Journey is a very difficult game to sit down and think about reviewing. Since finishing the game yesterday I have found myself overjoyed at merely thinking about the game. I’ve told friends, family, and even(for the first time) written an email to the developer thanking them for the game. But when those same friends and family asked me, “So what’s the big deal?” At first, I had a very hard time answering them. Because Journey, much like Thatgamecompany’s other games(Flow and Flower) isn’t so much a game; it’s an experience. Now, I know some of you out there are going,”great, it’s one of those artsy things where you play music with glowing fish. And I’m supposed to think it saved me from my ignorance or something.” Well, no, I wouldn’t say that.
Playing Journey is mostly about playing Journey. To tell someone about it, which I certainly could describe every single part; would be doing a disservice to both the game and the person I’m telling. Because unless you actually feel what it’s like to play, your losing some of the experience. It’s like swimming, riding a horse, or making love, there just aren’t too many ways to accurately convey the experience without diminishing it. But I will give it a shot here; just don’t take my word for it though, it’s $15 play it yourself.
Journey is about you; a single being who ventures throughout many lands to reach a mountain. There are no weapons, no violence, and no score in Journey. There is no way of interacting with the landscape except through limited jumping, gliding, and sliding. In Journey you are all ways moving forward but are encouraged to explore all the landscapes you encounter; both to get trophies and to collect magic sigils to extend your jumping capacity. There are bits of story spread throughout the game to explain a little what is going on; but you basically have to interpret it for yourself. There is a multiplayer element in which you come upon another person just like yourself and you can only interact with them by holding down a button for different amounts of time to produce varying degrees of one note of music. That’s it, no PSN ID, no voice communication, and no custom avatar. You won’t know anything about your fellow travelers until after the game ends and the credits give you a list of all the people you encountered along the way. These people you meet are more inhabitants in your world than competitors or helpers. The way Journey handles multiplayer is completely revolutionary even if it is reductionist.
Journey has amazing hand drawn style graphics that truly make you feel like you are in another world. The music changes dynamically throughout and is certainly one of Journey’s best features. Journey takes around three hours to play and if you really want to get the most out of the game you have to play it to the end in one sitting. The game will save here and there; but it really doesn’t lend itself to multiple stops and starts. Also, you will probably want to play Journey at least twice once you’ve seen the ending. But perhaps that’s just me.
That’s it… That’s Journey. But the paragraphs above are really only a mechanical explanation of the game. I could explain EXACTLY what happens; but you need too experience that for yourselves. I won’t add my interpretation of what Journey is or what it means to me. Plenty of other reviews have done this speculation and I believe it is a disservice to readers. If you don’t understand why Journey is perfect or amazing then nothing I say will change your mind. It’s like if I said,”Puppies are cute.” And you disagreed. How would I convince you to the contrary?
This is a very unique situation in video games and one that I hope I encounter again some day. I will say that Journey is the best game I have EVER played and nothing on the horizon for this year can even hope to come close to it. Let me say now that Journey is my Game of the Year and my game of this generation of consoles. Because there never has been a game on any platform for any system that does what Journey does. Journey is the holy grail of what video games have been trying to achieve ever since our FMV(Full Motion Video) days. Except it does something more than giving the player an emotional experience, like that found in movies. It gives the player an experience unlike anything else anywhere. 10/10….
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