Retro Recall: Journey – An intimate trip in search for the meaning of life

If you’re looking for the meaning of life, don’t bother; it’s all about the Journey. This is one of the best ways to experience an analogy of life filled with hidden messages and a sense of wonder that will leave an everlasting impression on you.

Journey is a game… or an experience, as vague as they come, as minimalistic as they should be to purvey such incredible feelings, to stir such emotions, to make you feel like you’re playing something that defies description.

It’s impossible to put those feelings in words. But I’ll try it anyway.

Journey is a mesmerizing, mostly peaceful and enigmatic voyage through unknown places, the goal being to reach this mysterious destination. Or is it? Journey is often considered as a virtual, playable depiction of life, with an imagery that is only within reach of those who stop and smell the minimalistic yet substantial roses.

This is a game where you should take your time to look around, enjoy the vistas, let this strange and wonderful world sink in. While the vast, sprawling desert takes the spotlight, you will go through some strange temples, discover weird creatures and fall in love with this side-scrolling sunset bathed section that is just as beautiful as a dream, probably one of the most stunning scenes in a videogame, ever. Some underground locations are more ominous, featuring the occasional dangerous creature, but still looking like an abstract dream.

The ending, where the desert sand is replaced by snow and a ravaging storm, is a thing of beauty. It puts all your effort in context, asks you to keep going, slowly struggling, one step after the other, while danger lurks in the shape of a mystical flying creature. You keep pushing, until you run out of strength and just collapse in the snow. When all seems lost, some mystical creatures give you a second chance to end your journey, the storm is now behind you and the sunny peak of the mountain looks like heaven. Maybe it is, with a light so strong that it could almost blind you.

Your character in Journey is a strange cloaked creature, an abstract representation of your being. He uses this scarf to go through obstacles and a chime to communicate with the sporadic traveler that you find in this world. This is the purest kind of co-op multiplayer there is – you can’t exchange messages, define tactics; it’s just you, your new friend and this world. You move forward side by side, support one another, wait if one of you fell behind… It’s just subtle and gentle, two friends (soulmates?) in a common journey, no words getting in the way of your goal.

Journey is about life. The sense of wonder at the beginning, the discoveries that follows, the obstacles and fear of the unknown, the friends you make for life and finally, the last days and letting go of this world. How a game without words is capable of conveying such feelings and emotions is evidence of a very talented team at the helm.

Journey was created by ThatGameCompany and was the third game for Sony, after Flow and Flower. The company is known for its interest in creating games that evoke emotional responses, and the next game, Sky, is seemingly as evocative as their previous works, but with a larger focus in social gaming and player cooperation to solve the mysteries of this world above the clouds.

Everything that I described above. Journey is an allegory on life, one that you need to experience to understand. The game has these subtle messages that you may either comprehend or not in your first playthrough (only three hours on average to beat it), this hauntingly beautiful music to accompany your thoughts.

Journey is essentially designed to evoke a whole range of emotions in any human being. It has a beautiful interior, but the exterior is also as charming as they come.

Journey is life summed up in a videogame. No matter how silly this may sound to you.

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