Journey

There are some games that gate overwhelming joy after accomplishment. Take Dark Souls, for example. That game uses despair, rage, curiosity and bravado to heighten the peaks of joy that comes when you overcome its many obstacles. Most games have an inherent design is made to reward players for a job well done.

So how do I explain Journey? There is no real challenge to it. There is very little positive feedback, outside of making your scarf longer. In fact, there is very little "game" here at all, at least in the traditional sense of the word. Yet it is one of the most compelling, joyous, stylish, and simple masterpieces to come along in a long time.

If I could pick one element that Journey uses to make my heart flutter, it is its sparseness. There is a certain simplicity to Journey's world that makes the little touches matter all that much more. The lighting on the sand, the flutter of fabric in the wind, the subtle waves of particles drifting past your feet. It all serves to draw you in to an abstract world that other games would only dream of.

And what an abstract world this is. There is very little story to speak of, save for a few static paintings that convey a story in the most primal sense. In fact, I would say that the lore behind the world is not the story Journey aims to tell. It, in fact, creates a world that players can be immersed in, and they can tell their own stories, of tiny moments and grand shots, and the people they meet along the way.

I mentioned Dark Souls earlier, and in fact, the multiplayer in Journey reminds me of that game in certain ways. It is, for the most part, completely anonymous. The only method of communication is your character's voice, of which you can alter the magnitude of the notes they sing. In Dark Souls, all of this added up to an air of mystery, of imposing warriors who work together so they can have an exciting story to tell afterwards. It is somewhat similar in Journey. The multiplayer truly alters your perception of the world. The story you tell is heightened by your companionship and the experience of being together in a lonely world. I feel like being with somebody in this game is essential to the experience. But that's the beauty of Journey: it doesn't pigeonhole you into its way of being. You can be in this world and tell the story alone, if that's what you want to do.

That's why Journey is a masterpiece. It doesn't feel like a series of events, a set of challenges to overcome and see that final cutscene. It feels like an experience, wherein you are traveling through a strange world guided only by stone and fabric. It is singular in its vision, and it executes its poetry marvelously, although it doesn't feel like it's executing anything.

It just feels like you are soaring through the air, that you are surfing across dunes, that, against all odds, you and your companion trudge forward together, your scarves fluttering in the breeze.