Screenshot taken from Journey (2012), Annapurna Interactive
A few weeks ago, I was standing on the snowy slopes trying to climb the last area of Journey. I hid behind a tall rock to avoid the crushing wind.
I saw another pilgrim who was making the same journey as me. They weren’t so lucky. I watched as they fell to their knees in the snow, succumbing to the cold. Their body disappeared.
I remember thinking: “Oh my God… you can DIE in Journey?!? What a great, scripted way to teach the player about death. I’d better be careful.”
So imagine my surprise when, at the very end of the credits, I saw the Steam handles of all the companions I met during my journey.
Because I like to play games without knowing much about them first, I had somehow (after 14 years) avoided a key piece of information: that Journey was an online multiplayer game. There were no non-player character (NPC) companions in the game. Everyone I had met - who’d walked with me across the desert, who jumped across buildings and triggered cutscenes with me, all the way to the one I watched die… those were real people. I was floored.
And because of this completely personal, unscripted experience, Journey instantly became one of my favorite games of all time.
Emergent storytelling occurs when no two player stories are alike. It’s expected to happen in multiplayer games: if I tell you about the time that our friend rushed ahead in Left 4 Dead 2 to be eaten by zombies, or when I was betrayed by Accretian players in RF Online, you may have played those two games but don’t have the same stories to tell. Because these stories are player-created. And human behavior can be unpredictable.
But Journey struck me as a standout example BECAUSE most of the game is meant to be played alone. It’s a lonely, isolated trek to the top of the mountain. So much that when someone else does arrive on your screen, making the same journey, you immediately feel kinship with them. And just like anyone who’s done solo travel, your story is made different - richer - by the people you meet along the way.
I loved the game so much I immediately asked my husband to play it just so I could compare experiences. His was much happier than mine - he traipsed across the desert, jumping from building to building with companions. There were no tears shed at the end. (I shed plenty.)
I highly recommend Journey: it’s a short, 2.5 hour experience that, because of its emergent multiplayer gameplay, will be unique to you. How was your journey? Let me know on Bluesky!
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