The greatness of this game cannot be overstated. In fact,
many other reviews have expressed the game's undeniable brilliance. So I'll refrain from adding another, similar rehash of the games mechanics to the mix. Instead, I'll tell my specific experience with the game - what moved me about the Journey?
This review will contain spoilers.
I started the game as a lone, cloaked figure in the desert with no direction or guidance other than a huge mountain in the distance. Seeing no other option, I started walking towards the mountain. The lonely music and haunting sound effects really sold the illusion of isolation. Could I really be the only living being in this beautiful, barren wasteland?
After traversing a few of the games basic puzzles, about 15 minutes into the game, I see another figure in the distance. At this point I'm so excited to simply interact with something other than sand, so I quickly rush over to investigate. It's another character who looks just like me! It turns out that this is another real-live player playing the same game. Journey doesn't allow for voice or text chat - there is only a single button designated for communicating, and it issues a singular beep. I offer a "hello" beep to my new friend, and he offers the same back to me. I walk back to the critical path, hoping he follows, and he does! Nice! Now I have someone to hang out with.
As we continued through the barren desert, cold underground caves and finally, up the peak of the mountain, we never parted ways. We spent the entire two hour journey side by side. And I didn't even know his name. There would be times where I would need to step away from the game for a few minutes, and my unnamed partner would wait patiently for me to get back. When his avatar became still for a few minutes, I returned his kind patience with the same.
This patience was something I've never experienced before in online gaming. We both had the ability to just keep going without the other one, but we always waited for one another. Yes, there is a gameplay benefit to staying close in that it keeps your ability to fly fully charged, but I think it was more than that. I felt a personal responsibility to stay with this guy. If he disappeared off the screen for too long, I began to panic - backtracking to find out where he was. At one point a gigantic stone dragon begins hunting the characters. In our first encounter with Journey's only enemy, it attacks my partner, sending him flying hundreds of feet in the air and crashing down into the sand.
"No!" I yelled desperately. I ran over to him as fast as possible, issuing several quick beeps, saying "are you OK?" He responded with a couple of slow beeps. He was still alive, and in fact, you cannot die in the game, but the panic I felt when I saw him get hurt was real, and the emotion was more genuine than any other I've felt while playing a video game. This is what kept me desperately clinging to my controller for the entire experience. Somehow, without a single word uttered between us, we were bound to each other.
If you'll allow me to don my hipster hat for a minute - Journey is a metaphor for the lives we live. Riding solo is a lonely existence. Yes, you can make it through life on your own, and you can go at your own pace, and spend your resources however you like. But not only is it harder physically, it's emotionally draining as well. Having a partner and someone you care about makes life infinitely easier, even if you have to share resources and compromise from time to time, you become emotionally invested in something. However, that emotional investment is dangerous. Seeing your partner get hurt or even die is much more difficult and painful than the pain of going it alone could ever be.
To me, living life with another person is worth every compromise you have to make. Relationships are why we are on this Earth. Experiencing life together - the good and the bad. It's better with another person.
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