“Journey” is a title that was released some time ago for the PlayStation 3 by ThatGameCompany. Recently, it was also released for the PlayStation 4, maintaining the same innovative format: inspiring simplicity and creativity, and presenting something truly different and unmissable. Discover in my review what I thought about the game and whether it’s really worth buying Journey!
In “Journey,” you control a mysterious wanderer whose mission is to cross a vast desert and reach the summit of a “mystical” mountain. The game offers only a few additions to the protagonist’s abilities—it is possible to jump higher and farther as you extend the length of the character’s scarf, and “calls” are used to activate specific items and mechanisms within the environment.
What stands out in “Journey” is not so much what it adds, but how it diversifies the gameplay without complicating things too much. The first part of the game is very reminiscent of another title by the company, Flower, where you must traverse an expansive desert by activating “pathways” in any order you choose and recovering pieces of cloth and glowing signals.
Although “Journey” is nearly perfect, there are still some details that may be bothersome: there is almost no true hero. For example, even though the desert in Journey is vast, it is very well defined. Instead of including an animation of the wanderer turning back toward his objective (a solution employed by many games), Journey uses invisible walls and convenient sandstorms that push the player back, preventing further progress.
The “hero” is constrained solely to his journey—not by his own will, but by the game’s design. This might seem like a minor issue, but in Journey the lack of an emotional response from your avatar undermines the player’s capacity to connect with and care about the game’s breathtaking desert.
In terms of multiplayer mode, Journey does an excellent job. The interesting aspect is that when you play online via the PlayStation Network (PSN), other players are automatically integrated into your game—they appear only as a subtle presence that you may choose to follow, or not.
Even though there isn’t a formal messaging system, wanderers can interact with each other through “calls” (as mentioned earlier). In multiplayer, these calls serve the dual purpose of providing impromptu alerts and helping to recharge the “magical scarf” that enables your character to jump.
Verdict
- Graphics
- Interface
- Entertainment
- Gameplay
- Features
Summary
In our opinion, “Journey” is an interesting and successful experiment in bringing simplicity into a completely innovative format. The game has serious problems in creating a truly captivating story and character, but ThatGameCompany managed to reach a kind of “peak” with Journey.
On the other hand, if Journey’s goal has always been to give the player genuine emotions above all else, then its beautiful visuals, its pace, its variety and even its shortcomings deserve our top score from our team.