Review: The Journey
Score:
65%
Version Reviewed: 1.12
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A couple of weeks back I came across a new gaming technology that got me a little excited. The game was Gizmondo's Colors and the technology was location tracking. The Gizmondo, like the N-Gage, can make use of GSM network technologies within its games and the game they most often bring out for the press is Colors because it has integrated a method of location tracking into the game experience. It's a turf war situation where your turf is really your turf. If you play at home then the area in the game you are playing becomes associated with the actual physical location in the GSM network of your home. When you go somewhere else in the real world and play, the game recognizes that you have moved to a new real world location and moves you to a new location in the game world. Wow! Cool stuff, right?
Well, as a loyal N-Gager and Series 60 fan I was left wondering "why not us?" The N-Gage and most cell phones in fact far surpass the GSM network capabilities of the Gizmondo, so why not us? The answer came from a little known Austrian developer named Andreas Jakl who decided he wanted to try and do something different. What he did was Journey.
More tech demo than game, Journey was a one man project written and illustrated by Andreas as part of a term paper. When it was finished and released to the public it became a mild sensation, quickly amassing thousands of downloads and getting mention in all corners of the Series 60 world. The question of why is quickly answered by an explanation of what it is.
Journey is a mystery where players in the role of a Sam Spade style detective hunt clues and persons in a "journey" to solve a case. What makes it unique is that it is the first implementation of the technology that the Gizmondo people have been blowing their horn about for months and it is both free and available to any Series 60 cell phone.
My own experience with Journey was a great one. I started playing about midnight one evening in my sixth floor apartment. This apartment became associated with the in-game detective office where the game starts. When it came time to travel to a nearby bar in search of clues I actually had to pick up my increasingly hefty behind and march down the block to the nearest subway station where it suddenly recognized a change in location and told me I had arrived at the bar. Perhaps looking foolish I stood at the subway entrance questioning my in-game suspect and when he then suggested a search of a nearby location was called upon to move along again. While this might sound irritating, it actually was quite fun and kept me entertained for most of the next afternoon as I marched back and forth around the real city finding people (in game) and sometimes being found by them.
While I absolutely couldn't recommend this title to anyone at a cost, for free I consider it a must try and highly recommend it. What is perhaps most interesting about Journey (beyond the technology) is that it has a sequel. Following the response to Journey, Andreas enlisted some help and worked for months to expand on the concepts of Journey and make Journey II, a full-blown mystery adventure with location tracking and greatly expanded features (I have just started on it and will get a review for everyone as soon as I can). For Journey, as a free game/tech demo I am handing out a score of 65% with the recommendation that you should at the very least give it a try. For Journey II, stay tuned...
Reviewed by Chris Rydberg at