Journey

A third-person adventure game in which you control a robed figure on a pilgrimage across a desert toward a rugged mountain marked by a distant beacon of light. Along the way, you uncover the history of your people, rescue and cooperate with friendly creatures, avoid predatory ones, and communicate with other travelers.

Journey tells its story without words, using in-game and pre-rendered cutscenes. The traveler begins on a sand dune in a vast desert, facing a distant, ominous mountain whose peak is split by a glowing crevice. Moving toward the mountain, the traveler discovers the sand-worn remains of a once-thriving civilization. At the end of each area, the traveler rests at stones that grant visions of a larger, white-robed figure in a circular room, where wall art depicts the civilization’s rise and fall in a way that mirrors the traveler’s path. The journey continues through the deeper ruins of a sprawling city at the mountain’s base. Reaching the mountain at last, the traveler starts the climb, struggling through colder regions of deep snow and strong winds. With the crevice still far ahead, the traveler collapses in the snow. Six white-robed figures appear and restore the traveler’s energy, enabling the ascent to the summit and passage into the crevice as the screen fades to white. The credits roll over the ending cinematic, which shows a shooting star emerging from the crevice and retracing the traveler’s route through the ruins, along with glimpses of other robed travelers heading toward the mountain. The star finally returns to the starting sand dune, and the player can begin again. When the credits end, the game displays the PlayStation Network IDs of the other travelers who shared part of the trek.