Some games are essential. They have a value that goes beyond fun, or having succeeded with a certain audience, to go further. It’s not necessarily that they are deeper or more complex games, but they have really done something special for the industry. They have managed to open it up to other audiences, have created their own design school, or were tremendously ahead of their time. Things that only a few achieve.
If we were to ask practically any video game expert to give us a list of essential video games, it is safe to say that they would tell us that one of those games is Journey. Because even though it was released over a decade ago, its memory is still alive. Because it is one of those video games that changed how we talk about video games.
Journey is a game developed by Thatgamecompany, directed by Jenova Chen, which was released on March 13, 2012. With a port to PlayStation 4 in July 2015, to PC in June 2019 and to iOS in August of the same year, its refusal to die or be forgotten is a demonstration of its importance. Something that was evident, also, by how it was received by critics and the public.
Thatgamecompany came from making Flow and Flower, two games highly praised by critics and the public, but that did not have a great impact within the industry. Journey was their third game with Sony, with whom they had signed a contract for the production of a trilogy of games, and it reaped all the success they had been cooking with the first two. With an average score of 92 on Metacritic, both in its original release in 2012 and its re-release in 2015, it was a resounding critical and commercial success. Winning numerous awards, especially game of the year awards and best soundtrack for a video game.
If you’re wondering what Journey is about, it is, as its name suggests, about a journey. However, the game is sparse in words. We embody a character with a huge scarf, in the middle of the desert, and in the horizon we see a mountain. We have no other reference. The game doesn’t tell us what to do. We understand that our purpose is to reach that mountain because we are in the middle of nowhere and the game is called Journey. And that’s where the magic begins.
Riding Journey is a delight. Climbing dunes, sliding down them, it’s delightful thanks to an extraordinary art department and excellent particle work. The sand flies, our scarf floats in the air, and the music accompanies us. When the wind picks up or we have to climb dunes, we notice the difficulty in moving. When we slide downhill, it’s as if there is no friction at all. Seven years before Death Stranding, a small game called Journey already understood that a journey could be made around making movement feel extraordinarily good.
But that’s not all. Because another thing that adds a special layer to Journey is that, during our journey, we come across other characters identical to us. And all of them are other players experiencing the same thing that we are enjoying, or suffering, at that very moment.
Just like the game doesn’t explain anything to you, it only lets you come to your own conclusions, it also doesn’t let you communicate with those people. Or not through explicit language. There is no chat of any kind, neither voice nor written, but it is possible to communicate with others. Through the movements we make, we can react to their presence.
That’s where the magic happens. Walking shoulder to shoulder in Journey, jumping to move our scarf and catch someone’s attention, or losing them in the middle of one of the game’s events and suddenly feeling desolate, is part of the experience. The emotional core of the game. There is no story as such, beyond what the environment tells us —which implies the fall of an ancient civilization long ago—, and what we extract from the journey and our encounters.
If you are interested in everything we have told you, this is your moment to play it. Journey has an 85% discount on Steam, costing the ridiculous amount of €2.09. Cheaper than some coffees you may have had throughout your life.
It is also an excellent time to play it, in general, because that price will encourage many people to try it. Over the next few days, many people will be playing Journey for the first time. And since it is back in the spotlight, many people will take the opportunity to replay it. This makes it the best possible time to experience Journey since, at least, 2019. Something we don’t know when it will happen again, and you should take advantage of it to experience it.
