‘Journey’ Game Review

Like with any gaming genre the ‘Art’ game tends to follow the same structure. As much as they like to experiment with the traditional format of gaming they rarely break any boundaries whilst keeping things entertaining. Limbo created a world with a stark and striking presentation but ultimately featured pretty old-school gaming tropes with levels and basic platforming puzzles. At the other end of spectrum are games like Linger in the Shadows which looked very pretty but had zero gameplay elements and proved somewhat pointless.

Journey seems to have managed to find that sweet spot between artistic presentation, workable gameplay and unorthodox ideas. Beginning in a wide and mostly featureless desert the player takes control of a mysterious cloaked character with a towering mountain in the distance the only clue as to the purpose. As you head in the direction of the towering landmark you begin coming across ruins of an ancient civilization. Before long you’ll find yourself able to whistle to interact with the environment and a limited ability to fly. We won’t say any more about what you encounter along the course of your journey because a large part of the experience is the sense of discovery.

The graphics are stunning. Not the most top of the range stuff available but more than enough to draw you into the world. Everything is brilliantly designed and changes from area to area keeping everything fresh and new and it is very easy to immerse yourself in the world when little details like the track you leave through the sand look so real. The controls a perfect, allowing you to guide your hooded figure through the air just as easily as you send them trudging across the terrain. Everything about the minimalistic soundtrack will work in conjunction to make you feel as though you are part of a world steeped in history and time. Given that there is no direct narrative, with everything up to what the player interprets, the pacing is one of the strongest parts of the experience. Even whilst you are wandering around a wide area with few landmarks and no strict narrative to pull you along the game never feels slack or repetitive. Every new discovery opens up a new part of the world and every new part of the world feels distinct. Many players will find themselves going from start to finish in one sitting.

Being relatively brief by gaming terms, spanning a couple of hours, Journey‘s one criticism could be the speed at which the experience comes to an end. Things feel as though they’re moving faster then they are due to the awesome pacing and you always feel compelled to press forward. It is nice being able to complete a game like this in one sitting but people looking for long term play for the price tag may feel let down. There’s still hidden goodies to find on repeat plays, but little to extend the actual game.

By far the best element is the unique take on online gaming. Over the course of your journey you’ll come across other pilgrims, spotting them in the distance. When you meet up there’s no gamer tag, no chat options or other form of traditional communications. You’ll find yourself simply bouncing around the landscape together and racing to the objectives for a while, but over time you’ll find the need to share something you found and find ways to communicate with the simple whistles and movements. Before long you and your new companion will be sticking close together, facing the unknown and always waiting for the other to catch up before moving on. It’s a relationship never seen before in gaming and one that is strangely effective. When trudging up the slow and difficult sequence towards the end, when things are at their harshest, the experience felt all the richer having the person I’d been through this silent journey with alongside. When we lost track of each other during the penultimate moments it was a moment of loss rarely felt in gaming (despite attempts by developers to tug the heartstrings) and it felt genuinely uplifting and rewarding when we found each other just before walking towards the final goal side by side.

Journey will give gamers one of the richest, most subtle and mesmerizing gaming experiences they’ll ever have. If you are looking for something that puts art before generic plotlines and body counts this is as good as it comes. It is strongly recommended that you invest $20 in this downloadable purchase, put aside a couple of quiet hours and get lost on a one-of-a-kind journey.

Score: NINE outta TEN