I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this game. thatgamecompany has always had a special place in my heart since Flow, and I have an appreciation for games that set out to be something different. Despite this, I just didn't expect much from their latest game, Journey. Not sure what it was, maybe the fact that their demos just did not look very interesting. Man was I wrong.
Journey is one of the best things you'll play this year, and missing out on it is a crime.
Journey's visuals are beautiful. The game has this unique art style that really resonates. The thing is just amazing to look at. While playing, someone asked me "What are you watching?" and that certainly says something about it. Journey genuinely feels like you're watching some artsy Japanese movie. For some reason it reminds me of the movie "Spirited Away" even though it doesn't have much in common. Maybe it's because of that odd cloaked thing that creeps me out even to this day. Some of the setpiece moments are absolutely gorgeous, even enough so that you might get a little misty eyed over them (most notably the first scene where your character looks at the mountain from a hilltop that looked so good I may have cried a little). Visually, Journey is a masterpiece.
Journey's gameplay is simple. That isn't a bad thing. The game teaches you everything you need to know about playing the game in minutes. If it had complicated RPG elements or some kind of shooting mechanic I don't believe it'd be the same game. Some of the very barebones puzzles in the game are incredibly fun despite being easy. The coolest mechanic in Journey, though is the pseudo co-op in the game. Basically you are randomly partnered up with other players while you traverse the world. You do not see their name, you cannot talk aside from certain chimes your character can make, and once you get too far away from them they will disappear from your game world. The cool thing about it is how you don't really know who people are, yet you still get an idea as to the kind of people they are. Your brain makes assumptions based off of how they play and communicate, and it's genuinely interesting. During your quest, you can meet dozens of different players, or very few depending on how good you are at finding others and how well you stick with a single partner. If I had a single gripe, it'd be that once the game is over you see the other players name and it identifies who they are based off the symbol they made when they chimed. It is hard to know who is who if you didn't pay enough attention to the symbol they made (and I can almost guarantee you won't want to add everyone you met as a friend). This could have easily been fixed by also identifying the player by what area you were in with them. Other than that, I can't really complain.
Journey's story is ... interesting? It's hard to write about Journey's story. It's like talking about Yume Nikki's story, you just can't effectively. It's ambiguous as all hell. Not a single word is said and the only story elements are shown to you visually through Aztec-inspired art and some "cutscenes". Basically you are on a journey to get to some shooting star that lands on top of a tear-jerkingly epic mountain and things go from there. Not much else to talk about that is stone cold fact. What I CAN say is that I was genuinely interested with what was going on, despite being pretty simple.
Journey is an experience. It is a game, yes, but hardly. What it is more than anything is a stunning step forward for video-games as an art form. There are people who say that games aren't an art form, but I'd go as far as to say this proves them dead wrong (Hideo Kojima, I'm looking at you).
In all, Journey is a game that you MUST play. It is by far one of the best Playstation 3 exclusives, and I put it on the same level as masterpieces such as Shadow of the Colossus and Red Dead Redemption. thatgamecompany really did outdo themselves with this, and I really do hope to see more from them in the future. I genuinely do hate myself for waiting this long to play it. Journey is one of the best games of this year, and the best way to spend fifteen dollars that I can think of (aside from donating to charity or paying your bills).
NOTICE.
As of now there is a Journey: Collector's Edition and I highly recommend it. It comes with all of thatgamecompany's Sony games, Flow, Flower, and Journey, and three more exclusive mini games. It also gives you the soundtracks and art for all of these games along with some avatars and a free month of Playstation+. It's only thirty dollars and for that price it's a steal, certainly happy I bought it.