Sky is the game you have to play, whether you’re a gamer or not
Sky is the spiritual successor to 2012’s profound gaming experience Journey, and is one of the must play games of 2019. Play this if you call yourself a gamer. Play this if you don’t. Play this game because it’s absolutely beautiful. You just need to play this game, writes Stephanie “Hex” Bendixsen.
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Ask anyone in the games industry what their most profound gaming experiences have been to date, and you can bet most answers would include 2012’s Journey developed by Thatgamecompany.
It’s hard to describe how special this experience was for me, it’s one you really need to have on your own.
But it came at a time when games were shifting into a realm that offered a more unique approach to what defined a “game”; with a focus being placed on interesting new mechanics, seeking connection and eliciting an emotional response.
Journey placed you, a nameless, robed figure into a deserted world, scattered with the ancient ruins that remained of some lost civilisation. Your only apparent goal was to move towards some sort of beacon in the distance.
As you progress, it becomes clear that this lost civilisation is your own, and wherever you’re going — you’re filled with the quiet hope that it’s “home” to join your people.
In my first playthrough of what presents itself very much as a solo adventure, I remember wandering about in lonely contemplation for quite some time before coming across another robed figure — presumably an NPC — who was darting about in the sand.
I approached them and noticed that their behaviour seemed too erratic and unpredictable to be programmed, and as I tested various buttons and discovered I could play a single, solitary musical note — this new player and I began to communicate.
They were the excited, desperate bloops and hums of two strangers so thrilled to have found one another — yet couldn’t say it with words.
Soon, we realised that by working together we could help each other through the environment, discovered how to navigate the sands, float, dive and move faster.
All this, with just the two unique musical notes we’d been given to converse with.
It was absolutely magical. The emptiness of the world and its lost people, suddenly warmed by the presence of a new friend.
I met several travellers on that journey. Players who dropped in and out of the game at different times.
It taught me so much about player connection, anonymity and the wonders of the online world when contained within such a peaceful and profound setting.
Now, the spiritual successor to Journey has been developed for mobile devices — and it’s a glorious expansion on those ideas.
It’s called Sky, and I’ve been playing it on ipad (though it’s coming to Android soon, too). Not unlike the original, you take the form of a robed figure in a mysterious and ancient land, trying to unlock the secrets of the past as you make your way through the historic remains of your people’s civilisation with nothing but a candle to light your way.
The culture appears to be different, more celestial in focus, but decidedly linked with various similarities in design and lore. Functionally, however, the game has taken the simple idea of its first iteration — connection with strangers — and evolved it into something truly wonderful.
Again, here you have only one note with which to make your presence known — and other players in the world will appear to you as ghosts. However, when you offer to light a stranger’s candle with your own, their true form is revealed to you — and from there, you can perform a number of functions based on how willing they are to participate. You can befriend them, give them a nickname, hold their hand and guide them — one character had even earned the ability to play hide and seek with me.
Most wonderfully, though — was that we formed identifiable bonds and friendships with which we were able to use to help us through the world.
Together, we uncovered hidden ruins, lost caves and performed the required tasks to released ancient spirits back out into the world.
There’s something so special about the mechanics of not being able to verbally communicate — which works well in a global sense as well.
Some of these other players could be Japanese, or Hungarian — I wouldn’t know it. In the Sky — we all speak the same language, and it’s enough to feel connected to one another.
The platforming and world design feels more mature now, too — with the introduction of ‘rain’ as a force that dims your light and takes away your ability to fly and traverse vertical parts of the world.
Seeking out light sources — either from the candles of your fellow players or various objects in the environment becomes crucial to making your way through each new area.
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The more you play, discover and unlock — the more the world opens up to you, with new and exciting ways to move and communicate.
Journey famously had the most spectacular score by composer Austin Wintory — and though he doesn’t appear to have returned for this sequel, the music composed for Sky by Vincent Diamante is as evocative, emotional and integral to the experience as ever.
You must play this game.
I was unsure about the decision to bring this new instalment straight to mobile devices at first — but when I realised how much more accessible it would become for those who don’t consider themselves ‘gamers’ yet still dabble on their phones while commuting, I realised that it made perfect sense.
Play this if you call yourself a gamer. Play this if you don’t. Play this game because it’s absolutely beautiful.