Story - 8.5
The game opens with a comet shooting across the sky, passing over a seemingly endless desert. Soon, it pans to a strange humanoid figure in a red cloak looking up in awe at the comet. You then, become this figure. You climb to the top of a dune to see a mysterious mountain, radiating light off in the distance. Pressing onward, a small ruin comes into view in the distance. As you approach you notice a small rune, and upon touching it strange papers fly through the air and flutter around you. The papers lift you up into the air and you take flight, though only for a short while. But wait, up ahead there are more of these strange papers, and an even larger ruin.
When you reach the ruin, more papers guide you to a small platform with a statue and several small pillars. You run your hands over the pillars and they ring to life with a beautiful chime, followed by lights. The center of the platform, in front of the statue begins to glow. You feel drawn to it, its light, its warmth. As you approach, you are wrapped in its light.
Through the light, you see a tall figure, similar to yourself, save for it's white garb. It begins to lay out a story for you, though no words are exchanged. Pictures, like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs are laid out before your eyes. They seem to tell a story of a civilization, long lost, and the mountain that they worshiped. The light disappears, as do the figure, and the pictures.
You are sucked back into the desert on the platform. A large door opens in front of you, more desert ahead. You feel drawn to the mountain, and the mystery of the lost people is nagging at you. It seems that your feelings leave you with only one solution, journey to that mountain. You venture through the door, into the desert. It seems so much bigger than you imagined. So much lonelier. You hear a chime off in the distance. Quickly, you scale the dune in front of you to discover the source of the noise. As you reach the top, you see a traveler, in similar garb as yours, and your hope rises. Overhead a comet flies past.
Journey's story is deep, yet simplistic. I summarized the first fifteen to twenty minutes of play in the paragraphs above, just to give you a small, spoiler free taste of it. Though I enjoy its poetic, beautiful story, I can't help but point out some flaws. Since the game itself has no speech of its own, save for the ringing of chimes, the story can be very confusing. And another flaw it is accused of, is being too short. I, however, find its length perfect. It is long enough to be enjoyable and satisfying, but short enough to leave you wanting more.
Video - 10
Journey has a beautiful art style. It uses a simplistic color palate of warm, inviting colors to make you feel safe and secure. Then it changes to cold, dark tones to make you feel uneasy and afraid. The game takes you through a large variety of environments: broad deserts, snow capped mountains, beautiful oasis, ruined cities, and underground tunnels. It also focuses on a very elegant character design. While you fly, you almost look like a bird. The game being in high definition also really kicks up the beauty of it. The detail is so rich, it feels as though you can see every grain of sand. Don't believe me? See for yourself.
Audio - 10
I can honestly say that there is not a soundtrack in the video game industry that has impacted me the way the Journey soundtrack has. The entire soundtrack was composed by Austin Wintory, a critically acclaimed composer for both independent games and film. One of the greatest things about the music of Journey, is that it all ties back to the opening theme of the game in some form. The designers worked extremely hard to make Wintory's music dynamic, and climax at just the right points in the game. Because of this, the music flows seamlessly together to create one beautiful masterpiece.
Another strength in the sound department of this game, is its use of silence. There are times in the game where it all goes quiet, and it adds a soul piercing punctuation mark to a scene. There is also absolutely no speech in the game, save for chanting in the closing credits. You as a player, can only communicate with other players by pressing the circle button, which sounds a chime. If pressed in rapid succession, this chime also forms the opening theme to the game itself. Journey sincerely melds its audio and video together so perfectly that it makes the environments and the music itself as much of a main character as the figure you play as
Gameplay - 10
Journey has very simplistic, easy to learn controls. They are almost a throwback to classic gaming. You simply use the joy stick to move, the x button to jump and fly, and the circle button to chime and interact with your environment. Apart from the controls, the gameplay itself is very simple.
To solve various platforming puzzles throughout the game, you take advantage of magical floating papers which allow you to fly short distances. Through out the game you can also find glowing glyphs that create a long scarf that flows down your back. This scarf can be charged up by the magical paper around the world, and can be used as a portable version of the magic paper.
Through out the game, there are a few hazards, though none of them can actually kill you. Instead of death, the game penalizes you portions of your scarf when you are hit by a hazard. In this way, the any gamer, whether new or experienced, can fully enjoy and complete the game. Losing portions of your scarf can be irritating, and make the game slightly harder, but the game usually provides enough paper in the areas it is needed to solve the puzzles.
My personal favorite feature of the game, is the multi-player. It is so seamless. A second player can appear at any time. There is no announcement or anything, someone just appears as long as you are logged into Playstation network Unlike any other multi-player game I know of, you don't actually know anything about who you play with. Since you can't customize your character, talk to each other, or even see each other's names, you can't judge the other person at all. Its extremely easy to get attached to people that your are playing with, and greet new people in the game with open arms.
As I was playing on one occasion, I had encountered a new person in my game. We immediately began cooperating, and enjoying the game together. About three quarters of the way through the game, I couldn't find him. I stood still, and waited for him faithfully, ringing my chimes to call for him. I couldn't see him anywhere. Tears were almost falling down my cheeks. I still can't believe how emotionally attached I had become to someone I knew nothing about. I would not stop believing that he was still in my game. After a few minutes of searching, I did in fact find him.
Journey uses many of its features as metaphors for real world occurrences. The journey you take through the game is a metaphor for a struggle you face in life. The seamless entrance of another person into your world is a metaphor for the way we meet people who we form bonds with. As you stand close to another player, or listen to their chimes, your scarf recharges as though you were near paper. This is a metaphor for the encouragement we get from our friends.
Overall, Journey is a masterpiece. It is truly an example of video games as an art form. I would recommend this game to absolutely anyone. It is a deep, emotional and social experience unlike any other. I would even recommend it to those going through emotional hardship, because the games resounding feeling and message is quite comforting.
You may think that I am just throwing high ratings at Journey because I like it. Don't get me wrong, this is one of my favorite games, however, this game truly deserves its rating at 9.75. If you own a Playstation 3, this is a must have for your game collection.
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