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REVIEW: JOURNEY (PS4)

26/7/2015

8 Comments

 
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Journey was first released on the PS3 in 2012, and immediately started being written about in ways that described it more like a transcendent, quasi-spiritual experience than a game. 

We were intrigued, but - ultimately - got put off by those reviews. They sold it as the gaming equivalent of a New Age crystal shop - a pachuli-scented dreamcatcher of a game, soundtracked by whale song and the palliative burble of indoor mist fountains that look like miniature Thai temples. 

This wasn't just a game: this was meditation, a profound and esoteric personal voyage into who we are, a luminous sound bowl ceremony that tapped into the souls of our ancestors, and spoke to the celestial, spiritual being that incubates at the heart of our inner vortex, ready to be unleashed into the cosmos, eclipsing the oppressive physical realm for the enormity of the macrocosmic cloudwibble. In short: it seemed to be a game for hippies.

Unfortunately, now that Journey has made it to the PS4 - buffed and scrubbed to run at 60fps (not that we can ever really tell the difference, to be honest) - and we've played it, we realise that it's virtually impossible to write about in any other way.


ESSENCE
Call us insane, but we're going to attempt to set aside Journey's more profound themes for a moment, and describe the game that's at its essence. 

You play a mysterious robed figure (mysterious, because we learn nothing about him/her), starting out in a desert, with the ultimate aim of reaching a distant mountain top (at least... we assume this is the aim: you're never really told - you could just stand there, we suppose). 

Your journey takes you through frozen tundra, and broken temples, clambering over ruins, and sliding down sand dunes. Your character can fly for short bursts - when coming into contact with the ribbons that whirl through the sky like birds, or wave in the breeze like seaweed fronds, or if meeting another player. You'll only ever really encounter hostility in the form of stone dragons, who appear merely a handful of times. The moment they see you, they attack - and diminish your ability to fly. 

It's a simple game that doesn't really fit into any other box: it isn't really a platformer, though that's the closest we'll get to describing it in a familiar way. In fact, there's very little gameplay here at all. You simply explore the areas you find yourself in and press on, seeking out glowing glow-y things to finish each level, and unlock the next.


However, the themes - whether intentional or accidental, we don't know - go deep. It's when you interact with another person (you can only "speak" by emitting chimes), that we struggle to keep to the facts, and start to risk getting all profound and meaningful, maaaan. 

Journey is an acutely beautiful game, and it's impossible to speak about beautiful things from a dispassionate place. Somehow, the combination of elements here conspire to go deep. 
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COMMUNICATION
Journey is a game that puts communication at its heart. The way the game communicates with the player - the way players communicate with one another - are all elegantly minimalist. 

There's something  primal about it. This is language stripped back to its bare essence: images and action replacing the spoken or written word. Ultimately, there's truth and honesty there: it's our actions that are the most authentic reflection of who we are. What we say can't be trusted. An apology means nothing if you don't show you're sorry. "I love you" is just words, if we don't back it up. 

Journey takes the spoken and the written away from us, and what it leaves in its wake is a game that unites players in a genuine, open, and primal way. What it tells us is that, beneath all the rubbish, all the falseness, all the anger, and bitterness, and trolling, and selfishness, and hurt, that outwardly defines us, we crave connection.

It's possible to play Journey entirely alone, but due to the sparseness of its landscapes it can be a harrowing and lonely experience. Finding another soul to share the journey with - huddling together from winds, or cowering behind pillars from the dragons - is where it offers experiences like no other game. We are social animals, and Journey speaks to that. 

It can be crushing to realise that your companion has gone, left you, and you are alone once again. On one of our play-throughs, the game crashed, and we felt a deep guilt that for inadvertently abandoning our companion to his or her fate. We wanted to rush back into the game and apologise, and assure them that we hadn't intended to leave. But, of course, there was no guarantee we'd ever meet them again: the people you encounter along the way are anonymous, until the closing credits.

SHORT
Journey may be short, but it is full of such moments. An exercise in restraint, it manages to say more, and go deeper, by doing less. When you finally learn the nature of your journey - and even that is open to a degree of interpretation - it strikes an optimistic, rarefied note.

For us - and here's where we really risk soaking our faces in the Trough of Pretentiousness - the game is nothing less than a reflection of life. Our existence is a grind, but we push on, striving to rise above the struggle, to find the blue skies, hoping - praying - that we'll meet someone along the way who'll be there with us through it all. 
SUMMARY: Strives hard to be profound... and achieves it. An experience like no other.
SCORE: Five oms out of five.
FROM THE ARCHIVE:
  • REVIEW: HER STORY (PC, Mac, iOS)
  • REVIEW: NOT A HERO (PC)
  • REVIEW: CITIES SKYLINES (PC/Mac)
8 Comments
MrPSB
27/7/2015 03:59:29 am

Journey is an awesome game for all of the reasons in this review. I RECOMMEND YOU BUY IT AND PLAY IT AND LOVE IT.

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Da5e link
27/7/2015 04:23:44 am

You've absolutely nailed it. 'Profound' is not a word I'd use to describe many video games, but I was lucky enough to play this through all the way in one sitting with someone accompanying me for the entirety of the game - I didn't know who they were, and I never will, but it felt like we shared something special and I'll never forget it.

I bought a Playstation 3 for this game and will buy a Playstation 4 just to play it again. It's that good.

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Voodoo76
27/7/2015 05:45:18 am

Are there any explosions? If not this is shit, i just wanna blow stuff up.

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Mr Biffo
27/7/2015 07:38:11 am

That's what I thought...

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Voodoo76
3/8/2015 05:32:33 am

I purchased this game based on your review. I must say it reminds me of that time i got lost in some sand dunes in Gran Canaria on a mates stag do, whilst dressed as a ghost. In all honesty I found the similarity quite uncomfortable. Great game tho!

Kelvin Green link
27/7/2015 11:42:10 am

It's beautiful game. I'm not a big fan of these upscaled re-releases, but Journey is one game I hope they release again and again so every generation gets to play it.

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Euphemia
30/8/2015 05:36:28 pm

One of the few games I've ever got my other half to be absorbed in that didn't require strapping a wii-remote onto her and pulling her back from punching the TV when she attempts a return volley. Probably less to do with it's "deep, unspoken and heady themes" than it lasting about an hour, having one button to press and being pretty to look at.

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Apalldat Mighcelf
21/12/2016 02:39:10 pm

Perhaps I'm an awful person anyway.
Perhaps I'm not and Dark Souls has just marred the entirety of my being.
Perhaps I and all 'Souls fans' am/are/were/was dreadful people all along and as such a natural fit for each other.
But I hated this game. I hated it because I agree with everything you've written here. It's quite a piece of work. A thing to be proud of having made or even just knowing about.
But.
Every time I lost a chunk of my scarf some Fancy Dan would zone in with theirs perfectly intact.
3 times I got patronised by some high fashion pro Journeyman or other.
By the time I made that final ascent up Mt "Boo Hoo No Scarf 4 U" I was anything but 'enlightened' and 'centered'. I was as mad as hell, confronting some uncomfortable truths about who I am and furious that the music for that final climb wasn't Meshuggah's 'Bleed'.

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