Journey (PS3) Reviews

[mattmatik]

What are your guys' impressions on the random co-op? You think it would take away from the experience if you were able to play through it with someone you knew? Like Muhammad mentioned, everything is open to interpretation and it sounds like (haven't got to the co-op part yet) that is what TGC intended.

HOPEFULLY I'll be able to get to it tonight. Wife and I actually have a night off together so we'll see. Any of you who live with someone where both of you work 12-hour night shifts and have kids...? It's a mess, let me tell you :laugh:

[_neutrino Veteran]

Have not had a chance to play the game however, if nothing else the game looks brilliant.

[AbandonedTrolley]

This thing is simply stunning. Just finished it took about a two hour run through with not much exploration. Dark room, headphones on and a nice big TV. Graphically and sonically it is just amazing. The flow of the material

especially in the storm sections

is some of the best I have seen as is the lighting as well.

Looking forward to another play at some point to go find some more bits I have missed and get a few more trophies.

Larry, I can certainly see what you mean about the dying in the snow part, I actually thought that it was the ending too and wouldn't have complained if it was. It did seem that the bright ending to it all was the rebirth/afterlife of the character though.

Do I feel ripped off by the ?10 price tag, certainly not, yes it is short (2 hours) but I feel that it was certainly money well spent and once again wouldn't hesitate in buying another game from TGC.

[shakey]

While the snow part could have been a fitting end I would have been happy with as well.... The afterlife/rebirth was just so fun and enjoyable. It really felt like a reward for going through what your character did. Me and the other guy I was with at the time, were able to just fly around like little fish swimming in an ocean. I felt that it was a very fitting end with that.

Was anyone else scared of those big flying machines? Especially the last part where you are supposed to slide past them? I stood at the entrance for about 10 minutes, just studying the flight path, and wondering... Is this what I should be doing, or am I missing another way? The tension as I slide past them was through the roof. And then running to the safety zone right after filled me with adrenaline.

As others have stated... The money spent on this was far worth it. Got a friend playing it right now while I work. Can't wait to see how he takes it, but I know he is already having a lot of fun flying around. Apparently, when you beat the game and start a new "journey", the first area will give you level access via white glowing globes of light that will take you to the different areas. Found that out when my friend went from the first level, all the way to basically the top of the mountain. I was like, " I don't think you should be here yet... I don't know what you did, but undue it. And had him just go back via "start-level select" option. But neat that it gives you the option to go around the levels and explore more.

[KoL Veteran]

Game is beautiful. If anyone think video games are not art they have to play this game.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

[neoadorable]

so I have to bide my time as a non plus member? When will we be allowed to spend our money on it? :wacko:

[AbandonedTrolley]

Although this is most likely meant as a joke, unfortunately that is the mentality of some people today when it comes to video games, they can't appreciate the fact that sometimes you don't need violence or have to drive at 200mph to enjoy a game. Flower was exactly the same, the amount of abuse that game got in forums and on YouTube was unbelievable, just because TGC tried something different and they didn't understand.

so I have to bide my time as a non plus member? When will we be allowed to spend our money on it? :wacko:

Next week :) Was 1 week exclusive for plus members.

Hopefully they will continue to create games on the PS3/4 but for now their exclusive tie-in with Sony is over.

[Nightz]

Just finished my first playthrough. What an amazing amazing experience.

[neoadorable]

so when is it available for the plebs? Its next week already, I paid for this over a week ago and its nowhere to be seen on my console, plus the store still says pre order. Nice one. For a title like this the whole process doesn't feel very Zen, have to say.

[AbandonedTrolley]

Never realised you actually pre-ordered it, wasn't even aware that was possible. I would expect it to appear on the Wednesday refresh then I guess.

[Nightz]

so when is it available for the plebs? Its next week already, I paid for this over a week ago and its nowhere to be seen on my console, plus the store still says pre order. Nice one. For a title like this the whole process doesn't feel very Zen, have to say.

The store doesn't update until later today, GCT. (Grace Chen Time)

[neoadorable]

oh yeah the store refreshes Wednesdays...thanks for that Trolley, that's fine then. yeah you can now pre-order stuff, i never really understood the need for pre-ordering digital content, but it's a cool concept, builds the anticipation.

Nightz - Grace Chen Time...epic!

[AbandonedTrolley]

oh yeah the store refreshes Wednesdays...thanks for that Trolley, that's fine then. yeah you can now pre-order stuff, i never really understood the need for pre-ordering digital content, but it's a cool concept, builds the anticipation.

Nightz - Grace Chen Time...epic!

No worries, enjoy the game!

I guess actually pre-ordering could be good if it worked in conjuction with PSN+ so that it would then download the moment of the refresh. Maybe that's something they are looking in to doing.

[Unrealistic]

Well, I ended up purchasing it and playing through it. I finished it a few minutes ago.

Would I have enjoyed it more for $10? No, but I still feel that $15 is pushing the envelope to what I want to spend for a linear, 2-3 play game. Having said all of that though, I would still give the game a 8.5 or 9 out of 10. The atmosphere, the emotions and the feeling of loneliness (or togetherness) was just absolutely breath taking.

I think the most surprising part of the end was knowing I had actually played/interacted with four other players. I could have sworn that the person I met towards the beginning was the same person until the end. We came up with our own way of conversing (or so I thought). I, like Larry, also felt that I was the leader.

I felt eagerness and happiness when I would find my partner, sadness when I lost them, and anger when he/she caused us to get

caught by the monster, causing us to lose our flying ability

. The lack of communication only further these emotions. If it had been 13 year old kid on Xbox Live, I'm almost certain I would have hated the game.

I also made the mistake and hovered over a spoiler from the thread, but misread it as I immediately stopped when I read the word

death

so the entire time I thought

that I was going to die.

It was a great shock to me when it didn't happen!

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Well, I ended up purchasing it and playing through it. I finished it a few minutes ago.

Would I have enjoyed it more for $10? No, but I still feel that $15 is pushing the envelope to what I want to spend for a linear, 2-3 play game. Having said all of that though, I would still give the game a 8.5 or 9 out of 10. The atmosphere, the emotions and the feeling of loneliness (or togetherness) was just absolutely breath taking.

I think the most surprising part of the end was knowing I had actually played/interacted with four other players. I could have sworn that the person I met towards the beginning was the same person until the end. We came up with our own way of conversing (or so I thought). I, like Larry, also felt that I was the leader.

I felt eagerness and happiness when I would find my partner, sadness when I lost them, and anger when he/she caused us to get

caught by the monster, causing us to lose our flying ability

. The lack of communication only further these emotions. If it had been 13 year old kid on Xbox Live, I'm almost certain I would have hated the game.

I also made the mistake and hovered over a spoiler from the thread, but misread it as I immediately stopped when I read the word

death

so the entire time I thought

that I was going to die.

It was a great shock to me when it didn't happen!

Nice man, I really am glad to hear you decided to pick it up. It truly is a game I think all gamers should experience. I definitely am going to play it again, and possibly sometime soon.

[neoadorable]

what a wonderful game. So smart and touching. Journeyperson must be the most awesome game character in recent memory, I love the guy, or girl I suppose. Really hope they release an avatar pack soon. If you haven't done so yet, buy this game.

[shakey]

I've actually played through it about 5 times now. Still love it and still trying to see if there is anything I've missed.

[Lingwo]

Just had my first Journey. While it is short and possibly not worth the ?10 i paid for it. It is still a good game and everyone should at least try. Some of the vistas you see in this game are beautiful.

I did laugh at one point where my co-op partner kept

getting caught in the spotlight and kept getting hit and losing his scarf. By the end of that section i had this really long scarf and he had nothing haha

Is it just me or was the music brilliant in this game too? It reminded me of some of Kow Otani's work in SotC.

[neoadorable]

defo worth the investment. Playing the whole thing with a companion was amazing, shows you gamers can be civil and courteous when they want to. This game really moved me, by the time we were walking into the ending I was crying like a baby.

[Boxster17]

Have played it twice through so far and love it. Played it shortly after it came out for PS+ and will probably play it again this Sunday. It's amazing how they can do so much with what can appear to be so little on the surface at times. Still can't get over the fact that after my first play through I somehow managed to meet 10 people on my journey, and I never would've guess it was that many while playing. Did a lot more exploring my second playthrough and managed to find just about everything by that point, though some of those were hidden in some clever spots.

First playthrough took about 2hrs as I was generally trying to stay with my fellow journeyman, though my second playthrough while exploring probably took another 30mins on top of that as I was pretty much covering everthing. Definitely a game I recommend for others to play, and the length is something I've found to be perfect. It's just the right length where you can complete it in one sitting without trouble, which you really need to do to get the full effect of everything. Game is pretty high up on my all time favorites list, just never experienced a game like this before.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

How Journey Changes Everything and Nothing

UC Berkeley linguistics students explore the limitations and the potential of Journey's multiplayer communication system.

Journey is a game of subliminal constructs. Its world serves as an artistic interpretation of basic human emotions--comfort, curiosity, and wonder embrace the warm hues of an arid climate while cold, spartan lands conspire with a seemingly insurmountable feat to suffocate players with fear, despair, and isolation. Its characters are shadows, a reflection of humanity, beings that are relatable in structure, but somewhat foreign in movement; their chirps are oblique sounds that conceal who or what they really are.

It's the vagaries produced by this mode of communication that are of particular interest. To be sure, the alliance of strangers in Journey enhances its intrinsic emotional characteristics--loss, triumph, fear, and even frustration have greater impact when shared with another being, regardless of status. But is there more to glean from the corresponding chatter that occurs amid Journey's windswept, decrepit vistas than what initially appears? Is it a language? Is gender a factor? Is it even complex enough to use as a model for games beyond Journey?

A class of UC Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students tackled these and other topics by viewing a series of short clips (generated and presented by GameSpot) featuring significant exchanges between players at various points in the game. The first video highlighted a very real problem in a virtual world: What happens when one player doesn't engage the other? An obvious answer is that normal social concerns, such as shyness or just plain lack of manners, still pervade communication even when presented in its most basic form. The transition into physical gestures, much like a bird, when audio cues no longer work was also a surprising side effect of Journey's limitations.

First Contact

From the students' perspective, the first clip served as an introduction, provoking questions about Journey's characters and mechanics and the benefit of playing cooperatively. The second clip illustrated more frequent, but scattered, exchanges that highlighted an interesting quirk in Journey's version of first contact--a momentary standoff where participants size each other up and discover how and why chirps happen.

Let's Go

As bonds form in Journey, so does a more formal use of communication. The third clip revealed the first instance of a goal-based conversation, albeit a foolish one, that developed out of a very basic form of chirps that probably didn't carry any significance without a gesture to add some indication what was about to occur. Also of note: When one player recognized the folly, there was an effort to bring attention to a secondary objective by using repeated, short chirps--one of the most frequent and easily identifiable uses of Journey's communication system. The students also made note of the need for positive and negative tones to establish commonalities that are essential for language.

A Breakthrough

Outside of its bond-forming qualities, the most stirring argument for Journey's implementation of sounds as its primary interaction tool is the articulation of specific needs. The following segment was a primary example--one player not only stopped the other from proceeding through the level, but also conveyed a precise request. This was also the first instance of replication: players attempting to map phrases like "thank you" and "you're welcome" to Journey's chirps via syllable counts. But were the students convinced that this could develop beyond trophy acquisition and similarly straightforward goals into more complex exchanges?

Small Talk

There was some agreement that common goals create a space for chirps to exist in a meaningful way, but what was the significance of players chatting without an explicit task at hand? Was this communication, or was it a metagame that formed to fill what was admittedly a slower-paced slice of the game. Additionally, from that, was it possible to identify gender? It's frequently cited that males are highly competitive in gaming scenarios, so could we infer that the desire to create a "bigger" sound was representative of often-generalized gender characteristics?

A Broken Bond

The final clip was selected as a display of how communication and emotion intertwine in Journey, specifically in reference to sadness--at the end of the clip, a player musters two solemn chirps, lamenting the loss of the other player within the gameworld. At this point, it was clear to the class that much of the interpretation was merely a projection of the thoughts and language abilities of the player holding the controller at the time. The session concluded with several questions posed to the students. How much of the chirping is deliberate communication? How much of it is instinct? Is this more like the way babies talk?

[Unrealistic]

No offense, but the link above is utterly stupid. They watched four spoon-fed video clips and then gave their "thought provoking" analysis? At least play the game.

[neoadorable]

hey Boxster, had the same feeling. Thought it was only a couple of people, and only one of them I played most of the game with. Then the credits told me it was actually five people. Guess it counts folks who join the session and quickly leave.

And its journeyperson, Boxster. Journeyperson :rofl:

[Lingwo]

I mentioned how great the music is in this game.

Just saw this posted on kotaku. Brilliant piece of music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgASRvG1pws