Journey - Review

Salad and I have a long running joke about Journey.  Well, really it's just spitting hatred and eye rolling at it whenever the occasion arises, which is pretty often.  Honestly, I think most of our annoyance of the game is less from the game and more from gaming journalists that won't shut up about it.

It's common to see in reviews that many people that play the game just "won't get it".  It seems so pompous and holier than tho that it pretty much got catapulted to the top of my shit list. 

Add in the fact of the glowing reviews for Flow and Flower, 2 games that suck massive amounts of ass as they are both just the game "Snake" with really pretty packaging, and you can see why I'd be very unlikely to be kind to another game from THATGAMECOMPANY.

With the holiday season literally on top of us I told Salad that if Journey went on sale I'd buy it and play it.  That day came yesterday.  Below is my review:

I was wrong.  I was wrong and I'm sorry.

For those that don't know, Journey is a very simple game.  You're what appears to be some sort of nomadic desert person that is going from Point A to B.  Always in the background is your destination, a large mountain with a bright beam of light shooting out of it.

You can jump/fly with one button and "chirp" (I don't really know a good way to describe it) with another.  Holding down this chirp long enough releases a louder and different in tone chirp that will activate certain things. 

The game is beautiful.  I don't know what else to say, but that.  There's several moments where the sun reflects off of the sand in the most amazing way and the sand moves in a manner that makes it look like an ocean more than anything else.  It sounds lame I know, but I was quite blown away a good number of times.  The game also lacks any HUD whatsoever so it's stripped down to just the game.

The music is stunning and fitting.  It is subtle and beautiful and puts the correct mood and ambiance in the situation.

The real meat and potatoes of this game came from somewhere I didn't expect it to.  Co-op.  What?!

I'm a purist.  I prefer (except GOW, Borderlands and RE5) to play all my games solo the first time, but I knew that I wouldn't have the option to here.  So I just decided to see what happens.

I'd gone into the game with some knowledge that you'll play with others.  You won't know when or where or who.  You won't have the option to not play with them.  You won't even be able to talk to them.  They'll just....be there.  Nameless.  Damn near voiceless.  This is where the subtlety of the rather genius gameplay came into focus.

I was in a rather large area when all of a sudden I noticed the right edge of my screen had a white glow on it.  I turn to see another person running towards me chirping.  2 things struck me here.  In game body language was going to be huge and proper chirping will be key and also that his chirp was different than mine.  It sounded different and it even looked different.  This was so simple, but really drove home that we're all individuals!

We walked around picking up some things to pick up.  When we ran next to each other we glowed very bright and when we did large chirps next to each other it would power up the other person's jump power.  Co-reliance is set in my mind now. 

I could tell this person was new to the game like me.  They didn't seem to know precisely what to do at every moment either.  We found ourselves waiting for each other and chirping to get attention to look at certain things.  It was....awesome.  Here's a guy that may call my mom every horrible name in the book in CoD, but in this game I felt like a kindred spirit with this person.  As we patiently work through puzzles and chirp to power up. 

Later in the game it shows co-dependence.  It's a freezing section as we near the summit and we have to walk almost on top of each other to burn bright and not freeze to death!  It was beautiful having these moments. 

No talking. Just the common struggle of climbing and relying on each other to get there.

I beat the game in 1 sitting after a little under 2 hours.  I'm telling you right now that I'm glad the game was so short.  It wouldn't work if it couldn't be done it one sitting.  Jumping in and out would not only ruin the journey (sorry), but it would also break this connection I had with my partner.  We were in this together.

I'm an emotional person and enjoy a strong bond and this game really drives that home.

After I beat the game it showed me that I had actually played with 4 different people!  They are:

gambelQ
XKillerMexicanoX
HYMATARY
DarKest_Dragon

I don't know if they felt the same way I did or how many times they've all played the game, but I felt connected to each one of them even though I didn't know who they were or that there were actually 4 different people.

What game can make you say that?

Bottom line.  The game deserves to be played.  With the holiday sale on PSN now you need to get the game and play it tonight.  It's its own thing and something that even a jaded gamer needs every now and again.