Dreamfall Chapters is a direct sequel to Dreamfall: The Longest Journey and it is the third game in the adventure game series. It was in part funded through a crowd funding campaign, and was released in five separate books over time (each divided into several chapters):
Book One: Reborn
Book Two: Rebels
Book Three: Realms
Book Four: Revelations
Book Five: Redux
Every newly released book was patched into the same game.
The story continues from the cliffhanger of the last game, and reintroduces the playable characters of Zoë Castillo and Kian Alvane, living in the twin-worlds Stark and Arcadia respectively. Stark represents a futuristic version of the technological world we live in, while Arcadia is a parallel world where magic exists. Additionally, during the occasional interlude the player takes control of a third character, Saga, as she passes through different stages of her life. A big chunk of the action happens in the cities of Europolis (more specifically its Propast district), in Stark, which covers most of central Europe, and Marcuria, in Arcadia, which was also present in The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. These two main locations are open and can be explored freely until the player decides to move the story forward. Other places, such as Storytime or the House of All Worlds, are either linear or simply smaller.
Dreamfall Chapters focuses on storytelling and pathing based on player choices. The player makes decisions that affect the fates of other characters. These choices affect the gameplay in later chapters. One of these choices affects Zoë's storyline already in the first chapter as she takes on different jobs and thus meets different characters. Unlike many other adventure games, it does not rely heavily on combining items in the inventory to solve puzzles, even though there is a small inventory system where items can be examined or used in the environment. Instead Zoë mostly needs to do errands such as bringing information or items to other characters. The game is however very dialogue-focused, and much of the information about the world is told through conversations. Characters can move around freely in the game world using direct control. The camera offers free rotation and zooming. Point-and-click is used to examine items or interact with the environment. The cursors often snaps slightly to certain elements while moving it around to help the player determine where interaction is possible. When multiple actions are available a wheel is shown where icons represent the different options. During conversations different options are shown as words. By hovering the cursor over them, Zoë provides a preview of what it represents.
