10 Critically-Acclaimed Video Games NO ONE Played - Commenter Edition

8. The Longest Journey

A couple of you noticed me slip in The Longest Journey as an afterthought on our last list where I mentioned it happens to be my favourite game of all time. Well, it’s wildly critically acclaimed, and yet almost no one has heard of it let alone played it, so let’s talk about it.

Admittedly adopting the adventure game genre is already shutting out a fair share of gamers who might not look twice at an adventure game but back in 2000 they were having a well-earned renaissance.

While this is great for fans, it can be a problem for under-the-radar titles when the genre is already oversaturated. The Longest Journey tells the story of April Ryan as she goes on a fantastical adventure between two parallel worlds representing science and magic respectively. The story is extraordinarily ambitious, the characters unique, and the point-and-click adventure game elements are nuanced and often genuinely challenging. Despite eventually finding a strong following among adventure game fans, the game struggled out of the gate due to its original release in Norway and subsequent struggle to obtain a North American publisher.

The game was also given a massive budget by publisher Funcom meaning it had to make 150,000 sales just to break even.

The game originally sold 100,000 copies in Europe after four months on shelves but was initially only able to move 12,495 units in its first month on sale in North America. It was only due to strong word-of-mouth marketing, and great reviews that the studio was able to turn it around and eventually sell almost half a million units three years after its launch. In IGN’s Best of 2000 Awards they granted The Longest Journey the accolade for The Best Game Noone Played, so who are we not to include it here?