Simply oozes quality.
Dreamfall is a beautiful game, and personally my favorite for the Xbox. I'm likely not saying anything fresh here, but hey, we all gotta fill space sometimes, so let's just say, Dreamfall has possibly the best production values I've seen in a game; however, the gameplay is a bit too lacking to grab any of the regular ADD shoot-em-up crowd's attention. So basically, if you're a movie lover and you can enjoy adventure point-and-click type games, this is the game for you. It simply oozes quality.
Comparing the graphics to next-gen is a bit ridiculous and frankly the graphics aren't the best (but still gourgeous) compared to absolutely everything else on the Xbox. What they do have is style and a very minute attention to detail. Whether you're escaping bots in China or meeting deities atop cliffs, the look never lets up. Everything comes from a very thoroughly impressive imagination. The characters look great when they talk, move, or even just stand around and look stupid. From main characters to NPCs, they all make you want to actually be there.
Speaking of characters, this is the probably single best game I've played where the voice-acting is spot-on in every aspect. You believe every single word coming out of everyone's mouth. The two main characters, Zoe and April, seem very much alike and built around the same values, but they still come off as two very different people, which says a lot for their characterization here.
I already dealt with the sound with the voice-acting, but the music too is quite good. Most of the time it simply fits, but on certain occasions it is absolutely outstanding and blows me away. I'd like to pick up the soundtrack CD if I can ever find it (or if they even ever put one out).
I really like the story too. It really avoids a lot of cliches consciously and it shows. And the "cliffhanger" ending almost seems perfect to me, because it ends on such a down note, but at the same time it seems hopeful somehow. It's a lot like life and there's something so bittersweet about it that particularly gets to me.
The only complaints I have are that this is far too easy. I only used a faq for one puzzle. And even then, that puzzle wasn't even hard, just tedious and I decided I wanted to avoid a bunch of annoying backtracking. Battles are also really poorly put together as some kind of afterthought, luckily though, they're scarce and hardly ever needed. There is a bit of backtracking here and there, but it's always worth the next conversation or bit of story to go through with it. In the end, I took my time with this game, because it seemed to go by way too fast and I wanted to enjoy tasting it at my fullest senses. I think it lasted somewhere near 15 hours, but there was never a single dull moment in it.
That said, if you want an extremely well-told story that won't make you cringe at its mediocre choice of voice-acting or cliches, then I couldn't recommend this more. Pick this game up now!