Journey

If you connect with the game through the visual design, music, and other players then the gameplay is just the icing on the cake and becomes a meaningful tool for communication and enjoyment, rather than solely a method of progression. It doesn't matter that the gameplay isn't challenging you because at that point that's not what the gameplay is for.

The gameplay isn't there to tell the story, which I suppose a lot of people would say is key to great videogame storytelling. The gameplay certainly does not enforce the idea of a long, arduous pilgrimage when the game is only 2 hours long and incredibly easy. The gameplay is your way of making an impact on another player's story. How you act around other players and how they act around will change the kind of story you get, or at least I believe that was idea behind the game. Knowing that every character you meet is a human player gives their actions a lot more meaning than if they were AI bots.

On a related note, that's actually one of two things I dislike about the game. as you leave the hub area at the very start of the game, you see another player very briefly in the light at the end of the tunnel, and when you reach the bridge area there's hopefully another player there. When I first played, I assumed both were the same player, but playing through again I realise that the character in the light is always there. It's a bot. That kind of ruins it.

The other thing I don't like is that you can't turn off the Sixaxis camera control.

But I think they reached the perfect balance with the gameplay, given the kind of multiplayer this game has. Before the game was released, the thing everyone was most worried about is joining up with some random player who had played before, and would run around completing everything for you. That you would miss out on half the game because players with more knowledge would do everything first, or not let you figure out what needed to be done.

Take Portal 2's co-op. If you play it for the first time with someone else who is playing for the first time, it's fantastic. But if you play it with someone who hasn't played before, and you already know what to do, it can be frustrating for both players. That's unavoidable given the complexity of Portal's gameplay, and also the fact that the co-op actually requires two people to work together to complete it.

With Journey, you can finish the game entirely on your own offline if you wish, or you can rush past everyone you meet, or you can join up with someone and work together as a team, or you could find another player and then just hang bck and watch them from afar to freak them out. I met one person in a white robe and the start of the tunnels who just stood still. Didn't know they were there are first, but then I noticed the little white light indicating a player was behind me. So I turned around and they were just standing there, like a ghost.

No matter what the other players do, they can never inhibit your ability to progress, but they can definitely enhance your experience in all kinds of ways. Joining someone on their Journey is never necessary, which makes it all the more meaningful and enjoyable when someone does. It's these kinds of interactions that I think are the core aspect of the game, and something that more complex gameplay or levels might trample on.