A Long Journey is, as others have already mentioned, basically an adaptation of the movie Passengers with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence with an added twist.
This means: the game has the exact same premise, it even shares a few story beats, it has very similar locations, but a few details differ and there's an added plot which gives the entire story a certain twist the movie Passengers is missing.
So what you get is basically this: MC wakes up in his cryopod on board a colony ship en route to a new planet decades before the ship arrives. It's revealed that someone meddled with his pod, and as it turns out the MC meets this someone, a beautiful redhead called Selene, shortly after he wakes up.
The game is missing the existential crisis element of Passengers, where Chris Pratt wakes up first and is close to suicide after a long time of utter loneliness, here the MC and Selene meet on the first day.
Selene is at first quite abrasive, and chances are you may not like her too much at first. But over the course of the game both the MC and you, the player, will grow closer to her.
Much of the early story is the same as in Passengers, only with reversed roles. The female love interest woke up the MC for an unknown reason (eventually revealed), both then try to gain access to various parts of the ship. Both grow closer. Both go to a club, both go the observation deck, eventually they also unlock a pool, all of these sets are also found in the movie and the overall dyamic is very much the same here.
However, very early you learn that three other people are also awake, but they are in hiding and Selene has to report to them. So this is where A Long Journey deviates from Passengers. It has many similarities, but it's not a carbon copy.
This central mystery is pretty good. It will keep you guessing and when things are eventually revealed you are still not certain you know the full picture.
A Long Journey has, so far, one love interest. Selene. So you need to like her. As I said before she is at first a bit abrasive and chances are you may not like her too much early on. But things improve significantly and I think Selene is a compelling love interest with an interesting backstory. Her motivations for waking up the MC are also revealed, and chances are you will understand why she did it and sympathize with her.
So the story, while not entirely original, is certainly pretty good, yes, early on you will have many deja vus if you know Passengers, but as things progress the story deviates more and more from the movie.
The renders in this game are pretty good, characters look natural, Selene is really pretty, she also has a rather large chest, but it's not too much here, she still has natural proportions and she looks like an actual human.
The MC also looks alright, so yes, this game uses a third person view, which helps immensely with the composition of the renders. If you prefer POV, then you are out of luck. You see the MC all the time, also in the various sex scenes.
The game has really good animations, there is a longer opening cutscene, fully animated and then there are of course several animated sex scenes.
Which leads us to the erotic aspect of this VN.
This game features two different varieties of scenes: flashback/dream sex and then sex in the present timeline. I am no big fan of flashback / dream sex, and sadly this game is no exception. The flashbacks are about the MC's ex girlfriend he left behind on Earth. They are really well done, nothing to complain here from a technical level, but in my opinion these flashbacks add nothing to the story, nothing to the character and have zero impact on the present timeline. They are filler.
The dream sex scene is also a bit silly, the MC wants to let off some steam because Selene got him too excited. But at least that is kind of understandable.
And that brings us to Selene. A Long Journey accomplishes something few other VNs do: it gives you a long, emotionally rewarding and erotic sex scene with Selene after some build-up and erotic tension, but without making use of the silly progression route you find elsewhere, so no tedious and repetitive handjobs, blowjobs, fingering here.
The MC will admire Selene's body, he will sometimes peep on her, he will stare at her ass, sometimes Selene looks at the MC's boner in the morning - but things are not delayed here.
Eventually lust, desire and love overwhelm both Selene and the MC and this results in the sex scene.
The scene is pretty long, it features quite extensive foreplay, kissing, caresses and begins in the pool area, only to switch to the living quarters. I have rarely seen a better written and better made erotic scene in a VN. This is top level.
This scene is as much about the emotional aspect of it all as it is about the desire and lust. You will be hard pressed to find a better scene in any game.
That fantastic scene with Selene alone is worth playing the game... but it's unfortunate that the flashback and fantasy sex feel hollow in comparison, to me it's apparent these scenes exist for mere titillation, to keep impatient people happy.
I wish the resources spent on flashback sex would have been spent on more story and renders instead. The thing is, these scenes add nothing to the story or the characters.
Everything you need to know about the MC and his ex-girlfriend is conveyed through dialogue with Selene, the two talk at length about their past lives on Earth. So there's no actual need to show flashbacks of how the MC and his ex-girlfriend had fun. It tells us nothing new. Especially one scene close to the end of the current update is sheer endless. Yes, it looks great, but by then we have reached a point in the story where it would be nice to continue the story, and to have more interactions with Selene, instead the MC mopes and thinks back to his life on Earth with his ex-girlfriend, something that was talked about in detail before, so we learn nothing new here... and the scene goes on and on and on, SO many resources were spent on creating all the animations here, which all look great, but I feel it's wasted on something we don't need to see.
I do understand why games do that, many don't have the patience to wait just for one sex scene (Selene only has one scene yet). But I feel many times the game and story would benefit from a clearer focus on the things that matter: and here it's Selene. And no one else.
Now as mentioned the flashback and fantasy scene are also really well done, animations are great, only the ex-girlfriend looks weird with visible veins and some weird red markings around her eyes, I don't know what the deal is, she looks really sick. But it's never even talked about why she does look so sick.
Chances are though you will like the flashbacks. Unless you are like me who thinks no sex is better than pointless sex with characters you don't care about. Here in this game I - so far - only care about Selene, no one else. I don't want flashback or fantasy scenes with other women.
What else... the game has music, much of it is good, it's a synth-heavy soundtrack, fitting the theme. Only some tracks are a bit too distracting, especially when you have to read lots of text.
And not all things in this game are perfect.
First: it's not really a game, it's mostly a kinetic novel, you can make very, very few decisions here and often you have zero options. You have no say in the romance path, things happen and you need to like it. Of course chances are high you will like it, but you have no impact on how things progress.
For example various times throughout the story the MC thinks about putting his arm around Selene in bed (they share a bunk, no other bunk is available), maybe you'd like it that the MC goes for it... and puts his arm around her, spooning her, but you cannot influence anything here. You have no say over how the romance progresses and technically speaking the sex with Selene is not even avoidable. Not that anyone would probably ever want to avoid it... but this is just symptomatic of the game as a whole.
You do get the occasional option to peep or not to peep,. that's basically it.
Also, later in the game, after some dramatic turn of events, the MC reacts in one way and one way only... even if you may want him to react differently. The game wants the MC to be suspicious, angry and disappointed, and while all of that is understandable he also eventually comes across like some "houlier than thou" asshole who cannot understand that Selene did certain things because she had no choice, he simply refuses to believe her.
It would have been nice to have options here... for a more confrontational or more understanding approach. Especially since you, the player, knows that Selene is telling the truth.
Another thing I didn't like too much is that the MC pervs on Selene whether you like or not. Now it's not that I can't understand it. Selene is of course very attractive, few people would not look at her curves, but still, it would have been nice to have a say in that, as in, when or where to have these thoughts. You only get to choose a peeping option twice or so. It's nothing major, and the MC is mostly having perfectly normal thoughts anyone would have in this situation. But it's always nice to have a say in certain things.
Another thing I didn't care too much for is that the game dragged on for a bit around the middle part, when the MC and Selene try to gain access to various parts of the ship. The programming/hacking scenes are very tedious and they repeat for several days.
There's also a hacking minigame, if you know the hacking sections in Mass Effect, where you need to find code snippets, then you know exactly what you get here. I had no problem with that section, but you may find it a bit tedious. But you can try again if you fail and finding the code snippets is pretty easy.
Renders are also frequently reused throughout the game, since several activities, especially mentioned programming, are quite repetitive to begin with.
I think the entire segment dedicated to hacking/programming could have been condensed. In these situations things can feel a bit boring. But fortunately things pick up speed once the programming part is over.
The game also has a few free roam sections. These are just plain terrible and add nothing to the game. You always need to go to one and one location only, yet you need to navigate the ship (you can also directly access a room/section fortunately). The game even gives you a hint where to go. And actually roaming about yields no results, there's nothing to discover.
The free roam, while you are in the story, has zero functionality. The ship is empty. There's nothing. Once the game ends you can free roam the ship to discover some secrets, but in my opinion the free roam should be entirely removed from the story part of the game. Just have the MC go where he needs to go, since in free roam you do the exact same thing, only with lots more mouse clicks.
Also, each section of the ship basically looks the same, so it's not even visually appealing, Exceptions are the observation deck, pool, bar and gym. But you can't do anything there (other than looking for secrets once the story ends).
So, who will enjoy A Long Journey? If you are ok with kinetic novels or VNs that give you VERY little choice, if you like the movie Passengers and the setting of prematurely awakened people on a colony ship between the stars, if you are ok with a game that has (as of now) one love interest only, then A Long Journey is one of the very best story driven SciFi romance games. Selene's path, while a bit rocky in the beginning, results in one of THE very best erotic and emotionally rewarding scenes of any game ever. I cannot emphasize it enough. The animations are one thing, they are great, but the emotional impact is another and here you can actually feel what the characters are feeling, and it's not just about sex.
Also, the focus on one love interest means that Selene is a pretty fleshed out and threedimensional character, something you rarely get in other games with five or ten love interests. Selene has her own motivations, hopes and fears and she's also pretty complex with a few faults, she's not perfect by any means, which further humanizes her.
The MC is also not perfect, but he tries his best, given the situation, and he has morals, he may perv on Selene a bit, but again, it's understandable and it never devolves into creepy molestation stuff, it's just stealing a few looks at Selene's naked body mostly.
Also, it's refreshing that a game doesn't make use of tropes found in so many other VNs, there is no "I am not ready yet" BS here, no handjob, blowjob, 69, etc progression route either.
There's some natural build-up, looks, thoughts... some more tender moments on the observation deck when Selene leans her head on the MC's shoulder... then a kiss... and then when the MC and Selene kiss again after that, things escalate all the way. In other words, the MC and Selene behave like actual human beings who find each other attractive. And as mentioned it results in one of the most rewarding scenes of any VN I have played.
And who will not enjoy A Long Journey?
If you don't like the lack of choices here, if you don't like the Passengers setting of people on a colony ship in space, if one love interest is not enough for you (especially if you don't like Selene, she has her own agenda, she is abrasive at first, things are complicated with her once the truth is revealed), then chances are you may have a hard time enjoying this.
But everyone else... people who enjoy story driven romances with just a single romance option... look no further, despite some parts around the middle of the current build, when all you do is programming / hacking, which can drag on a bit, A Long Journey is a very captivating and emotionally rewarding experience with complex characters that actually behave more or less like normal humans would do.
No silly antics here, no implausible situations and while I talked about the lack of choices here I would say that for the most part the writer has written both the MC and Selene in a way that you can understand and support their decisions, meaning, there are few times you would want to do things differently.
This game gives many other story driven VNs a run for their money, it's a pity it's not more popular, this game deserves a LOT of attention.
The only things keeping it from a perfect score are some more or less useless flashback sex scenes and the free roam sections, and sure, the story doesn't win any originality prizes since it borrows so generously from a Hollywood movie. But at least Passengers was used to turn it into a really good VN, and again, it has a twist not found in the movie.
So go ahead, download the game and give it a try! I think almost everyone who enjoys story driven romance games will love it.
