Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, A-ha and vikings. As cultural hotspots go, the permanently injured baby-faced footballer, cheesy 80s pop band and an army of pillaging rapists don't exactly put Norway on the map. But that could be about to change if Dreamfall is any indication. Norwegian developer Funcom has crafted an extraordinary and memorable adventure game, which may even single-handedly revive the fortunes of the ailing genre.

But first a word of warning: it's also actually a sequel to a 1999 point-and-click adventure that was only released on the PC. While it never enjoyed the popularity and iconic status of, say, the Monkey Island games, The Longest Journey built up enough of a cult following and ended on such a cliffhanger that an even longer journey was inevitable.

And so this game somewhat confusingly begins a decade later, with characters casually dropping references to the first game's events. In a nutshell, then: the year is 2219, the world is called Stark (essentially a slightly more futuristic version of Earth), and you initially play as 20-year-old girl-next-door Zoe Castillo, who has started receiving Ring-style cryptic visions on video screens of a young girl, a black house and a message asking her to "save April Ryan" - the heroine of the original game. Fortunately, Zoe is as much in the dark as you are about what the hell it all means, which is the main reason why the game works. Dreamfall is big on plot, dialogue and character development, but not too bothered about player interaction or giving easy answers to the questions and themes it raises. You'll buy this game because you want to get lost in the story and watch large chunks of cut-scenes - sometimes as much of ten or 15 minutes of dialogue will unfold before you get a chance to resume control of whoever you're playing as. If you aren't prepared to sit back, listen and get swept up in it all then avoid and go back to playing Halo 2 for your quick action fix.

In the first five minutes alone you learn that Zoe lives with her dad in the small town of Casablanca, has recently broken up with her boyfriend but they remain on good terms, has dropped out of her bioengineering studies at college, is jobless and generally feels aimless and directionless, like many twentysomethings. Within these five minutes she comes across as 'real' and instantly likeable rather than whiny, and through a few simple button presses you've found out more about her than you would about most lead characters over the space of a ten-hour game.

The means by which you do this couldn't be any simpler. Zoe automatically turns her head to look at anything of interest, with one button icon for what she can see and another if there's an interaction available. Usually in adventure games you end up scouring the screen for an object you can either pick up or interact with in some way, but there's no such fussiness here. You don't even have to be near an object to find out more about it thanks to a Focus Field feature that lets you scan items of interest from afar.

Everything is kept as straightforward as possible, occasionally to the point where you may feel a bit too passive. Moving your character from location to location to trigger the next burst of dialogue or cut-scene isn't exactly taxing or particularly interactive. Fahrenheit got around this potential problem with mini-interactions using the analogue sticks as well as the multiple dialogue and action choices, having a real bearing on future events and the other characters that you controlled. In Dreamfall, the infrequent and limited choice of responses all lead to the same conclusion, though once or twice you can talk your way out of trouble. Ultimately it's as linear as all those old point-and-click adventure games from when the genre was in its prime.

Like we say, though, this won't matter to those who love their adventures and like their games slower and a little old fashioned. So it's unfortunate that Funcom felt the need to include more modern gameplay trappings in the form of beat 'em up and stealth segments. Quite simply, they don't work and almost ruin the entire game. The stealth-based objectives consist of sneaking past security robots and guards, or more accurately holding the Left trigger so your character adopts a hunched posture and keeps a fair distance from the enemy. There are no shadows to hide in, no noise meter to keep an eye on, and no Sam Fisher-style acrobatic moves. It's just too damn simple for its own good.

But the stealth sections seem masterful compared to the awful fighting bits that punctuate the game. You have a standard attack, a stronger attack that can be used to break an opponent's defences, a block and, well, that's it. Regardless of whether you're using your fists, your sword or a staff, these one-on-one battles always boil down to how fast you can bash the two attack buttons, and once again it's difficult not to bemoan the absence of combos or special moves. There's also a noticeable time delay between you pressing a button and the character performing the move, which is just unforgivable considering how frequently fights crop up in Dreamfall.

What's worse is that the action side of the game seems to have been given priority over the puzzles, which are - yes, you've guessed it - way too simplistic. While it's good that the game doesn't get bogged down in combining seemingly unrelated items from your inventory, illogical puzzles or running back and forth between a handful of locations, there's a distinct lack of grey matter required to solve what few puzzles there are.

Solutions are signposted so obviously that your character may as well have ‘idiot' tattooed on their forehead, and at the first sign of a challenging brainteaser you often have another character helping you every step of the way. Some of the timed lockpicking and mobile phone hacking puzzles are tricky, but these are mini-games and so don't really count. It's roughly a ten-hour game, which is 95 per cent down to the lengthy dialogue rather than you getting stuck.

Take nothing away from Dreamfall, though: this is one of the best adventure games of recent times. It presents a credible vision of a futuristic world, features two strong, feisty female leads, and allows its gripping story plenty of room and time to breathe. The ambiguous and downright frustrating ending is difficult to swallow after investing so much time in the plot and characters, but at least there's plenty of potential for a third game to wrap things up. Do us a favour by buying this to help ensure it gets made. .

1. The intriguing story reels you in right from the start, which is just as well given the huge amount of dialogue there is to sit through.
2. All three playable characters come across as 'real' people despite the fantastical story and setting. Zoe Castillo is especially believable.
3. The interface is extremely simple to use, removing the need to play 'hunt the pixel' for hidden items or objects of interest.

1. Action bits such as stealth and fighting are severely underdeveloped and at odds with what's otherwise a traditional adventure game.
2. Perhaps because of these action elements, the puzzles haven't been given as much attention and as a result are way too easy.

A classic old-school adventure whose story and characters are strong enough to overcome the terrible action parts.