Journey

I've been after this game, Journey, for quite a while, and I finally got my PS3 back from my brother last night. I used the opportunity to cash in the PSN card I had stashed away and downloaded this sucker.

This game you guys. This. Game.

I'd heard nothing but good things about it from day one, so my expectations were high. Not nearly high enough as it turns out, because it is stunning. I've already played it though twice. I can't think of a single criticism against the game, and I consider myself fairly nitpicky.

I've been following the Art and Indie game scene for a while as they tend to produce some of my favorite games (Braid, anything from Team Ico), and Journey is another one for the list. The minimalistic approach is fantastic - I felt like I was watching storytelling in its purest form. The lack of words, names, dialogue sounds like it should produce a dulled experience but it doesn't; the game simply doesn't need any of it. Centuries of stories have conditioned us to understand exactly what the game wants us to do without having to be told "Do this." I never questioned how I was going to get to the mountain or why I was going there or what that shining beacon at the top was or what all those ruins were - I only knew I had a goal to be reached. It taps into something on an almost ancient level.

Which isn't to say all the usual game mechanics are lacking - not at all. The lack of elements only means that what you do have will stand out all the more if it's flawed. Luckily, someone must have spent long hours polishing every facet of this game. The visuals, the music, the mechanics - everything works together beautifully. The graphics alone are enough to evoke emotional responses, from an empty desert to the sun shining on the sand. I could stand around and look at it all day. I especially love the dusty lighting of the pseudo-water levels. But there honestly aren't enough words to describe the environment; you just have to play it and watch it move and shift and interact with everything. Videos and screenshots just won't cut it.

But seriously, every screenshot is this gorgeous.

The movement on the sand and of the cloth is a (seemingly) small thing perhaps, but if you know anything about animation, you should know how difficult it is to animate things with that kind of fluidity. Here, it all feels right - sand is supposed to shift and move when you take a step. Cloth ripples. Flight is supposed to be fun, uplifting. Nothing has been overlooked, no detail is too small to skim on the polish.

What I think really gets to people though it the immersion and the emotional response. There is no menu, no items to carry, no gamertags. It sucks you right into the world and doesn't let go until the journey is over (about two hours or so). I went into the game cold, so I didn't know about the multiplayer function. I wasn't sure if the fellow robed figures I met were part of the game or actual players - then, at the end, the screen  reveals who you have been playing with the entire time. The revelation was surprisingly touching for me; I don't usually play online, so it kinda took the rug out from under my feet as it were. I'm not used to players acting like decent human beings within a game XD

I mentioned earlier about the lack of dialogue; while there is no talking, there is a story of sorts. I won't go into it much, but it is a very interesting one, told entirely through images. Again, it does not cheapen the effect - you simply get it. If anything, speaking would dilute the effect. Even something simple as a name would have the potential to assign a gender, an age, race, species to your character. Ignoring all of those things makes for a universally accessible experience. The story is exactly what you interpret it as. Me, I read a lot about the rise and fall of civilization and quite a lot more about how people are bonded together. I've made my Internet rounds and there are plenty of reactions out there to read.

But there is one aspect I'm not entirely sure how to put into words, though I'll try my darnedest anyway. The game is about a lot of things, but if the title is anything to go by, it's about the journey most of all. The Hero's Journey stripped down to it's barest minimum. The game is full of moments that have this joy to them - like they exist for no other reason than to create something beautiful. It's just pure and simple fun to fly around and play with the scarf-banner-magic-carpet-dragon things (I have no idea what the things you encounter are, but they're damn cute). It's one of those things where the experience is what matters, not the game or the story or any of its parts. I don't know what else to call it except awesome.