Journey Review

Developer ThatGameCompany describes Journey as "an interactive parable, an anonymous online adventure to experience a person's life passage and their intersections with others".

Like the developer's previous offerings flOw and Flower, Journey is light on gameplay – at least in the traditional sense – and heavily focused on crafting a beautiful and moving experience for the player.

At the beginning of Journey you find yourself in a vast desert dotted with ruins, a great mountain looming in the distance. It is clear that this mountain is your goal and that you must travel towards it. Not long into your travels your red-robed character will find a scrap of material amongst the ruins that will form into a small scarf around your neck. You will then have everything you need to complete your journey from start to finish.

This scarf is magical and allows you to fly for a short period of time. Once you have flown for a short period you must recharge the scarf before you can fly again, which can be done at many recharging points through the game – most of which involve standing in the vicinity of the magical red material dotted around the world. As you progress you will find more material scraps which extend the length of scarf and the amount of charge it can hold before it must be refilled.

Aside from walking, sliding and flying, your only way to interact with the world is singing. You use this ability to activate obelisks, communicate with creatures and awaken dormant magical materials to recharge your scarf, form bridges or to carry you through the air.

The mechanics of Journey are surprisingly simple but it is not the gameplay that will leave the lasting impression, rather the experience that Journey offers the player. This is the hardest thing to describe – as although all players will walk the same path on their journey to the mountaintop the experience will affect each player in a different way.

Some players will be most wowed by the beautiful world in which Journey takes place. The locations are varied and range from shifting desert plains, fast-paced downhill slides, gloomy caves and finally the mountain itself. All locations are beautifully crafted and detailed, from the trail of footsteps left in the sand to the monster lurking in the darkness, every individual element serves to immerse you in the world. The musical score and sound effects are equally well done and serve to perfectly complement the experience.

As impressive as the beauty of the game world is, other players may be more moved by the story behind it. There is no dialogue or text and the player is left to interpret what they can from images shown to them by a mysterious figure at the end of each chapter, which offer some background into the world's history. Although a lot is left open to the imagination, the picture painted in these images is haunting and bleak and points toward a great historical disaster, but there is always a glimmer of hope suggested should the player reach their goal on the mountain top.

Another stand out feature is the extremely innovative multiplayer elements introduced in Journey. On the surface the multiplayer may seem limited, but it is these limitations themselves that make the multiplayer so unique and engrossing and it was this element that had the greatest impact on my experience.

As you progress through your journey you may, on occasion, stumble across a fellow traveller and the two of you may see fit to stick together – at least for a while. There are great benefits to travelling in a pair, notwithstanding the simple pleasure of having a companion to share the experience with.

By singing in the vicinity of your companion you can recharge their scarf and they can do the same for you. Working in unison you can even do this mid-flight, allowing the pair of you to fly great distances and great heights. By standing or walking close enough to touch each other both of your scarves will constantly recharge. There is also the obvious benefit of helping each other find hidden material scraps and solve puzzles to advance.

The limitations are that you have no way of communicating with your companion outside of singing. There is no voice support and you are not provided with your companion's SEN ID so cannot send them messages – their ID does not even appear in the 'players met' section of the XMB. You are also unable to invite friends directly into your game so can only ever meet players randomly.

This makes your companion almost completely anonymous to you – which ironically can serve to make the bond between you even stronger. I spent a large portion of my game travelling with a single companion. We stuck together like glue, we sang to each other to recharge while we walked, we explored hidden areas searching for material scraps and we huddled together in the darkness as great monsters flew overhead and we did all this without speaking a word to each other.

Once your journey is over you will be provided with the SEN ID's of those you met along your travels should you wish to thank them, send out friend requests or otherwise communicate. I chose not to. I shared a wonderful experience with my companion which was enough and I found I had no desire to spoil the mystery of his or her identity.

Your adventure through the world of Journey will be a brief one – lasting only 2-3 hours depending on the pace in which you travel. However, the experience and emotion will stay with you long after you reach the mountaintop and you will likely be happy to take the journey again a number of times.

Journey is a great achievement for ThatGameCompany, providing a rich, mature and moving experience that transcends the limitation of traditional gaming.