So...I don't like Journey

I played through Journey back on the PS3 shortly after it came out and was recieving praise by pretty much everybody. After watching the recent quick look of the PS4 version, I thought about my experience with that game and I came to the conclusion that I don't enjoy it. I remember being extremely underwhelmed by the whole experience. I found it to be boring, easy and way to short. I beat it in one sitting, which isn't hard and seems to be the way the developers wanted the game to be played. I didn't find any deep meaning in my actions or the "story" and the whole coop thing just seemed needless and tacked on. I'm not a religious person so that might have something to do with my lack of enjoyment in this game but on the whole, I found this experience to be extremely lackluster. I do not understand everyone's reverence and universal praise for this game. Am I alone in thinking this is a bad game? Sure it looks pretty but so do plenty of other games.

Don't stop believin'.

@holycrapitsadam:

No im pretty much with you buddy, very much overpraised.

Journey is simple and elegant.

If you're looking for something that's trying to make a grand statement, or something that's trying to tell a complex story, or something with multilayered and deep mechanics, you're not going to find it in Journey. It's not an epic RPG, it's not an exhilirating shooter, and it's not an extremely difficult platformer.

But it's simple and elegant in every facet of its design. That doesn't appeal to everyone, but it seems like most of the things that are marketed towards us are trying to be big, epic, complex, and long, and they start to run together. Journey wasn't any of those things, it just looks pretty, sounds beautiful, and feels wonderful to play. Seeing another person running around this world with you and communicating with them in the most simplistic manner possible was all part of that aesthetic.

Hey not everything is for everybody. That's cool.

What I wanted out of Journey was just an experience, and I got that. I loved the art style, I loved the barren desert and I thought the coop was implemented in a unique way. I guess it comes down to managing expectations - critical acclaim probably overhyped the entire thing.

Someday love will find you

Break those chains that bind you

It sounds like it's not for you. If you don't have a place in your heart for a short, easy game with something to say beyond the gameplay once in a while, I can't imagine you'd get much out of Journey. I appreciated the sense of connection with the other player that the game managed, even given only the barest minimum of tools to communicate. I'm not religious either, but the shared sights and experiences along the (ahem) journey and the feeling of freedom and release at the end of the game were pretty great too. I've played it exactly once when it came out on the PS3, and I'm not sure I'll play it again, but it was probably my no. 3 game in 2012, following behind XCOM and Mark of the Ninja.

It's OK not to like something.

BURN THE HERETIC. I mean uh.... Too bad :(

For my money, Journey embodies itself completely and perfectly. It's a simple concept polished and designed to low fat perfection. All it wants you to do is go on a Journey, and more than any other game I've ever played, it made me feel like I truly was on one.

Okay.

I personally think it's one of the best games of the last 10 years.

Eh. A lot of your complaints (it's too easy, can be played in one sitting, etc.) are in direct conflict with the type of game Journey is. That just means it's not for you.

I thought it was beautiful, both aesthetically and emotionally, but I could absolutely see your perspective. It's a pretty thin experience if your primary metric for enjoyment is mastery of mechanics.

You can totally not like something that other people enjoy. I think Journey is one of the best games I've ever played, but to each their own.

@holycrapitsadam: Never feel bad for liking/disliking anything especially if you know what you're talking about. I played most of the Uncharted games, and almost beat the last of us, and I didn't enjoy those games at all. ( Uncharted on Vita was ok )

It's one of the greatest games ever made. Nearly perfect.

edit: but I accept you!

Different strokes for different folks, don't sweat it.

Your complaints aren't real complaints. You say it was too easy and short and neither of those are inherently bad things. Also I have no idea where the religion thing is coming from...

The game is about the stages of life. You start off the game waking up, seeing a goal, and making your way to that goal. You start innocent and carefree. Taking baby steps, learning your moves, then you go crazy and slide down a hill a few times. It's exciting and fun. Then you meet some terrifying enemies, then you go through a terrible snowstorm and collapse under the weight of all your troubles. The final sequence can symbolize life after death, being reborn, or even just getting through your hardships.

The meaty center of the whole experience IS THE CO-OP, by the way. It's anything but tacked on, don't say that. Finding that one person to go with you on your Journey is pretty much the whole point. You aren't alone on your life's Journey. I'm sorry you didn't get anything out of this amazing experience but hopefully I helped you understand why the game touched so many people on a deep level. It's one of the best games of all time

I dont have anything to say, I just wanted to quote that.

I just want to say i like it, but i didn't want to make a topic just for that. Also to the other dude saying "very much overpraised" according to you maybe it is, but to me its not. There we go balance in the force again.

@toowalrus:

Hold on to that feeeellliiinnnnnnn'!!!

Shun the non believer

The way I see it, Journey is the video game equivalent of watching a sunset while reflecting on your life. Some people never stop to do that, "what's the point?" they say. But it has it's own reward, but I can understand while for some it may appear as just a waste of time between other more exciting things to do.

@frostyryan: Perfectly stated.

Okay. You're allowed to think it's not great, to each his own. I think it's fantastic, simply because of the atmosphere, the graphics, the story beats (so to speak) and how fantastic it feels to slide around and jump/fly.

I enjoyed my time with it, had similar experiences that Alex and Jeff have talked about time and time again, but I agree. I played it once, had some highs and some lows, but don't really want to play it again and even when I played it, I wasn't as "OH MY GOD!" as some people give it credit.

You do not need to be religious to have feelings .

Wheel in the sky is a hell of a song.

Nope. You didn't actually like the game, it just tricked you into thinking it was good.

Journey is bad and you're wrong.

@toowalrus: I was expecting this response and I am not disappointed at all. Kudos!

You're not alone OP, my experience with Journey matches yours exactly.

I played it on PS3 and found no great hidden meaning, no revelatory emotional payoff, just an extremely pretty looking but ultimately shallow, straightforward, boring and short platform game. Recently replayed it on PS4 to see if I just wasn't in the right mood when I first played it, but felt the same.

I actually resent all the praise it gets as I really don't think it's a good game at all, but each to their own and we are clearly in the minority!

I played through it for the first time Saturday. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. It was alright.

I did not like it either. Although I'm starting to think it's because nobody joined my game, so there was none of this connetion everybody talks about, just a 2 hour lonely trek.

@demigodraven: TROOF

Journey >>>>>>>> Foreigner

I decided to finally play it once it came to PS4. I'm playing it pretty slowly and occasionally someone pops in for a level and then leaves. A bit of both worlds. Mind blowing no but its a nice trek I am enjoying.

Ok.

I'm so stealing this line!

@holycrapitsadam: Curious to hear about what games/kinds of games you traditionally enjoy.

Since I just recently posted a sorta lengthy comment in reply to another person in another site who didn't really enjoy Journey that much, I'll just paste the exact message here.

Journey didn't truly click with me until I played it a second time when I had people stick with me for longer. It was just "neat' the first time around.

Third time was when it became magical for me. I was with this one other player for the majority of the game. He/she was super helpful in showing me most of the secrets. That's cool and all, but what really made it such a good time for me was that he/she absolutely "got me" every time I was messing around. We took turns sliding down the stone tablets at the end of every level, we echoed each others' silly sound patterns, we sat down to watch the beautiful vistas, we sat on top of pillars across each other, we played in the sand waterfalls for way too goddamn long, we repeated the sound patterns we made in earlier levels in the blizzard part, and all that corny shit.

And as fate would have it, he/she vanished just before we were going to make the ascension at the very last level. I fucking waited for about 20 minutes, going all the way back to the beginning of the level just to find him/her. Nothing. Walked to the light all on my own. Never felt that awful feeling before.

Fourth time was another totally different experience because I finally took on the role of the guide. Don't think I've ever felt so proud being so helpful in a game!

Fifth and final time was sublime. Just me in my white robe with another white robe throughout the entire game. We just flew.

I fucking love Journey.

Not religious at all, BTW.

I'm not trying to sway you into thinking otherwise about the game. Just sharing my experiences as to why I (and a helluva lot of people) think it's a masterpiece. I think it's always good to at least hear out why people really like a thing and come to some level of understanding instead of just completely dismissing a thing you don't like. That's what I try to do anyway.

Reading what I previously wrote also made me realize that the reason I love it has very little to do with the usual "checklist" of things people judge games by. Wasn't a conscious effort on my part, and I think everyone would agree that it looks and sounds amazing, and that it even controls pretty well. It's unfortunate that it didn't resonate with you, but that's cool. It's probably just not your thing.

It's true, though. The same way slot machines and freemium Facebook games convince you that you're having fun by showing you a bunch of pretty blinking lights and exponentially-increasing progress bars.

Artificial fun.

The first time I played it I thought it was fantastic. I would even say I had the exact experience they want you to have. Just me and this other person figuring it out and powering through... But then the credits rolled, and I found out that it wasn't me and one other specific player, but in fact I had played with four other people, and for what ever reason that killed all the joy I had for the game.

Felt like I had just seen how the sausage was made.

You don't have to be religious to enjoy the experience of Journey, and the story is free to be interpretted in any way by every player. You didn't like it because it just didn't resonate with you, and your complaints are completely valid. I just couldn't believe how connected I felt to my partner during that game.

There was a spot where I thought there might be a secret so I sat there and sat they sat with me, so I jumped and they didn't hesitate to follow me. We had to redo a huge portion of a level and I felt bad, but we stuck close just the same, calling at each other.

When I saw them get taken out by the enemy for the first time while I was slightly ahead of them, I thought they were dead for good and felt guilty for being ahead.

I think what makes the co-op in that game so successful is that it leaves the communication to be interpretted by the player. For all I know, my partner was mashing away his call after the jump incident because he was angry and thought I was arguing when I mashed it back. I interpretted it as me apologizing and him responding with a blissful "oh-well, we'll make it back in no time!" moment. Man, that game.

The difference between organic fun and artificial fun for the consumer is?

One is real and one is not.

That's okay. There are those that like Journey, and there are those that are cold, heartless beings. Just accept whichever one you are.

Are you saying the signals that fire off in a player's brain that cause them to feel something generally described as "fun" aren't real? Or are you trying to tie game design with the "authenticity" of certain feelings?

Can it also be applied to other feelings? What would be required for someone to feel "fake" frustration? "Fake" suspense?

i dunno lol

honestly i don't really have the attention span to keep up with this, i just wanted to troll that dude because his thing about "real complaints" was so hilarious

Well I think it...

Wait, What was that about Religion? What? Where did That come from? i know you meditate and see a big white robed person from time to time but... to jump to thinking you need to be religious to enjoy the game is... odd? Telling, maybe?

Game was fun. I had fun.

We understand your opinion and respect your right to have it. The existence of a singular view toward something only breeds stagnation and we should all understand the value of diverse stances even if we disagree with them as they build the forward momentum of progress.

Aside: "Let's go kick his ass."

It is a much better "game" than Gone Home was, as long as we're making controversial statements.

If you found the game boring, easy and short, that's because... well... it is!

Easy and short, yes. Boring, if you're just there for the game in itself. The real value of the game, as far as I see it, is that it managed to be very pretty without powerful hyper-realistic graphics, and use non-vocal storytelling in the early PS3 era, when there really wasn't the deluge of that sort of thing we have now.

I think that a lot of people who didn't experience the game at the time will go back and not get what made it special, because since Journey came out we have seen what feels like dozens of indie projects trying to do the same thing every month, along with our pixel art platformers.

Personally, I'm not an 'art game' sort of person. I thought Journey was really cool for what it was doing at the time, and I still do, but I don't really have the personality to get emotionally invested in video games, so I never quite appreciated it on the same level as some people did.

I'll echo what everyone else said, though. I don't quite understand what religion has to do with any of it.