10User Score
