For my critical play, I played Journey which is a narrative exploration game made by Thatgamecompany targeted towards audiences of all ages and available on many platforms. The specific platform I played it on was Steam, and this was my first time playing a more narrative focused game. The first thing that struck me was the attention to detail and to the art inside the game. The wind, sand and mountains were all designed so beautifully. I was really surprised by the complete lack of guidance and instruction. I ended up wandering around the starting zone and just exploring random little things. I was afraid that I was missing something in the starting area that would trigger a tutorial and it took a while before I realized that there was a specific direction I needed to be going in. It soon became pretty clear that there were no other mechanics other than walking and gliding through the world.
I was very frustrated at first as it seemed like the game designers had simply abandoned me in a completely alien world. The lack of guidance annoyed me but forced me to really appreciate and actually experience the game. As boredom set-in, I began to slowly appreciate the world and notice the details like the way the wind shifted the sand, the haziness of the air, and the music in the game. If the game started with a tutorial, that immediately just launched me into what I was supposed to do, I would never have taken the time to truly immerse myself in the narrative and environment of the game. Furthermore, the game has literally no mechanic other than movement through the world. As a result, the ethics question surrounding violence isn’t really applicable.
The two narrative styles that Journey really utilizes are evocative spaces and embedded narratives. Even though the game doesn’t have an explicit exposition, each sand dune and structure functions like a stage. The designers use space to tell the story instead of doing any explicit narratives. This is how the player is able to piece together the idea of a fallen civilization without any explicit background or narration of the world and why we are there. The second element that is incorporated pretty heavily is embedded narratives. Since there is basically no explicit guidance or instructions, players like me are forced to explore and try to figure out what is going on. The designers placed murals throughout the game that give a bit of a backstory, and as the player plays the game, they are forced to constantly update their theories of who the robed people are and what happened to this world. By simply experiencing the game and opening your mind to all the details of it, you are living and creating the narrative of the experience. In that manner, Journey almost feels like a living breathing piece of art. It didn’t feel like I was playing a game, but rather living and experiencing an artist’s vision. As I walked through the desolate sand dunes, I couldn’t help but start to think about what happened to this world and start to draw parallels to the real world. This specific design emphasizing movement through the evocative spaces of the game really helped create the story and narrative that the player experienced.
