The there-less Journey

Posted by on March 19, 2012 in Reviews

I can groove on a good arthouse game. I don’t mind short, experimental, or inscrutable. I’m the kind of guy who thought Bastion was deep, The Path was meaningful, and Gravity Bone was transcendent. I might even play Dear Esther one day. But Journey, the latest release from the creators of Flower at thatgamecompany? I’d rather stay home.

After the jump, indie cred revoked

Journey is nothing like Flower, which was a unique spry tale of wind, color, and redemption. Journey is yet another game in which you control a little dude who sometimes jumps. Most of the time, you just push your stick up and watch him move languidly and sometimes ponderously past scenery. It’s certainly a pretty game, if somewhat monochromatic. It imagines an exotic (i.e. Middle Eastern) culture of sand and cloth, except that these people have sharp points where their feet should be and they’re polytheists who believe in reincarnation.

The eponymous journey takes you over minor puzzles, underneath threats, though a limp-to-the-finish finale, and into a supposedly rapturous conclusion. Along the way, the story is illustrated with line drawings and presided over by a tall luminescent god creature who’s part of a committee of god creatures who show up at the end to, um…well, that’s for you to parse. The point seems to be some sort of circle of life affirmation about how the journey matters more than the destination, so you should probably play a second time.

It’s often picturesque and occasionally rousing. Your pilgrim on this brief hajj wears a burka, with a scarf thrown on for good measure. The scarf is actually Journey’s only claim to an interface for how it measures how much jump juice you have. You also have preternaturally wise alien/cat eyes. Think Jawas, but lithe. It’s great character design in search of a game. A couple of times, Journey made me want to play SSX. But it mostly reminded me of some of the dull and barely interactive bits of Uncharted 3. I think the lesson here is that deserts are often poorly suited to games without dune buggies.

There’s no challenge and no real gameplay, which isn’t necessarily a criticism. It’s sort of like Shadow of the Colossus without any colossi, or Ico without the little girl. It does have multiplayer, though. Other players run around in your game pulling your switches, mashing their circle buttons to activate the “hey, over here!” beacons, and basically going the same place you’re going without any meaningful way to interact with you unless you both know Morse code. How’s that for a metaphor for online gaming?

2 stars
Playstation 3

UPDATE: Read the official Journey review FAQ here!

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  • PS

    Of course, but Journey tends to do a very good job at it.

    Why? Because it uses what’s key about games and exploits it to create art. 

    Movies can be art if they use the tools they’re given to create emotions – editing, camera angles, music etc.

    If a game is to be art, it needs to use what is unique to the medium – that is, player control, online, interaction etc. Journey does that, and does it very well – it hardly relies on traditional movie cues that most games use (eg. Uncharted) and instead builds its emotion through interaction.

    It is so good at this, creating a sense of lonliness and attachment to the character (the feeling that you ARE the character could be said to be done better than other artforms) that it succeeds as being a ‘game as art’ and does it well.

  • BeefChimi

     What’s a scourge?

  • PS

    BTW Tom, I think there’s a problem in the way you review games. It looks like, and this may just be a timing issue, that you wait until most reviews are out, look at how they’re being scored and if they’ve been incredibly praised (eg. Journey) then you write the opposite.

    If this isn’t deliberate – then perhaps it’s subconcious. I.e you go into the game thinking ‘well what’s so good about this then?’ ‘Oh that was easy, where are the mechanics?’. ‘Oh this chirping serves no use.’

    Perhaps it’s neither of these – however, that is what it could be interpreted to be. I suggest that in the future to help you and how your reviews are interpreted – you try and be one of the first. I know, I know – there are issues around this (hopefully you’re not denied review copies) – but until then, I fear people will accuse you of ‘trolling’ deliberately. 

    And just on related matter – try and go into games blind, without any knowledge beforehand, no any preconcieved notions. Not only will it help your enjoyment, it will aid your critical eye when reviewing. 

  • PS

    Actually – most of the people who I have seen who enjoy Journey have come into it fresh and weren’t particularly ‘artsy games’ lovers – they just loved the experience Journey gave them. You just need to read the thread on Neogaf. 

    I think that you’re doing gamers a disservice.

  • Tanner H6

    I feel this review is biased in hopes of receiving hits from metacritic. Journey is of the same caliber as flower, if not more. 

    “you wonder what it would be like to climb the tallest mountain, to measure the size of the ocean, or to stand on top of the moon.
    but we never wonder about that man you saw crossing the street, that woman sitting on the bus, or those people whose glances you catch briefly.

    we never wonder”

    You must have had a pretty ineffective partner :(. 

  • tomchick

    Well, thanks for the tips, but I can assure you that I don’t read any other reviews before playing or writing about a game. Furthermore, I don’t even read forum traffic.

    As for being denied review copies, Sony hasn’t returned a single email or phone call from me for quite a while. I predict I’m not going to be able to post any day one reviews of their games anytime soon. :)

  • Tom Vincent

    Thank you Tom. Someone more eloquent than me articulating my frustrations with the game. It’s cool that some are getting cool experiences out of it though. Just feels a bit emperor’s new clothes

  • Gabriel Knight

    If someone tells you a game is more of an “experience” than a game, run the other way.

  • ThisSiteSUX

     Last I checked, 2 out of 5 = 40% = fail. Stop sucking Tom’s small dick.

  • RULooking4Attention

     Yes, stick to Call of Duty for its deep story then, retards..

  • Rafael Cerveglieri

    It requires some sort of emotional intelligence the reviewer simply does not have.

    The game is based on the book “The Hero With a Thousand Faces”, by Joseph Campbell, a study about the structure of the heroes’ stories.

    Also, too sensitive for your mechanical analysis.

  • Joshua

    I hope the myans are right so this fucker dies by the end of the year

  • Joshua

    choke on a dick and die, go look at metacritic, one review under 80 and its a 40 by this douche fag

  • Joshua

    hey tom, hope you choke on your boyfriends dick

  • Vazzvegas

    OMG, from the same guy who gave Uncharted 3 a 4/10? You are just an attention whore. Did you get fired from Honest Gamers and is that why you are writing for this site now? I suggest printing out more resumes because yet again you will be out of work soon. You need a new career because you clearly don’t know what you are doing.

  • Peter Michelsen

    I think it’s safe to say that you’ll have a similar experience with Dear Esther. It doesn’t even have puzzles. It’s simply taking a walk while listening to poetry. So it pretty much depends on how much you like taking walks and listening to poetry.

  • luke

    Every time Tom posts a review that upsets people, the same handful of complaints are repeated ad nauseam: You’re biased (Yes. So are you. So is everyone). You’re a contrarian (No I’m not). You only like indie games (re-read this review). You only like unpopular games or niche games (http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/12/13/the-top-ten-games-of-2011/). You shouldn’t be writing reviews or anything about games (Why does Tom’s opinion of a game bother you so much)?

    Quarter to Three needs a FAQ or a mission statement or something to curtail all these wasted keystrokes and posts. I have so much respect for what Tom’s doing to grow the field, and I hate to see it whooshing over the heads of so many folks. A direct, easy-to-access explanation of Tom’s approach to writing about games could do some good.

  • luke

    Here’s the intact version of my link in the above post:

    http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/12/13/the-top-ten-games-of-2011/ 

  • Trolololol

     When you give a highly reviewed game an extremely low score, you are trolling for hits end of.

    I understand that it’s your opinion, but with reviews especially ones that appear on metacritic you have to be as objective and unbiased as possible. There is no way you can give an objective review and give a generally highly reviewed game an extremely score.

    ” It does have multiplayer, though. Other players run around in your
    game pulling your switches, mashing their circle buttons to activate the
    “hey, over here!” beacons, and basically going the same place you’re
    going without any meaningful way to interact with you unless you both
    know Morse code.”

    This quote right spills out ignorance and an unwillingness to understand what the game truly is. The reviewer knows that Journey is an “artsy” game so he should expect obscurity and try to understand why it the multiplayer is the way it is.

    I really think you are defending him just to be a troll luke. just as this review is trolling for hits.

  • http://excelbeyond.wordpress.com/ Excelios

    This is probably the best response I could have given. Tom complains about the lack of interaction with companions or the pointlessness of the multiplayer mechanic.

    I played two hours with an individual and we had a blast – it was an experience I’ll remember forever. When one of us fell behind or missed a jump, the other would wait and then we’d both chirp after being reunited. We would fly through the sky by coordinating our chirps. We’d chirp to warn the other of the rock monsters. It was our journey and we completed it together.

    After playing, I messaged the person on PSN and he responded in Japanese. I had just played through a game with someone who didn’t even speak the same language as me – how can bemoan a game that enables that through its mechanics, I’ll never know.

  • SquareSide

    Site looks like it’s been made in the 90s. Troll review to get hits?

  • Atorlakovic

    Then you shouldn’t even be reviewing this game because right there you said “I don’t consider videogames art”. That is the whole meaning to this game. It’s seems like right from the beginning you planned on giving this game a negative review. For God sakes you gave Assassin’s creed revelations a 2/10 and Uncharted 3 a 4/10? When you see every other reviews giving a triple AAA budget game a decent to a very good score. why do you seem to be the outcast of these people. It seems like you are just aiming for hits and your site will be shut down from metacritic pretty soon; you pretty much guaranteed it.

  • Ft

    What the hell is this shitty site?

  • Superslug

     Is it really the whole point? The word game implies play. If journey is a game surely the quality of play should be assessed. If it is just art that is irrelevant but even you called it a game.

    If it is trying to be both perhaps a review that does not contain both a conversation on play and artistic merit is incomplete. I am not sure.

  • Ben

    Wow. Who cares what metacritic says. If you are a marketing stooge or whatever you are coming on here just take your 2 stars and accept it. I’ll bet half of those people who review budget titles like this don’t even play the game they just look at what IGN said and paraphrase that.

  • Ben

    Damn, always talking about the dick. Reminds me of a conversation I had with your mom. Course I couldn’t hear what she was saying… 

  • Ben knows it’s you Josh!

    Your just two dumb to realize 2 stars is a c- . Joshua .

  • merryprankster

    I guess all I can say is that art is in the eye of the beholder. Obviously this particular endevor did not speak to Tom so it fell flat for him.

    I guess I find reviewing art kinda meaningless since so much depends on what you bring to it. Nonethless Tom”s reaction is perfectly valid since it was what he took away from it.

  • IamWay2CULE

    Shut the fuck up faggot dick sucking ASS LICKING BITCH!

  • Way2CULE4you

    That comment was to Ben by the way, and FUCK TOM CHICK, this guy is such a fucking loser, it truly astounds me. 

    You are a harvard grad?  You need to stop “reviewing” video games you fuck ass

  • Superslug

    however what the hell would an art piece be doing on metacritic?

  • HappySlappy

    I am curious as well.

    Tom, is all seriousness, can you please make a list of your top ten games of all time?  The highest scored games you have ever reviewed.

    Thanks!

  • SubwayTom

    Good, I hope they don’t send you anything you poop eater!

    Stop posting online, the smell from your poop mouth is getting onto your poop hands and onto your brown poop covered keyboard.

  • Bestofall22

    What is up with the stupid idiot retards named Tom?  I am never going to name my kid Tom, I don’t want him to grow up as an arrogant prick.

  • charmtrap

     It’s possible for something to be “arty” and to fail creatively.  Seems like it failed for Tom.  Not sure why you find that so offensive.

  • Trolololol

     I agree, but you have question him giving it a “2.” It appears that this guy has no scale for reviewing games. It appears as if he chooses scores on a whim.

    And that quote I brought up shows that he was playing the game single minded.

  • charmtrap

    Tom seems to be serious about using the full rating scale, which is to be applauded, IMO.  If we’re stuck with these 1-100 meta-ratings for the short-attention-span set, then we should at least expect them to use the whole thing.

  • tomchick

    Of all time? I don’t know that I could do that. To my mind, a review or a “best of” list, or even just a forum post discussing a game is a snapshot of an opinion at a given moment in time. What I pick for my top ten games of all time today isn’t what I would have picked last year, or maybe even last week, and it’s certainly not what I’d probably pick in a year.

    But I’ve been doing lists of my favorite ten games of each year for at least the last five years. They should be pretty easy to Google. My favorite game of last year was Bastion, if that’s any help.

  • tomchick

    Well, it’s not a troll review, but you are right that this site is from the 90s. :) Qt3 was founded in, I believe, 1999.

  • Fuck You!

    You tarnished Journey’s metascore. Fucking pathetic

  • Fhfh

    What a moron.

  • Ben Halliburton

    Wow, I got all the way down to the bottom before finally biting. “Tarnished” a game’s score? Oh no, now it’s slightly less valid for you to enjoy it!

    Or you could get some more confidence, like what you like, and rest assured in the fact that people sometimes disagree without being evil bastards for doing so.

  • Fluggy2003

    A strange review. I’m a 33 yr old seasoned gamer who doesn’t really dig online shooters and the like all that much. Journey has totally restored my faith in games.  Found it to be sweet, original, breathtaking, innocent, soothing, a little bit sinister (cavern section), sad, lonely, triumphant and very very VERY beautiful. Some of the scenes will stand as the most iconic in gaming history and that sun/glistening, gilded sand is just blinding!! Not sure if your review is genuine but if it is I don’t envy you much. The thought of someone playing through this wonderful little gem and not appreciating it really saddens me!

  • SquareSide

     Think it’s best to move on.

  • Atorlakovic

    Superslug not all videogames are the same. Every game has a different direction. You can still play the game but at the same time defines art. Thats what flower was aimed for and thats what this is game is aimed for. WHy can’t videogames be considered art? Must everything be about shooting or violence to be considered a videogame? I think not

  • jerky

     I was completely ready to dismiss the game as weaponless arthouse garbage until the stage with the little flying cloth creatures. 

    A few years ago, I was standup paddleboarding and got caught in a pretty severe current, and pushed out really far from shore.  I was terrified and felt completely alone…  until a pair of spinner dolphins came and frolicked around my board for the hour or so it took me to get back to shore (like 10 miles from where I started). 

    When those cloth guys flew out and guided me over the dunes, I damn near cried.  It wasn’t for everyone, but that was the point where I “felt” the game.  So maybe it’s more a personal experience game?

    Although I got an SSX vibe (and also a Beyond Good and Evil thing during the spotlight part) and those were goofy, 

  • Ijourneyedalloveryourmumsface

    Well done champ, you finally figured out a way to get people to come to this shitty site.

  • Ben

    Like back under the bridge SquareSide you internet troll ?

  • Ben

    It is pretty funny. I know no one who cares about this game in any real way is posting on here.  They are all marketing people who depend on metacritic or something.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jj-Barrington/22605751 J.j. Barrington

    Yeah, that’s me, right? I’m in marketing and need metacritic.

    That’s stupid. I’m a gamer. I want to see good games do well. And just like Consumer Reports or anything like it, metacritic is a method by which games are graded. People see a score and decide to buy or not to buy based on that.

    But there are, unfortunately, half-assed reviews like this that are added into that aggregate, and they make that score less of a true representative of the game than it should be.

    If the only thing you play is shooters, or sports games, then you’re probably not gonna enjoy Journey. But a casual who will play simple little games will probably enjoy it: it’s simple, and yet profound. And for those same reasons, core gamers will likely enjoy it, as well.

    The only times I’ve seen people say they DIDN’T enjoy the game, they were trolling, and about half of them hadn’t even played the game.

    This review is indicative of what’s wrong with gaming media today. It’s a poor excuse for a review, and it can easily be argued it was done solely for hits.

    What pisses me off is when others have the gall to defend such a horrible action.

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