I found Journey to be a fascinating and rather magical experience which seamlessly blends game-play and story elements together into a single narrative. It is another excellent example that I can point at during a "games as art" debate, because it is one of those rare games that has the ability to touch the player on an emotional level.
It's interesting how differently Journey can affect different people or even the same person on different play-throughs. The first time I played Journey, I went in blind. I'd played previous games by the same developer, Flower and Flow, and I'd read a few basic descriptions of the game. But I avoided learning too much, because I wanted to experience the game for myself without preconceptions. Partially because of this, my first play was a little chaotic. I spent more time than necessary on certain parts as I struggled to learn the game mechanics and pickup on things intuitively. I also missed various things along the way - my scarf was quite small by the end of the game and I didn't have many trophies at the end of my first journey. I encountered a lot of people on that first play, but I didn't form any strong bonds. It was a learning experience and fun, but I felt like there was still a lot I could have done better.
I started out on my second journey almost immediately. This time I was more focused. I knew how to move, jump, and sing. I went into my second play wanting to collect all the symbols and gain trophies. In one of the early levels, I met another player and we journeyed through the rest of the game together, helping each other through the rough spots and pointing out collectables. It was a great experience and the most enjoyable of my journeys. I've played the game a few more times since, but I wasn't quite able to recapture that sense of mutual purpose and companionship a second time.
Impressed by this game, I've encouraged other people to try out Journey, gamers and non-gamers alike. I've found that not everyone has the same response to Journey's co-op. For example, my mother is a pretty stereotypical casual gamer. She enjoys simple single player games, like Plants vs Zombies, Zuma, and Puzzle Quest. She doesn't usually play multiplayer games, but she enjoyed Flower, so I recommended Journey to her. In her words, it wasn't "as pretty as Flower" but she did enjoy the jumping and singing.
Then another player ran by. Suddenly, it wasn't just her alone in the world. There was another person there ... running around, doing stuff, watching her. She didn't like it. I tried to explain that it was a co-op game and the other person couldn't do anything except help her. It didn't matter - having another person in her game world ruined the experience. She felt too much pressure - pressure to follow, pressure to respond to the singing, pressure to focus on progressing to the next objective. It just wasn't working for her and sucked all the fun out of the game. She didn't feel like she could fumble around figuring out the puzzles, because the other person would be judging her, laughing at her struggles or impatient to move on. Eventually, she put down the control and walked away, unable to continue until the multiplayer was turned off.
Looking back, I realize that I didn't really enjoy the multiplayer very much until I felt secure in my own abilities. But even so, I felt like it really added something to the game that I would have missed out on if I just played solo. I was disappointed that I couldn't share that experience, but I guess everyone has to make their own journey.
