VIDEO-GAMING / LP SERIES PART 2 - art games

& now I come to our next game.  Again I had heard about it, but I didn’t pursue it until VERY recently – try a week & a half ago recently.  I had been PLANNING to watch the playlist pewdiepie had complied since he came out with it [January], but life happened.  [You can view that playlist here:  

But it was WORTH THE WAIT.  Let wiki tell you the rest:

In Journey the player controls a robed figure in a vast desert, traveling towards a mountain in the distance. Other players on the same journey can be discovered, one at a time, along the way; two players that meet can assist each other, but they cannot communicate via speech or text and cannot see each other's names. The only form of communication between the two is a wordless shout. This shout also transforms dull, stiff pieces of cloth found throughout the levels into vibrant red, affecting the game world and allowing the player to progress through the levels. The robed figure wears a trailing scarf which, when charged by approaching floating pieces of cloth, briefly allows the player to float through the air.

The developers sought to evoke in the player a sense of smallness and wonder, and to forge an emotional connection between them and the anonymous players they meet along the way. The music, composed by Austin Wintory, dynamically responds to the player's actions, building a single theme to represent the game's emotional arc throughout the story.

Reviewers of the game praised the visual and auditory art as well as the sense of companionship created by playing with a stranger, calling it a moving and emotional experience. Journey won several "game of the year" awards and received several other awards and nominations, including a Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media nomination for the 2013 Grammy Awards.

Quite frankly, I believe it is the best game ever made [& a lot of others do, since the game has won a plethora of awards & accolades.]  It is PERFECT in every way a game can be perfect: graphics & visuals; the cooperative experience; the score & audio; & the manifest & latent narrative genius.

a.     GRAPHICS

This game is visually stunning.  Like LIMBO, it evokes feelings of wonder when you play it.  But in an entirely different way than LIMBO.  LIMBO evokes disgust, fear, apprehension, & sadness much more than Journey – this is not to fault LIMBO; LIMBO has another theme / angle it is coming from: horror.  Journey, on the other hand, comes from adventure, wonder, majesty.  You feel overwhelmed from the sheer scope of it all.  You are just a small being, with some other small being, scaling the world.

Some fault the graphics for being “too simple” or “too boring,” but I enjoy the simplicity & the brilliance.  In so many of our games now, we try to pile in so many textures, so many moving elements, that we get lost in the madness, as opposed to getting lost in the scenery – which happens in Journey.  During my viewing experience, I had to just pause & cry because what was happening to my eyes was truly a holy moment.  pewdiepie also shed tears because of the sheer beauty of this game.  It can’t even be brought into words sometimes.

These screenshots can’t even give the game justice, but they are hopefully a solid glimpse.

all from the company's website

I believe these tumblr gifs do the game a bit more justice.  You can feel the flowing / organic / seamless nature of the animation – which is an extent of the graphics.  There is not an awkward angle or an awkward jerk of the animation.  Everything flows; everything bleeds into another.  There is little to no difference between the in-game graphics & the narrative cut-scenes – something that happens so much with mainstream games.  When you see the trailers for such games, you commonly see only the cut-scene animation.  & the cut-scene animation is beautiful [you can see every detail], but when you go back to the game, things drop drastically down in quality.  In order to play the game – REALLY play the game – that high quality is not unsustainable; it must be cast aside in order to advance through levels & objectives.  But that’s where the simplicity really does help this game.  There is no sacrificing between the two necessary components; they bleed together.  They are one – like a game should be.

18bithero

The character design of the characters is beautiful, as well.  Their capes & scarves are such beautifully unique elements that showcase your status, your identity, & your closeness to the companion next to you.  & these beings are anonymous; they can be anyone.  They are also, quite arguably, genderless.  They are not the default openly cis & hetero male gender protagonist; they can be molded into anything.  & they CAN be anyone – which is what happens in the cooperative experience.

b.      CO-OP

The co-op mode is not forced; it happens naturally.  After you get the hang of things in the pseudo-tutorial, you are paired with a random stranger.  It could be anyone.  They could, theoretically, be your neighbor next-door.  Or they could be a person thousands of miles away in another country, in another continent.  You will never know.  & that’s the beauty of it.

You don’t need words to bond with this person.  You don’t need the cluttering of information a profile brings.  You are brought together with this being who will help you [hopefully; there are people who, just like in life, will leave you behind & selfishly go off on their own].  You might stay with this person the entirety of the game.  Or you might meet different travelers on the way.  Either way, you will bond with them on some level.  pewdiepie, in his let’s play, had the same person for quite a while.  He named the character of the person he was playing with.  & the two of them began to really understood each other.  It was beautiful to see such camaraderie & sometimes even love between the two characters, waiting for each other, fretting over each other, communicating thru a series of clicks & jumps.   It’s nothing that’s ever been introduced before.  & other games should pick up on it.  The possibilities of mandatory / normalized, yet by no means stagnant or forced or mechanic, co-op gameplay are endless. 

c.      SCORE / AUDIO

If you didn’t read correctly, YES this score was nominated for a Grammy.  It didn’t win, but it was still nominated.  It’s the first video game score of its kind.

& it rightly deserves it.  Because the visuals & the score are in perfect harmony.  They complement each other.  They share a VITAL bond, much like you & your anonymous companion.  They cannot exist without the other.  They go through the journey together & never leave the other’s side.

Here’s some more wiki knowledge:

The music in Journey was composed by Austin Wintory [in a way] so the music would dynamically tie in to both the actions of the player and sound effects caused by nearby game objects, and feel as if it were "unfolding in real time".^[20] [They] felt having short pieces of music that looped without reacting to the player would be a "missed opportunity", and wanted to create music that changed while still containing a composed emotional arc.

Unlike many games, where different songs have different themes for each character or area, Wintory chose to base all of the pieces on one theme which stood for the player and their journey, with cello solos especially representing the player. Wintory describes the music as "like a big cello concerto where you are the soloist and all the rest of the instruments represent the world around you" … ^[20][22] The cello begins the game as "immersed in a sea of electronic sound", before first emerging on its own and then merging into a full orchestra, mirroring the player's journey to the mountain.^[23] While the game's art style is based on several different cultures, Wintory tried to remove any overt cultural influences from the music to make it "as universal and culture-less as possible."^[20] 

Above is the orchestral suite for the game, allowing you to hear the varying stages / emotions you will experience while playing the game. Because you will most definitely experience EMOTION.  The cello in the beginning really builds to the awe.  & then @ the end… the finale piece [Apotheosis]… it will be a cathartic, magnificent experience.  You will shed tears.  Or will be close to shedding tears.  Everything reaches a climax, an apex of gaming experience, a holy & heavenly moment that will leave you breathless & agape &… The final “stage” of Journey is something that I will never regret watching & something that I will never forget.  & I don’t want to rob you of that privilege.

But it continues.  Just when you think the game has ended, you get the closing credits.  & the closing credits are usually something just thrown together just to show names.  But in Journey, the closing credits & the story that unfolds from the credits is the most important part of the game.  You see the narrative truly unfold.  You see yourself & your journey.  & the start of a new journey.  The song chosen for these credits… it’s one of the best songs ever constructed for a video game.  Pure brilliance.  Please give it a listen:

d.      NARRATIVE

I barely grazed the narrative above.  But it truly is a journey.  & a repeatable one; the game gives you the option of multiple replays in order to “upgrade” your coat from red with sparse trimmings, decorations, & scarf, to one very heavily ornate [but still red], to possibly even a white coat – the pinnacle of this creature’s existence.

Since there are no words that are exchanged thru the story, you rely on visuals.  You rely on the “meditations” you receive from the white figure.  You receive the background story of your people.  It both serves as a warning of the past & the foreshadowing of the future.  You visit sites quite similar to the visions you receive [which have an entirely different visual style, like mosaics & “ancient” art] & they can be… meh I won’t spoil it.

The best analysis of this game comes from a tumblr user.  I must post it because I won’t be able to do a better job myself: [WARNINGS FOR SPOILERS]

s0tc: _{The best thing about Journey is being able to interpret things in your own way. The game is moving and unforgettable and you can experience a wide sense of emotion from the story-telling itself, the music, and the gameplay. I always paid close attention to watching the way the white-robbed figure portrayed itself each time you saw it. The first time it is mysterious and you are filled with a sense of curiosity of who they are and it shows you how the mountain brought the land prosperity and life. The second time, it reveals itself to you and tells the rest of its story on a more personal level where it became sort of a dawn of a new age for its people. The third time when you walk up to it, with its back turned, you can already feel the sense of loss even before it showed you the fall of the civilization with chaos and destruction. The fourth time, you watch as they stand together, side by side, and the white-robbed figure shows how the destruction ended their civilization and over time, sands covered the land and finally, you were born. And lastly, when you see the white-robbed figure for the final time you can feel how important this figure is. So important that this figure shows you the journey you have been struggling through, knows your destiny, shows you your purpose. And when you watch the credits and how this little star in the sky trails all the way back to the beginning where you were ‘born,’ you realize that this mountain, the mountain that once brought life to the land, gave you a new life. A new} journey_.

Another interpretation is the “light” inspires others to live – others to start their own journeys, but they are quite similar.

It is a short game, yes, but every level is needed.  There are no “filler” levels made of unnecessary content to stall you, to keep you busy until you get to the grand finale.  Every step, every task has a purpose.  Everything is necessary.  & the end may come too soon , but you are right to feel this way.

You’ve been on a journey with someone & you don’t want to see them go.  You want to stay searching with them forever.  You don’t want it all to end.  You don’t want this beautiful experience to end.

But it’s okay.  You can repeat your journey.  You can repeat it as many times as you desire.  The journey truly does NOT end.  & that’s a positive adjective I can’t even come up with.