Journey is a very unique game that not only popularised the 'Indies' as games worth playing but also inspired other games such as Abzu. It combines a relaxing gameplay, with lovely soundtracks and astonishing art style.
This is the title that inspired other indie titles around it's era such as Little Nightmares, Cuphead and
ofcourse Abzu that the use of little to non dialogue and alot of imagery can make for a unique story telling.
In other words it's one of the first to popularise the Wordless Games.
During the game, the player get's to control of a nameless traveller (the robbed Figure) who seems to be stranded in the middle of a desert. The Players don't get to know what happened to him and how he ended up up there.
Instead the gameplay begins, by allowing the player to move through the desert freely. It has no limitation as to where the traveller can go. However, the game makes sure to show the player the giant sand mountain which eventually
anyone playing the game will visit. Once they reach that, which is basically the first 100meters straight (Unless the first thing to do is move backwards). Reaching it will reveal a fiant mountain in the distance with a light
falling on top of. This is basically the location that calls over for the traveller. And thus the 'Journey' begins for the traveller to try and reach out the mountain. The desert is filled with a decent variety of creatures that
the player should try to avoid, as the majority of them are not there to help the player but to stop their adventure. Sometimes the players might come across other travellers. These other travellers are actually other online
players who re on their own Journey. It is proven that the other travellers are official players who also happen to be around that point of the game. The two players cannot directly talk through the chat, and the only way to work together
is through the communication in game and their actions in game. Each of the two can choose to follow the other or simply take their own way after a certain area. If two players play together till the end of the game or at any time the player
reaches their goal, they will be welcomed with a screen that will reveal the Player ID of the player they met during the game. It's a unique form of Co-op and very random, as players cannot send an invitation to their friend to join and meeting
others is random. When playing ofline or if the connection to the web is lost while playing the game will replace the players with AI.
Since the traveller goes through deserted locations on their quest to reach the mountain the developers had a fun time designing areas and items that might give the player a fair ammount of 'lore'. The leves are very different with each other,
some of them have caves, others have ruins, temples and ofcourse different environments which add further difficulty and gameplay elements such as Snow. The environment interacts with the traveller in a very natural way. The sand forms the path
based on the footsteps the player take, in other places it simply goes down heel when air is applied and over all acts very natural. The ruins although destroyed have an amazing ammount of details on them and in fact some of them, whether or not are
outside or inside a temple have hidden images that the traveler can expose that indicate some story events that took place in the world. There's plenty of stuff that the diver can interact with. First things first, interacting with symbols that can
be found around the maps, grand the traveller more power by expanding their scarf. The scarf allows the traveler to use transedence which basically allows the hero to use other abilities such as temporar flight. The longer the scarf the more abilities
the traveller can use. The second 'collectable' the player can interact with is the previously mentioned Ancient temples that upon interaction will reveal more about the universe of the Journey.
The Gameplay of Journey is very simple, and it can be enjoyed by anyone, despite their gaming experience. It offers really few commands but enough to justify it's existence. The plot of the game and the goal of the player can be summarized in one
simple sentece, The journey of the traveller to reach the top of the mountain. The player can move around in the area, control their camera, jump around and emmit a certain sound(the interaction). The longer the button of the scream is held
the louder the sound will become. No words are spoken loud and no words appear anywhere within their world. As mentioned above the player can fly thanks to the trancedense cause from the traveller's magical scarf. In order to expand the scarf, the
player have to interact with symbols and when used, they can recharge it by interacting with flying pieces of red cloths. Interacting with various cloth items around the map will make them form bridges and other things that the player can use to manuver
in other areas. Interacting with 'bridge cloth' and generally expanding the scarf allows the player to explore areas that they couldnt do before. Some levels focus on certain gameplay elements. To elaborate some requie simple walk, other puzzle solving to
create bridges, others rely on the ability of the player to fly, others are stealth section where the player should remain in the blind spots of monsters moving in the sand or ground, others taking cover from strong winds that blow towards the player
and finally other requires the player to move towards areas with fire in order to keep the traveller warm to continue his journey.
The game is unique to each genre. The player can spent as much time as they wish in order to discover the amazing lonely world developed by that Game Company. The graphics as mention are fascinating
and the feeling of realism is kinda scary. Everything seems to be alive in a natural way. The sand seems to be falling down normaly when the player moves towards a direction. The glowing effect is also worth mentionning
Despite the world being consisted majorily of sand, the game NEVER feels boring, empty or lazy designed, as there's plenty of things to explore. The game combines the beutiful scenery
with amazing relaxing soundtracks and always escorted with the symbol yet effective gameplay. In temrs of it's length the game is not long, in fact it shouldnt take more than 4 hours to travel from the first part of the game
to the last. Nevertheless, the pacing of each player differs, some might take their time looking around the temples and the stones while others will go straigh ahead for the end game and climb the top of the mountain.
This is a video showcasing and reviewing the Game