A shadow of the original, this game will test the patience and endurance of any adventure game fan.
There are not many out there, but this adventure game is a fully 3D realtime rendered game. The original TLJ used relatively static scenes that your character moved through. In DF, the game takes a third-person view of your character who can freely wander through the setting.
While it's certainly nice for adventure games to enter a more immersive environment, there's nothing particularly special about DF. The graphics are fine and that's about the best I can say about them. There's nothing exciting about them but they aren't disappointing eitherl; they get the job done.
The controls work mostly like a first person shooter with the exception that moving the mouse rotates the camera to predefined angles instead of allowing for complete control of the camera. For example, in some scenes, if you move the mouse just slightly, the point of view may rotate an entire 90 degrees (usually, you get smaller increments). You cannot rotate the view to anything in between. It takes a bit of getting used to but after a while, it does begin to feel natural. I can't help but wonder why the game was designed this way however. There are so many games out there that implement a first or third person view so well, that I find it annoying for game companies to try and get cute and "innovative" by trying something that is different but ultimately inferior.
But down to the heart of the game. What I believe makes an adventure game good is the challenge of working your way through the story. All adventure games have some degree of puzzling, wondering and thinking about how to accomplish X or get from A to B. Unfortunately, the level of this in DF is almost zero. There are no puzzles of any difficulty in the game. There is no challenge and no thinking required at all. It's almost always immediately clear exactly what you have to do. Go to A, get item B, return to A, use item B on item C.
In the end, DF is hardly a game at all. It's more like watching a movie with a little manual intervention (walking from A to B) between scenes. Its predecessor was similar in character, but the parts in between the scenes were interesting and challenging and made being a part of the movie worth it. To make matters worse, much of the storytelling in DF is boring, unimportant and pointless. I don't mind lots of dialog but not when a lot of it boils down to annoying minutiae of the characters' lives, I'll pass.
To add further insult to injury, the actual story of the game, while bringing with it a great sense of importance and suspense, leaves you feeling disappointed. Throughout the game, a lot of things happen for which there is no resolution or explanation and by the time you do get through the end, you can't help but wonder why you had to go through the entire game when it seemed to not contribute to what resolution you do get. The game ends on a cliffhanger with a sequel clearly intended. Let's just hope that if there is a sequel, the two games don't end up like the last two Matrix movies.
I only recommend this game to those who are big fans of the genre, enjoyed the previous game and who have a good deal of patience.