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Journey
Chances are you’re as sick of the “are games art?” debate as we are. Even so, it’s nice to experience a game that will inevitably be trotted out when the question comes up. Not only did Journey amaze us with its striking sun-soaked deserts, snowy peaks, and flowing scarves, but it also tweaked some emotions that have gone untouched by any game yet. Your first encounter with a fellow traveler in the barren landscape who was an actual living being was a relief – even if your only method of communication was a series of random musical notes. With this simple concept – you on an unknown quest with an essentially mute companion – we were able to feel both camaraderie and despair without big budget cut-scenes or a single explosion to ratchet up the tension.
Journey takes full advantage of being an interactive experience, with no movie conventions forced into it to make it like a film. It completely relies on your participation to fully “get” the game. Each person’s time spent with Journey is probably somewhat unique, even though you traverse the same landscapes and reach the same dramatic finale. What the experience makes you feel and what you get out of it is going to be your own, and for many of us, those emotions were pretty impactful.
The number of people Journey resonated with is impressive for such an avant-garde product. If you missed out on experiencing Journey, it’s a definite hole in your gaming oeuvre that should be filled so you can see what’s possible in our beloved medium.
Write-up by Travis Hawks
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