Journey: The Greatest Journey in Indie Gaming

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Journey’s (for the PS3) intro sequence where the red robed figure stands on a dune before a mountain, the destination, in the distance. The game was released on March 13, 2012.

Evan Rosser, Arts and Entertainment Editor

Journey is an indie game developed by Thatgamecompany and published by Sony as a downloadable game on the Playstation Network (only on the Playstation 3).  Journey is a unique game in the sense that it opens to a large, seemingly endless desert world where all that can be seen in the distance are dunes, ruins, and a large mountain. Assuming the role of a red robed figure, you wander the desert with no idea of your destination or story.

Although it boasts a large open desert world, the game progresses linearly through sections. Each one has its own open environment. You traverse the desert using some mystical power, supposedly in the scarf at the end of your robe, that allows you to float and call drifting pieces of fabric (that resemble your scarf) to you, which help propel you in the air. There is also another player who assumes the role of another robed being and is always silently present, helping you obtain a mutual goal.

Each section comes to an end at a rock formation where your character takes a rest and is shown a brief cut scene of a large white robed figure looming over you and a depiction of an old civilization and how it thrived. As you progress, you get closer and closer to the distant mountain seen in the beginning and you learn of a past civilization (through the cut-scenes) that once thrived but was eroded by the sand. How Journey tells this story is possibly the best part of the game, it’s all silent, no words, just music and sand. Even you and your partner must remain silent, unable to speak using any form of voice chat over the Playstation Network.

Journey is truly a different game that tells its story through visuals and a beautiful, yet mysterious world. It has earned its 92/100 score on metacritic, and is a game that’s simple and wonderful enough to make it worth trying for anyone.