One of the few "modern" luxuries I have is a Playstation 3, a birthday present last year on a very very good Black Friday sale from Toys R Us. I don't have many games for it, though, and the majority of those that I do have were purchased second hand or downloaded for a few dollars off the Playstation Network. ($60 for a brand new title? That's a day's worth of pay for me!)
However, once in a while I treat myself to a new game when it comes highly recommended, and the buzz in the gaming community for the last two weeks has been thatgamecompany's Journey, a $15 downloadable Playstation Network exclusive.
There's been a lot of arguments that video games can be a storytelling medium unto themselves, and many of the sprawling epic RPGs do just that - tell a long, engaging story that would be far too tedious in movie format and far too confusing in a written format.
Journey takes some of those concepts and distills them down to their purest essence. There is a story, but there are no words. There is a game, but there are no instructions. There is a goal, but there is no explanation.
Gamers, many of them hardened industry veterans or cynical 20-somethings or naive teenagers, are mostly saying the same thing: The game has a mystical quality to it.
The game was, of course, designed that way. The designers wanted something akin to a spirit quest; one of them admitted a lot of it was based on the life-altering experience she had trekking through the Himalayas.
If you do not considering yourself a "gamer" but you own or know someone who owns a Playstation 3, it is well worth $15 to purchase this game and zen out for a few hours. The replay value of the game is also immense, as the "journey" is repeatable as many times as needed.
You start off as a single cloaked figure, standing in the desert. All you see is the smallest of tutorials, letting you know about panning the camera by tilting the controller, jumping, and singing. There is a hill in the distance, beckoning you. There is, farther out still, a mountain with a shining top.
Somehow you know, you've got to get to that mountain.
Many reviewers are already calling it for game of the year, partially due to its amazing art direction, accessibility, and soundtrack. You're encouraged to explore and to play. You can't die, you can't curse at anyone, and you can't hurt anyone. You can't even talk to anyone, although you may encounter other pilgrims along the way.
Is it an allegory for religion? For life itself? Again, the designers thought of it that way - they envisioned a novice as a baby, unable to speak or movie, who slowly learns the ways of the world. Well, life is compressed into a two hour trek through deserts, oceans, and mountains, and like life itself, its the journey to the end and the people you meet along the way that really matter, not the end itself.
Journey is rated E for everyone - no cursing, no violence, no sex, no nudity. Just storytelling at its most minimalistic, pictures and sound, puzzles that are a joy to solve, and a sprawling vast world to get lost in.
So, can a video game be a spiritual experience? I've played many games that tackled religion head on (my earlier diary on Final Fantasy X's stab at the Catholic Church is a prime example) but this is the first one that might actually inspire a religion unto itself.
I have the urge to go make myself a red cloak and a red and gold scarf with runes, and go out into the world and explore.