The Longest Journey is a pretty unique role playing game, or RPG. It gives you the role of a teenage girl who lives in the future. You move through her world, dealing with her landlady, her classmates, her boss, her friends, and many others.

Like other RPGs, you have to find items, solve puzzles, remember clues from conversations and in the end Save the World. As a base RPG, it's pretty fun, with good graphics and gameplay.

If you love dialogue (a la Planescape Torment), then you'll enjoy this. There is GOBS of dialogue. Everyone you meet has lots of things to say, and they go on and on. Be sure to have lots of snacks and drinks nearby, because you could be there for a while clicking to learn more.

On the downside, this can get tedious at times, and there are times when something is obviously sitting in front of a person's nose, but they won't do anything until you ask just the right combination of questions.

I was also disappointed by the immature, "girly" attitude of the heroine. I was hoping this would be a realistic young woman that would help encourage people playing to respect her. Instead, she's ditzy, has the "ick" reaction to a lot of things, and is downright snotty at times. While this may be the *stereotype* of women of this age, it is hardly the reality.

Still, the game definitely has a personality, and the characters and plot are well thought out. This might be a game that gets girls into playing who might not be interested in playing other games. Perhaps it will then start to encourage other game developers to work on this style of game. We can only hope that at some point in the future they'll have a game with a female lead character that doesn't involve torpedo-shaped breasts or unpleasant characteristics.

UPDATE: This review was done in 2002 and I'm thrilled to say that we definitely have wonderful female heroines and gameplay in current times! It is reassuring how the game industry has improved in a fairly short period of time.

Buy The Longest Journey at Amazon.Com