Ok first things first. if you have a Playstation 3 stop reading this review immediately and log into PSN and down load this game as quickly as your bandwidth allows. For those unfortunate readers who are not lucky enough to own Sonys premier home console beg , rob and steal, do what you must to play this game(Alternatively go to a friends house who owns the game...thats probably a better solution).
So you've all left now and are either at a friends house or on your own console so really there is little point in me continuing. However if there are any of you left allow me to tell you why I am so evangelical about this game.
For as long as I can remember the debate has raged on as to wether video games are genuine legitimate art form. Journey lies this debate to rest by ultimatly answering the question with a resounding yes.
Journey has no dialogue and no written narrative. There is no Complex array of slider ridden character creation screen with backstory selection and name entering. It starts in such an elegantly simply way. A cloaked figure stands alone in a vast desert. The scene is constructed of warm earthy oranges and yellows. Our androgenous protagonist is kneeling in the glistening sand they climb to there feet and we are subtly introduced the controls, simple, effective. This is now when Journey sets itself apart from its from other games as it introduces its objective system.
The game relies on one of the most basic human instincts, Intrigue, it relies on and plays with our curiosity to drive us on. Using almost ethereal visual cues, tomb stones shattered steps or sunken temples, it encourages you to explore just beyond the next horizon. Each laboured step draws you closer to the distant light emitting mountain. It soon becomes evident this is not just a Journey, this is a pilgrimage.
The key tool utilised by Santa Monica studios to comunicate the struggle of this unamed protagonist is the artful and genuinely breathtaking animation. When ascending a steep dune our character exerts every last iota of energy, there legs straining with every step as the terrain deformation allows for the sand to give way and crumble under their feet. Even down to the gorgeous way the charter dips their head to walk into the wind as the coarse sand skims of the peaks of dunes. One small but expertly exceeded element of the game is the way in which they keep player progression linear whilst maintaining the feeling of the nigh on infinite desert. if the player wanders to far and deviates from the path the wind picks up and howling sends the player tumbling head over heal back into the defined level. This simply implemented mechanic rids the game of invisible walls meaning the player is never snapped out from the reality of the games world.
In terms of how the narrative is told, its hard to discuss this without giving anything away and this is a game that really needs to be experienced in order to be understood. From haunting "belly of the beast" mid section to its genuinely enlightening ending this is a masterclass in visual story telling. Subtle paths are laid before you at the commencement of each level, hinting at the path you will be required to take. Kneeling before an angel these are presented to you by a series of hieroglyphic tableaus. Possibly hinting that you are adhering to some form of prophecy.
The game even has a expertly intergrated co-op system. Here player don't go into a match making lobby or sign in. You simply see other pilgrims on your journey the only method of communication is a series of chime sounds you can make to make each other aware of your presents. their only other function is that they can recharge your characters ability to jump. A depleting ability thats amount available is measured by the length of the characters scarf (the scarf almost acts as a boost bar). So together you are stronger in many ways but ultimately the choice of wether to work together or fly solo is your own.
I assure you this review barely even scratches the surface but it is hard to talk of this game without spoiling the genuine wonder you will feel if you play this game. I haven't even mentioned the games stunning soundtrack or the strange abstract creatures that inhabit Journeys world.
In my humble opinion however, this is possibly the game of this console generation. No its not 150 hours long as the likes of Skyrim are. Its not got the hollywood set piece moments of Uncharted or Call of Duty. But it does however have something which I have never experienced in a computer game, it has soul, like a Nina Simone song or Rembrandt painting it speaks to part of us with which we don't ordinarily listen, Our heart. I recently suffered from a bout of depression and this game was the single best piece of therapy I could of asked for. A comment not on the negativity of the perception of the modern world that most media seems to feed on, but a comment on the struggle that is being human, of hope and faith and i promise you if you play this game you will see this is not an exaggeration, this is an observation and what i hope is the dawning of a new era, where the medium I love so dearly grows up, matures and finds a meaningful, intellectual voice.
No comments:
Post a Comment