Great Walking Sim, Not a Great Game
Maybe the destination is not what matters, but the journey along the way. A journey generally is a learning experience. You maybe do some introspection, learn something about yourself and something about yourself you need to change. Or maybe you learn something greater about life itself. A journey that is thought provoking is a journey to remember. A journey where you move from one location to another, not so much.
Journey is a game where you walk, jump, and float. The gameplay is rather bland and rudimentary. Sometimes you need to solve puzzles, which aren't challenging at all, and then...you walk some more. All the obstacles you come across in the game don't even feel like bumps in the road, more like tiny rocks that you step on and don't even notice. Journey really has nothing amazing nor enticing with its gameplay, though that's not really what would draw you to such a game. It's the experience.
And that for me, is where Journey falls flat on its face. Sure, you're thrown in this beautiful land with an amazing soundtrack, but as to why, you have no idea. There's no text or dialog at all to the game that explains anything and it doesn't bestow you with any particular feeling. You will make it to these shrines that have these people that look like you, but they just show you where you are and where you're heading next, giving you no context to the world at all. This leaves you to fill in the blank canvas that is this journey that you're going on, but that's the problem, it's too blank for you to fill it in with anything and just ends up staying blank.
Journey is a game I wanted to love like I loved Braid and Limbo, but unlike those games, Journey gives you nothing to attach to. There's nothing to really feel, nothing to interpret, and nothing to extrapolate while you're on this Journey. It's as barren as the desert it starts in.
