by 
Journey is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful, best sounding, and emotionally moving video games of recent memory. I am clearly in the minority, then, when I say that I found it lacking.
Good things first: yes, Journey is fairly pretty and the sand is pleasantly reactive. I can’t really comment on the soundtrack quality since Magic Carpet Ride was playing in my head the entire time and is what I am now listening to as I write this impression.
I only discovered after playing my hour that the other caped figures I met along my journey (yes, yes, the puns) were in fact other players – which is amusing, considering I had been thinking that the game would stand to benefit from having actual players show up (much like Dark Souls). I kinda feel bad now that I left the other players I met in the dust.
But while the world is fairly pretty for a game from 2012, I can’t say that there really felt as if there were any point to it. In the end, it’s a walking simulator with sand physics where strangers pop up occasionally. From what I understand, I ended up playing about half the game during my hour – perhaps a little less. Due to the wordless and (initially) peaceful nature of the game, it lacks a complex story, puzzles, or mechanics (beyond the jump/glide) of any kind.
Part of my frustration with my experience arose from the limited nature of jumping/gliding. You have a scarf that fills with runes as you reach certain glyphs or checkpoints, but beyond that you are basically limited to about 5-10 seconds of flight time (which extends as you pick up more glyphs). It’s hard to criticize this aspect of the game, as playing with another person allows you to refill each other’s scarf; admittedly, this is a pretty ingenious solution which forces you to rely on the players you meet to use a basic mechanic. Except…as I mentioned, there aren’t really any puzzles here. You can complete the game on your own – there’s no actual need to rely on others, which seems at odds with both the gameplay and the story being told. This makes the limited jumping simply frustrating, especially when you are not paired up with another player for help.
Structurally, the game also includes various pet peeves of mine: cutscenes which wrest control and don’t have a clear indication of when they give it back, large empty areas where you can’t move quickly or efficiently, and sections where the camera is almost entirely out of your control. Even when walking down a straight corridor, the camera has a tendency to gradually turn to one side for no apparent reason – meaning that if you just press forward, you eventually walk into a wall. If the movement in general were more engaging or rewarding, some of these complaints might be forgiven.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh on this game – the elements that are there are well-made (for the most part: I clipped into a wall mid-way in my playthrough, as you can see above). Had I gone in knowing that anyone I saw was a stranger, I would have engaged more. But on the other hand, what would I have done differently? There’s very little to do in this game other than press forward. Exploration yields little other than wasted time and occasionally a second or two more of jump time if you find a glyph. Tier Three.