Journey

Every Devise and System Game Review: Journey

Lets go on a Journey

• Devise/ System: PS3
• Released: 2012
• Rating: E
• Genre: Platformer/ Exploration
• Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mF8KkDiIdk
• Meta Critic: 92/100 www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/journey
  

Plot Summary: You are walking, walking for miles upon miles, a desert landscape sprawls in front of you. The only way you can tell that you are actually moving forward is that your compass, you guide, the Mysterious object in the distantce appear to be getting bigger…

Review:

Astonishing, beautiful, a true masterpiece… no I’m not talking about Assassins Creed 4, I’m talking about Journey, a hit indie game exclusive to the PlayStation Network.

In Journey, developed by ThatGameCompany (TGC), the same indie developers who brought you such games as flOw and Flower, you play as a strange cloaked figure, walking/ running/ gliding through a desert land scape with only one goal: reach a mysterious mountain shaped object far off in the distance. Not selling it for you yet? Ok, here’s why you should play this game:

It’s Beautiful, once you have played this game it will be like looking at a drawing in Microsoft Paint compared to the Mona Lisa. You should not misunderstand me here, I’m not talking about graphics, frankly I don’t care how many pixels you cram into Connors 5 o’clock shadow, I’m talking about real beauty, real art, something you see and it has such a strong emotional effect on you, it captures you and holds you transfixed.

…

It’s as though the game reaches down your throat to you heart and just pulls that “Wow!” out of your mouth, and there is not just one “Wow!” moment but several, all equally as astonishing. If ever I was going to call a game a piece of art, it would be Journey.

It’s a social experience, not multiplayer exactly, as you are playing through your game you will see strangers in the distance, these strangers are other players, and you can meet these people, however the only way of communicating with them is via your controller where by pressing buttons you can create a series of pitched notes.

It is a truly unique and fascinating experience, you can instantly gel with some people and complete the game with them, however others that don’t take your fancy you can walk away from, and as you don’t know anything about them, you can never really put your finger on why…

Whats that?

It’s as long as you want it to be, the game does not outstay its welcome and is fairly short but sweet, lasting around 2 hours. However the more playthroughs of the game you do the longer your cloaked figure’s cloak becomes, allowing you to glide on the wind for longer and unlock new areas.

It’s cheap, about £10 for all this, or £40 for whatever EA is selling us these days, that’s not even a real choice, just buy this game! To balance the argument we will now take a look at the negative aspects of Journey… errrm… well as I couldn’t put it down for about 10 hours it made me hungry… that’s about it.

• Quick Summary: An amazing journey of a game!
• Favourite Bits: Art
• Worst Bits: Hunger and lack of sleep.
•  Similar Games: Flow
• Out of 10: 9
• To Buy or Not To Buy? : Buy