Journey was created by Thatgamecompany in 2012 and is considered an indie game. Like other games of the walking sim genre, in Journey, you are free to walk the avatar around the world, which changes when you complete various tasks. According to various blog posts, this game can be enjoyed by players 6 and up. When you first enter the game, you are able to start a new journey (or continue one if you have already used the game before). After entering the game, you are first shown an animation of a point of view of flying over the dunes. I was honestly confused by this because it was a bit long and I wasn’t sure what information I was supposed to be getting from the animation. Next, you are dropped in the dunes and able to control an avatar. There are no instructions to the game at any point and the only text that has popped up on the screen so far for me is the word “Journey”.
After walking around a bit on the level, I found two posts next to each other with ribbons(?) or scarves(?) streaming off of them.
posts in the distance
After going close to these posts, there was a quick animation, the work “Journey” popped up on the screen, and I was transported to a new level. During the next level, I explored a bit more, finding some scarves(?) or tickets(?) that swirled around me when I went to get them. I then quickly began to make my way to the posts with the scarves, which were in sight. The next level was much more complex, having many buildings, tickets that seemed to be trapped, things that were glowing, and no clear double posts in sight. I explored this level for a while, eventually becoming very frustrated with my inability to find the posts.
tickets(?) flying around me
In my opinion, I felt like this walking sim didn’t really tell a story. My time playing this game was characterized by frustration and confusion, and not by experiencing a story. I think that it attempts to tell a story, and might even tell one, but I didn’t feel like I was reading it. The story is attempted to be told through the various dynamics I mentioned before. But, for me, part of the frustration what that I didn’t know what the story was about. I didn’t know the goal of the game or what I was trying to do to achieve it. Additionally, walking through the sand was SUPER slow which drove me CRAZY. I realize that this aspect of wondering and maybe not having a concrete goal is part of the genre, but I personally did not enjoy it. All of these frustrations culminated in me not enjoying the overall aesthetics of the game. That DARN sand being so slow really made me hate the desert theme.
Most of my personal suggestions for improvement essentially go against the aesthetics this game is trying to create. Acknowledging this, I will still address the changes that I would make. First, I would make movement through the sand more seamless and faster. Next, I would provide some kind of limited tutorial that at least explained what each of the buttons do along with what the tickets did and how to collect them. My frustration didn’t lie as much in not knowing the overall goal of the game, but moreso in not understanding the task at hand. What particularly frustrated me is when I would find the tickets and I wasn’t able to collect them (they would just get left behind once I touched them).
Overall, I did not have a good experience playing this game. I was mostly frustrated, confused, and felt like I was constantly doing things wrong (or at least, not doing things right).
