I thought I'd crap out my thoughts on this game while they are still somewhat fresh. I hope that Journey lovers don't take this as a personal attack, because it's not.
I understand that my personal aesthetic may make me a poor candidate for appreciating games like Journey; indeed, I am so bored by this kind of stuff that I can't get far enough in the game to warrant writing a proper review.
But I have to ask to nobody in particular... what's the appeal? Bear in mind that I am the same hater of all things beautiful and stripped down who doesn't have much love for Ico and Shadow of the Colossus either.
But getting back to Journey: it's a very simplistic game. I may be wrong (again, I only passed 3 or 4 'levels') but here is a title where you can really make do with one button.
The good old Sonic the Hedgehog games only made use of one button function too. But those games offered some semblance of challenge and there was lots to see and do.
Not Journey though. This 'game' is a bland beige tour through a wasteland with cyclopean structures jutting out here and there, involving hopping about and riding carpets to no worthwhile end.
On some occasions, I can pierce the heavy veil of pretentious praise from supporters and see that they love the game because it offers something 'different and beautiful in its simplicity.'
I think back to Out of This World, which was a game that was different and offered a simple, yet beautifully told story of friendship. But that game also had sick puzzles and hard as hell shooting elements. That game killed you a lot.
I imagine OoTW in an alternate universe, where Lester and the big alien just hold hands and run and jump to the end. That would have been something else.
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retro - November 06, 2018 (11:06 AM) You should sing the chorus of "I'll Be Alright Without You" to this game! Or tell it you do not welcome its gameplay with Open Arms, and no matter how much it refuses to stop believin', you will Faithfully say no. |
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Masters - November 06, 2018 (06:50 PM) Haha. It's crazy how Don't Stop Believin' has made this second run these days, with lots of bad covers floating around. Steve Perry was the truth! |
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retro - November 07, 2018 (06:26 AM) Yeah no joke, it’s all over everything from YouTube, to American Idol, to thousands of fans doing it poor justice vocally at Boston Red Sox games. Perry has a brand new album called Traces, released last month, his first new solo album in 24 years. To be 69 years young, he sounds good! Not quite up to his old standards though. |
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Masters - November 07, 2018 (09:19 AM) Wow, I didn't know that. I'll have to check him out. He was a force of nature in his youth, hitting big high notes as if he were just having a casual talk with friends. Incidentally, I think the song being covered on that show Glee had a lot to do with its resurgence. It's a duet with a girl and a dude, and the girl doesn't do any of Steve's high notes as well as he does. That's saying something. |
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retro - November 10, 2018 (07:12 AM) I started to mention that Glee duet in my response! I never watched that show much but saw that one. The guy in real life stopped believin’ and committed suicide, sadly. Yeah, and Don’t Stop Believin’ if it wasn’t being karaoke’d to death it was being used all over the place also, like famously in the final episode of The Sopranos. All of this had a lot to do with Journey finally making it into the Rock Hall of Fame and DSB being the #1 selling digital song one year in the 2000’s, as old as it was. Crazy but awesome stuff! At the same time you and I, who were both super high on that song for a long time, it was becoming a fallen angel for us. |
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Masters - November 10, 2018 (11:41 AM) Yeah, this generation really knows how to kill a thing. I don't hate the song now, but it doesn't move me like it once did. |
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retro - November 10, 2018 (06:48 PM) Exactly, same here. I used to call it my favorite song of all time for years, and the perfect mix of nearly any song for killer vocals with also awesome instruments, but it also doesn’t move me like it did before....it used to literally give me goosebumps every time I heard it, along with joy no matter how bad of a mood I was in, but it doesn’t anymore. These days I have a Spotify account and have tons of playlists, one of which is songs I consider favorites of all time and it’s still on there....but so are about 400 other songs. |
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retro - November 10, 2018 (06:54 PM) These days in terms of Journey I’m more into the lesser known hits and many that were not hits, than I am DSB. Stone In Love is probably my favorite by them for awhile now, and After The Fall is very underrated with its killer vocals and nice instruments also. My favorite Journey album is the one most fans seem to dismiss as more of a Steve Perry record than a Journey one, but to me it’s the one with the least amount of songs that sound like filler: Raised on Radio! Positive Touch....Why Can’t This Night Go On forever.... The Eyes of a Woman, etc., were not hits or even released as singles I think, but could’ve and should’ve been to my ears. |
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