A Revisit

Every now and then I like to re-visit a game, one that forever reason and despite multiple outstanding reviews , for what ever reason just didn’t click the first time around. Maybe it was a lack of time, lack of a quiet space, etc but for what ever reason, it doesn’t stick and you promise yourself that, one day you will go back to it.

Journey is one of those games.

I’ll admit I had got never round to playing it when it was originally released in 2012.

I was either too busy, playing something else or doing something else and whenever I did have time to play it, I would be convinced (by some strange force) that it would, as soon as i bought it  plummet in price (which is one of my biggest gaming fears)

So, i just didn’t play it convinced that although the reviews were excellent the game would be too ”artsy” for me too short or just too expensive for the game I thought it was . and then it came to PS Plus and all my excuses were gone, I had to play it I had no excuses left, so there I was one Saturday up bright and early ready to play what I thought would be one of the greatest games I had ever played. I played it for maybe 30 minutes waiting for the magic to strike, that magic moment when I would see what everybody else had seen, be able to peek into this world of pure joy and be swept away, it didn’t come  maybe I had expected too much, maybe the reviewers were wrong, perhaps I was right and the game was just pure art and so I left it there convinced that one day I would re-visit and maybe then find out what all the fuss was about, all those years ago.

That day did come, It was nearly six months later, again one bleary eyed Saturday morning I decided to give the game one more chance to win me over and win me over it did. Suddenly I could see all I had missed before the graphics, were incredible, the soundtrack wonderful. The game design incredible, what felt  like an empty waste land before, a game with no goal, now felt completely different,  before where there was no point seemed now to be filled with a pressing goal. A goal to see, what lied behind the next corner, what lay over the hill, now as important as any quest I had ever undertaken before. The game itself always pushing you forward, leaving you free to explore at will, but ever so gently tugging at your sleeve eager to not let the you get bored or loose your sense of progression. And then there was the multiplayer system a way of interacting with another player unlike anything I had seen before. In my first time with the game this felt irritating the other players, feeling less like people and more like game gimmicks designed to pull you though the game not letting you stop and take in the wonder of the sights and sounds now felt alive. Each player as immersed in the world as I was and despite no words being able to pass between us, I felt with the sounds that were able to make now held real weight and only added to the sense of companionship

I am glad I finally managed to play Journey and can only add to the thousands of positive reviews out there. If you get a change to play it do and if you  think it wasn’t for you the first time around  maybe a re-visit is due 🙂