Journey guys... Journey! *no spoilers in first post*

[zfubarz]

I can't make any promises beyond that though.

I will say that Journey is a game that must be played to be understood. If you have any interest at all in this product then avoid all knowledge of it ahead of time, going in fresh is the way to do it.

There have been very few things in my adult life that have made me feel like Journey did. Not just games, any medium, no movies, no music, no other games, maaaaaybe a book or two.

Play it. That's all for now. Just play it... I'll give more details later when you've had a chance to see for yourself.

[Season's Beatings]

Don't stop believiiiiin....

[zfubarz]

That Journey is also awesome!

[Geoff_B]

Does it involve a small-town girl?

[zfubarz]

no, however you are living in a lonely world.

[empath]

Hey, yeah - I'm an old fart; my mind totally went there too when I read the thread title.

[Metcarfre]

Big fan of Glee, eh? Me, too.

[empath]

...and just as I was considering taking you off my Foes list, you resolve my dilemma. Thanks! Should teach me to heed that "This post was made by {name} who is currently on your ignore list. {Display this post.}"

But I *did* see something about that over on the PSN store; after I've tried out the Kingdoms of Amalur demo, I'll check it out in the interests of this thread.

[Metcarfre]

...and just as I was considering taking you off my Foes list, you resolve my dilemma. Thanks! Should teach me to heed that "This post was made by {name} who is currently on your ignore list. {Display this post.}"

[zfubarz]

lol thanks empath

[Geoff_B]

But I *did* see something about that over on the PSN store; after I've tried out the Kingdoms of Amalur demo, I'll check it out in the interests of this thread.

So that was 5 minutes later then?

[Smeghead]

Picked up and played through the game...wow... that was for the lack of a better word; awesome

Edit: no awesome is the wrong word considering how liberally the word is used now days. Fantastic or incredible would be better.

At a few points in the game I lost track of my companion and I felt really sad over the possibility of suddenly being all alone. At the end of the game I also noticed that I had in fact lost 1 companion that had then been replaced by another, and I never noticed it.

[LogicSword]

So, bought it purely on the recommendations in this thread.

Just... wow. I can't actually describe it in any other way. It's just a thing of beauty.

I feel stunned having played it. Maybe it's because I'm overly pretentious.

And I agree with you, Smeghead, though I had eight companions. Not sure what happened to the rest. Loved singing to each other as well.

[Smeghead]

Don't stop believiiiiin....

Well....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQciAA2XzJY&feature=player_embedded

Anyway, I cannot recomand this game enough, its a most buy.

[zfubarz]

HOORAY I'm not crazy (about this at least)

I managed to make it with one partner the whole way through. it;s really a remarkable experience. I may post a write up of my first time through now that it's been a while

[Myke]

I never had any companions,probably because I got it on the PSN+ early release and nobody else was playing but still a wonderful trip through a gorgeous sand and snow-scape.


now I have to remove "the don't stop belevin' " earworm outta my head

gits

[Smeghead]

Played through it a second time (decided to wait until I had access to the bigscreen TV) and got through it all with the same companionfrom begining to end. Still I seem to have missed a lot of stuff because of how many achivements I've yet to get.

EDIT
Ok played through it a third time to try to explore some of the bigger open areas and try to find some of the secrets hinted at in the achivement list, didn't find them 8I'm not gonna look it up though, that feels wrong).

I now start to realize how the multiplayer system works. In my first game I met 2 companions, the second just 1. This time I met 8. Seems like if you get too far away and lose sight of your companion you instead get paired up with another lonely player that is closer to you, and you might not even notice it.

I did however run into an interesting companion; he wore a white robe that had max flight/gliding power from the strt and it rescharged itself constantly. I'm guessing its some kind of achivement reward.

[zfubarz]

lol, yeah it's pretty much all proximity, and I think duration, if seems like they'll give you more breaks the longer you're together. like by the end we where far apart for a while but still managed to stick together.

here's a write up i did for my giantbomb blog, it's *****SUPER SPOILERY***** so don't read beyond in this post if you still wanna try it.




The game starts with a very simple goal, and a simple means of moving forward to match. You are in a vast endless desert and the only real landmark in the shifting sands is a mountain with a pillar of light at the peak far in the distance. So you move forward, there are almost no controls to speak of, left stick moves you, one button emits a seemingly pointless chirrup. That’s it really.
As you move through the sand towards the mountain you’ll discover some rubble, and some torn fabric circling in breeze, when you approach it swarms you and adds the only other mechanic to the game, a jumping/gliding mechanism, and from there you perform some simple puzzley tasks to advance.
It sounds pretty unimpressive I know, but the game is stunning visually, the desert is better than the one in Uncharted 3, and for some weird reason the simple mechanics are compelling, you just sort of want to see what’s up ahead.
Then at some point you’ll see you standing off in the distance, you’ll turn a corner, or look behind you and there you’ll be. The multiplayer will have kicked in. You’ll have no real way to communicate with each other, just those chirps (which emit a wave of light as well.) and jumping.
For me we formed a bit of a teacher student relationship, s/he was rushing ahead and trying to jump up shortcuts. I kept pinging away drawing attention to glyph’s (they increase your jump time/distance) and triggers to advance the story. I suspect that will be different for everybody, You don’t even have to stay together apparently, and you can complete the game on your own, the only real benefit is that when you’re near each other your jump recharges.
However after a few areas of the game I no longer expected s/he to disappear on me it had become our quest, and we developed an ease of communication, it just became natural to ping each other and wave around getting each other’s attention when necessary. We learned to work together to recharge each other mid air to reach new areas and secrets.
It went beyond that though. At some point I lost half of my scarf (shows jump ability) and s/he would help charge me and boost me up to advance, there was a real sense of camaraderie.
Later on s/he was attack in the same way not once but twice, and I literally yelled at my tv in frustration as I watch his scarf sizzle away into the sky. Not at the game or at him, but because I was powerless to help him against the enemy.
Near the end as you climb the mountain you begin to freeze, the only thing keeping your scarves powered is huddling together to keep some sort of charge. Until at some point I blinked and my companion was gone, I turned to look down the mountain and I could see no sign of life, no pings, no jumps, nothing, I started walking back down to see where I could find him/her, stumbled and collapsed into the snow, freezing.
I sat stunned, but not upset, what had happened? Did we do something wrong? Was this the end? There was no way of knowing. But then the white became less dull and a cutscene emerged (they pop up occasionally) the deity/spirit creature that you meet along appears and then suddenly my scarf regrew longer than ever, and I triumphantly rise into the sky as the music swelled, still I was sad to be alone after so long, when suddenly swirling ahead of me among the friendly creatures we’d encountered along the path, pinging loudly and sending out waves of light was my friend waiting for me. We flew upward, floated among the creatures, rode on the backs of huge dragon like beings the whole time joyously pinging away at each other, and at the end, we sat down at the top of the cliff in unison like we’d known each other for years, we looked down over the world for a moment, then turned and headed towards the spire of light, and walked towards it side by side, until finally everything became a blinding glare.

I know it’s hard to believe, and it sounds cheesey, but I’m willing to bet that anybody who plays this game will feel some sort of emotional reaction, you will become attached, and you will remember the voyage fondly, moreso than just about another story you’ve been a part of.

[LogicSword]

I did however run into an interesting companion; he wore a white robe that had max flight/gliding power from the strt and it rescharged itself constantly. I'm guessing its some kind of achivement reward.

That's for collecting all the glyphs, according to the interwebs.

[Smeghead]

I sent a message to the player I had with me all the way on my second playthrough, thanking him for a good playthrough. He was french and didn't understand much english but it was fun how we had seemed to understand one another so well just using the ingame hums/pings while in reality we are hardly able to say anothing to one another.

[Smeghead]

Yeah, this game was so good that it inspired me to make fan art for it less then 3 days after I first played the game.

[Juliamon]

You don't realize how attached you can get to someone you don't know and can't speak to, until you find yourself pinging at them constantly to encourage them to keep going through the windy snowscape.

I've only played through once so far (got really sick, haven't been able to sit up long enough to play again) but oh man I can't wait to play again.

[LogicSword]

Whitecloaked

Playing it again, especially knowing that it might not be the same person all along, I was heartbroken whenever I lost sight of my partner. Managed to get through with only one loss though

The most heart-breaking moment in the whole game though comes near the end when you lose your voice climbing up the mountain. I love singing to the other person, and the "communication" that comes out of such a simple mechanism and it's just horrible when it's taken away.</ramble>

[8bitmaster]

played it through 4 times now, and have the white cloak. I just can't stop playing it. It is quite the amazing game. There is nothing bad I can say about it. From the sounds of this thread, i'm not the only one who thinks that way either.

[TheRocket]

SPOILER ALERT!!





Just kidding! I have no idea what this game is about! Har har har!