Journey Review

Journey is an indie game developed by ThatGameCompany, the same people behind masterpieces such as Flower and Flow. It is the Journey of a mysterious triangular shaped character, who you play as, crossing a vast desert while collecting cloth and ultimately trying reach your goal; a temple on top of a mountain. Confused yet?

ThatGameCompany’s main focus is always simplicity, Journey is no different. When you first start the game you will be greeted by sand dunes and a prompt to ‘start a new Journey’ nothing else. Controls are simple too, you can turn the camera by moving the right analog stick, or alternatively you can use the six-axis motion sensor to move the camera (yeah, that thing that Sony bragged about and then almost instantly forgot about). This will be prompted by a basic tutorial telling you to tilt your controller, again these guys love simplicity. This will be followed by another simple prompt to move your left stick to move your character. You will also earn two additional abilities later on which will allow you to sing or fly. The former allows you to communicate with other players as well as being able activate cloth and altars from a distance.

The flying ability is determined by the length of your scarf. The longer your scarf, the longer you can fly, simple enough. To increase your scarf, you need to collect silver crystals scattered throughout the world. When the energy of your scarf runs out you will no longer be able to fly until you find some cloth and sing near them or you can stay near another player which will recharge your scarf, this makes it an effective strategy to always stay near a player when you find them.

So this brings us smoothly onto the multiplayer aspect of our ‘Journey’. Whilst you are playing, you may find a companion who can wander the desert with you. Although the game never opens up to communication with other players – you will never know their PSN name, nor will you ever be able to talk with them and work out strategies – the connection is most definitely there. The games sing mechanic will quickly become the most effective means of communication. As you work together, a bond will quickly form and you will end up wanting to help each other get through each of the different stages – I actually got scared a couple of times when I lost where my partner was. But if you do feel the need to leave your partner you can always walk away from them and the game will disconnect you from them – but keep in mind, there is a trophy for beating the game with the same partner for the majority of the game. There’s no other incentive to communicate with other players, you may simply decide to wander past them as if it was someone on a busy high-street or you may want to share your experience with other players. It entirely depends on your personality.

Visually, the game looks fantastic; straight away you can tell that this is a PS3 exclusive title. Journey is filled with visual variety that really adds the sense of progression, when you start the game you’re climbing over the giant dunes of your curious starting, and the next minute you’re cautiously making your way through the dark and eerie temples. As bad weather sets in, the sense of weariness conveyed through the controller is outstanding. The musical backdrop fades away to highlight the thud of your footsteps which is emphasized by the rumble through the Dualshock 3 controller. Emotion is something that is definitely present in Journey. This is the type of game that can make the hairs the back of your neck stand up multiple times throughout the fairly short play time.

This is a game that makes you feel. The sense of place is staggering, from the build-up of winds that blow around in the game’s early surroundings to the sense of terror in the later stages of the game as mysterious mechanical cloth-eating serpents that hunt for you and your partner.

Conclusion
Games like Journey don’t come often. It may be a downloadable title but it is most definitely a PS3 title on par with the likes of God of War and Uncharted as an example of what the PS3 can do. It may only be about 2 hours long and it may have a fairly steep price depending on how you look at it (£9.99) but nevertheless Journey is an experience that every PS3 owner must own. 9/10.

nicely done

Cheers. I forgot to mention that this is my first ever review,so if you have any advice/constructive criticisms it would be much appreciated.

Very well done mememe, would love to see more of these around the forums. I might even write one myself.

Very nice!
I agree with panda would love to see more reviews on the forums.
You should add categories you rate the game on, rather than just an overall 9/10.
Fun factor, value for money, visual quality, overall etc

Thanks for the enjoyable read!

As an appreciation of gratitude, I gave you Karma.

rb183gmr wrote:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Scores in any kind of review should be kept as vague as possible. The only reason they're so prominant in the big reviewing sites is because they have to find a way of somehow flattering every game they review (so "the game's shit but looks pretty sometimes: 8/10 for graphics") to bring in the ad money.

I'm not even happy with using /10 scores, where a 8/10 and 9/10 can often be interchangeable.

Stranger wrote:

hmm, i see your point.



Then how will i know if a game is for me if it isn't rated out of 10 in numerous categories that i care about :O
^Sarcasm^

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll make sure to incorporate some of the things you've said in future reviews.

maltar7 wrote:
<3

If you are willing to do more of these reviews, we can make a subforum for it. Also: I'll promote quality content like this on the Hupit twitter to get more people checking the forums out.

I'd be happy to do these, however, the new game supply is drying up, in fact, the last game I bought was skyrim.

I can write fairly good reviews, but I suspect all these reviews shall be of new games?

This actually looks like a game I'd enjoy...

Too bad I only have an XBOX