Best Games of the Decade
8: Journey (2012)
Features Editor Greysun Morales: Back in the early years of the decade when indie games started becoming more mainstream on consoles, the PS3 exclusive at the time, Journey, piqued my interest once I saw just how gorgeous and minimalistic it all was. And once I booted the game up and began to experience the tranquil and spiritual adventure with other players, I was immediately smitten.
Gazing across the vast desert was like nothing else I’ve ever done in a video game and the carefully-crafted areas were simply astounding to look at. You can see the ripples in the sand, the creatures you would run into were amazing to look at, but also were terrifying to encounter, and the swelling of the music at points gave me goosebumps.
I loved experiencing this journey (no pun intended) with a player by my side with only one way to communicate with one another. There was no way to actually speak through a microphone or send messages to each other and you didn’t even know who you were playing with until the game came to an end and I found that extremely fascinating. Using little chirps and tweets to draw another player’s attention was charming and memorable.
Journey is one of those games that I wish I could wipe my memory of and play over and over again. The epic finale of that game is one of those moments that I can truly never ever forget and I just adored how it all played out.
