Story
You take the role of a weird "robed" figure, which seems to be made completely out of said robes, that is on a journey to the top of a glowing mountain. Along the way, you and this robe get glimpses through tapestries about what happened in the world and what you are suppose to do. Outside of that, the overall story is up to personal interpretation based on your own journey and what you can get from the glyphs and drawings on said tapestry.
Hated
I need to get this out of the way first. Journey is short. Extremely short. It also kind of just ends like the Sopranos with a random fade out without explanation or closure. How short is it? Well I spent my first play through searching, exploring and aiding another online player and I still made it through the whole game in an hour and a half. I did enjoy the time I was playing, but I was left wanting more that will never be there. I wanted to lose more time to this game but when I can play the whole game 3 times through in half a weekend afternoon there is some issue there. This is especially true when you ask for $15 out the gate.
Next up is the multiplayer. I get that the design of the game was to place people into a huge and foreboding world where they don't know who they might encounter, but sometimes I like to play with people I know. It's a great attempt at something new in gaming, but you'll never have the option to play with someone you know is competent let alone know who the competent player you randomly met is. If one of the points is to be there to help each other why take away all forms of communication? Not to mention letting the "strangers" truly meet after the game is over. The first person I ran into while playing seemed like a player I would have preferred to place in my PSN friends list while the second was someone I would never want to play with again. Like I said, it was a good attempt at something new but I don't think it works well for all gamers.
Lastly, maybe it is just my impatience, but there were quite a few instances where the "traveling" was drawn out for no reason outside of maybe trying to make the game seem a bit longer. In one particular scene I was forced to walk up a hill for what seemed like minutes only to flow into a cut scene of my robed character walking more. This wouldn't have been so bad except that there was nothing but wind and a bland scene around the entire time. In a game that is hurting for time, it doesn't help to "bore" your players with extended walking just to pad on a few minutes. It's kind of like adding in an extra 20 minutes of the actors walking in The Lord Of The Rings films just to enforce the fact that you are giving them more.
Loved
Plain and simple Journey is one of the most visually and audibly stimulating games I have played in quite some time. I would have to be a soulless creature without emotion to say that nothing was spurned in my head during and after playing through the game. (Note: I am indeed soulless and without emotion.) The way that the music played off the visuals of the game world and vice versa struck cords I forgot I had. The funny thing about this as well is that neither are really all that ground breaking when comparing to other titles, but they were designed to blend so perfectly it truly fools the mind into something beyond. In today's gaming, it is tough to do with a small budget/team, but it was pulled off here.
While personally I wasn't immersed into the game as many others there is something to be said about it being able to immerse people who aren't even playing the game. By no means am I saying I wasn't sucked into the game, but the big thing to note here is that my girlfriend and kid where sucked in as well and they were not even touching the controller. Journey somehow found a way to tap into everyone at once and draw them in. In fact it not only had them watching intently, which is odd for the kid, but brought my GF to tears a few times just from the sheer beauty of everything. While the game doesn't have co-op built into it, it sure had elements that made it an at-home multiplayer experience even if only one person is controlling things.
Moving away from visuals and such which is a strong selling point here, what about the actual game play? I would be lying if it was not mostly a game about walking from one place to another. It is. It also has a few great platforming elements mixed in as well as a form of resource management. You can only jump while your scarf is charged up and even then it slowly drains as you fly or are freezing. This mixes in a bit more of the exploration of the game so you can lengthen said scarf and/or find other "robe" creatures to help recharge your scarf. It is quite fun to try and find the best combinations of creatures and personal flight to move about. Not to mention a great break from walking.
Overview
So in the end, should you drop your funds here? That's iffy in my book and that is based on the starting price point. Personally I think $15 is quite steep for the length of game here. Yes there is a replay value but it too is not worth the full price either. Now if it was being sold for $10 I'd be a bit more on the "buy it now" wagon. It is a great game/experience but I'd personally wait for a price drop. It is worth the time to play through once or twice but not for $15.
If the price ever does come down to $10 or lower then totally download Journey. At that price point I don't think you will feel cheated at all. I just know that personally if I am paying a quarter of a full retail game price I deserve something that equates to that.
Journey was developed by ThatGameCompany and published by Sony on March 13th 2012 exclusively for the PS3. It currently retails for 14.99 on the PSN. A copy of the game was supplied by the publisher for review purposes. I played through the game three times, once solo and twice with another player.
