If you’ve never played a video game
before, I recommend the first one you pick up is Journey. It’s an easy and approachable game suitable for beginners,
yet still has some challenge to veteran players. But above all, it represents
what games should be.
When you start out, there isn’t much
direction at first. You are told what controls you can use to move around and
how you can operate the camera to change your view of the surrounding
landscape. As you pan your camera, you see a mountain in the distance with a
light beacon shining brightly. That’s your goal. As you walk, you may notice a
couple of grave markers. These are the people who journeyed before you… and
failed. It warns you that your task will not be easy.
Eventually you find some scarf scraps.
The game prompts you to “Call” them. When you use Call, the scraps light up and
you acquire your first bit of scarf. You now have a new ability: float. When
you use the scarf, you soar into the air and fall down gently. As you acquire
glowing runes, you earn more length to your scarf allowing you to fly even
longer. This is an essential element to the game as it teaches players about
the importance of collecting these runes (they’re optional and not necessary to
complete the game). Without this, what incentive does one have to find more
runes and add more to their scarf?
The game encourages exploration, but
not too far. To keep the player on the main course, any time they venture
beyond the boundaries of the level, a powerful gust of wind blows them back.
It’s much better than an invisible wall that doesn’t make much sense. It feels
more natural like destiny is guiding you towards your goal. This way, the
player has a clear understanding of where they can go and where they cannot.
Each level introduces some new
mechanic of the game that’s easy to understand and intuitive to learn. You
aren’t given a ton of button commands to work with, just the float and Call
mechanics. Even if you lack a long scarf, the game accommodates by giving the
player several methods of floating such as banners. Banners are long tapestries
that glow when the player approaches them and act as a means of infinite float.
Players can effectively ride them so long as they are touching the banners. Some
banners help give you height and others work as bridges. The way you glide and
slide among them gives the game this magical feel to it.
You see several structures in the
world hinting at a past civilization. Players can climb some of them, but those
who have been good at finding runes will have enough power to float to the top.
It’s set up so that those who have been going forward can still accomplish a
goal, but for those who have been exploring and collecting can have a shortcut.
It’s a rewarding experience being able to bypass physical limitations such as
climbing.
Players will notice that the world is
relatively empty. There’s nobody else walking with you and there’s no sign of
life anywhere, until you find the scarf dragons. They are these creatures made
up of scarves that can fly around and make their own Call noises. It’s possible
to call one to you and hitch a ride. They become your allies in this desolate
world and then you have a sort of sub-goal to strive for on your way to the
main goal: free their friends. The soundtrack also starts to become more
noticeable at this time. Before then, music didn’t play. Now that there’s life,
music becomes more prominent.
This game is excellent at creating
moments. One of the best parts is after freeing many of the scarf dragons, you
come across a section that’s just sliding on sand. Earlier in the game, players
notice that they can slide down steep dunes. Briefly entertaining, but not
enough to work with. It’s as if the developers read the player’s mind and
thought “We can make this moment even better. Let’s dedicate an entire section
to sliding on sand.” This moment exists as a way to bring joy to the player and
remind them that it’s a game. It’s ok to have fun. In this section, you race
through the sand by sliding and weaving your way through ruins and structures
whilst keeping up with your newfound allies. There’s a sense of exhilaration
and competition, even though nothing happens if you win or lose. It’s also a
great opportunity to see the environment at sunset. The whole world is
beautiful and stunningly gorgeous. Yet, it all changes when you reach the end.
The lighting shifts dramatically from a hot red to a cool blue. The music stops
and the area you’re in is unfamiliar. You’ve never been in a place like this
before. What lies ahead?
As you trek on ahead you notice some
lights. They seem hopeful in this dark place, but some part of you wants to
avoid them. Why? You find out why soon enough when a metal dragon appears and
screams through the empty halls. Those things look dangerous. Let’s avoid them,
shall we? To further drive home the point that you shouldn’t mess with these, a
few scarf dragons are hanging out on a rock bathed in light. You want to greet
them, but a metal dragon comes in and devours them whole. Now you KNOW not to
be seen by these dragons. This is all done in game, by the way. No cutscene to
show you anything. As a player, you notice it because the level is designed so
that you have to look towards the event. There’s no way you can miss it (unless
you turn your camera, but you still understand what to avoid).
The music picks up again, but it’s
much more ominous. You try to stay out of the light from the sun shining
through and the light from the glows of the metal dragons. You saw what they did
to your friends. After navigating through, you spot a section that seems
unavoidable. Two dragons patrol it and you know you will get caught. But it’s a
sand slide, so maybe you can move faster than they can. Boldly, you take the
chance and are seen immediately by both of them. They get ready to charge and
you hope you can make it to the bottom before they reach you. It’s an
incredibly tense moment, however it’s set up so you have a close call. You
aren’t in any real danger in this part as you will always be fast enough to
reach the end. Still, your heart is racing from that moment.
You’ve earned a rest at this point, so
the game shifts to warmer lighting. This puzzle is easy to solve and designed
in such a way that if you accidentally fall, you can easily get back to where
you were. This huge beacon of light is in the center of this room, but you
gradually reveal more light by pulling levers. As more light fills the room,
you are given more scarf power to work with. In the light, you can fly forever.
As soon as you leave it, your scarf starts to run out again. It’s a nice change
of pace from the imminent doom from earlier. I wish more puzzles were like
this. Not in the sense of being this easy, but are more forgiving if you fall
down to an area that you already finished. You should be able to try again
immediately, not redo what you’ve already done.
The final stretch is possibly the
hardest part of the game. You are so close to your goal of reaching the
mountain, but the snow and wind makes it difficult. You move slowly, your runes
fade, your friends are frozen and using Call only defrosts them temporarily.
You feel truly alone in this world… but you have to keep going on. Despite all
odds, your goal is right there. Just a few more steps.
This section truly tests your
determination. Wind pushes you back unless you hide behind rocks, the metal
dragons come back and I swear at least one of them is designed to always find
you and rip off half of your scarf. There’s no way to replenish your runes, and
eventually, your scarf withers away. When you finally get past all of that, you
walk towards the light of the mountain. But as you move, you notice you’re
moving slower and slower. Just a few more steps and you’re there. But you
can’t. Your character falls and lies down in the snow. This is the end of your
journey…
But then the white prophets you had
seen before appear. They restore you to life and bring you into Shangri-La (I’m
guessing that’s the name of it). This is your reward for all of your hard work.
This place is wonderful! You have infinite flight from all of the scarf
creatures flying around, the music is wonderfully uplifting, the sky is a
beautiful blue and the scenery is phenomenal. And yet, it has to come to an
end. When you reach the crevice leading towards the beacon of light, the music
becomes considerably more sad. You journey is truly over, but you wanted more.
I swear I nearly cried getting to this part.
So why is Journey such a good game to start off with for a newcomer? First, the
simple control scheme makes it approachable. You’d be surprised at how many
people can’t operate more than a few buttons at a time. Having to think about
only a couple of things takes a load of stress off of a beginner. Second, it
doesn’t hold your hand through objectives and arrows pointing in the direction
you should go. It asks the player to explore everything on their own. Throwing
all of these words and tasks at the player expecting them to understand could
come off as confusing and overwhelming. That’s also why there isn’t a HUD. New
players may not recognize a Health Bar or a MiniMap. Third, the game teaches
players that in order to complete something, you have to push through a lot of
adversity. The earlier parts of the game are more focused around puzzle
solving, so there isn’t any danger. The inability to finish a puzzle is the
implied failure state. Later, players encounter the metal dragons which can
really mess you up. Still, you don’t die from them, but they can impede your
progress and if you give up, you won’t reach your goal. Finally towards the end
you have everything thrown at you, but you’ve come too far to give up now. A
new player knows that they shouldn’t quit just yet. Lastly, the game gives you
a big reward for finishing it. It’s not some simple “Good job” or a Trophy
unlock. It’s the goal you were aiming for since the beginning. A great game
will leave the player feeling like they not only finished a game, they straight
up conquered it.
That’s all I can say about Journey. If you haven’t played a video
game before, seriously play this one. It’s the perfect example of how a game
should be: long enough to engage the player, but doesn’t overstay it’s welcome,
has interesting mechanics and variety, instills emotions other than just joy,
conveys narrative (if it has any) in a non-intrusive way, and ends with a
fantastic payoff.
