The Journey Up Demo

The horror element can be rather difficult to integrate into some genres, because not every game can inspire fear and a feeling of unease. As such, while first-person action/adventure games have an easy time making the players uncomfortable, it’s not that simple for platformers. However, it’s not impossible, which means that it can be done with enough dedication.

The Journey Up is a retro platformer that features dark and moody landscapes, as well as unique puzzles and traps that try to make progress difficult for the players. On the other hand, it is not enough to make everything black in order to inspire fear, although it probably helps. In the case at hand, there’s a bit more to it than that, although you shouldn’t expect too much either.

The main character is some sort of weird rectangular contraption with a white patch in the middle, but there are no actual explanations given in this regard. What you do know is that you need to escape the bleak landscapes surrounding you, by simply running away from them. Traps and enemies make the journey difficult, not to mention the puzzles that require you to think at the same time.

There are no missions and nothing to guide you along the way, which means that you have to make your own way and hope that you have chosen the right path. While it is true that there is usually just one way to go, it may not always be that simple to find it, given the fact that you can go upward as well. Hence, it would be useful to have some sort of tutorial, or at least a thin storyline to keep you on track.

From a technical point of view, the game does not really excel, but it’s nice to see that at least some effort was put into the environments. While most of them are pure black, there are interesting objects decorating the landscape every once in a while. The bleak atmosphere is quite pressing, and it makes the gameplay a tad more enjoyable.

In the end, while The Journey Up may be rather interesting and fun at times, the bugs and the glitches make it difficult to enjoy at all. You can easily get stuck in the environments or be sent to desktop every now and again, so there are plenty reasons to quit playing.