I have played journey, all the way through, exactly once. I knew nothing of the game besides the prior work of its creators and its visuals going into it.
I can safely say it was one of the most impactful experiences (not gaming experiences, but generally speaking) I've ever had in my life. The game thematically boils down some of the most complex and dense topics -- relationships, life, humanity -- into a perfect collaboration between story and gameplay.
<spoiler stuff>I ended up partnered with an individual (man or woman, I have no idea) who began as a mentor, guiding me through the game, which has no real instruction to it. You grow to feel so thankful for this person. They're infinitely patient as you miss their cues. They don't scold you or make you feel stupid. They can't.
As we sailed down the ski section, in all of its visual glory, it was like experiencing a dream in which you have a profound connection with someone who only exists in your mind. You don't want it to ever end.
And at the end, you push each other forward. You refuse to give up. You struggle. You endure. Like surviving some ordeal with another, you share a bond no one could possibly understand.
The game then reveals itself to you through metaphor. The end is all at once serene, beautiful, thrilling and grows large in your throat. I know it's just a game, but can't I learn something from it? That person was real. They were there. With me. Guiding me, taking care of me, letting me care for them.
There's nothing more pure, and the game nails it.</spoiler stuff>
After all that, playing the game again seemed like it could only cheapen it. The developers give you additional stuff to play through for, for those people that might complain about its brief length, but for the rest of us who understand, it was something you just can't taint.
You've summed up my feelings toward the game better than I ever could, even the part about only playing it once which I could never really explain before.
I don't want to get off topic, but there are only two other games I've played that have had that sort of emotional impact on me, To the Moon[1] and Gone Home[2]. In the case of Gone Home in particular, the impact was such that I actually felt a good deal of sadness at knowing that most of the people I know will never experience the story and message of that game, and I wound up buying it for two of my friends.
It's taken me a great deal of time and a large amount of consideration to distill my feelings about journey into language that well-enough eloquates how I felt playing it. At the end of the game, I truly felt like I had had a transformative experience. I would be embarrassed of it if it wasn't so true.
In regards to gone home, I really really wanted to like that game. I wanted it to be more. Not gameplay wise, but in what it aspired to tell us about the human experience. The resolution of the story felt so cheap and derivative, I could barely believe it was the same game that I had been playing up to that point, with its multifacted characters and spotlight on the ennui of the American family. The end just felt like a lazy wrap up of an ABC Family movie, and it was so disappointing it poisoned the entire game for me.
I recently played through Journey as well (my first time), but only learned that there was a multiplayer component after watching the making of/commentary video.
It was a pretty game and I enjoyed it, but I struggled to find the impactful experience that others had had after it was over. I suppose my experience would have been different if it had been with another player.
I don't agree that Twitter has the same benefits. If anything, I feel that it enables ever more glib, insensitive comments from trolls. It's hard to argue with a one-liner.
However, with respect to Journey, I fully agree. Fantastic piece of work in many ways.
Journey is without a doubt one of the most remarkable games I've played in the last 2 years. There are others that I really enjoyed in the moment but Journey is the one I'll pick up to replay again and again.
I hope Journey comes to more platforms because I keep hearing such great things about it but honestly I haven't had or wanted to buy a console since N64 days.
Chances for that are pretty slim, given Sony owns all rights to the game. So most likely you'll see a PlayStation Vita port of it, in addition to the PS3 release.
You might be surprised by how much you can miss the mark without a PS3. Watching a video is certainly an improvement over such a trivial case.
Personally, I would love to play it, but without the hardware, it's pretty difficult. At least via video I can appreciate the art vicariously, if at a lower interactive fidelity.
(Obviously games are always better played, but they're also fun to observe!)
If you liked Journey's anonymous, transient multiplayer, try Dark Souls: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Souls. Although it does it in a more "hardcore" style of game - an RPG, with fighting, and lots of dying - it accomplishes the same gripping, emotional experience that is so fleeting in modern games. It's memorable because of how it limits communication and forces you to use gesturing and the environment to explain your intentions to one another.
Saying Dark Souls is "hardcore" is an euphemism :)
While quite a different experience, Dark Souls is the "gamiest" game I've played in a long time. While environmentally immersive, the game forces you to remember it's a game. You have plan, optimize and exploit. You don't feel bad by being cheap, because the game is also cheap. All my gaming senses were constantly being tested.
Quite the contrast with the recent trend in "immersive" and "cinematic" games. Dark Souls is a game that knows it's a game and expects you to remember that as well.
From the description of the mechanics, I'm most closely reminded of the local-multiplayer co-op mechanics in the SNES-era game Kirby SuperStar--which indeed produce very positive play experiences in every situation I've seen, such that I recommend it as "the video game to play with your romantic-partner-who-doesn't-play-video-games." Journey even replicates KSS's "mutual recharging through touching" mechanic, which I don't think I've seen in anything else.
Amusingly enough, the New Super Mario Bros. series also copied KSS's co-op mechanics--but then added griefing in, just for the sake of it. (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/20/)
I can safely say it was one of the most impactful experiences (not gaming experiences, but generally speaking) I've ever had in my life. The game thematically boils down some of the most complex and dense topics -- relationships, life, humanity -- into a perfect collaboration between story and gameplay.
<spoiler stuff>I ended up partnered with an individual (man or woman, I have no idea) who began as a mentor, guiding me through the game, which has no real instruction to it. You grow to feel so thankful for this person. They're infinitely patient as you miss their cues. They don't scold you or make you feel stupid. They can't.
As we sailed down the ski section, in all of its visual glory, it was like experiencing a dream in which you have a profound connection with someone who only exists in your mind. You don't want it to ever end.
And at the end, you push each other forward. You refuse to give up. You struggle. You endure. Like surviving some ordeal with another, you share a bond no one could possibly understand.
The game then reveals itself to you through metaphor. The end is all at once serene, beautiful, thrilling and grows large in your throat. I know it's just a game, but can't I learn something from it? That person was real. They were there. With me. Guiding me, taking care of me, letting me care for them.
There's nothing more pure, and the game nails it.</spoiler stuff>
After all that, playing the game again seemed like it could only cheapen it. The developers give you additional stuff to play through for, for those people that might complain about its brief length, but for the rest of us who understand, it was something you just can't taint.