Journey

photo fair use by thatgamecompany.com

It's not about the destination

by Matthew Cooper

What can be said about Journey that hasn’t been said already? It’s magnificent. It’s powerful. It’s beautiful. It’s impactful. It’s a masterpiece. But all those words are nothing more than just words. They’re meaningless adjectives to describe a game that you may choose to play or to ignore and in the case of this game, words just simply aren’t enough.

What I can say about Journey is that it is an experience that you will rarely find in a game. Released on Playstation 4 this Tuesday, the quintessential artistic achievement of last generation gaming brings itself to a new audience of gamers who, like myself, didn’t get the chance to play it on Playstation 3.

Journey places you, a nameless, robed traveler, in a seemingly endless desert. The only thing in sight is a distant mountain with a great beam of light escaping from the peak. From there you are taught the basic controls: how to move, glide, and sing. There are no objective markers or arrows pointing towards where you’re supposed to go, but naturally you’ll go towards the the mountain (as you’re supposed to).

Journey’s story is intentionally vague. Along the way to the mountain, you will discover murals that tell the backstory of the world without any dialogue or words. It’s incredibly metaphorical, and while that might turn some players off, I found it to be one of the game’s great strengths.

One of the coolest things about Journey is the sense of discovery that is achieved when playing. Developer Thatgamecompany does a magnificent job at making it seem like you have the freedom to go anywhere when in actuality, the game is quite linear. They place points of interest in close enough proximity to each other that you never feel lost, despite the grand scale of the environments.

And those environments are absolutely breathtaking. Sand stretches as far as the eye can see, covering the decaying ruins of a previous civilization that are scattered across the land. The aforementioned mountain always looms overhead and sun shines and reflects on the world in beautiful ways. There are more varied locations later in the game, but I won’t dare spoil any of them.

photo fair use by forbes.com

Along the way you will discover Journey’s unique take on multiplayer. While wandering the desert, you might encounter another traveler just like yourself. There’s no Playstation ID above their head or a voice or text chat to communicate. You are given the ability to chirp or “sing” and that is your only means of interaction with them. There’s no real advantage to playing with a stranger other than that of companionship and that’s the real beauty of it. It’s a fascinating idea that works perfectly as a way to fight the loneliness along the way.
As for actual game mechanics, your traveler is given a scarf that grows as you find symbols throughout the environments and tears when you are reckless in the face of danger. The scarf grants you the ability to jump and glide when charged by other cloth fragments that you find or by the closeness of another player.
The traveler’s ability to sing is even more important. Holding down the circle button will unleash a chirp that powers nearby cloth to rebuild bridges or free flying cloth creatures that will in turn provide you with a lift or power your scarf. There are also some simple stealth sections where you must avoid the gaze of hostile whale-like creatures by hiding behind columns or in tiny sections of ruined buildings. The gameplay of Journey isn’t meant to be complicated, but it certainly isn’t boring.
It’s almost criminal to have said so much without mentioning Austin Wintory’s phenomenal musical score. Comprised of a full orchestra as well as string, harp, and vocal soloists, the music in Journey is perfection. It works incredibly well with the game and always fits whatever is happening. It is, quite simply, the best music written for a video game that I have ever heard.

The idea behind Journey is in the title. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey, and at the end of the game (which in total lasts around two hours as it was designed to be played in a single sitting) you will come to realize the truth in this. You will have been emotionally drained and then reinvigorated with energy. I rarely say that a game is perfect, but Journey is perfect. Nothing that I say can express how incredibly special this game is, so if you can, just play it.

The Verdict:

Journey is the ultimate answer to the argument that video games are just mindless entertainment. This is art at its strongest.

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