Review: Journey

Achingly beautiful from the outset, Journey, as the name suggests, is more about the adventure than any great revelations at the end. The story is not directly explained, you just see the history of the land explained by a series of tapestries, but then it doesn't have to be to make an absorbing experience. I found this made Journey a very personal game as I filled in what wasn't thoroughly explained with what I thought was going on, giving myself justifications for why my character was on his quest. My idea of what happened may be very different to what the developers had in mind, but in the end it made sense to me. 

In the game players assume control of a robed figure as they travel through a desert. You only have two abilities; to jump and to recharge your scarf. You can only jump for as long as you have charge in your scarf and the length of your scarf governs how much charge it holds, at the start of the game you have no scarf and throughout the game you can collect glyphs that extend your scarf. You absorbe charge from cloth fragments in the environment. Saying that you jump is a bit misleading as it's more like you become weightless and flutter majestically through the environment as it is so artistically done.

You charge your scarf with the floating cloth fragments to enable you to jump.

The multiplayer is especially beautifully and seamlessly done. You don't get to choose your partner and there is no way to communicate with them, you will just discover them, and if get too far away from them they will fade away. There are no load time as a player enters or exits your game; this really helps to keep you immersed, as if you are just meeting another traveler along your path. It is amazing how much losing someone I never spoke a word to affected me and the pure joy of making another encounter; I found the feeling of comradery a parter gives you unmatched by any other game.

The way the world reacts to your presence is also wonderful. As you wonder through the desert sand parts as you wade through it and cascades down dunes, cloth fragments flutter around you and glow when you absorb them and cloth creatures fly around you.  The game lasts for between one and two hours and, despite what you may have seen from the media, the locations vastly vary throughout that and they are all beautifully done. I won't ruin the later stages of the game, but just know that they offer some of the most beautiful, and most heart wrenching, scenes to ever appear in a game. Light is used especially beautifully in this game and is often used to create breath-taking imagery. 

Without any sort of communication Journey manages to create a strong bond between players.

Concerns about the games length should be instantly disregarded; if anything Journey benefits from it's concise length as it makes the whole experience playable in one go. I didn't want it to end but it is done in a such a way that you can't argue with it; I don't think that with an extended length Journey would be a better game. It's amazing that ThatGameCompany managed to keep the feeling of magic and awe last as long as the did and this might have been lost if the game was longer. Multiple play-throughs are vital; on my second go, only a few days after the first, I knew what was coming but was still totally enthralled by the game.

Overall Journey is a brilliant game with only a few shortcomings; it is as close to perfect as any game I have ever played. Although the game is quite expensive considering it's length I didn't feel cheated after one playthrough, let alone multiple playthroughs, and I know I will go back to it very soon. In many ways Journey is  like an interactive piece of art with it's striking visual style, pitch perfect soundtrack and open to interpretation story. Journey might not be to everyone's tastes and could be  considered a bit light on content and gameplay, but, in my opinion, it provides incontrovertible evidence that video games can in fact be art.

The unique visual style of Journey makes it an unforgettable experience.

Final Score 9.5/10

Review: Mass Effect 3

Writing a review for Mass Effect 3 poses somewhat of a challenge as there is a dichotomy between the vast majority of the game, being to the same standard as players of the series have come to expect, and it's truly awful conclusion. The shocking ending goes far to spoil the experience, but does it make ME3 a bad game? No, not by a long shot, but it prevents the trilogy from delivering on all the promises BioWare started with the first game. Not only does the ending lacks the scope that the whole game was gearing up to, but your choices make little difference and the outcomes, whilst only briefly explained, violate much of the lore established in the other games, books and comics.

The Reapers take a much more prominent role in this game.

Mass Effect 3 is a third person shooter set in a science fiction setting. The developers created an impressively vast Galaxy for the original game with varied races, each with their own complex histories, and a lot of locations with greatly different environments; it's a testament to their creation that it is still interesting and largely unexplored after all these times. The first Mass Effect had quite deep RPG elements, and whilst the second game streamlined much of this, ME3 brings some of this back. There are a lot more weapons this time round, and each can be levelled up and modded with credits to improve their stats. Any class can carry any of the five weapon types now, but each weapon has an associated weight, and the total weight affects how quickly your powers recharge.

The Galaxy may be burning but renegade Shepard always has time for a drink.

The game starts on Earth with the cataclysmic arrival of the Reapers. The second Mass Effect was very much character focused as you travel around the galaxy recruiting a team for a suicide mission; this game tasks you with uniting all the races in the galaxy to take back Earth and destroy the Reapers. Over the course of the game you visit the home planets of many of the most prominent races in the series to try to persuade them that their only chance is to stand together. Your old employer, Cerberus, has other plans for how to deal with the Reapers, which leads to conflict as they are at odds with your own. With the Reapers, Cerberus and the Geth making a return there are plenty of different enemy types to face, this keeps the game interesting over it's twenty to thirty hour length. 

The Harvester is one of many new and interesting Reaper forms.

Throughout the game you acquire characters for your team, including some from previous games, to back you up in combat. The line-up this time round is smaller than what has been seen before, but it is probably the strongest line-up yet with many favourites returning and great new characters being introduced. You nearly always have two of your team members with you with you and you can control what powers they use in combat. Many characters from the other games and media also return, even if only for brief cameos, and this really helps to make the Mass Effect universe feel immersive. Throughout the game there are many touching moments, with characters new and old, which bring the characters alive and makes you actually care about them. It's a shame that this high level of care is missing from the finale as story and characterisation have always been just as important as game-play to the series.

Every single member of the line-up is strong this time round.

Missions are accessed through a galaxy map aboard your spaceship and whilst you can blaze through the main quest-line quite quickly it is highly recommended that you do play through the side quests too. As you complete missions you increase the galactic readiness which affects the outcome of the choices you make at the end of the game but little else. The side missions are mostly very boring fetch quests that task you to fly into Reaper controlled space to retrieve an item of cultural significance by scanning a planet. Each of the major races provide one or more side missions, much like how the characters in the previous game had loyalty missions, which are more suitably padded out and well worth doing.

I wish developers would make being in London more subtle; I think there are more red phone boxes in this game than in actual London.

The game runs on an updated version of the engine used in Mass Effect 2. The upgrade in graphics may only be slight Mass Effect 3 is still a very beautiful game. The levels may be overly linear but the backgrounds are massive, distinct and really help to set the tone for the game. Pristine cities, ruined worlds and derelict ships are all handled perfectly. I was disappointed at how few setting the PC version of the game has. I had a problem with freezing at a certain point in the game and had to restart a mission because of it, but apart from that the game ran perfectly.   

Prepare to be repeatedly amazed by the environments.

The multiplayer component of Mass Effect 3 is done well and there is a lot of options for customisation, but if you don't like it you will probably resent that the multiplayer effects your total galactic readiness. I cannot agree with BioWare's decision to have the campaign and multiplayer so intertwined; the multiplayer may be fun but, especially if you play Mass Effect for the story, you shouldn't be forced into having to play online. The multiplayer itself is a hoard style mode; a team of four has to hold off against waves of enemies and occasionally complete objectives. The classes, weapons and powers are the same as in the single player but you do not play Shepard.

Working as a team is really important for success in the multiplayer component.

I went into the game knowing that the ending had been widely criticised but was determined to keep an open mind. Until the point of no return Mass Effect 3 hit every note right with me; the missions are epic, the characters and writing are great and the pacing of the game keeps it interesting throughout. However, when the final mission starts you don't get the feeling that there are thousand (or hundreds of thousands) of people fighting and dying by your side, you only encounter enemies and hear friendlies by radio. You go around the galaxy collecting forces but in the end it doesn't matter you joins your army because they all add up to just a number and you don't see them in your actual army. If you can get over the disappointing ending then Mass Effect 3 is an amazing game and still a worthy addition to the much loved series.