I just want to take a moment to gush here.

I’ve played many video games in my time.  I’ve saved Princess Zelda, defeated Dark Samus, destroyed the Patriots AI system, and so many other great feats….but none of them.

None. Of. Them

Can even come close to traveling to a mountain.  That may seem weird to hear compared to all of the other badass things I’ve listed, so what so special about going to a large hill.  Well, sit down and let me tell you about a game called Journey.

Journey is a PS3 downloadable title developed by ThatGameCompany (yes, that really is its name.)  You play as a robed figure traveling through the land trying to get to a mountain with a light coming out of the top.  What so special about that?  It sounds like a really sketchy plot with nothing happening.  Well, you’re not wrong, and yet, I felt more emotional attachment to this game than any other game I’ve played in my whole life.

What makes this game so amazing is its imagery and music.  It’s graphics are so simplistic and yet not a single thing is wasted.  They seem to get more and more detailed as the game progresses as you get closer to the mountain.  You go from a wide desert, to ancient ruins, to underwater, and a blizzard right at the foot of the mountain.  That’s only half of the fun, the other half comes from the musical score.

Composed by Austin Wintory, the music of Journey is sublime, captivating you within seconds of pressing start.  Each level of the game has its own score with its own mood and the music actually changes depending on what you are doing in the level.  That’s genius designing right there.

So what happens when you put all of these together.  You get a game that brings me to tears every time I play through it, and this is game that has absolutely no dialogue.  Seriously, there’s not a single audible word uttered by any characters and the only exposition comes from cut scenes of panoramic images.

This game deserves all of the rewards that it has gotten and I really hope to see more of this game in the future.