This game came out this year and it just kind of came and went. Which is too bad because I think it's really neat. It's on Steam now and was created by the guy who created Kairo, another overlooked puzzle game on the PC, Richard Perrin. Journal is largely an adventure game that emphasizes story and choice. I know, I know. Sounds a bit tired. But this game stands out by its art style and by how it handles the topics discussed.

The game has two art styles. The main style looks like crayon drawings done by a young kid and through that art a lot of the experience for the main character, a teenage girl, comes across. In the part of town that she enjoys the world is colorful and dynamic. In the downtown section of the world the art displays a rundown and almost war-torn environment. The game is filled with examples like this and it really gives the game a unique look and feel.

This art, with the feelings that it brings out, is tied to a very well realized story with well written characters. Not every line of dialogue works and not all of the characters feel as unique and individualized as one would hope. But for the most part the characters feel dynamic and certainly change over the course of the game. The story raises interesting topics and handles these topics with a lot of care and nuance. In fact, what makes these issues and topics feel so meaningful is the restraint that is used. The player and character don't walk away from these experiences particularly satisfied with the outcome. Rather, player and characters just leave feeling different. The story represents realistic situations and deals with them in equally realistic ways.

But what this game does the best of all is make the player really feel what the character is experiencing through some really cool moments. Gone Home was great because you experienced that world in a way that felt uniquely honest and realistic. But it was experienced second hand by the player. The Journal does a great job of showing the player how it might have felt for a teenager to deal with issues like grief, anxiety, anger, frustration, and simply experiencing the world through eyes that are constantly changing. The Journal does this with a lot of subtlety and clever writing.

Like I said, the dialogue and situations have their problems. The ending is great until it trips at the very, very end and the gameplay is nearly non-existent. But it's a worthwhile experience for those that want to try something different. As familiar as the foundation for this game might sound, I would argue that the Journal is one of the best examples of a game that puts the player through an experience that is completely foreign to them.

Nice write-up! I'm looking forward to playing this a bit more now, having picked it up on the Steam sale a few days ago.

Hmmm, I hadn't heard of this game at all. Sounds like something I might enjoy and well the price is certainly right for a flier.

Well if I have budget left come 6/30, I may give it a go. Thanks for the writeup duder!

Never heard of it before, but you've sold me on it. At $2.99 on Steam Sale, I don't suppose I could go wrong.

Huh, I've never heard of it but that sounds neat. It has trading cards selling at fairly high prices too -- it practically pays for itself!

@uitdetoekomst: @slag: @wemibelec90:

Thanks for reading guys. I hope you give it a shot. It is a very neat game that I would have happily bought at $10 so $3 is a steal. I hope I didn't oversell it. It has its flaws. But it is a very cool experience that got to me when I played it. But I could totally see it being a game someone plays and wonders what I was talking about. It will certainly be a divisive game. But I think that in and of itself means that the game is of a high value. It is at the least distinctive and memorable.

I might need to get in on that.

@jasonr86: I just finished the game... Your write-up is spot on! I really liked it. Thank you so much for the recommendation.

What did you mean by "The ending is great until it trips at the very, very end," though? I thought it was pretty good,. Well, not counting the framerate.tripping down to <10FPS-town.

@jasonr86: Post this in the reviews section. :)

@audiobusting:

Thanks, glad you liked it. I like everything about the ending. But at the very last moment there's dialogue, spoken by the main character, that is placed over a white background. The sentiment from the dialogue fell flat for me. But also, technically, the game hung there almost like a hard lockup. I kept expecting something else to happen because that dialogue was so flat but nothing did. It just hung there. I replayed that last day again thinking that there might have been an error but I got the same ending.

@jasonr86: Weird. If I recall correctly, it's supposed to go on when you press space, and on the last line it turns into white-text-on-black, and then it goes into a credits sequence.

@jasonr86:

You couldn't have posted any pictures? This is the only image Giant Bomb has on the game:

@darthorange:

I painted a word-picture son!

Your word-picture sucks!

What does this even mean? How young is the kid making these crayon drawings? 12? 6? 4? What is the quality of these pictures? Does this kid suck at drawing or is he really good? Are all the colors inside the lines? You leave way too much up to imagination and so in my head I see a game where baby Johnny Cage did the art.

@jasonr86: Oh shit... I've heard of these... they invade your mind and make you think things. Get out of my head!

Looks neat. Can't beat $3.

@jasonr86:

Played through this twice over a couple of day's time. I actually really enjoyed it, so thanks for the recommendation. I didn't always understand the motivations of the characters, and it seemed like there were times that maybe I did things that the game considered to be out of order which caused some confusion, but i did actually have a considerable amount of fun playing it.

Having just played through it due to your recommendation, I would say you gave it a fair review. My impression is largely similar to yours. The emotions felt pretty real to me in a way most games never come close to realizing. There were points in this game, where I was legitimately upset by what was happening story wise. Not many games do that to me, even story driven ones. It handled conversation outcomes a lot better than say a Bioware game, but it's also a lot shorter so that was probably easier to write the results of multiple outcomes.

To me the divisive mechanic is the lack of knowledge the player has compared to the player character when making decisions. There were times where that really worked in conveying what the game was trying to do, and then there were times that it led me to making conversational choices that led to really jarring results that didn't match my intent.

And then there was the ending that hardlocked on me too. I guess it's a controller support issue, but I had to replay the last chapter twice before I figured that out (since I was trying to avoid cheats and faqs and spoilers)

Also what is up with the Jump button? Why on earth is that even there?

Overall though that was good stuff! I'm sad it got savaged by the few critics that reviewed it. It has some flaws but there is very worthwhile game there.

I really appreciate you bringing this up Jasonr86, I would have never played this one if you hadn't.

@slag:

I'm glad you gave it a shot and liked it.

PSA: $4 on Steam right now.

Bought it based on your recommendation. Sounds up my alley. Can't wait to try it.