I don’t think I liked Journey

Journey is a very interesting game. Pioneering you could even say. Still, I don’t think I liked it.

I finally took time to play Journey earlier this year. I have of course heard about it a great deal, but I never made a time to actually play it. I don’t think I had build up too much expectation, but saying there were none is likely untrue. I knew the game is celebrated and often pointed at as an example of game that’s truly artful.

Is it really a game?

I don’t think arguing about whether it is a game or not is really that helpful. We don’t really have a commonly accepted definition of “play” nor “game” to speak about, so comparing anything to this non-existing definition is pointless.

In the same way we could argue endlessly whether games are or aren’t art. It doesn’t matter whether games are considered art of not. They do deliver a value to a person, be it emotional impact, ideas to ponder or puzzles to solve. That is indisputable, if that wasn’t the case people wouldn’t spend time playing games.

Why people like Journey?

Let’s talk about why people like Journey before I will try to explain why it didn’t quite click for me.

We can probably summarize it as “emotional impact”. I am assuming, that a lot of people aren’t that used to games delivering an emotional punch that we all know from other media.

I wouldn’t say it’s that uncommon, just to name few of the more popular examples: Assassin’s Creed II, Metro 2033, XCOM, Darkest Dungeon and many more.

Where Journey excels is delivering this emotional impact to people who actually don’t play games that much. Most gamers play just few AAA titles or keep playing the same multiplayer game. And here comes Journey all of the sudden delivering a punch in just the right amount.

I do believe that “just the right amount” is what makes Journey work so well. It’s kind of a game, you play and finish within one evening- about the length of a movie.

This, combined with approachability of controls makes it ideal game for people who rarely try new games or those don’t play games at all.

Why I don’t like Journey

I think Journey is a beautiful experience, that just isn’t for me.

I didn’t find anything new or original about it. Nothing too interesting except emotional investment and that I find the same as with many other games I have played.

The narrative (I wouldn’t quite call it a story) is the usual copy-pasted Campbell and I would very much prefer anything other than Hero’s journey at this point. Too many Neo Skywalkers lately I am afraid.

I rarely enjoy the game for the narrative. The setting and lore sure, but I rarely play games for the story.

What I find most interesting and what I think games are best at is system design. The game presenting you a sandbox with sets of rules that lets you uniquely express yourself by interacting with game systems.
Overcoming odds and achieving a goal (your own or game’s defined) by deep understanding of game rules and manipulating them to your benefit.

The systems interactions, depth and expressiveness is what I find most interesting about games.

It’s pretty clear, that Journey isn’t trying to do any of that, therefore it doesn’t even try to do what I like about games. There is no reason for me to like it.

So now, running into a risk of repeating myself:

I think that Journey is a beautiful experience, that serves its purpose and I also think, it’s not at all for me.