Dreamfall Chapters Book Five: Redux (PC) Review

Nothing has changed in terms of presentation values, with Dreamfall Chapters continuing to be extremely gorgeous and filled with strong voice acting and an atmospheric score. Everything is as perfect as before. All of the characters from the past four books also play their parts, as expected, with a (not-so-)surprising guest finally making an appearance towards the end. Nothing wrong there, either. What is missing, and what is wrong, though, is how pretty much all of the wonderful gameplay elements of the previous entries (bar Book Two, which also ditched enjoyable adventuring in favouring of sewing plot seeds), have now gone completely. Book Five: Redux is nothing more than a prolonged interactive ending sequence, and whilst it is pleasing to have some closure, it would have been even more impressive to have felt like the choices made throughout actually had any strong effect, and that a significant role was to be played in the final throes of the outing.

Instead, gamers are treated to nothing more than a series of events where the aim is to run from location to location, carrying out minimal actions as more of the story unfolds and threads start coming together. Press a lever nearby, collect a few items around a house, keep hitting the same button to slowly row a boat, view various objects numerous times to get the desired trigger to move things along… Yes, that last one in particular is something that actually kicks off the chapter in the worst possible way. Standing around a hospital room, constantly looking at photos and keepsakes until something, anything happens. The puzzle element seems to play second fiddle…well, not even second fiddle, to be honest - rather it is barely even present at all. What is most disappointing is how everything was balanced so well in Book Four: Revelations and hopes were peaked for this conclusion. What a letdown… Maybe the puzzle creator was given an early holiday.

Zoë, Kian, and Crow all get their stories intertwined at long last, and eventually closed off (with varying degress of satisfaction), whilst the random inclusion of a grown-up Saga is quickly brought to the fore and then seemingly tied up, before then being blown wide open again to leave room for future sequels or back-story to be filled in, all dependent on the developer's plans and how much money this episode makes. The issue with Saga is that there is no emotional connection with her, which seems odd given how she was introduced as a baby early on and has been seen repeatedly throughout the previous books, growing older each time as different interludes were played through. Maybe the writing for her character was not the best, perhaps the puzzle sections for her escapades were so uninvolved and over so quickly that there was no feeling of the sequences mattering when compared to the intensity of Zoë and Kian's missions. It could just be that she is not an interesting character, though, full stop. Whatever the case, having her take on a central role for parts of Redux feels like a waste when more screen time could have been given to the main characters, giving them a more robust send off, and maybe even providing more explanation for other non-playable characters pivotal to how events transpire. Humour is dropped completely, as well, which is thoroughly frustrating as that aspect helped counteract the overly-serious shenanigans, thus creating a perfect balance. Here, that balance is now off-kilter.

Oh, and then there is the matter of an awkward shoehorned moment where the previously mysterious warrior, Kian, dark and brooding throughout, randomly blurts out "I'm gay" at one point and then the scene quickly moves on like nothing happened. Did that just happen? Why? Was there a need for it? It feels so out of place and wedged in just to tap into the whole new ethos of being open about sexuality. Perhaps if there was any requirement for it in terms of plot, or if subtlety had been used like a moment shared in an earlier book, then fine, but to force it in almost as if to keep up with a current trend 'just for the sake of it' merely makes the moment feel totally out of place.

Overall, Dreamfall Chapters Book Five really does make a mess of finishing the whole saga off, sadly, forcing in various things at varying times to quickly wrap events up, almost avoiding the whole 'adventure genre' by making something that is barely even worthy of being called an 'interactive movie' due to the sheer lack of interaction, bar moving slowly around to new trigger points for more cut-scenes to kick in. If it was not for the fact that the episodes before were so strong, with a story that needs to be seen to its conclusion, then this would have been a total disaster.