Release Date: March 6, 2020
An experimental adventure that combines point-and-click game with idle games mechanics. In The Longing, as a faithful servant of a sleeping king we have to wait 400 days in real time. We can explore the vast system of caves and read full editions of real books.
The Longing is an unusual game combining point-and-click adventure with idle games (also called clickers). This is another work of independent Studio Seufz, which is mainly involved in creating short animated films. However, the German developer also has a few simple free games like Murder, which have been tested by tens of millions of players. Apllication Systems Heidelberg is responsible for the release of The Longing.
The Longing takes place in an unnamed world, more specifically in the underground system of caves, where the stone king rules. However, recently his power weakened and the ruler decides to fall into a long, four-hundred day's sleep in his palace to regain strength. He leaves a single Shade to guard, the last of his servants, who is to stay with the ruler until he wakes up.
According to the plot, the player's task is to guide the Shade until the stone king wakes up. However, unlike most games, in The Longing the days go by in real time, so it takes more than a year to complete a single run from start to finish. The game can end earlier and the adventure can be completed in several ways. Time can also be speeded up by performing certain activities (including lighting a bonfire with coal found in the caves), but this does not significantly affect the pace of the game. What's important is that the seconds run out even when we're not in the game or turn off the hardware with The Longing installed. So we can leave the hero alone or order him to go to a specific location and return to the game when the Shade arrives.
The basics of the game do not deviate from the scheme known from classic point-and-click adventure games. So we explore more places, collect items and solve puzzles. However, all these elements are based on actual time lapse. The hero cannot run, forcing us to march, and many actions can only be performed at a later date, for example when a decaying stalactite finally falls and creates a transition to a previously unavailable location.
In The Longing, we have no pre-established goal except to wait four hundred days for the King to awaken, so all the activities come down to taking time for us or the Hero. We can make the waiting more pleasant by searching for new secrets, playing on instruments made of collected elements, hanging pictures found here and there, etc. In addition, the authors have included full editions of many books, such as Homer's Illiad, Herman Melville's Moby Dick or Friedrich Niestchze's works. There is also no shortage of texts in the game itself, although they come down mainly to monologues and Shade commentaries, either spoken aloud or written down in a diary.
Due to the nature of the game, The Longing does not offer any multiplayer mode.
The developers of The Longing decided to use a two-dimensional, hand-drawn graphics. The graphics resemble the visual setting of classic animations, although the whole thing is kept in dark colours. The atmosphere of the game is further emphasized by a frugal, synthetic soundtrack.
Platforms:
PC Windows March 6, 2020
Android December 18, 2023
Apple iOS December 18, 2023
Nintendo Switch April 14, 2021
Developer: Studio Seufz
Publisher: Application Systems Heidelberg
Age restrictions: none
Similar Games:
System Requirements for The Longing Video Game:
PC / Windows
Minimum System Requirements:
Dual Core 1.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, graphic card 1 GB GeForce GTX 460 or better, 5 GB HDD, Windows 7.
Game Ratings for The Longing Video Game.
LadiesGamers.com: by Paula Moore
Needless to say, I haven’t finished The Longing in the two weeks I’ve had with the game, how could I when it is 400 days long! We explored the hand-drawn, large kingdom, and listened to the atmospheric soundtrack that accompanies Shade on his slow shuffle. It began as a strange game that, after I spent 20 minutes with it waiting for Shade to climb the stairs, I was ready to pack it in and never look at again. Shade and I have bonded, now I check in with him and go for a slow saunter along an undiscovered corridor, and make sure he is sitting comfortably in his chair when I leave the game. He sits in his chair reading a book, with me pressing A to turn his pages while I myself play a video game on my PC. Nothing says comfortable bonding then sitting like this side by side, no words needed. Who knows what the next few hundred days have in store for Shade and me but I think I’ll be sticking around to find out….eventually!
Marooners' Rock: 7.7 / 10 by Joseph Siemsen
I’m confident that I will be firing up The Longing on a regular basis throughout this year and beyond.
Use a Potion: 5.5 / 10
The Longing is a real test of patience thanks to its slow sense of progression, but there’s no doubting that it offers a unique and intriguing experience. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy some of my time with the game, with the clever time-based puzzling and the mysteries of the world certainly keeping me invested in Shade’s long wait. However, it didn’t take long for that appeal to wear thin. I didn’t have the patience to fully appreciate The Longing for the long term, but instead find myself waiting for those four-hundred days to be up just to see how it ends. I completely appreciate what the developer was trying to do here, but it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t hate the game or think that it was necessarily bad… I just struggled with the amount of time it takes to do anything. But hey, who knows, The Longing could be the perfect game for you. There’s nothing quite like it out there and it deserves praise for that. Just bring some form of extra entertainment with you if you’re planning out a long trek in the game… you’ll need it.
Average score from votes.
![[1:20] launch trailer](https://cdn.gracza.pl/galeria/filmy/640x360/192289812.jpg)
