the longest journey review

The Longest Journey Review

The Longest Journey is one of the best adventure games in years.

By Ron Dulin on June 26, 2000 at 5:41PM PDT

The Longest Journey is one of the best adventure games in years. Like a hybrid of classic Sierra and LucasArts games, it tells a great fairy tale filled with characters that you'll remember long after the game is over.

The Longest Journey is about a young woman named April Ryan, a visual-arts student who lives at a boarding house in a small, bohemian area in the city of Newport called Venice. While these locations suggest Southern California, the geographical setting of The Longest Journey is never stated; it's just a large city of the future. And while The Longest Journey's setting may be the stuff of science-fiction clichés, the game never resorts to the typical dystopian predictions. In fact, Newport seems very much like a modern metropolis, only with flying cars.

April has some problems. She's a runaway who has left home because of her father, though the exact reasons she left are never stated. She has a huge art project due, and she can't seem to get started. The guy who lives across the hall is a crude, arrogant jackass who won't leave her alone. And most importantly, she's being plagued by strange dreams that seem a little too real.

The game begins in one of these dreams. April is standing high on a cliff, overlooking a strange land. On this cliff, she meets a dragon and a talking tree, and she is visited by a strange, malevolent mass that sends her careening over the edge - and back into her bed.

When she awakes, you begin to learn about her life. If there's one problem with The Longest Journey, it's that the opening is a bit slow. It's loaded with expository dialogue about April, her friends, and the city. While this isn't a problem in and of itself, it seems strange that there is so much exposition right off the bat, when you've yet to meet any of the characters or visit the places mentioned. These conversations would have been much more interesting had they come a bit later in the game, once you've actually familiarized yourself with the places and characters you learn about.

During the first chapters of the game, you explore April's life. You meet her friends, you go to her school and to her job at a local coffee house. It seems like boring stuff, but it accomplishes an important task - as you take part in her routine, you begin to really care about her and her comrades. Her friends all have the hallmark concerns of people making the transition to adulthood - school problems, turbulent love lives, and bad jobs.

The game gets more interesting once the truth behind April's dreams becomes more apparent. You learn that there are two different worlds: Stark is devoted to science and technology, while the other, Arcadia, is devoted to magic. April has the rare ability to "shift," to move between these two worlds. These worlds, which were once one but came to be two, are fascinating, and you'll be eager to learn more about both their history and their future. April's dreams and some strange occurrences in both worlds are taking place because the division between the worlds is being eroded. And April is the one who must restore the balance.

Once the truth is revealed, the game begins to take place in both worlds. April cannot control her shifting, so moving from one world to the next takes place at times both opportune and otherwise. In both places, April meets a fascinating range of characters. In Arcadia there's Abnaxus, a representative of the Venar, who live in all times at once. He's a copy editor's nightmare, as he shifts tenses midsentence and often midword. Then there's Burns Flipper, the foul-mouthed hacker who rides around in a little hovercar. Even the most minor character is interesting in The Longest Journey, and you'll find yourself concerned with all of their fates.

It's a testament to designer Ragnar Tornquist's storytelling ability that you become so attached to everyone you meet. His game follows the blueprint laid by the classics of the fantasy epic, even as April's eccentric mentor begins teaching the reluctant savior. But it's also an original story that's filled with interesting settings and people. The Longest Journey is sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and sometimes scary. At times, it's all of these things at once.

The worlds are brought to life with rich, detailed graphics. The character models may not be extremely detailed, but they are good-looking and diverse. The background scenery is colorful and varied, and no two locations look the same. The sound is even better, because of the nonintrusive ambient music and excellent character voices. It's commendable that Funcom took the time to create a great English translation of the game, especially considering that it may not ever be published in the States (the translation was done for the U.K. version, which was published in April).

The puzzles in The Longest Journey are fairly standard, though they get better as the game goes on. In the beginning, you'll have to use some of your inventory items in illogical ways. But later in the game, the puzzles become more intuitive and fit better into the story.

The Longest Journey's complex and interesting story is what's most important. It deepens as you get further into it, and once it's over you'll still be thinking about all the subplots and how they tied together. And the conclusion is bittersweet - it's uplifting and rewarding, but there's a strange sense of sadness to it as well. The only criticism that can be leveled at the ending is that the epilogue does little to wrap everything up, so it'll leave you wondering what happened to many of the characters after April's task was completed.

But the end does allude to a sequel, and anyone who plays the game will be more than happy at the prospect of one. It's not that The Longest Journey leaves you unsatisfied - it's that it leaves you wanting even more.

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The Longest Journey

The story and characters are among the deepest and most involved I've encountered in a video game.

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Developer(s), publisher(s).

The Longest Journey is a graphic adventure game for the PC. Like recent console RPGs, it features a complex story with many twists and turns. Unlike a console RPG, however, The Longest Journey focuses more on character interaction and puzzle solving rather than combat, and as we all know, console RPGs tend to be very combat intensive. How refreshing it was to me to play a story-intensive game where fighting did not take center stage.

The story’s protagonist is April Ryan. April is an average 18 year-old girl who studies art at VAVA (Venice Academy of Visual Arts) in the Venice district of Newport City – a very modern 23rd century city. Because of the art school, Venice has a reputation of being a liberal, youthful, happening area not unlike New York City’s Greenwich Village. Having escaped from a turbulent household, April has found happiness in Venice. She enjoys studying at VAVA, and has made some very close friends who care for her like a family.

However, April’s idyllic existence is shattered by the strange dreams she has been having of this lush green fantasy world filled with magical beings like dragons and talking trees. April’s dreams are frighteningly real and she is unsure if they are dreams at all. Through Cortez, and eccentric old man, April discovers that there are two worlds- Stark and Arcadia. Stark is the land of science not unlike our own world. Arcadia is the land of magic. April is a shifter who can travel between these two worlds, and is the only hope the two worlds have against the forces of evil that have reared their ugly heads. The story takes many twists and turns and always keeps you wondering, “What happens next?”

What makes the story so compelling to me is that April is no warrior or mage or anything like that. She’s just an ordinary girl thrust into extraordinary circumstances. She’s as human a protagonist as you will ever meet. Her mixture of skepticism, fear, curiosity, fortitude, resourcefulness, wide-eyed astonishment, a strong will, a great sense of humor, and a stubborn streak thrown in for good measure makes her a very easy character to relate to.

As the wonderfully written instruction manual says “by the time you’re cast into a completely different world – one that’s alien to both you, the player, and to April herself- it will be that much more difficult to adjust” (p.6). If you, the player, feel a bit out of sorts in a strange place, chances are April does too. This makes for a wonderfully immersive feel that few other games truly have.

Admittedly, the story does start out slowly. The first chapter (out of 13) is mostly a series of lengthy conversations between April and all the important people in her life, from the lesbian landlady Fiona, to her best friends Emma and Charlie, to Zack – the biggest jerk one could ever have as a neighbor.

While all this exposition at the very beginning is a bit much to wade through at first, it helps the player care more about April and all her friends. Her world becomes your world. Venice takes on those warm characteristics of home.

But April does not stay in Venice for too long. She explores quite a bit; from the sleazy, crime-ridden areas of Newport City, to the various natural wonders of Arcadia, her travels become yours. As you explore new places, you feel April’s various emotions from apprehension of new surroundings to utter awe at the world around you. You and April meet many colorful characters on your journey, some good and some evil. All are quite memorable and integral to the story. My only complaint with the story is that the last few chapters (chapters 10-13) felt a little rushed. But the story was awesome, nonetheless.

What truly makes The Longest Journey’s story come alive are the voices. All the dialogue is fully voiced and contains some of the best English voice acting I’ve heard in a video game. The voices fit the characters’ appearances perfectly and the actors deliver their lines convincingly. However, there are instances where one voice actor plays multiple roles. Only in two instances is it really noticeable that pairs of characters share a voice. I found Sarah Hamilton a wonderful choice for April’s role. She really brought April to life and I certainly hope to hear more of her work in future games and/or animation.

Of course, the best voices cannot save a game or movie if the scripting is bad. Thankfully, The Longest Journey is wonderfully scripted. The dialogue flows very well, conversationally, and has very few spelling errors in the subtitles. There are grammatical errors, but all are intentional to portray a character’s dialect or manner of speaking. The realistic dialogue adds another layer of immersion to the story. I give much credit to the writers for the wonderful job they did. However, there is a LOT of swearing in the script, as well as sexual innuendo. This game does not have an “M” rating for nothing. I love it, but gamers more sensitive to these things may want to pass.

While the voices are the best part of the game’s overall sound, one cannot overlook the sound effects and music. Music is rarely played in the game, but when it is, it’s great. Usually it’s played during FMV scenes or non-interactive scenes, and it’s of the orchestrated/ classical fare with a lot of brass. What little music exists is well composed and fits the intended scene. However, the melodies are not catchy and you won’t be humming this music in the shower.

As for sound effects, they’re realistic. When something is dropped in the water, it makes a convincing splash sound. When a cabinet falls, it sounds like a cabinet falling. I tended to keep the music and sound effect volume low and the voice volume high when I played. Sometimes, the characters in their realism would speak at low volumes.

So how does all this look? Generally pretty good. The pre-rendered backdrops are a sight to behold. The art and architecture of the various places never ceased to take my breath away. However, I felt that the artists’ efforts were more evident in the magical fantasy backgrounds of Arcadia rather than the dark futuristic world of Stark. I think this was intentional because the player spends more time in Arcadia, and it makes Stark look, well…stark.

The polygon models of the characters are another matter altogether. They don’t look exceptionally good. They are of a higher resolution than, say, Final Fantasy 8, and have some nice facial detailing (such as moving mouths), but have noticeable blockiness and seams during close-ups. Also, when the camera pans really far away, there is a lot of break-up in April’s polygon model. Far away, she becomes an almost invisible blob with a couple of really small polygons to show that she’s there. If there’s anything that could have used some more work, it’s the polygon character models. (If anyone wants to know, I played this game on a 500 Mhz Pentium 3 with a 40x CD-ROM, which is well beyond the recommended system requirements).

There are a few CG FMV scenes scattered throughout the game. These have no voices attached to them. While they have wonderful clarity with no graininess, they are certainly not on par with Squaresoft’s work. The backdrops look stunning but the characters look awful. The character movements in the FMV scenes are quite jerky and almost robotic. And April’s FMV portrait looks drastically different from her in-game model. In-game model April has full curves (best polygon booty I’ve seen on a video game heroine), olive-tinted skin, dark hair, and a cute face. FMV April looks absolutely horrid! She’s scrawny, pale, has light brown hair, and a very anorexic, sickly face. I groaned every time I had to see that sickly looking ‘thing’ that was supposed to be the lovely April Ryan.

Lest I forget that The Longest Journey is a game, I must comment on the gameplay. There’s not much to it. If you’ve played a graphic adventure before, you know the drill. It’s all just point-and-click. Different colored arrows signify different things. A broken arrow signifies a segment where you can’t click anything. A dark blue arrow with a grey border means you can move. A red arrow with a grey border signifies an exit. Click once to walk, double click to run. Either way, April moves slowly, so check off the ‘enable frame skip’ option in the game settings and you can press ESC to skip frames and move April along at a speedier pace.

A light blue arrow that looks like a sword means you can interact with that object. In that case, a bar pops up with an eye and/or hand and/or mouth icon. You can look, talk to, or handle the object/ person. On every screen, it is imperative to keep a watch for these light blue ‘sword’ arrows as those may indicate items you can keep in your inventory.

I love how your greatest tool and weapon in this game is your brain. Progress does not depend on what level you are or what weapons and armor you have. It depends on the player’s logical thinking and how well he/she uses the inventory and/or the environment to his/her advantage. There are a couple of monster battles, yes, but these battles are very scripted. Being the RPG nut that I am, I’d have liked there to be more interactivity in the battles, but the game is great as it stands. After all, the emphasis on the game is not on combat or conflict, but rather using one’s wits.

As with any adventure game, your inventory is your best friend. What may seem like a useless object may turn out to be infinitely useful in a situation you encounter. Sometimes an object is useless by itself, but is useful with other objects in the inventory or useful with something in the environment. Since April cannot die, experimentation is highly encouraged. Click on the chest icon on the top left corner of the screen to access the inventory. Click on an object therein. Then that object becomes the pointer. Drag it over another object in your inventory, or with something in the environment. If it flashes, that means you can use it there. For those like me who are new to adventure games, the ‘flash’ feature and the ‘April can’t die’ feature were a great help to me in figuring out how to get out of the pickles I found myself in.

Another cool icon is on the top right hand corner of the screen. It is the diary icon. When it flashes, April has written something new in her diary. Clicking on that icon will give you the menu screen. In that you can save/load games, change the game settings, view previous FMVs, read April’s diary, or check the conversation log. The diary to keeps tabs on what you’ve accomplished and April’s thoughts on the matter. Oftentimes, a helpful hint may be stored therein. It’s always amusing to read the diary, and I encourage players to do so. The conversation log keeps track of all the conversations you’ve had with people. If you scrolled through a conversation quickly, or forgot what someone said, you can go to the conversation log and re-read what that person said. Again, if you’re stuck, a hint may lie therein. These features are a wonderful asset to the game and I’d like to see features like that applied in more console RPGs.

The only downsides to the gameplay are ease and linearity. I’m new to the adventure genre, and I did not find The Longest Journey all that difficult. The puzzles were integrated very smoothly into the story, but were never abnormally difficult. A few did stump me though, but some trial and error saw me through. Also, I was surprised that the more difficult puzzles were near the beginning of the game, whereas the end chapters had noticeably easier puzzles. Veterans of the genre will find this game a cakewalk.

The game is also very linear. It follows a set path, and you cannot deviate from it much. Sure there are a few instances here and there where you have dialogue choices, but ultimately, the end result is the same. But the story is so immersive and involving that you won’t even notice that the puzzles are fairly simple and that the game is linear.

But after all is said and done, I thoroughly enjoyed this game and highly recommend it. The story and characters are among the deepest and most involved I’ve encountered in a video game. For 25-30 hours, you will be treated to a fantastic journey through the realms of magic, science, and the human spirit. You will be up past your bedtime on many nights to see April’s journey through. This will be an unforgettable journey, so grab your mouse and start clicking.

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The Longest Journey review

New today on EuroGamer is our review of The Longest Journey, a gorgeous looking adventure game which mixes pre-rendered backgrounds and real-time animated 3D models to give you the best of both worlds. Can the story, dialogue and puzzles live up to the promise of the beautiful locations and characters? Read our review to find out!

Also, look out for the spectacular comparison shot showing the effect of even low level full-scene anti-aliasing on the game - FSAA really is ideal for this kind of game, and gives its graphics a whole new lease of life without hampering the frame rate noticeably...

The Longest Journey - A Retrospective

A game that almost vanished.

My earlier post about story reminds me of a piece I wrote for PC Gamer a few years back, looking at The Longest Journey, and its lasting effect on me. There was never room for my full thoughts then, and the full length 'director's cut' version has sat on my hard drive since. Clearly Dreamfall has been released since, telling us more about April Ryan, and another retrospective is due for that. Meanwhile, here's the full-length version of the original piece.

“Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where.”

The Longest Journey almost vanished away unnoticed, another obscurity ranted about by a few, but never reaching any acclaim. In the mire of pre-millennial adventure gaming, it could so easily have been drowned by the density of its peers, ignored by pessimism, never given the chance it so strongly deserved. How it was joyously liberated from this fate is mysterious. And in mystery, there is magic. In The Longest Journey, there is magic.

As a point and click adventure, The Longest Journey already defied conventions, ignoring the genre’s desperately floundering attempts at “catching up”. Developer and writer Ragnar Tørnquist and his team at Funcom understood that “catching up” was meaningless – they had a story to tell, and a world in which it needed to be told, and so this was the game they made. The natural instinct to say how it recaptured the adventure’s previous glory is strong, but this just simply isn’t true. Adventure gaming had never been as glorious as The Longest Journey – it hadn’t ever even come close.

Eighteen year old art student April Ryan provides the most perfect eyes through which to witness this tale. Sceptical, sarcastic and sassy, she tight-rope walks the same line as Buffy, mouthing off but never quite tumbling into the irritating. And yet still somehow gets away with normally grating late 90s Ameriteenisms such as, “That’s SO not appropriate.” You forgive her, because you realise, as do the games’ twin worlds of Stark and Arcadia, that she’s important .

A friend was recently explaining to me how Silent Hill 4 manages to spook so effectively by blurring the two worlds of the normal, and the horrific. When an element of one leaks into the other, stability in the known is shaken, and fear drip, drip, drips in. In April Ryan’s life, it is the fantastic that begins to disturb the normality of her existence, the world of dreams invading her world of rational and science. And where a good horror story shows you fear in the every day, The Longest Journey shows you magic. Set 200 years in the future, April’s world is enough like our own to allow us to identify, but distant enough to allow it status as a metaphor.

The meta-narrative tells of how, long ago, the united Earth was divided into two: Science and Magic, Stark and Arcadia. The Bladerunner-inspired future version of our known world allows the effects of this severance to have been demonstrated even more, well, starkly than they are now. Wars have increased the degree of global apartheid, Capitalism’s punishments are more prevalent, authority rules over democracy, and people simply get on with being people as it happens around them. It is unavoidably our future.

In contrast, Arcadia refers back to so many fantasy lands, simplicity bolstered by magic, thus creating seismic instability and inevitable fracture. But Arcadia at least possesses hope. Stark’s worldview is blind, eyes gouged out by its people’s own hands. It allows the coming destruction of Chaos without even the consciousness to question. And so it is through April’s dreams, through her powerful imagination, that she is drawn to ‘shift’ out of that world, and to learn her part in the shaping of the future.

I was unaware of how much I’ve been influenced by The Longest Journey, until returning to its tale for this piece. I’ve been writing a children’s story, on and off, for a couple of years, never getting very far with it, but always driven to persist by its unstoppable urge to leave my head. I’m now wondering how much I have to remove because I’ve simply plagiarised it from my subconscious. The ideology of this game is lodged deeply inside me, partly because I so strongly identified with the message I took from it, and partly because that message is so powerfully told. It is always a point and click adventure. There are always daft clicking the rubber duck on the clamp and tying it to the string puzzles. But it works with these elements, not despite them. Nearly every voice is perfectly cast, and the recording supervised by the game’s creator and writer, Ragnar Tørnquist. Yes, there is swearing, but there is swearing where real people swear. And wow, are the conversations long. But they are telling you a story like no other.

April is not a simple character, a template onto which we may impose ourselves to experience a world. She has issues with her father, trouble letting people get too close, and a propensity to run away rather than face difficulty. She is a complex and broken human being, thrown into a situation too big to understand, and arguably destroyed by it. She’s a person.

The opening quote, said to April by her mentor when she is persisting with him for answers, speaks for the whole game. The Longest Journey is epic and magnificent, but completion makes you aware that this is only a tiny fraction of a created world. Indeed, these are only weeks in the whole of April Ryan’s lifetime. So much remains unknown. But to know the whole truth is dull. Magic is in not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and when.

The Longest Journey

Game length provided by HowLongToBeat

Extraordinary adventure game with over 150 locations in two different dimensions.
Gripping story with many twists, smooth gameplay, and a fantastic music, will accompany you throughout the entire game that is over 50 hours long.
Very interesting characters, with great art design and intriguing background stories.

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Summary Dreamfall continues the story of "The Longest Journey," one of the most critically acclaimed adventure games ever made, and brings adventure gaming into a new era. Focusing on story and characters, Dreamfall features unparalleled 3D visuals, advanced character animations, stunning audio, and innovative gameplay - wrapped in a unique and ... Read More

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The Longest Journey

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Average score: 88% (based on 52 ratings)

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Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 213 ratings with 17 reviews)

Fan tribute to a dying genre

The Good When Longest Journey appeared on the stage, it generated a small sensation among adventure fans. Made by a Norwegian developer hitherto focused on console games, it was quickly proclaimed a modern masterpiece, and was frequently mentioned in speeches as argumentation against those who have condemned the genre to death. So, is it really that good? And, more importantly, can it save the adventure genre?

My opinion is that it is a nice game, but certainly not one that can compete with the classic offerings of Legend , Sierra , or LucasArts .

The game is firmly rooted in the existing traditions of adventure-making, most notably echoing the tendency of merging old-school inventory-based gameplay with serious settings and strong, emotionally charged plots rich in lore and characters. As everyone know, Gabriel Knight truly started that trend, and is rightly regarded as a milestone for that. Longest Journey was clearly influenced by that game, as well as perhaps the more recent Grim Fandango , which it resembles in overall structure and aspirations.

The journey is indeed long. The game has a linear story with rather frequent changes of locations; but each area is appropriately large, usually consisting of at least several interconnected screens you can explore. Longest Journey takes you to many interesting places, and it keeps up a good pacing, neither precipitating events and rushing towards the end, nor sticking too much to the same location. The game world is generously designed: there is a variety of indoor and outdoor locations, and most of them are interesting to visit. There are a dozen or so chapters, each focusing on a particular event or task needed to fulfill in either of the two worlds the game is set in. The considerable length of the plot reflects the game's premise of an epic adventure.

Perhaps the most appealing aspect of the game is the new world it creates. The central idea of the story - the conflict between science and magic - may not be very original, but it is executed with love and attention to detail. The concept of allowing a normal, ordinary girl to catch a glimpse of a world she had no idea about, making her gradually unravel the truth about it and herself, works here just like it should. Like April Ryan, you discover a new world, surprised by everything you see. The larger part of the game is set in that "other" world, and the feeling of magical, wondrous exploration of the unknown is captured very well.

The developers weren't stingy with material: the game contains loads of information about the world, its history, its characters and concepts, and so on. It's true that the dialogues can get too dry and overly informative; but it is admirable that the designers wanted to cram as much lore as they could into them. In that way, Longest Journey is similar to role-playing games: its star is the universe itself rather than its characters or even concrete events constituting the game's story.

Longest Journey is a beautiful game. Most backgrounds are exquisitely detailed and ooze atmosphere. The Norse love of vast, majestic landscapes serving as potential battlegrounds for an upcoming confrontation between forces beyond our imagination is strongly manifested in this game. It is interesting to note that, although the nature in the game can hardly be called lush or exotic, some of the backgrounds convey an almost mystical, appropriately otherworldy feeling, mesmerizing in their somewhat cold beauty, reminding of pure and transcendental things lost to the futuristic world of soulless skyscrapers and high-speed transportation. The Bad The gameplay of Longest Journey is archaic. What's worse, it doesn't really fit the game's ambiance and story. Most puzzles are taken directly from classic comedy adventures of the past (most notably LucasArts' works) and are out of place in this seriously-minded and only mildly and very sporadically humorous game. Predominantly unrealistic and artificial, the game's puzzles involve sterile and awkward inventory item manipulations. They may not be as offensive as their infamous contemporary cat mustache , but they aren't as amusing as that one, either. Besides, this game doesn't have investigations, computer research, or other challenging activities besides inventory combinations and a few isolated logic puzzles.

Some of the inappropriately nonsensical, contrived tasks are at odds not only with the tone of the game, but also with the situations it puts the player in. For example, infiltrating a police station by means of a ridiculously labored concoction ruins the tension of the moment and the seriousness of the event. The game also has a few scenes where the heroine is in mortal danger; yet the ubiquitous "no death" policy turns them into unbecomingly serene affairs. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't think that LucasArtian device was the ultimate cure to the problems of adventure games. I believe that Sierra was on the right track creating potentially dangerous situations for the player instead of holding his hand all the time. This game, in particular, would have benefited from that design philosophy.

Much of the time here is spent on conversations with other characters. Unfortunately, they tend to drag quite a bit. Serving mostly as containers of background information necessary to understand the game's complex story, these dialogues can get very long-winded, often slowing down the game's tempo to a crawl. There are no close-ups on character faces during conversations, so you'll have to just read and occasionally click on a line to trigger the next batch, without having the feeling of really participating. The writing is good, but lacks personality and that extra treatment that made the classics of the past so inimitable. The Bottom Line Longest Journey is neither the savior of adventures, nor the innovative, groundbreaking game it so wanted to be. In fact, as an adventure game, it's just above average, falling short of the past greatness it passionately strives to imitate. It can't resurrect the ailing genre, though it does make its agony less painful.

Windows · by Unicorn Lynx (181775) · 2016

Great Adventure Game

The Good Likeable main character, nice art and backgrounds, plenty of interesting dialogue and immersive gameplay. The puzzles border on the simplicistic but are consistent with the setting and don't feel forced. The plot is nothing new but moves along smoothly despite being unoriginal. Streamlined and unobtrusive interface that rarely gets in the way. Great Introduction and first part, with very high production values. The Bad 3D characters lack polygons and don't look very great against the 2D backgrounds, especially in close-ups and cutscenes (that are few, blocky and poorly done). Some of the characters share the same voice actor (that does a poor job of trying to alter his voice) and some sections seem rushed (especially towards the end) with too few locations/things to do. The final part and ending seem hastily done (like the publishers wanted to get the game out of the door asap). The Bottom Line A great addition to the adventure games genre and a very engrossing experience.

Windows · by Paolo Cumin (11) · 2005

Perfect for the genre.

The Good I liked the puzzles. They made sense and were just my difficulty level. I played at the same time as a friend so we both did about half the solving. The graphics are cool. I have never played a game like this. The Bad Sometimes the puzzles are extra hard. I had to turn off the speakers sometimes so Mom didn't hear the swears (long story). Some things were picked up and never used. I'm sure you know how that can be. That's about it. The Bottom Line A long adventure. Nice story. Hard,but fun. If you haven't played it, It's a classic of the genre. If you have, it's a great thing to give to a friend: or play it again in five years.

Windows · by Meg C (6) · 2004

The most involving story of any computer game, ever.

The Good This is one of those rare games that can be described as a work of art. Visually stunning, emotionally involving, well-acted and well scored with great dialogue. Wildly imaginative, at times hysterically funny and at times bordering on the profound. The Bad The dialogue is terrific but there's a bit too much of it. How long can you stare at a static screen listening to very long conversations? And it has the amnesia problem common to many adventure games as the main character asks people she's known for months the sort of questions you ask people when you first meet. Oh, and the folk tales in it are all dull. The Bottom Line This game is like a novel, completely immersive and involving. You never want it to end.

Windows · by Charles Herold (3) · 2000

LONG, beautiful, but dated adventure game.

The Good The Longest Journey has beautiful visuals, a good soundtrack, and a decent plot. It's a good solid point-and-click adventure and one of the only good 3D adventure games out there. The Bad The game is dated. The character models are very pixelated when blown up on my widescreen 22'' monitor. The dialog can get very long and tedious. The puzzles can be frustratingly random and hard. April Ryan, the main character, is a sarcastic whiny teenager. The Bottom Line I would recommend this game to others if they enjoy adventure, but would hope that this game gets remade to the standards of it's sequel Dreamfall.

Windows · by hvrsd hvrsd (1) · 2007

One of the most original adventure games ever made

The Good Well, everything: the plot, the music, the atmosphere, the puzzles, the voice acting (at least on the original, Norwegian version which I played) - it's all done so well that its downstraight impossible for me to complain! The Bad No complaints, sire! The Bottom Line After that you have played the game, you are left with the feeling of wanting more; not becouse of dissatisfaction, but becouse it was such a great adventure it seemed more of an experience then a game - which I wish it was.

This is not a game - but a rare interactive artwork. If you are an adventure gaming as myself: this game is your cup of tea.

"The Longest Journey" has pushed the envelope of adventure gaming further, and is one of those rare and unique games that will leave a lasting impression.

In my book: this is the best adventure game ever made, and I heartly recomend it if you are an adventure gamer looking for a game with splendid plot, excellent atmosphere and top-notch everything.

Windows · by Stargazer (99) · 2003

Great game, tough far from perfect

The Good Gee, where to start? The Longest Journey is a great game, its overflowing with creativity and originality, its got a great epic storyline and it's got tremendous production values. Graphically speaking the game is stunning, even on a 16-bit video card the game looks amazing, with some gorgeously drawn backgrounds with very well blended polygonal characters on top. Great sound and music complement the artwork, and the fmv cut scenes are no slouches either (tough the character animation there is somewhat awkward).

Technically the game is great, but it's the creative side of things that make it a winner. The story is great, rivaling the "epicness" of the Final Fantasy games, and without the need to add cheap melodramas. But the characters are outstanding, the entire cast is excellently developed and backed by a superb voice acting , especially April. And speaking of April, she has got to be the best female character ever to grace a videogame, bar none. She's neither the kick-ass babe/femme fatale type that is so popular nowadays on PC games (Tanya, Lara, etc.) nor the "Touching" type so popular in console games (Square, hello??). She's a complex yet down to earth and genuinely interesting character, with a very cynical personality. In fact, she's almost like a more humbler, less-stereotyped version of Daria, and I found myself laughing and smirking at April's sarcastic and often feminist remarks and observations. A feat I am unable to perform when watching MTV's snobbish/ stereotyped female star.

The interface too is refined with a nice pop-up menu for actions and a feature that makes your pointer blink whenever the action you want to perform (with an item) is possible, saving you the hassle of going through those annoying "can't do this" messages.

A great story and characters coupled with tremendous production values! You couldn't possibly go wrong here, could you?? well... The Bad I have a series of gripes with this game, first of all it's buggy, something which I cannot understand given the "on-tracks" linear nature of adventure games, seriously, I suffered it all on this game, even the dreaded Police Station bug (tough thankfully there's a patch for this one).

Second and more important: dialogue. Oh god the dialogue! it's so good, and so well acted....yet it's made sooooo utterly looong and booooring. You watch the characters talk and talk from the same static faaaaaar view every single time. Why was this made so? couldn't they at least make some close-ups pop up with a generic background? I'm not expecting a cinematic treatment like in Gabriel Knight 3, since there is no 3D environment here, but c'mon! Plus it's made more boring by the lack of interaction, Planescape: Torment is a game with at least twice as much dialogue as this one (and not voiced-over mind you) but it's never made boring because the dialogue is selected by YOU, even if to just say ok, or a-ha. On TLJ you select your dialogue too, but just the starting subject/query, so you click on an option and Wham! 1-2 minutes of conversation go by without any involvement of your part at all.

This has a bigger impact on game play than you think, since a lot of the puzzles in the game are simply talked trough. That's right, you'll find as you advance the game that the ratio of item/logic-puzzles vs. talking "puzzles" goes down, and hits an all time low on say...the Alatien village. Picture this: you have to prove to a guard that you are the "Windbringer" and to do so you must prove your knowledge of 4 ancient stories. What do you do? you embark on a quest to find the stories? you face a deduction puzzle were you have to make up the stories? nope. You just go around the village and ask the villagers to tell you the stories. yup. And yes, they are LOOOOOOOOONG, and you must listen through 5 minutes each (at least, tough they seem like 30-40 minutes each actually) just so you get the right options to answer when you are questioned by the guard.

This also brings me to another thing: the game's too easy. Period. The few puzzles around are rather easy to figure and most of the time involve Fed-Ex puzzles, and as you can see from the example above much of the game's bulk is made of knowing when to talk to the right person. The Bottom Line Essentially The Longest Journey is a tremendous gaming experience, but not a memorable adventure game. When I think of TLJ in terms of the story and characters, I think of it as a masterpiece of creativity, but when I think of it as a game all I can think of is of an easy adventure which required a LOT of stamina to endure.

Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2001

Spread your legs!... AND DO THE MONKEYYYYY!!

The Good (In order to illustrate critical points, this review contains some spoilers for portions of The Longest Journey . You have been warned.)

The Longest Journey is an innovative approach to a genre that desperately needs a breath of fresh air. It's a story about storytelling itself, and more specifically about the very genre of adventure, with a clever device (April's diary) that allows the game to get away with using most of the old adventure cliches (saving the world, collecting a set of jewels, always running errands for everyone), while simultaneously poking good-natured fun at them.

From an audiovisual standpoint, TLJ is a beautiful piece of software. The story is rich, detailed, and LONG, with many conversations spanning as much twenty or thirty minutes. Opinions on this vary, and it will definitely bore players who hate conversation-driven games (not to mention looking at the same screen for any length of time), but I personally felt the extra time and attention to detail in April's world, and the people she knows, created emotional involvement that paid off big-time in the game's second half. The fantasy landscapes are gorgeous to look at, and give something to take in as you're listening to the characters talking. Also, all the conversation delivers a long play time, without forcing players to spend it all solving puzzles and constantly getting stuck.

As an adventure protagonist, April shines. She's extremely easy to like, funny and friendly, and pleasant to listen to (a absolute must since she carries the bulk of the game's dialogue). Not to mention she's a lot more... how I say?... realistically proportioned than, for instance, Lara Croft.

The game is easy to get running, even on older machines. There are no big system-limitation problems, no 64MB AGP accelerators required, and you have the ability to turn off the fancier features and still be able to enjoy the game. (I definitely recommend doing the full 1GB install, though, if you can afford the space.) The Bad (LAST CHANCE to avoid the spoilers!)

The rest of the voice acting is good overall, never stiff, but sometimes the game's situations give the canned responses an awkward feel. For instance, when Emily gets shot and April escapes the clutches of the Vanguard, she doesn't know whether her best friend is dead or alive. It should be a very emotional moment, but have April examine her clothes at this point and she points out how, "ARRRRRR, matey!" she looks like a real sailor. Also you still get the "identical voice" effect from having a small cast playing a large number of characters, to the extent that some of them sound very much alike. (Toward the end, with each new character that was introduced, I was able to easily identify the other voices played by the same actor.)

Some of the puzzles and situations are thoroughly contrived, and this doesn't mesh well at all with a story that tries so hard to be original and serious. Take the police station in Stark, for instance: April manages to get into a restricted area because the electronic doors JUST HAPPEN to be broken that day. Then she's able to bypass the retinal scanner because one of the cops on the force JUST HAPPENS to have an artificial eye. Then she's able to get his password because she finds out it's based on his wife's birthday, and she's able to bring up the subject because it JUST HAPPENS to be the very next day. Yrrrrghhh...

The interface itself is occasionally inconsistent. Sometimes you get all the info you need when you examine something the first time, and sometimes it takes you two looks before you see what's really important. To give an item to a character, sometimes you click the item then click it on them, and sometimes you have to talk to the character and choose the line of dialogue that indicates you have the item. In the case of Crow, you click on HIM, then click him on the object you want to use him with. It wouldn't have been so hard to implement multiple methods of achieving the same end. There are also a couple of Myst -ish puzzles, Ancient Mysterious Objects (TM) that must be manipulated in the right way to accomplish something. I've never enjoyed this sort of puzzle, personally.

Inevitably, as with all adventure games, there are points where you run out of options, get stuck, and resort to the "click everything on everything else" method to find the one thing that works that you somehow missed. And this means not understanding the solution until after you've arrived at it. Case in point: I tied the clothesline to the clamp and attached the inflatable duck with no idea why I was doing it, except that the game was letting me. It's only after I noticed the key in the subway that I suddenly had a use for the previously purposeless contraption I'd constructed.

Worst of all, TLJ still suffers from the adventure gaming "broken record": You can talk to characters as many times as you want, and if you've exhausted all conversational possibilities you'll still continue to get the same "Hi"-"Bye" exchange. If you don't get a timing-related puzzle right on the first try, the game makes the event occur over and over until you do. The biggest offenses here are in the case of Officer Minelli dropping and picking up his synthetic eye before you can grab it, and, even worse, "escaping" the Gribbler in the forest. The Gribbler "attacks" April initially, but never chases her beyond that. She can hide behind the table as long as you let her, and the Gribbler never tries to run around and grab her. Once you realize this, any hope of tension is POOF , gone, and the game's urgent music becomes ludicrous. (On the other hand, I do realize that "dying" in an adventure is politically incorrect these days, that people hate "save-and-restore" puzzles. I have yet to see a game that walks this thin line successfully.)

And, once you're completely finished, the game doesn't have much replay value. While the lengthy dialogues weren't hard to sit and listen for me, I currently have no desire to back through any of it, and probably won't for a very long time. The Bottom Line Hmm, reading back through the above, it seems to give the impression that I didn't like The Longest Journey . On the contrary, I found it stylish, compelling, and a definite must-play for any adventure fan, though still flawed. Though its story is a solid piece of fiction, I felt it was lacking a few things that would have made a truly great GAME. While certainly the best commercial adventure game in recent years (since Grim Fandango ), The Longest Journey still doesn't do much game-wise that's truly innovative, or to revive the fading genre of pure adventure as a whole. But it should give adventure holdouts faith to keep waiting for the next great game (possibly the just-announced sequel), and maybe that one will succeed.

Windows · by Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe (1674) · 2002

Blade Runner meets Final Fantasy

The Good The Longest Journey (1999) was released during an era where many companies were either giving up on graphic adventure gaming entirely or attempting, with mixed results, to resemble the more action based play mechanics of Tomb Raider or Resident Evil. This is why everything about this game is not only amazing, but, for many older gamers, a retro ride down memory lane. The game features incredible animation, graphics, sound and music. The point n' click interface is easy to use and other user-friendly touches are added, like the ability to replay video sequences or toggle between text and or voice. The look and feel of the game shows influences of Blade Runner and Final Fantasy while adding its own creative perspective. Not many other graphic adventure games have been able to smoothly blend science fiction and fantasy as this game does. Nor do many games feature a strong female hero or positive depictions of gay and lesbian people. The game does feature some adult content, but it's used to help further the storyline and not simply to cover up the game's flaws or to push people's buttons. The Bad If I had a complaint about the adult content, it would probably be the suggestion that, as a child, April was abused by her drunken father. While it is handled well and helps define April, it is rebuked near the end of the game. Some of the attempts at comedy, seem a bit odd. For example, it does not really make sense that, in the distant future, rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur is hanging out in police station or that one of the most popular television shows is MacGyver 2200. The game also has a few, mostly fixable, bugs. The Bottom Line The Longest Journey is one of the last, great point n' click graphic adventure games. It combines some of the best science fiction and fantasy themes with its own original ideas. Its graphics, music, sound, voice talents, control and comedy are all praise worthy. The game deals with some interesting and thought provoking concepts related to art, philosophy, time, history, personal identity, cultural diversity, social class, sexism, sexual orientation, coming of age, child abuse, drug addiction, and human right. It's not a game for kids or adults who are uncomfortable dealing with these sorts of concepts in a game.

Windows · by ETJB (428) · 2010

Somewhat long and boring, but a fun game nonetheless.

The Good Adventure game fans rejoice! The genre isn't dead!

The Longest Journey certain is the "longest" journey I've played. badum-chink! Ahem.

The game is played through a point-and-click method with a pre-rendered background. Similar to Grim Fandango, in many ways, as well as a number of other adventure games dating back to Sierra's golden age in the early 90s, there's nothing so new to the interface that will leave anyone confused.

The graphics are beautiful, especially the pre-rendered backgrounds. There is amazing scenery throughout the game, from the beautiful areas in the near-future Venice to the colorful island with the snoring giant, to outer space, every part of the game you visit is eye candy. The character models aren't that bad, either.

The story I didn't care for - I'll explain why in the "bad" part - but the setting of the human world I love. It's a solid setting. It's in the near-future, with flying cars and other cliche'd sci-fi elements, but it's not so overly done to the point where it's not at all believable.

You'll fall in love with the characters in this game. My favorite part about the "adventure" game genre is that it's less of a game and more of an interactive movie. The characters in this game are all great, with great voice-acting and unique personalities. April, the talking crow, the sailor, the guy at the cafe, each character, those that had a large part and those that didn't, have a place in the story and I'll miss'em.

The game is four discs long, and it is a loooooong journey. Depending how much you like the game, you'll be spending a long time with it. The puzzles are pretty hard, and can take some work to solve.

The game is filled with lots of humor, and after you beat it you can access outtakes and other extras. THAT is a great thing, and more games should do that. The Bad Allright, the story is just dumb. The premise of the story - girl dreams of a world, finds out the world is real, goes and saves the universe - has been done before, but it's still a nice idea. Unfortunately, like far too many games of every genre, you can't progress anywhere in the story until you finish running errands for EVERYBODY. It's not the case in every part of the game. In fact, most of the things you do in the game have to do with the story - like placing the monkey in the garbage to fool the guard so you can sneak into the building or something - but there are way too many times when you have to get help from a certain character, but they won't help you until you do them a favor, which leads to another, and another, and another, and another until you've almost forgotten why you needed the guy's help in the first place.

Some of the puzzles aren't very practical at all. Also like most adventure games, every puzzle has but one sollution and there's no other way around it. It's up to you to solve the puzzle, but you can't do it in a practical way. Like, say, you have to fix a broken electrical wire in the subway. Call a technician? No, you have to use a rubber duck (this is actually a part of the game, though I can't remember exactly how it went about). How do you get the rubber duck? You throw gum out the window...maybe in the end, the idea works (use the rubber to ground the electricity or something), but who would ever think to do the things that get it done in the first place?!

At one point of the game, you have to hear a bunch of stories. Allright, now I'm fine with playing a long game that has a lot of different stories to be told, but I'm not up for sitting down and waiting for an hour while a bunch of bird-people tell me about their history. It's a vital part of the story to hear these stories, too.

The entire story of the game, while executed poorly, was good enough to get you by until the very end. Toward the end, the story just went "kaplooey" and left me pretty damned confused.

April is too ditsy to really be taken seriously. Ever. I wouldn't trust her to take care of my cat, let alone two universes.

The FMV cinematics are awful. The in-game characters looked more realistic than April did. In the cinematics, she looks like she has two black eyes and just got beat up. The animation doesn't seem as good as the in-game animation, either, which is pretty dumb. The FMV is there for dramatic effect, but with a little less effect and better animation, it could have been done in-game and produce the same thing.

There's a race in the game that doesn't live on the same "plane of time". Oh shut up. If it could tell the future, it would have been useful to tell me how I end up solving the damned puzzles. The Bottom Line Despite my ranting, as an adventure game it is fun. The story's kind of annoying, but the characters - especially the crow - are great. The graphics are wonderful and you'll spend hours and hours in this game. If you're an adventure fan, get it. If not, save yourself the aggrivation.

Windows · by kbmb (415) · 2002

The Good Really strong start, April soon starts having strange dreams which begin to manifest themselves in reality; the everyday life of an art student in 2209 Venice gets very strange. The story is good, there's two realms, Stark, a futuristic version of our own and Arcadia, a realm of magic and prophecy.

The game is pretty arty, the lead Character April Ryan is after all an art student, as a result there are detailed and often very beautiful backgrounds. The voice acting is pretty decent, good job for the lead character, and is often very funny. The game has a gritty atmosphere, especially in the futuristic setting, expect plenty of swearing, one character swears nearly every other word, but it's nearly always in character.

I won't go into the story too much, which I think is the games greatest strength, but The Balance, The Guardian, Shifting, Alltounge, the Vanguard and the Sentinels will all become very familiar. A fantastical story is delivered with a realistic edge. There's lots of dialogue, great storytelling, you'll learn about the history of the characters you’ll meet along the way. A few of the people you'll bump into - Brian Westhouse, the whiskey drinking and panama hat wearing chap you meet in Arcadia who's actually from your own world, there's Abnaxus, who exists in all times and places and has terrible trouble with his tenses, your best friends and fellow students from Venice, Charlie and Emma, and the three forest dwelling stick men.

Bar what seemed to be an incomprehensible solution near the beginning the puzzles mostly make good sense. The Bad Conversations can drag out a little too long on occasions.

Near the end of the game there's the odd encounter which is very easy to solve and doesn't really seem to fit with the game. The Bottom Line A very enjoyable experience, the story and world(s) really drew me in.

Windows · by Jack Lightbeard (2685) · 2007

If only it were the Never-Ending Journey

The Good I love practically everything about The Longest Journey. The quest is one as engaging as those of JRR Tolkien. The characters are great, especially your unofficial sidekick/comic relief, Crow, and the chronologically-omnipresent Abnaxus, whose lack of time perception makes conversation interesting. "I will. I did. I invite you to my home...my home was in the Marcuria city green and you will find it in the morning...I am explaining everything and you understood"

The pre-rendered background scenes are beautiful. Arcadia looks like a Yes album cover, and Stark looks like something from Blade Runner. The 3D models of the characters react well to their environment, especially in terms of lighting. The inventory system is the mostly-standard "Big-box-o'-stuff" that most adventure games use, and when you pull an item from it and use it something, the icon of the selected item flashes as you move it over your target to verify that your attempt is valid. This ereases some of the tedium of trying to figure out what item you should be using, and eleminites entirely the annoying "I don't really want to do that." type dialogue that accompanies an incorrect item usage. The Bad Several people have said that the dialogue is too lengthy, but the story is one of the pillars on which this game relies, thus long dialogue is an asset. My only gripes are that the ending leaves you wanting more, and the language is a little coarse, with no option for filtering it. The former problem is fairly subjective, as a good story SHOULD make you want more, while the latter is problematic only in that it narrows the playing audience, making it inaccessible to those of more sensitive constitutions. The Bottom Line It's not all fantasy, it's not all futuristic, it's not all internal or external struggle, it's all of these things, and even a little more. There's no point at which you really have everything figured out, even if you think you do.

Windows · by MA17 (252) · 2001

Nomen est omen

The Good The biggest boon of The Longest Journey is its world and lore. The story is about two parallel worlds - Stark, the world of science, and Arcadia, the world of chaos - which in itself is not the most original story idea. However, Ragnar Tørnquist obviously spent a lot of time working out every little detail, which makes even the most long-winded exposition dump a delight to hear. I especially like Arcadia, which manages to avoid most usual Tolkien/D&D tropes and offers original races and aspects.

The dialogue writing is only serviceable - they are way too wordy and exposition-heavy - but the characters are still interesting and likeable (at least the ones which are supposed to be). The plot itself is also not especially innovative if you cut out the fluff, but thanks to the lore and characters it always stays fascinating until the surprisingly heart-warming ending. The protagonist April Ryan is not very interesting, but fortunately her excellent voice actor saves the day. The Bad The title The Longest Journey is well-chosen: even for 2000 standards, this is a very long adventure game. Unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. There are various endless long animations which have to be endured over and over again. For example, at one time the player needs to read multiple lore books in a library and the librarian takes almost a full minute to retrieve a book from the shelf. Many people speak very slowly and overemphasize every single sentence because they are supposed to be profound. The game is full of useless screens which are only present to watch April walk through them frequently. Very slowly of course - and this refers to her running speed. This makes the game a chore to play, even when using the escape key to skip many animations (which has to be enabled in the game options and can skip important sequences if not used carefully).

I usually don't talk about graphics in my reviews, but boy is this game ugly. The backgrounds are pretty, but the characters look like they were directly taken from a grotesque horror movie. Especially the rendered cutscenes are bad, with questionable animations and horrible faces - April looks more like The Nameless One than a teenage girl.

The puzzle design is atrocious. I don't think I need to repeat the famous tale of the rubber duck which proudly even beats the cat mustache in infamy. However, this is only the most prominent example; the whole game is full of stupid puzzles. They make no sense, they don't fit the world and their only purpose is to slow down the game even more. The Bottom Line I loved The Longest Journey back in the day, I really did. I started my replay with the expectation to write a glowing review for one of my favorite adventures of all times. It is a shame it is held down by bad gameplay and its slowness, because the world, the lore and the characters are among the most interesting in adventure game history. Unfortunately I believe this is a game which is only digestible for people who enjoyed it close to its original release and those should probably not ruin their good memories by playing it again.

Windows · by Patrick Bregger (301035) · 2021

Stunning. Absolutely brilliant.

The Good I just finished TLJ, so I'm writing this with a very vivid memory of the game. And the conclusion? The Longest Journey is one of the most beautiful, immersive, spectacular games I've ever played.

The thing that strikes most about TLJ is its unique story; I'll admit I haven't read all that many books in my day, but I've yet to meet a story that's quite as... esoteric as that of TLJ. Somewhat reminiscent of an old favorite of mine, a movie called Flight of Dragons, TLJ manages to beautifully combine a classic fantasy world and a dark, futuristic yet contemporary Earth. The beauty of TLJ is how the writers managed to handle the distinction: Stark and Arcadia, the world of Logic and the world of Magic. The game is absolutely immersive: the open landscape and auspicious landmarks of Arcadia, next to the dark, claustrophobic Stark. Where in Arcadia I felt enthralled and free, in Stark the atmosphere is dark, brooding - as if evil is rampant on every corner... not once did I nearly jump from my seat, not because something surprising happened on the screen, but because the creepy atmosphere made me so nervous a creak or footstep in the house would freak me out.

Add to this the astounding artwork, the variety of settings (futuristic post-industrial world, a fantastic town, underwater city, deserted island and middle-of-center-of-everywhere realm) that are so beautifully thought out and drawn you can almost feel like you're there, spectacular background stories and depth of the game universe, and terrific voice acting to boot - and you've got yourself one of the deepest, most immersive games I've played since Star Control 2 .

If that's not enough, this game has what is quite possibly the single best soundtrack ever to be featured in a computer game, written and perfected by Bjorn Arve Lagim. The soundtrack alone is worth the purchase, take my word for it. The Bad Unfortunately TLJ is not without its flaws, two serious and one minor. To begin with, the game is plagued with bugs. On my machine (AMD Athlon 1GHz, A7V133 and GeForce2GTS) -- and, to my understanding, on most NVidia-based video cards -- the game crashes whenever I try to enter the police station through the front door. Luckily there's another way of doing this, but that's hardly an excuse. Moreover, the game refuses to run at 32 bits per pixel on my machine, resulting in very dithered animation, thereby detracting from the beautiful graphics. And, to top it off, whenever I switch tasks (using Win2k), the 3D textures and alpha become corrupt and I have to restart the game.

That isn't a big deal, but worse is the fact that at least three or four times throughout the game I got stuck because I failed my pixel-searching (specifically, I didn't locate the valve on the machine next to the Boarding House, the light switch in the police station toilettes and another something I can't remember offhand). Also, being a linear game (which, so long as not blatantly obvious a la Max Payne , is not necessarily a bad thing) it happened once or twice that I didn't realize I had to do something before another event occured (for example [ spoiler alert ]: giving the map to Flipper before the pizza appears in the trashcan). That is the only reason I had to use a walkthrough, and I hate using walkthroughs.

The third problem is the fact that towards the end of the game (starting from the sixth episode or so where it's not as apparent, becoming a much bigger issue towards the tenth episode) some puzzles get much, much easier; for example, killing the snapjaw and finding the talisman isn't even a puzzle; neither is getting rid of the Chaos Vortex and helping Adrian fend off Gordon. The fact that monsters like The Gribbler and the mutant at the end don't even give you a run for your money is both good and bad: good because it means you can't die and won't have to reload, bad because it emphasizes the linearity of the game (or rather shouts it out loud).

Finally I'd just like to say that while the above detracts from the game, it by no means makes it unplayable -- just be prepared for an occasional grunting. The Bottom Line An incredible game with a deep storyline, great graphics and incredible music. Recommended for anyone who loves adventures.

Windows · by Tomer Gabel (4538) · 2001

Great adventure until it reaches the end.

The Good | Prelude | Like any other adventure fan, I rushed to get this game after I saw it's potential for releasing interesting vibes and graphical pleasure... although took me a few years longer than I expected. After a full installation of 2+ gigabytes of space and no need for CD-ROM drive, I ran this game to great amazement, I wonder what my face looked like when I saw what I was missing for so long by constantly postponing its getting. It started promising, very promising and very cunning in its own veil of mystery, but it didn't take me too long to realise just how they managed to make a simple wanna-be-epic story out of this game and thus turning the screws into the opposite direction of 'good.'

| And a big + goes to... |

Promises -- this game doesn't save on promises, it promises more and more by the minute you play it. It builds up your expectation and suspense around you giving you more and more questions for you to satisfy your curiosity... but answers are sparse and occasionally turning very silly. Promises are vast, but expectations dust it fully away.
Female heroine -- a cute little female ball called April Ryan is one of the most unique characters that ever entered the stage of computer game protagonists, and as well as the story, her aura radiates promises of lots of fun during the gameplay. Sadly, she turns out just to be a little more stupid than any NPC you encounter along the way, ruining many neatly served situations along the way.
Visuals -- undoubtedly, visuals in this game have no flaws whatsoever, pre-rendered backgrounds feel alive and breathe alive. FMVs that look just bigger if not better are making its way on the scene equally nice, but aren't something to look forward to since game itself creates an amazing graphic experience.
Language -- vulgar and rather unexpected from a game, but neat fit from the call of reality. Dialogues are vivid and rather pointless, which is what we can hear everyday and that remarkably creates a booster for the atmosphere.
Text -- there's lots of text, and it's completely voice-acted. One wouldn't expect less from a game that spans across four CDs, though.
Locations -- this game has various of exotic locations and they're all as tempting as they are beautiful in its might of artwork. Starting location is especially amazing as it looks and feels not giving you the slightest hint of the journey you'll actually have to embark on.
Mouse cursor -- mouse cursor tends to lighten up whenever you can do something or look at something, or use something on something. This eliminates futile attempts of doing fully nonsense permutations when you are clueless about your next step.
Original ideas -- idea of actually splitting world of magic and world of science into two different yet connected worlds where people just act normally as they were raised (people from the world of science, like in our reality, would be afraid of something unknown or known as magic) is neatly created with lots of possibilities and... ah, promises. **The Bad** | And a li'l - goes to... |
Story -- although promising at start, it reaches its peak to something impossible on occasion and utilize its incompetence to create a perfect circle in the end.
Narration -- the entire story is actually your own narration, or call it story-telling. That automatically creates huge boundaries of possibilities. Perhaps that may not be the case in a game or especially in a work of fiction, but it lets you know some things for sure, like, if you're telling the game, then you certainly won't die anywhere in it, and you know you won't end up doing some prophesied deed or who knows what else you might do outside of those bonds. That sort of point sets a huge drawback on a story and makes possible sequel look even more silly if you will be playing it also somewhere before your storytelling time, or if not then it might seriously screw up the original making them incorrectly connected.
Music -- although music is what one might call very atmospheric and fits the situations on the plate, there are no rememberable songs even though there are so many to be found.
Natural selection -- making some bird talk might seem okay if all the other birds and animals could talk as well, otherwise, this just seems incredibly silly. Why would one bird be treated as something more and another as a simple animal.
Wannabe epic -- this game above all wants to build up to become some sort of epic, and by very trying so it erases most of the means that would make it mucho better. **The Bottom Line** An adventure game that makes a splendid presentation of how you can make a wrong turn even when you're equipped with all the means to create a masterpiece or a classic.

Windows · by MAT (240968) · 2012

Let me be the party popper here and express my disappointment over "The Longest Journey"

The Good The heroine is likable enough, if a bit simple, and the story tries to be epic and universal while also lingering on small human moments. Except for the characters, the graphics are great. There's also a lot of game here. The Bad The main things for a game of this sort are Story and Puzzles, and they both fail. The puzzles are mostly tedious affairs, almost without that magic moment of insight that a good puzzle's solution gives you. The story is clearly not written by a professional. If it followed other amateurly written adventures by adapting the form of a tongue in cheek game, it wouldn't suffer so much for it, but here the plot tries to achieve much more than the writers' skills allow for. It makes a caricature out of the depth and breadth of emotion that it tries to convey. The Bottom Line Most adventurers like this game, so go ahead and give it a whirl. It's large, beautiful and it tries hard. For me, the story was uninvolving and the puzzles just tired.

Windows · by ududy (57) · 2001

"That is so... uncool."

The Good This game is regarded as a minor classic. It put its then-young designer on the map, and became one of the bestselling adventure titles of its era. It certainly has great production values, an epic story, plenty of conversation and plenty to do. Other reviewers do a great job heaping praise on it, so I'll just skip to the next part. The Bad The three basic elements that arguably make an adventure game tick are story, characters and atmosphere. So let's see a rundown.

Story : 'The Thirteenth Floor' and 'The Matrix', two films with a similar basic idea both came out about a year before the game was released, but the 'parallel universes' premise was already considered age-old in the 80's ('Labyrinth', 'Ultima 1-6' etc.). This game turns out to be yet another variation on the theme. Nothing groundbreaking.

Characters and Dialogs : this is a biggie. In terms of classic adventure games, it apparently takes a Ron Gilbert or a Jane Jensen to dream up memorable heroes and supporting players, and this game simply doesn't have what it takes. The characters and their dialogs are either lifeless or even worse. In fact, April Ryan of The Longest Journey may well be the single most irritating protagonist in a major adventure game ever. For me anyway. The author clearly made a grave mistake by turning her both 18 and a bland partygirl. Her incessant cries and whines of ' Duh! ' or ' That is so... uncool. ' along with her overemphasized hipster attitude were probably designed to appeal to, well, fellow hipsters I guess. Monkey Island 1-2 or Gabriel Knight did not resort to similar gimmicks and still drew in quite a fanbase. Guybrush Threepwood in particular was 19 without being annoying. Gabriel Knight was a brooding charmer. Zak McKracken was something of a lonely young bachelor. My point is that if you can't grow attached to the protagonist in an adventure game, your experience goes downhill quick. That's what happened to me here. April Ryan is the kind of vapid-girl-in-tight-pants that I wouldn't want as a steady girlfriend -- and even less so as a heroine in an epic adventure game I intend to play through to the end. She does write a diary throughout the story but the things she writes in it read like bits of throwaway chitchat from some high school party. The diary feature adds no layer of much-needed depth to the proceedings, because April has no layer of depth. In turn, none of her friends or associates are fleshed out either: we get two run-of-the-mill best friends who have nothing substantial to say or contribute at all.

Atmosphere : starts great, goes downhill once I realized the earlier points. In other words, the combined lack of a tight, original story and that of full-blooded, endearing characters result an inevitable lack of a strong atmosphere. The Bottom Line I wanted to like this game, as fans of elaborate and serious-minded old-school adventure games are not exactly spoiled since the late 80's to mid 90's boom of those great LucasArts, Sierra and Legend titles. I think The Longest Journey was a nice try, but I couldn't warm up to its semi-recycled story and especially to its blasé hipster heroine. So it's purely up to personal taste. Your mileage may vary, especially if you regard yourself a hipster, I suppose. Deck tassel, cronkite .

Windows · by András Gregorik (59) · 2011

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Critic reviews added by Jeanne , Scaryfun , nullnullnull , Trevor Harding , Víctor Martínez , Alsy , nyccrg , Wizo , Patrick Bregger , shphhd , Kabushi , EonFear , Klaster_1 , CalaisianMindthief , Cavalary , ti00rki , Gianluca Santilio , Debbie Kearns , vedder , Veniceknight , Tim Janssen , lights out party , eradix , Apogee IV , Thomas Helsing , Emmanuel de Chezelles , Xoleras , Cantillon , Jess T .

Blood Strong Violence Suggestive Themes Violence

Buy Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

Packages that include this game, buy the longest journey + dreamfall.

Includes 2 items: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, The Longest Journey

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Includes 3 items: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey , The Longest Journey , Dreamfall Chapters: The Final Cut Edition

Buy Arise A Simple Story x Dreamfall: The Longest Journey BUNDLE (?)

Includes 2 items: Arise , Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

Gamespy.com - Adventure Game of the Year - "Dreamfall stands so far out of the pack, we believe it would have been a stellar candidate no matter what year it was released". If gaming is ever to be more than merely colored lights and sensation, though, it needs these types of experimental projects to move forward. Gaming may not yet be "art," but with Dreamfall, we're one step closer" Read the full review at http://goty.gamespy.com/2006/pc/index12.html (half-way down the page) Gamespy.com - #8 Best PC Game of the Year - "An amazing trip with some of the most fascinating characters you'll ever want to meet through some of the most breathtaking and wondrous scenery you're ever going to see "

About This Game

Unparalleled Gameplay Variety Never before has an adventure game brought this much gameplay variety! Use your brains or your brawn; sneak, fight or talk your way through the many challenges the game offers. Be polite or rude, threaten or sweet talk; in Dreamfall you make the choice, resulting in a game where you never quite know what to expect next.
Three Playable Characters Experience the story from three separate perspectives, and learn how their destinies blend together in an epic finale. Each character has unique abilities and world views, giving you constant gameplay variations.
Three Worlds Dreamfall spans three beautifully realized worlds, multiple chapters and a stunning amount of detailed locations. Travel across a futuristic version of our earth, journey into a magical fantasy realm and unravel the mysteries of the Winter.
Unique World Interaction Bridging the gap between the classic point and click adventure game, where you could click on any given point at the screen, and the action adventure, where you need to move up to an object to interact with it, Dreamfall introduces the brand new focus field feature. In this easy-to-use context-sensitive interface you can scan your entire visible environment as seen by the characters, and use it to get information on far away objects as well as triggering remote gameplay opportunities.
Mature "Thriller"-type Storyline Dreamfall delivers a mature and compelling storyline that mixes the futuristic, fantastic and spiritual with a tale of murder, deceit and a conspiracy threatening our very existence. Bringing the classic adventure game into the world of the modern action game, Dreamfall delivers a rare and special story experience.
Stunning Sounds and Soundtrack Listen to an emotional and epic soundtrack in 7.1 surround. Hear gripping voices as recorded by more than 50 professional actors, and enjoy soundscapes bringing players to the edge of their seats.
A game for everyone 50% of the players of the original The Longest Journey were women. With its cinematic approach, believable characters, mature storyline and easy-to- grasp interface, Dreamfall is a game that any teenager or adult can pick up and enjoy, regardless of their gaming background.

System Requirements

OS *: Windows XP (with service pack 2) only
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 1.6 GHz or AMD Sempron 2800+ or higher required. Intel Pentium 4 2.5 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 3500+ Recommended
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Graphics: 3D Hardware Accelerator Card Required: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 128 MB with latest drivers.
Hard Drive: 7 GB free disk space
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound

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The Longest Journey

Currently 4.8/5

Platform: Windows

Categories: adventure , affiliate , classic , download , fantasy , funcom , game , gog , narrative , pointandclick , rating-o , retro , windows.

The game is played with your mouse, clicking on people or objects to interact with them. The game will occasionally display several icons (hand, mouth, and eye) to let you choose how you with to interact. Click on an area to move there, or double-click to make April run to it. When speaking to people, you can hit [ESC] to skip through the current line of dialogue if you've heard it before. Right-Clicking opens April's inventory, and since so much of the game centers around item combination and puzzle solving (more on that later), you'll quickly become used to examining and using everything around you. Since April has the strange but helpful tendency to vocalise her every thought, you should investigate everything you can for clues and information. You can save your game at any time by opening the menu (clicking on the diary icon at the top of the screen), and you should definitely take advantage of this as dangerous situations can arise.

If you've played a point-and-click adventure game before, you're probably used to abstract logic. In fact, when I first saw the game on GOG, I thought, "Oh hey, that's the game with the inflatable duck and the sewer candy". The game's puzzles are memorable in part because they're just so bizarre . Most of them simply center around using the right item or combination of items in the right place at the right time, but figuring out what's required of you can be mind-boggling. The logic behind a lot of them is obscure enough in a few places to drive you to a walkthrough, and unfortunately, there's a lot of backtracking, which makes things more frustrating than they need to be. Mess around with them long enough and you'll eventually figure out the solution, but they're definitely more than a little out there in most cases.

The story behind the game takes a while to really get rolling, but The Longest Journey does such a good job of immersing you in your surroundings that it's easy to forgive. Since it isn't exactly an action packed title and you spend so much time talking to people, it's a good thing that what they have to say is usually interesting and frequently amusing. The writing is relaxed and natural so that conversations sound real, and the people you meet have a tremendous amount of personality. As the protagonist, April is feisty, cheerful, and instantly likeable, making an excellent guide through the high-fantasy story.

It's true what they say; they really don't make 'em like this anymore. Or at least, not frequently enough for my tastes. The Longest Journey isn't quite perfect, but it gets more things right than not, and offers up a long, engrossing adventure. Don't expect to finish this one in a day, or to forget it the day after you finish it. A quality game with a lot to offer, The Longest Journey already has a lot of fans; give it a chance and it just may make one of you, too.

13 Comments

You know, I did like this game back in - holy smokes, 1999?! I am old. Anyway...

I liked it because the story was nice, and the character development was just really, really great. I thought they really did a good job making April a real character and making you empathize with her like any good movie or game or story should.

I did, however, feel that it had a lot of that tortured logic adventure game syndrome going on, where eventually you'd give up and just start trying to USE everything WITH everything else until two things combined or worked. I can't remember them too well from a decade ago, but one that comes to mind early is

an inflatable rubber duckie and like forceps or something to retrieve something (keys?) from the subway tracks.

But overall I thought it was a good overall experience. It just seems like it would have made a better movie than a game.

Badly, GOG asks too much info to pay: they want all personal info including SSN. JIG should not, ever, recommend giving out so much personal info.

[Any personal information requested for the transaction will be from your card issuer, not GOG. For example, I had to prove to Visa that I was the cardholder, through the GOG payment interface. I had previously set up a password with Visa for my online transactions, such as this, and the Visa window that popped up asked me for that info. It was not GOG asking for the info (they couldn't have known what to ask me for). The connection is encrypted (evidenced by the https:// in the address bar) and I trust the people at GOG. The payment interface works well, and I have tested it myself with an actual purchase. -Jay]

I love adventure games.

This isn't just a good adventure game or a great adventure game, but it is (in my opinion) the best adventure game ever created.

The voice acting, the story, and the storytelling are all the very best the genre has ever offered.

GOG does NOT request any personal info from you beyond a credit card or Pay Pal. As Jay points out, Visa is taking certain security members and requiring you to prove to THEM (not to GOG) that you are the cardholder. GOG does not receive this information.

This was one of my favorite adventure games. It really made an impression at the time.

I tried playing the 'sequel' - Dreamfall - the longest journey 2 (though its really its own game) and it didn't capture me as much. Still quite well done.

Another great adventure favorite of my in this vein is 'Beyond Good and Evil'. Loved it.

Wow... I remember this. I'm only 15 years old,but I remember this game being handed together with a gaming magazine I'm still buying. Back then I couldn't even get past the first chapter. Played it a few months ago, though. I got further this time, but still didn't have the time/patience to finish it. Seriously, people. GET IT. If you don't, you're missing one of the most beautiful adventure games ever made.

The Longest Journey is one of the best P&C adventure titles I've ever played, up there with MYST and Gabriel Knight.

I remember playing this game way back when. It was pretty much amazing. The sequel Dreamfall was also good.. but I think I liked this one more. A 3rd game was set up, but I haven't heard anything on it's production..

I played the sequel to this with my house mate and really liked it, even though it starts of a bit slow and ends a bit abruptly (trequel anyone?). I've been itching to try the first installment.

Thoroughly enjoying this... just wanted that due to a lot of back-tracking, double-clicking a destination or an action will make the progression less painful :)

Just curious: What is it about the game that earned it the M rating?

Hi Tesh! The Longest Journey gets an M rating because there's a fair amount of "casual" profanity (a few of the characters can be more than a little potty-mouthed if you choose certain dialogue options), some innuendo (some subtle and some not), and a bit of violence. I'd say about 70% of the game, if not more, could be safely rated Y (one step above G), but I wanted to err on the side of caution. You're not going to have people swearing at you and coming on to you every five minutes, but I didn't want to surprise anyone either.

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The Longest Journey

E.m. forster , gilbert adair ( introduction ) , elizabeth heine ( afterword ).

396 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1907

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Tesla stock in ‘no man’s land’ after 43% rout ahead of earnings

Elon Musk is known to challenge the status quo - and that’s exactly what Tesla Inc.’s investors are worried about right now.

The company’s shares are weathering the longest rout since late 2022, tumbling nearly 19% over the past seven days, amid doubts about its business strategy as sales of electric vehicles slump.

The latest worry? That Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer, will announce plans on Tuesday’s earnings call to nix the rollout of a cheaper model and focus on developing a fully self-driving vehicle - a project that would face considerable regulatory and commercial obstacles.

That would mark a major break with what analysts had been expecting and leave the company with no near-term catalyst for growth, just when it’s expected to report the first quarterly sales drop since the pandemic struck in 2020.

“Up until several weeks ago, the key focal point into the first-quarter result was Tesla’s vehicle sales fundamentals, with Tesla facing an extremely challenged set-up amid a sharp delivery miss, risk of no growth in volume in 2024, and further pressure to margins,” said Barclays Plc analyst Dan Levy, who has the equivalent of a neutral rating on the stock.

Levy said those issues have since taken a back seat to a bigger issue: “An investment thesis pivot.”

Such concerns have driven the stock down nearly 43% so far this year to $142.05, a 15-month low. It’s the second-worst performer in the S&P 500, lagging only Globe Life Inc., an insurance company targeted by short sellers.

The slide has raised the risk that any disappointment in Tuesday’s earnings report or Musk’s conference call could snowball, according to technical analysts who analyze moves in share prices to predict their future path. To them, the drop below $150 has already breached a key support level.

“The stock is now in no man’s land, with a massive air pocket between here and under $100,” said Todd Sohn, ETF and technical strategist at Strategas Securities.

Musk has already said that the company will be unveiling its so-called Robotaxi in August but hasn’t clarified the plans for the cheaper vehicle. It is possible that Tesla is only going to delay the production of the less-expensive car, rather than shelve it outright.

But the concerns about Tesla’s strategy are exacerbating investors’ nervousness at a time when the company is already contending with slowing growth, thinning margins and sales. Vehicle deliveries for the first quarter, which were announced early this month, lagged analysts’ forecasts by the most in at least seven years.

Over the past 12 months, expectations for first-quarter earnings have been dialed back to 52 cents a share, half of what was once anticipated. The revenue forecast - now about $22.3 billion - has been cut 22% over that time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, while estimated free cash flow slid 70% to around $654 million.

That’s why Tesla’s stock-price still looks high, by some measures, despite the recent drop: At nearly 47 times forward earnings, its significantly more expensive than every other member of the so-called Magnificent Seven tech stocks.

On the flip side, the negative sentiment has set a relatively low bar, creating the potential for a relief rebound.

“The news flow and psychology surrounding Tesla have become so negative that a modest miss may already be getting priced in,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers LLC.

But that hasn’t tended to be the case. Tesla shares dropped at least 9% the day after the past four quarterly reports, and options trading implies expectations of an 8% move in either direction following Tuesday’s numbers.

Demand for short-term puts paying off on a 10% slide has jumped to its highest premium over equivalent calls since November. All told, that signals that investors are paying more for protection in case the stock slips, as opposed to options that position for gains.

“The earnings are so crucial,” said Sosnick. “If we get a profound disappointment, then $100 is a likely next stop.”

Robotic heart surgery gives Donny Jones a rapid recovery, more energy

Donny Jones was born with a heart that was a little bit different.

Taylor Swift releases ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ double album ahead of Record Store Day: Highlights

Catch up on all things 'The Tortured Poets Department':

Fans celebrated Swift's midnight release of "The Tortured Poets Department" with listening parties and themed gatherings . Many critics praised Swift in their reviews.
Swift surprised fans at 2 a.m. ET with news of 15 extra songs.
The album features collaborations with Post Malone and Florence + the Machine. Swift described writing the album as deeply personal. "Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it," she said.
NBC News' resident Swifties stayed up to blog the biggest takeaways after the album's release.

Vinyl industry rep says pandemic-era manufacturing bottlenecks have eased

"The Tortured Poets Department" is set to be released in special-edition "ghost"-colored vinyl, available both directly through Swift's website and exclusively at Target.

During the pandemic, that might have alarmed vinyl record buyers. As vinyl plants shuttered and employees were sidelined, vinyl production ground to a halt, causing reports of weekslong backlogs and orders going unfulfilled outright.

But in an interview with NBC News on Friday, Dustin Blocker, president of the Vinyl Records Manufacturing Association, said those issues have been resolved and that suppliers now have more than enough capacity to handle any orders coming their way, including massive ones like Swift's.

"In Q3 2023, we saw the [production] timeline start to go back to normal," Blocker said. "And in Q4 it really got back to normal. Now, everyone, including the huge plants, takes only 8-12 weeks [to produce] ... so it's very good news for everyone."

Blocker said any price increases on the supply side sparked by the bottlenecks have essentially reversed.

So, the $40 price tag on the Target edition of "TTPD" is most likely the result of choices made by Swift, her label and the retailer, he said.

Jack Antonoff is sharing BTS pics

Saba Hamedy

Jack Antonoff is giving Swifties what they want: more content.

The Bleachers frontman, who is also Swift’s longtime collaborator and friend, shared pictures of Swift and collaborators on the album, including Florence Welch .

The acting U.S. secretary of labor has a question for Taylor

Acting U.S. Labor Department Secretary Julie Su has a key question for Taylor Swift and her "Tortured Poets Department":

"Is this department unionized?" she wrote in a post on X .

Su, 55, has served as acting secretary since March 2023; she has faced stumbling blocks to being confirmed full time for the role over her perceived pro-union bias .

Destin celebrates Swift shoutout

Nicole Duarte

The city of Destin, Florida, is here for the Swiftie boost.

Google searches for the beach town shot up minutes after Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” was released. The album mentions Destin in the song “Florida!!!” featuring Florence + The Machine.

The city is celebrating the shoutout:

As is Destin's mayor:

Trump gets a question on Taylor

Vaughn Hillyard

A reporter who is part of the pool following Donald Trump on Friday at his hush money trial was able to get in a question to the former president about the new albums.

Trump didn't engage.

Taylor Swift reveals ‘Dateline’ as an inspiration for ‘Florida!!!’

Maddie Ellis, TODAY

Taylor Swift has taken over radio stations, from Channel 13 on SiriusXM to iHeartRadio briefly renaming itself to iHeartTaylor and sharing messages from the songwriter.

Swift revealed in a soundbite played on iHeartRadio that “Florida!!!” — the eighth track of the album and featuring Florence + the Machine — was inspired by “Dateline.”

“I’m always watching, like ‘Dateline,’” Swift said with a laugh. “People, you know, have these crimes that they commit where they immediately skip town and go to Florida. They try to reinvent themselves, have a new identity, blend in.”

It’s the same with heartbreak, she said.

“I think when you go through a heartbreak, there’s a part of you that thinks, ‘I want a new name. I want a new life,’” she said.

Or perhaps in Swift’s case — a new era?

The double album appeared to avoid leaks

Kaetlyn Liddy

The standard edition of "The Tortured Poets Department" is said to have been leaked ahead the album's release. The origin of the apparent leaks is unclear, but none of the songs on the extended "anthology" version of the album seem to have been compromised.

Leaks of major artists' work sometimes occur when physical copies of the album arrive prematurely at record stores or department stores, before the tracks are released on streaming platforms. Fans suspect the surprise drop of the double album was a factor in the 15 extra tracks avoiding leaks.

The extra content was so unexpected that the lyrics of the anthology version have yet to be uploaded to Spotify .

‘The Tortured Poets Department’ broke a Spotify record in 12 hours

"The Tortured Poets Department" is already Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day this year, edging out Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" in less than 12 hours, Spotify confirmed to NBC News.

Swift currently holds the all-time record for most streams in a day by album and by artist for 2022's "Midnights."

Who are The Blue Nile? About the Scottish band named by Swift

In the album's ninth track — "Guilty as Sin?" — Swift name-drops a beloved '80s Scottish band, The Blue Nile.

"Drowning in The Blue Nile. He sent me 'Downtown Lights.' I hadn’t heard it in a while," Swift says in the song.

"Downtown Lights," released in 1989, was the peak of The Blue Nile's commercial success in the U.S., with the song reaching No. 10 on the Billboard American Modern Rock Tracks chart. 1989 is also Swift's birth year and the title of her fifth studio album.

Known for their avoidance of publicity, The Blue Nile has released just four albums since forming in 1981.

Fans share their theories and joy on social media

It wouldn't be a new Taylor Swift album without fans wondering who it's about or decoding the names mentioned in each song. (Who is Cassandra , Taylor?)

That speculation will surely continue, but now that the album is out, fans can't believe their luck. Reactions on social media praised the sonic and lyrical range of the album, saying that "everybody gets everything," whether you listen to Swift for her synth-pop hits or her intimate folk songs.

Author and creator John Green couldn't wait to wake up his daughter to tell her she gets 31 new Taylor Swift songs today.

By the numbers: Will Taylor Swift break her own album sales marks?

Dania Kalaji

“The Tortured Poets Department” blasted to No. 1 on the U.S. iTunes album sales chart following its release. But will it live up to the success of her previous discography?

Here are all of Swift’s bestselling albums in the U.S. ranked to date, according to data from the Recording Industry Association of America.

“Fearless” (2008): 10 million units

“1989” (2014): 9 million units

“Red” (2012): 7 million units

“Taylor Swift” (2006): 7 million units

“Speak Now” (2010): 6 million units

“Reputation” (2017): 3 million units

“Lover” (2019): 3 million units

“Midnights” (2022): 2 million units

“Folklore” (2020): 2 million units

“The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection” (2008): 1 million units

“Evermore” (2020): 1 million units

TikTok rolls out new features to celebrate new album

Daysia Tolentino

As Swifties show their love for "The Tortured Poets Department" on TikTok, they have the chance to be featured in a "Fan Spotlight" carousel that highlights videos with the #TORTUREDPOETSDEPARTMENT hashtag.

TikTok released a "Taylor Swift In-App Experience" that serves as a landing page for all things "TTPD." Fans can complete challenges in exchange for limited-edition "TTPD" profile frames and some Taylor-related searches unlock animations inspired by the album. Searches for "Taylor Swift," "Taylor Nation," and "The Tortured Poets Department" lead fans to the landing page.

The features are particularly notable because Swift's music was pulled off the platform earlier this year as part of a disput between TikTok and Universal Music Group, though many of her tracks returned earlier this month .

Fans on TikTok have already been loving "TTPD," sharing numerous theories , tears and rankings .

Swift's song 'Fortnight' with Post Malone hits No. 1 on Apple

Jason Abbruzzese

That didn't take long.

The song "Fornight" off Swift's new album quickly hit No. 1 on Apple's top song chart. It features rapper and singer Post Malone.

Swift also took the next four spots with "The Tortured Poets Department," "So Long, London," "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toy," and "Down Bad."

The National's Aaron Dessner on working with Swift: 'some of the most lyrically acute, intricate, vulnerable and cathartic' songs

Aaron Dessner, a musician who is part of the rock band The National, posted to Instagram about working with Swift on the album along with a pic of her in a studio.

He said that he has now worked with swift on more than 60 songs, including 17 across her newest release.

"I am forever grateful to Taylor for sharing her insane talents with and trusting me with her music. I believe these songs are some of the most lyrically acute, intricate, vulnerable and cathartic Taylor has ever written and I am continually astonished by her skills as a songwriter and performer," he wrote, adding in thanks to a long list of other artists and producers.

Will Swift break her own streaming records?

The October 2022 release of Swift's 10th studio album, "Midnights" shattered records on Spotify and Apple Music.

"Midnights" became Spotify's most-streamed album in a single day with 184.6 million streams when it debuted. Swift also broke the record for most-streamed artist in a single day on Spotify with 228 million streams.

The album also become the biggest album of all time by a female artist in Apple Music history by first-day and first-week streams worldwide.

Can Swift outdo herself?

Will Swift's album inspire a new college course?

Illustration of Taylor Swift performing wearing a graduation cap and a diploma as a microphone.

As Swift became increasingly synonymous with American pop culture, universities around the country started creating entire courses dedicated to studying her lyricism and impact.

Some courses focus on Swift as a business and marketing mastermind, while others analyze her storytelling techniques with all the detail and skill of poetry analysis.

Time will tell whether this new album will inspire yet another college course. Our guess is with all the literary references, it's sure to be on some professors minds.

Saturday is Record Store Day

The release of "The Tortured Poets Department" will come just in time for a notable day in the music industry calendar: Record Store Day on April 20. The annual event has been observed since 2007 to celebrate independent record stores and is often accompanied by exclusive drops by major artists.

Swift has yet to announce a special event, but the date is marked in the TTPD Timetable on her Instagram, suggesting she might have something up her sleeve.

Swift describes new album: 'Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.'

Patrick Smith

Taylor Swift has offered fans a glimpse into the creative process behind "The Tortured Poets Society" and the emotions that inspired it.

In a press release Friday morning to accompany the new release, the artist said:

"The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time — one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.

"This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted.

"This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.

"And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry."

To sleep or stream? Swifties question staying up even later

Can you wait until the morning to listen to the 15 extra songs on Swift's anthology?

If you answered no, you're not alone. Online, fans joked that they didn't expect to get this little shut eye.

Among the fans: Gen Z Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla.

"I got votes in the morning. Do I sleep or listen" he wrote .

Others had similar thoughts.

"TAYLOR I HAVE A JOB OH MY GOD" wrote one fan, tagging the artist on X .

"lol Taylor I have to get up early to run errands before work please" wrote another X user.

Leave it to Swift to give us adrenaline to keep us all up a little longer.

'The Tortured Poets Department' becomes Swift's longest album

With the surprise release of 15 additional songs, "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" has 31 tracks.

That now makes it Swift's longest album, edging ahead of "Red (Taylor's Version)" by just one track.

A list of all 15 of the extra 'Anthology' songs

“The Black Dog”
“imgonnagetyouback”
“The Albatross”
“Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus”
“How Did It End?”
“So High School”
“I Hate It Here”
“thanK you aiMee”
“I Look in People’s Windows”
“The Prophecy”
“Cassandra”
“The Bolter”
“The Manuscript”

Surprise: a double album!

"The Tortured Poets Department" is a secret DOUBLE album.

In a 2 a.m. ET surprise, Swift announced an extra 15 songs.

"I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology," she wrote on X . "15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours."

It's 2 a.m.

Now what, Taylor?

ICYMI: Swift's powerhouse publicist Tree Paine gets profiled by WSJ

Swift's longtime publicist, Tree Paine, whom many fans know by name, was the subject of a lengthy Wall Street Journal article published Thursday ahead of the new album's release.

While she declined to be interviewed for the story, it delves into how she became one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry since she joined Swift's camp in 2014.

“There isn’t a publicist in NY, LA or Nashville that wouldn’t jump at an opportunity to work with someone as talented as Taylor Swift and her management team,” Paine said at the time, according to the New York Post .

Read the full story here.

Couples are now wary of Swift's 'Lover' as a love song

Elena Nicolaou, TODAY

“Lover” — at least until recently — was widely received as one of Swift’s classic love songs. When the album of the same name came out in 2019, its title single was declared first dance song material , or even a “ wedding waltz .”

In the song, Swift paints a portrait of quiet intimacy. Her wild “Red” days, of thrilling romances with highs and lows and uncertainties in between, had settled into something steadier with one person, captured by a simple chorus: “You’re my, my, my, my lover.”

But that interpretation is now in question, as Swift recasts some of her songs in a different light. Ahead of the release of “The Tortured Poets Department,” she released five playlists on Apple Music , sorting old songs into groups inspired by the five stages of grief, or “heartbreak.”

Aaron Dessner is credited as a songwriter on five of 16 tracks

Dessner, who is a member of the bands The National and Big Red Machine, is one of two producers who worked on "The Tortured Poets Department."

He's credited as a songwriter on five of the 16 tracks on the standard album.

Dessner first collaborated with Swift on her eighth studio album, “Folklore,” for which he shared in the Grammy win for album of the year. He made several guest appearances with Swift on the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour, joining her onstage during the acoustic set for performances of songs they wrote together.

Here's what some critics are saying in their reviews

Angela Yang

The critics have spoken. Here's a roundup of some of their takeaways on "The Tortured Poets Department."

Billboard ’s Jason Lipshutz praised Swift’s boldness for releasing a “knowingly messy, wildly unguarded breakup album” at what’s arguably the peak of her career. It's more mature than her past heartbreak albums, he writes, and “not everyone will love it, but the ones who get it will adore it fiercely.”

Variety ’s Chris Willman wrote that the album can serve as an “unapologetically dramatic” soundtrack to listeners’ own heartbreaks.

Labeling it Swift’s most personal album yet, Rolling Stone ’s Rob Sheffield described it as “the cathartic confession of a woman who thought she had adulthood — and adult romance — all figured out, only to find herself realizing she knows nothing.”

And unlike on past albums, Swift doesn’t portray herself as a victim in this one, wrote the Los Angeles Times ’ Mikael Wood. Instead, the album emanates “a proudly villainous energy as Swift embraces her messiest and most chaotic tendencies.”

Jack Antonoff, Swift's longtime collaborator, posts love for album

Antonoff, Swift’s longtime collaborator and friend, shared his love for the new album on X .

"Love this album more than I can say," wrote Antonoff, who worked on “The Tortured Poets Department” as a producer.

Antonoff also co-wrote eight of the album's tracks.

Swifties are starting to post reax on X

In typical fashion after a Swift album drops, reactions from fans are pouring in online, and they TEND TO COME IN ALL CAPS.

As any Swiftie will tell you, listening to new music from the artist always proves to be a collective emotional experience.

Spotify appears to be holding it together (so far)

The last time Swift debuted a brand-new album, Spotify crashed. No major issues so far this time around.

Shoutout to the engineers and people behind the scenes who are probably working overtime to make sure Swifties don't panic.

We have a new countdown

Don’t go to bed yet! Taylor Swift’s Instagram page is displaying a new countdown to 2 a.m. ET. This wasn't on the timetable ...

A countdown on Taylor Swift's Instagram page.

Swift releases statement after album drop

In her first social media post after “The Tortured Poets Department” was released, Swift shared a statement about the album online.

These songs reflect her experiences from a moment in time that was equally “sensational and sorrowful,” she wrote, adding that it is a chapter now closed.

“Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it,” Swift wrote. “And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”

Who is Clara Bow?

Daniel Arkin

The 16th and final track on the album is named for Clara Bow, one of the leading lights of Hollywood’s silent era.

Bow, unlike a lot of stars from the 1920s, managed to successfully pivot to roles in talkies by the end of the decade. She co-starred in “Wings” (1927), which today is probably best known as the first movie to win the Oscar for best picture.

I’m not a Swiftie, so I don’t have much insight into how Taylor’s music connects to Bow’s acting career — but I’m curious how this track will be interpreted by the die-hards.

The album is here

BRB, we’re busy listening with the rest of y’all.

You can now choose a Swift-themed chat for your Instagram DMs

Instagram users can now set their direct message conversations to a new chat theme inspired by “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Instagram has added “The Tortured Poets Department” as a chat theme.

Bars, venues hold special Swift parties

On the eve of Swift’s album drop, event venues across the country (and around the world) hosted release parties so Swifties could get their first listen of the “The Tortured Poets Department” on the dance floor.

At Pianos in New York, music from across Swift’s discography will play until the new album drops at midnight. Attendees are encouraged to come in themed outfits and friendship bracelets, and the bar will be serving Swift-inspired cocktails.

In Los Angeles, El Cid is hosting a listening party complete with fan-made merch, giveaways and a themed wall for photos. Attendees can also expect performances from drag queen Jade Jolie, who appeared in Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” music video.

Several Swiftie-themed events are also being held across the Washington, D.C., area, according to The Washington Post, which compiled a list .

A Swiftie mom and daughter are hosting their own album party

Kristie Gilmore, 36, is ready to celebrate with her daughter, who was born shortly after Swift's “1989” album and has been a Swiftie ever since.

Kristie Gilmore is hosting a TTPD party in the suburbs of Boston.

Gilmore decorated her Boston-area apartment with balloons, signs and stickers in the color palette of “The Tortured Poets Department.” She sprinkled the table with handmade confetti of the album’s logo and made TTPD-themed “membership cards” for themselves and each of her daughter’s friends.

“They’ve been counting down since Taylor announced this album,” Gilmore said, adding, “They’re just hanging out, having a dance party. They’re gonna try to stay up till midnight and listen to it.”

What are the track lengths?

The average track length on “The Tortured Poets Department” is 4 minutes and 4 seconds, making it the third longest album across Swift’s discography.

The longest song is “But Daddy I Love Him,” which clocks in at 5 minutes and 40 seconds.

“I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” is the shortest song, at 2 minutes and 36 seconds.

Travis Kelce shared his early thoughts about the album

Ahead of the Super Bowl, Swift's boyfriend, Travis Kelce, the star tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, weighed in on the new album.

“I have heard some of it, yes. It is unbelievable,” Kelce said . “I can’t wait for her to shake up the world when it finally drops.”

The couple , who have become the internet's favorite love story , were most recently spotted at Coachella 's first weekend.

Taylor Swift beat reporter speaks to NBC's Hallie Jackson

USA Today’s Taylor Swift reporter , Bryan West, spoke with NBC News about the album drop and all the Easter eggs being spotted by fans.

Swift's music is back on TikTok despite UMG dispute

Kalhan Rosenblatt

Some songs that Swift fans know “All Too Well” returned to TikTok this month, months after they were removed.

The songs were among the many tracks Universal Music Group pulled off TikTok after the label and the platform failed to reach an agreement this year. (UMG has no relationship to NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.)

UMG, known as one of the “Big Three” global music companies, cleared its music from TikTok in late January, saying it was doing so because of a lack of compensation for artists and songwriters. TikTok previously fired back at UMG, accusing the company of putting “their own greed above the interests of artists and songwriters.”

The economics of 'The Tortured Poets Department'

Doha Madani

Die-hard Taylor Swift fans will be spending a pretty penny on her latest album release as she releases four variants of the album with one exclusive track each.

Each variant of “The Tortured Poets Department” is named after the bonus song found at the end of the album: “The Manuscript,” “The Bolter,” “The Albatross” and “The Black Dog.” If a fan wanted to collect them all, the minimum for $13.99 CDs at a store would cost at least $55.96 before taxes.

Longtime Swifties are already familiar with her tendency to provide deluxe editions, as anyone who was around for her original “1989” release can recall the Target exclusive that included three bonus tracks and three voice memos recorded by Swift.

Her “Midnights” release included a Target exclusive track that was added to streaming only months later, and in May she released a new song on “Midnights (The Late Night Edition).” But this is the first time Swift has put an exclusive song on each individual variant, with no clear timeline for when they might be added to streaming.

2024: The year of Post Malone and the pop girlies

Rebecca Cohen

Fresh off of a collab with Beyoncé on "LEVII'S JEANS" from her now-famed "Cowboy Carter," Post Malone finds himself on another major release of 2024: Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department."

He joins Swift on the album's first song, "Fortnight." Swift announced that "Fortnight" would be the album's lead single and the song for which she is releasing a music video 8 o'clock tomorrow night.

"I’ve been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever," Swift wrote on social media. "I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on Fortnight."

While best known for more rap-focused songs, Post Malone is clearly making the rounds in the pop music scene, having also recently collaborated with Noah Kahan on "Dial Drunk." But his back-to-back appearances on arguably two of the biggest albums from pop artists this year raise the questions: Is Post Malone becoming a pop girlie? Is he just having a moment? Or is it all of the above?

There's a book about Swift's impact headed to bookshelves

Rolling Stone writer and music historian Rob Sheffield's book "Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music" will debut Nov. 12.

He's expected to dive further into Swift’s music and fan connection.

Swifties are celebrating with their own listening parties

Many Swifties are sharing their elaborate party setups online as they prepare to celebrate the album release at home.

Karen Rothdeutsch, 25, has decked out her bedroom in upstate New York with “The Tortured Poets Department”-themed decorations, complete with a platter of homemade cupcakes decorated to match Swift’s various vinyl variants.

“I just made my space a little more immersive for my first listen,” Rothdeutsch told NBC News. “I’ll be sitting in my bed with a box of tissues and a notebook, writing down my thoughts and probably checking into Twitter every so often to see what everybody’s thinking about it.”

She said she procured the decorations over the course of several weeks, but the whole setup cost her less than $100. While she decorates on a budget, she said she did splash out on the vinyl variants and collector’s edition CDs.

Swift's new album is already breaking a Spotify record

Spotify said on X that the “The Tortured Poets Department” became the most pre-saved album countdown page in the streaming service’s history.

Since its launch on March 28, TTPD's countdown page has ticked down to the album’s drop, now just hours away.

Was Swift's Grammys dress a 'Fortnight' Easter egg?

The white gown Swift wore to the 2024 Grammys, where she announced "The Tortured Poets Department," appears to have been an Easter egg.

taylor swift full length whote dress red carpet grammys

Swift appears to be wearing a very similar dress in the teaser for the "Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)" music video, which will debut 8 p.m. ET tomorrow.

Swift was also pictured hugging Post Malone at the ceremony. Some fans online pointed out a similar shot of the two singers that appears in the teaser for the music video.

Swift drops 'Fortnight' music video teaser

Swift blessed fans with a teaser for “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)," the album's first single.

"At this hearing, I stand before my fellow members of The Tortured Poets Department with a summary of my findings. Album tonight. Fortnight music video tomorrow at 8pm et," Swift wrote in a post on X , which was accompanied by a short video clip.

The black-and-white teaser gave a sneak peak of the visuals for the music video. It's a combination of dramatic period gowns and a bleak medical setting in this supercut that is reminiscent of "Poor Things," which Swift's longtime friend Emma Stone recently won the best actress Oscar for.

Swift had announced she'd be dropping a music video at 8 p.m. ET tomorrow by sharing a “TTPD Timetable” on her Instagram page this week.

Merch is here — and already selling out

Hours before the album’s release, themed merchandise for “The Tortured Poets Department” is now available to order online.

The merch drop includes hoodies, crewnecks and gold jewelry branded with the album’s logo. A display case for the album vinyls seemingly sold out within minutes.

ICYMI: The Eras Tour concert film is on Disney+

In case you need something to do as you count down to the new album, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is on Disney+. Swift announced the film would be available for streaming in February.

The film features all songs from the three Los Angeles tour dates during which it was filmed at SoFi Stadium. They include “cardigan,” as well as four additional acoustic surprise songs from the tour: “I Can See You,” “Maroon,” “You Are in Love” and “Death by a Thousand Cuts.”

Swifties online are freaking out over purported ‘leaks’

The internet was at it again this week, with some online circulating what they said were leaks of Swift's new album. It is unclear from where and when the apparent leaks originated, but one Reddit thread is already filled with commentary.

As early as Tuesday, "taylor swift leak" appeared to be blocked from searches on X. Instead, when a user tried to search the phrase, a blank page popped up with the message, "Something went wrong. Try reloading."

The secret message has been decoded

The sixth and final word of the secret message, “mortem,” was revealed today, hidden in the lyrics of the song “Begin Again.”

The complete secret message is: “We hereby conduct this post mortem.”

In a collaboration with Apple Music, Swift sorted some of her existing songs into thematic playlists , along with audio messages from her.

The messages seemed to confirm some fans’ theories that the playlists mirrored the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — indicating that the new album may grapple with grief or loss. Swift later used a song from each playlist to reveal a hidden word on Apple Music every day leading up to the release of “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Swift sets fans loose on an international puzzle

Swifties had a big day yesterday after murals with QR codes were unveiled in cities around the world, including Mexico City, Paris and Chicago.

Fans stumbled upon the murals, which Swift had not announced, and scanned them to find a link to a YouTube Shorts video. Every mural had a unique code that led to a different video, each revealing a new letter as part of a word puzzle.

Fans came together online to help decode the puzzle, which seemed to hint at the new album's first track, because it spelled out "for a fortnight."

Swifties in Los Angeles flock to Spotify pop-up library

Many Los Angeles Swifties celebrated the new album with a pop-up library installation in partnership with Spotify.

The three-day event, which runs through today at The Grove, featured a sneak peek at some of the album's lyrics.

Fans posted videos of themselves lined up for hours to get a glimpse at the installation.

A manuscript was front and center at the installation, revealing new lyrics periodically as the pages were turned over the course of three days.

Many fans online tried to identify other potential Easter eggs in the pop-up library, such as a bust of a peace sign, quill and fountain pens and a globe that appeared to be pointing to Florida, the name of a track on the album.

Why is the album called 'The Tortured Poets Department'?

Fans were quick to note that “The Tortured Poets Department” is the longest title for a Taylor Swift album by a large margin, a distinction previously held by her third album, "Speak Now." Before "TTPD," "Speak Now" was her only album title consisting of more than one word.

Speculation surrounding the new album and its uncharacteristic title has primarily revolved around Swift’s 2023 breakup with British actor Joe Alwyn after their six-year relationship.

After the album announcement, a 2022 Variety interview between Alwyn and Paul Mescal resurfaced on X. The pair revealed in the interview that they were both members of a WhatsApp group chat titled the Tortured Man Club, prompting some fans to draw parallels between Alwyn and Swift’s upcoming album.

The true meaning of “The Tortured Poets Department” remains to be seen, but the album's rollout has featured references to famous poems like Charles Baudelaire’s “The Albatross,” among other literary references.

Clues keep coming

Speculation continues to grow over clues for lyrics, song titles and the album’s first music video.

Not much from Miss Swift so far

It's been a notably quiet rollout for "The Tortured Poets Department."

No themed Instagram grid overhaul, no lead singles, not even a cryptic calendar leading Swifties on wild goose chases for potential Easter eggs.

A week before the release, Taylor Swift was rocking out at Coachella instead of feeding her fans who are desperate for a hint of what's to come.

Aside from a hand-painted QR code on the side of a building in Chicago, a planned exhibit at The Grove in Los Angeles in partnership with Spotify and a quick video released Tuesday that appears to leave the "Midnights" era in the dust as viewers tour The Tortured Poets Department, Swift has been silent on what we can expect.

In the video , posted to her Instagram account, we did get a glimpse of a schedule that only showed release day, and on it, the promise of a music video on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. Fourteen tick marks beneath led some to think the music video could be for the 14th track on the album, or for the leading song, "Fortnight," since a fortnight is 14 days.

Swifties believing in the latter theory proved to be correct. Swift announced that the music video would be for "Fortnight" in a Thursday afternoon social media post.

Swifties online continue to grasp for any details to try to figure out what this mastermind might have in store for her beloved fan base.

What songs are on the new album?

Here's what songs are on the track list.

"Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)"
"The Tortured Poets Department"
"My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys"
"So Long, London"
"But Daddy I Love Him"
"Fresh Out the Slammer"
"Florida!!! (Florence + the Machine)"
"Guilty as Sin?"
"Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?"
"I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)"
"I Can Do It With a Broken Heart"
"The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived"
"The Alchemy"
"Clara Bow"

Swift has also announced four bonus tracks: "The Manuscript," “The Bolter,” “The Albatross” and “The Black Dog.” Each bonus track will be available on a separate vinyl variant and won't be on the streaming version of the album.

When does 'The Tortured Poets Department' drop?

Swift's 11th studio album, "The Tortured Poets Department," will be released Friday at 12 a.m. ET, or 9 p.m. PT.

It will be available for purchase on vinyl, on cassette, as a digital album and in CD form. It will also be on several streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music.

But if you plan to stream “The Tortured Poets Department” right after its release, be prepared for potential delays. When Swift’s most recent brand-new album, “Midnights,” was released, Spotify briefly crashed because of intense demand.

Angela Yang is a culture and trends reporter for NBC News.

Doha Madani is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News. Pronouns: she/her.

Rebecca Cohen is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.

is culture and trends editor for NBC News Digital.

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The Longest Journey Review
By Ron Dulin on June 26, 2000 at 5:41PM PDT. The Longest Journey is one of the best adventure games in years. Like a hybrid of classic Sierra and LucasArts games, it tells a great fairy tale ...
The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey is indeed Long! Too long!! Mostly because the story is extremely stretched-out. Moreover, everything in this game is slow: the character animations are slow, the walking is slow and much of the speaking is slow as well. This, combined with the puzzles, makes the game just a chore to play.
The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey (Bokmål: Den Lengste Reisen) is a magical realist point-and-click adventure video game developed by Norwegian studio Funcom for Microsoft Windows and released in 1999.. The game was a commercial success, with sales in excess of 500,000 units by 2004, and was acclaimed by critics. An iOS version was released on October 28, 2014.
The Longest Journey Review
Game Review. The Longest Journey is a graphic adventure game for the PC. Like recent console RPGs, it features a complex story with many twists and turns. Unlike a console RPG, however, The Longest Journey focuses more on character interaction and puzzle solving rather than combat, and as we all know, console RPGs tend to be very combat intensive.
The Longest Journey review
The Longest Journey feels like a breath of fresh air among the Myst-style games of recent days. I have decided to award this masterpiece with our highest score. Having said that, I really hope Funcom won't leave it with this. I think I am getting withdrawal symptoms… (A word of warning: The Longest Journey uses curse words on quite a few ...
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The Longest Journey review News by Gestalt Contributor Published on 22 Jun 2000. New today on EuroGamer is our review of The Longest Journey, a gorgeous looking adventure game which mixes pre ...
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The Longest Journey is an adventure game about a young woman with the power to shift between parallel worlds of technology and magic. Nov 20, 2000 - The Longest Journey delivers a mature ...
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The Longest Journey is an amazing graphical adventure, where the player controls the protagonist, April Ryan, on her journey between parallel universes. All Reviews: Very Positive (1,654) - 89% of the 1,654 user reviews for this game are positive.
The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey is an adventure game about a young woman with the power to shift between parallel worlds of technology and magic. ... Read Full Review. Nov 21, 2000. Share.
The Longest Journey: Don't Miss Funcom's Masterpiece!
Funcom's The Longest Journey was among the last popular point-and-click adventure games of its era, and it set the tone for the dialogue-heavy action-adventu...
The Longest Journey
In April Ryan's life, it is the fantastic that begins to disturb the normality of her existence, the world of dreams invading her world of rational and science. And where a good horror story shows you fear in the every day, The Longest Journey shows you magic. Set 200 years in the future, April's world is enough like our own to allow us to ...
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The Longest Journey - One of the best stories ever put into a video game, with great characters, fantastic locations and one insane puzzle involving a duck. ...
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The Longest Journey is an adventure through the twin worlds of Stark and Arcadia, seen through the eyes of April, an 18-year old art student. The game you cannot miss! Extraordinary adventure game with over 150 locations in two different dimensions. Gripping story with many twists, smooth gameplay, and a fantastic music, will accompany you ...
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Dreamfall continues the story of "The Longest Journey," one of the most critically acclaimed adventure games ever made, and brings adventure gaming into a new era. Focusing on story and characters, Dreamfall features unparalleled 3D visuals, advanced character animations, stunning audio, and innovative gameplay - wrapped in a unique and magical ambience.
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The Longest Journey is an adventure game about a young woman with the power to shift between parallel worlds of technology and magic. Developers. Funcom. Publishers. Funcom. Franchises. Dreamfall ...
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A game review of The Longest Journey by Funcom. Hailed as one of the best adventure games ever made and while I agree that it is a very good game filled with...
The Longest Journey reviews
The gameplay of Longest Journey is archaic. What's worse, it doesn't really fit the game's ambiance and story. Most puzzles are taken directly from classic comedy adventures of the past (most notably LucasArts' works) and are out of place in this seriously-minded and only mildly and very sporadically humorous game.
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Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, winner of multiple E3 awards as the best game in its genre, is the continuation of a saga that began in the award-winning The Longest Journey, considered to be one of the finest adventure games ever made. All Reviews: Very Positive (947) Release Date: Apr 17, 2006. Developer: Funcom.
The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey isn't quite perfect, but it gets more things right than not, and offers up a long, engrossing adventure. Don't expect to finish this one in a day, or to forget it the day after you finish it. A quality game with a lot to offer, The Longest Journey already has a lot of fans; give it a chance and it just may make one of you, too.
The Longest Journey Twenty Years On
The Longest Journey is an adventure game that rarely is brought up in conversations about the genre, first. For various reasons, it seems to be on most adven...
The Longest Journey by E.M. Forster
2,559 ratings257 reviews. E. M. Forster once described The Longest Journey as the book "I am most glad to have written." An introspective novel of manners at once comic and tragic, it tells of a sensitive and intelligent young man with an intense imagination and a certain amount of literary talent. He sets out full of hope to become a writer ...
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The company's shares are weathering the longest rout since late 2022, tumbling nearly 19% over the past seven days, amid doubts about its business strategy as sales of electric vehicles slump.
Taylor Swift releases 'The Tortured Poets Department' double album
Many critics praised Swift in their reviews. Swift surprised fans at 2 a.m. ET with news of 15 extra songs. The album features collaborations with Post Malone and Florence + the Machine.

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