Journey's Journey Between Two Strangers

Play this game ASAP

Judging from Thatgamecomapny's track record, it shouldn't be much of a surprise when I say Journey is fantastic. The small studio has managed to push out some of the most refreshing and overall engaging games since I started gaming, yet Journey manages to surpass all expectations I had for the studio. In a recent article by Jim Sterling, a plea was made to refrain from using the word experience when describing “art” games, but to do so would simply detract from from the overall explanation of just why Journey is so damn good.

Yes, Journey is a game, a very good one at that, but as a whole, it's an experience. It's the kind of experience where you set aside a portion of your day to do nothing but play the game, only because you enveloped yourself so deep within the world of Journey that you forgot what time it was. It's the kind of experience where nothing around you matters, even if your dog is being an asshole and taking a massive sh*t in front of you, only because Journey is capable of such deep immersion that nothing around you matters anymore. It's also the kind of experience where you find yourself feeling such a deep level emotion that you end up connecting pieces of the game to your own life without even realizing it.

Journey is the full package, providing enjoyment on so many levels that it becomes near impossible to pinpoint each and every one. Although, one level manages to stand out more than the rest.

Journey makes even the loneliest place a beautiful one

As a single player experience, the world of Journey is a lonely one. Everything you do, you do for yourself. Upon my first play-through, I decided that involving myself with other players would do nothing but detract from my overall experience, I was selfish. I wanted the world of Journey all to myself, while failing to realize the importance of including another. The first play-through was still an incredibly moving experience; something that I plan to take with me for the rest of my life, but on my second play-through, something I've never felt from a video game came to fruition. 

Within the first few scenes of the game, other players begin to make an appearance in the world of Journey. You have two options, confront them or ignore them. Even if you ignore them, they still have the option of following you throughout the world, making for some incredibly interesting love/hate relationships. Being my second play-through I immediately confronted the first person I saw and began our journey. This spur-of-the-moment decision soon became the best choice I've ever made in a video game.

At first we simply lead each other around, activating the few puzzles we needed in order to progress, but within minutes we began to communicate. There's no voice communication in Journey, so we made do with what we had, a chirp. In Journey, the character you take control of has the ability to unleash a chirp, which activates objects around it. Rather than using this just as an activation tool, we found it best as a way to communicate. In the beginning we released a few friendly chirps, saying hello. No, I'm not certain the other player was actually saying “hello”, but the more I played, the more I began to understand them as a person, elaborating our simple chirps into something more. 

The world is never fully explained why it's the way it is, this is up to you

The further into the game we progressed, we began to use the chirp as a mechanism to notify each other that we were ready to progress. At some point in the game, this simple gesture began to evolve into what I believe to be a very personal friendship. No longer did I feel alone, I knew that my friend was there by my side. Up until the very end.

If I was stuck, they were there to help me and vice versa. If I wanted to explore, they tagged along while and we looked across the vast landscape side-by-side. It was a shared experience unlike anything I've ever felt. As this evolution of friendship progressed, I began to feel something that I never thought possible from a video game, I genuinely felt a deep rooted love for my friend. I no longer wanted to complete the Journey, because I knew how it ended. Instead, I wanted to stay behind while we enjoyed the world Thatgamecompany provided us, for the hope that we could avoid the inevitable.

There's a particular point in the game (yes, spoilers are involved here, so skip ahead until you see the next bold notification) in which you must make your way through a frozen landscape. As you limp forward while grasping for your last bit of energy, you slowly understand that this is the end, there's no turning back and there's no moving forward, your time is up. During my lonely play-through I definitely felt a deep level of despair, but being accompanied with a friend made this moment somewhat bearable. I knew that whatever happened we would stay by each other's sides As we both made our way through the snowy-scape, we remained close, both physically and emotionally. We made sure to stay close, almost as if we felt that by staying close our warmth would keep us alive.

Even with the companionship, I still felt a sense of despair, so in order to gain comfort I began to let out small chirps, reassuring them that everything would be okay while also hoping they would do the same. The further we got, the weaker our chirps became, yet we still kept pushing each other forward. Finally, our Journey through the snow came to an end as we both collapsed. 

Yes, video games have stirred up my emotions in the past. I've definitely teared up more times than I can count throughout my gaming career, but I've never fully broken down before. At this point, I was quite literally sobbing like a child (yes, I'm admitting to this and I don't care). While this wasn't the end of our journey, I felt like I had lost someone very dear to me. I wanted to reach out and comfort them and let them know everything was going to be okay, that this wasn't the end, but I couldn't, and I was left feeling useless. They were my most important asset throughout the game and I felt that I had failed them. I wanted so very badly for this moment to be different, I wanted our journey to be a success, but I knew deep down where we were was inevitable. Thankfully, this wasn't quite the end. Thatgamecompany was kind enough to not leave us feeling like all hope had been lost, they gave us a chance to fully express our feelings with each other during one last hoorah.

(SPOILERS ARE OVER) The final act is something of pure celebration, almost as if the game recognizes it's achievement of connecting two complete strangers. The sense of danger completely evaporates as the world opens into a bright and beautiful landscape. As we both jumped through the air and chirped, we knew our Journey was close to an end, but it didn't matter. We were once again able to provide each other with the companionship we needed and deserved. It felt like I was reunited with a long lost friend and the world was offering us a second chance at friendship. Together, we completed our Journey leaving a sense of accomplishment, but most importantly a sense that we would hold onto this moment for the rest of our lives.

Journey is a game meant to be played by two people, there is no doubt about it. You might enjoy the game as a single player experience, but the game truly shines with companionship. It's truly incredible how the limited interaction can provoke the level of attachment Journey provides. It's obvious that the chirp was intended for communication uses, but the subtle nature of this communication provides the player with enough room to input their own feelings into the noise. You begin to pull from your own life experience in order to put meaning into that chirp. While your friend may be intending to say one thing, your own self allows you to translate it into your own meaning.

Journey is a beautiful journey, it pulls from every sense of the word experience and runs away with it flawlessly. While Journey is truly a fantastic game, the level of emotion the game provides is unlike any other. Journey provides players with a chance to walk away with something new, something they can look back upon and reflect on what it means, allowing for endless interpretation. 

Ultimately, for myself, Journey began as a shared experience with another individual while slowly evolving into a self-reflection into who I was as a person. While I held a deep love for my friendship gained throughout my journey, I began to realize that I made their actions read they way I wanted them to. They may have been total jerks, but I read their actions in a completely different light, I read their actions as the way I would treat others in the situation. I learned more about myself than I ever thought possible from a video game, and it's goddamn brilliant.