Journey

In the classic platform of the 1990s, Alladdin was an amazing lava stage. At first you just jumped over the islands over the fiery abyss, then these islands began to fall underfoot, and then the boulder rolled behind the hero, and it was necessary to ride at a tripled speed. And now – the final obstacle course. The islands are treacherously sags, the cobblestone behind his back is rolling, he almost overtook you, nowhere to go, the hero jumps into the abyss! And there are no more islands … In a millimeter above Lavoy, no reason suddenly appears and saves you at the last moment.

This is one of the first examples of competent use of a script scene in the game. Jumping studies brought to hysteria, and unexpected salvation brought relief. The game Journey is entirely built at this reception, and there is a carpet in it too. The carpet is, in fact, you.

Flounder

For almost three years, several dozen people from the game worked on the game Thatgamecompany (authors Flow And Flower ) And Sony Santa Monica (authors God of War 3 ). It passes in an hour and a half.

Somehow describing these 90 minutes is a meaningless lesson, and for those who are going to play Journey themselves, are also harmful. So, if you have access to the PS3, it is better to stop reading and start playing (then there are serious spoilers), then you will return to the text and learn something interesting. For everyone else – we will continue.

[[Bullet]] "I will not die. Not here. Not today. Never!" – fans of the film" Fountain "will surely see a lot of parallels with Journey.

Journey is very easy to master, especially if you are familiar with the previous works of Jenova Chen. There is a hero – a strange creature in a mask, wrapped in orange, painted by the eastern ornaments of a cloak (if you look closely, it becomes clear that the cloak is the body of the creature). It wanders through the desert to the mountain, which is visible on the horizon. The beam beating from its top always shows you the way.

The hero knows how to fly. To do this, he needs a kind of fuel – geometric patterns that are displayed on his long scarf, and during the flight elegantly they shake off him. All the ornaments shook off, left the orange fabric of the scarf empty – everything is impossible to fly further, you need to look for new flaps. Roughly speaking, most of the game is a study of locations in search of fabric for the flight. Naturally, everything is not so simple.

On soil, hot with heat

Journey stunes in all possible ways. To begin with, it can be noted that this is a technological masterpiece – you will not find such sand and such physics of fabrics even in Uncharted 3.

The game looks amazing-if she hadn’t had PS3 capacities behind her, she would still surprise even at the level of concept art. You will spend almost all the time in the desert, but this desert is conditional. It is very difficult to convey in words, but in fact the desert is the ocean. Endless ocean with sandy waterfalls, algae, whales and jellyfish. The desert behaves according to the laws of the sea: waves run through it, its sandy tsunami occurs in it, and the hero does not just soar, but as if floating over it.

[[Bullet]] sliding along the cranberries here, it seems, cooler than in SSX – to fly away from an avalanche. To masterfully master the technique of high -speed descent, you will probably pass more than once by Journey.

Moving by levels – the subject of a separate conversation. Journey is so surprisingly arranged that the hero’s movement itself already carries an artistic meaning. With its thin legs, the creature leaves stains in the sand, and sometimes can jump onto the wave and just drive on it, like a real surf. Flights are finely controlled by the X button, and you will definitely spend some time masterfully mastering the planning technique. Gradually, you will learn to flutter over the dunes, consuming ornamental fuel as carefully as possible.

You barely have time to come to your senses – you just confused you with appearance, then they immediately taught you to fly, then they showed a new location … And the game does not wait, it pushes you further, like a powerful sand wave. Looking ahead, let's say that you simply will not have time to come to your senses – most likely, and sit with your mouth open until the end of the credits.

[[Bullet]] The Path, Passage, Journey – even the names of the games are similar. The concepts are also close-all the heroes go Bof Casino sister sites somewhere ..

The situation described at the beginning of the review is achieved here instantly, but not because you were exhausted by a wild platform hound, but thanks to the powerful, carefully fed cultural shock. The player is surprised, and he is immediately taken by the gear gear.

On the hook

When a year ago, Jenova Chen showed us the preview of the game, one of the journalists rightly asked if the players in an endless desert would be lost. “Do not worry, we are well versed in level design,” Chen smiled in response.

This is the first powerful revelation of Journey – you will not get lost. The desert is really endless, but, on the one hand, you will not go away from the trail outlined by the designers, and on the other, you will not feel that the game is linear. During the passage, we decided to test the developers – we went to see the ruins at the edge of the map. For a second we were not left by the feeling that this is some kind of secondary object that was left there for a variety. What was our surprise when it turned out that this was the end of the level! It turns out that all this time we walked under the sensitive supervision of gamemeracies, right in their trap – and did not suspect it. An even brighter example is a star that fell from heaven into the desert and indicated where to move on. The author of this article still cannot understand: whether he was so successfully tilted to the camera and accidentally saw the star, then the camera itself leaned at that moment in the right direction.

[[Bullet]] … But Journey is a much more outstanding game, and it's not only about production costs. She is thinner, smarter – and, what is completely impossible to believe in, she is not boring.

In order to more accurately explain to you the methods of developers, we will not refuse to describe the whole gameplay situation for ourselves. In the underground cave you are waiting for a pseudo-postels episode. From sand, a giant monster attacks the hero-a stone dragon soaring above the ground and illuminates the path with the only eye-pound. At the first meeting, he will bite the hero a piece of scarf, depriving the opportunity to fly.

[[Bullet]] The longer the scarf, the longer the creature can be in the air.

A search ray runs around the ground, nearby is a small room in which you can hide. Of course we will hide there! The catch is that the ray of the monster will penetrate the shelter, and the fragile walls will not stand the blow of the gigantic monster. It is pointless to hide. You perfectly understand the edge of consciousness that the whole “stealth” is a props, they will find you anyway, they will still hit, they will still bite off a piece of scarf, no matter what you do. But the stealth reflexes developed by the years do their job, you are looking for a shelter, hiding, swearing … In the end, no one wants a magical scarf to bite him! The developers see us through and through, know all the pain points and press them aimed at them.

In general, we got the impression that somewhere in Thatgamecompany lies a sheet of paper on which all our moves are painted, up to pressing specific buttons. And this sheet is never mistaken.

[[Bullet]] In the game, ingenious operator work. During the defiantly short time of the Journey, it generates so many stunning personnel that it would be enough for a whole album.

The result of such a scrupulous proposition of actions is inimitable emotional saturation. You really are surprised, really worried. For the first time in a long time, we can say with confidence that the game has a climax. So I want to write "Book" or "Film" – but why? Culmination is the climax. Not nominal, when you, yawning, put a gun to the temple of the next defeated boss, and the real, extra -armed.

You can list the list of merits of Journey for a long time, but we will dwell on, as it seems to us, important. Right before our eyes, this game “legitimized” the short time of passing. Genova Chen with a clear example showed that not casual, serious games, designed for smart, hardcore (however, on everyone else) players, you can be short. This simple thesis is actually not only for most buyers, but also for many of our colleagues journalists who insist that they are provided with at least 10 hours of gameplay for blood five hundred rubles.

About the fact that it is as ridiculous as to demand in the museum exclusively wide paintings on the walls or to oblige all books to be no thinner than hundreds of pages, few people think. If the game in an hour and a half can turn your soul inside out, it not only has the right to exist, but also must stand above many hours and sometimes faceless blockbusters. Jenova Chen created, if not a new genre, then definitely a new format.

Reigracy:

Cool plot:

Originality:

Easy to master:

Gameplay:

9

Graphics:

10

Sound and music:

10

Interface and management:

10

Waited?

Visioner masterpiece about traveling to the mountain through the desert. Briefly, clearly, impeccable.

Mania rating: 10

"Ideal"

Loneliness in the desert

Why is it better to play in Journey alone, despite the original author's plan

According to Genova Chen himself, the game was born out of a desire to change the laws of cooperative games. In our opinion, it is in this regard that Journey does not represent anything outstanding-the idea of ​​non-verbal communication is much better reflected in hardcore indie projects like Between or The Endless Forest. You can go through the whole game together with the same creature controlled by another player. The only way to communicate is to sing notes to each other, attracting attention. It is easier to take place together; While nearby, creatures help each other fly.

It seems to us, the only purpose of the cooperative is repeated passage. The first time Journey must be done alone – this is a very intimate, secret experience (they talk about life and death with you). He can be spoiled by someone's rude intervention. The ideal illustration of such impaired harmony is in the game itself: while one creature is meditating in the lotus position, the second jumps above it, pushes, makes nasty sounds. So I want to drive away – but you can't.