Decisions must be made, and lives must be sacrificed. On the Journey To Foundation, there will be many questions answered.
There’s nothing like being the hero of a story spanning the entire galaxy. Whether one is a Commander of Marines or a Federation Agent, Journey To Foundation shows that words and actions can hold weight. It’s a wonder to see one’s actions affect an entire galaxy, however small the action seems. Only time will tell whether the ends truly did justify the means.
Journey To Foundation comes from the minds of Archiact Interactive, a group known for the fiery DOOM 3: VR Edition, FREEDIVER: Triton Down, MARVEL Dimension of Heroes and Evasion. A galaxy-spanning federation is on the brink of collapse. Many groups seek to be out from under their thumb. But there could be something more at work.
Why are so many groups at odds? What do the mobilized forces of entire armadas mean? Take on the role of Agent Ward, an officer with the Commission of Public Safety, and head an investigation with more twists and turns than Mt Everest. Jump into an interactive action game that shows the player a world that feels truly ‘lived in.’
It was fantastic learning the controls for Journey to Foundation. Luckily, there is a tutorial for any player like me who’s weary about even moving correctly. One could set Agent Ward to ‘snap’ her view towards whatever direction the right analog stick is turned to.
Movement is also available as ‘teleport’, when a reticle is aimed and pointed, and as ‘smooth’, which entails continuous movement forward using the Left Analog Stick. My choice must be smooth simply because it feels like it works better for how the game is set up.
Based on my experience, the action in Journey To Foundation begins relatively quickly as soon as Commander Bo and Agent Ward of The Galactic Federation have been sent to investigate a kidnapping at The Array. A few suspects have been temporarily detained at this massive mobile shield platform.
The Viceroy’s daughter, Astoria Durand, has been kidnapped, and one of three suspects is responsible. Commander Bo gives Agent Ward a crash course on her powers, known as Mentalics before they arrive. But it is during this investigation that a player is introduced to the flexibility of the powers.
One of the biggest uses when it comes to investigating is the ability to hear thoughts. During the visit to The Array, Captain Surana, a Federation officer and ship commander, was withholding potentially damaging thoughts. It can be heard that she hopes for a swift end to the investigation. Combining the hearing of thoughts with mild emotion manipulation, you get yourself a street-level superhero, which is pretty damn cool.
In order to first hear one’s thoughts in Journey To Foundation, the Left analog stick must be pressed down. This releases a Mentalic wave that scans people in the immediate area, seemingly in a cone directly in front of Agent Ward. With either controller, one simply must hit the second trigger and take note of the crescent shape above a character’s head.
This meter will show their emotion level. Additionally, there is a face to reveal a scannable character’s mood, with Green meaning Happy, Red meaning Angry, Purple meaning Worried, and Blue meaning Sad.
After some time, it turns out a ‘scrapper’ who has a thing for Astoria leads the operation to have her extricated from The Array. Following a short trail that leads right to the young Miss Durand doesn’t take long. It turns out that Astoria is part of a rebel group hiding among the Zor Confederation, a massive fleet of scrappers, traders, and smugglers. Only after solving a puzzle she presents to me does she dare share the motivations behind her actions.
Based on the mathematical calculation of a man named Hari Seldon, the galaxy is doomed to 30,000 years of suffering through inaction in Journey To Foundation. However, another formula calculates that those years of darkness can be pushed back to only a thousand if someone takes charge. Hearing all this from Astoria is enough to hit me like a brick—all this work to drop an insane idea that sounds straight out of a conspiracy theory handbook. You can’t just tell me this?
Mentalics, manipulating emotions, and hearing thoughts are nice, but there’s also exploring the environment. Using the continuous movement gives a better ‘at home’ feeling than the teleport setting does. After the bomb Astoria Durand drops on Agent Ward, it is time to get into the shooter part of Journey To Foundation. The Ardent, an extremist group in the Zor Confederation, launched a sabotage attack on The Array, setting the station’s engines to explode.
At the behest of Commander Bo, Agent Ward is expected to join Astoria Durand in her cause. Find out what the group wants, critical information such as military strength, how far their territory extends, etc. The Ardent extremists look to stop both Astoria Durand and mow down the Galactic Federation on soldiers and officers where they can find them. It feels a little extreme, so they might have a better shot at negotiations if they just calmed down a little.
Shooting in Journey To Foundation resembles a classic arcade box shooter game. Personally, that’s a really good feeling. Looking at my right forearm, I can see a health meter, represented in Green, and a shield meter, with a gold color, sitting right under the Green. The same arm holds two mods for Agent Ward’s sidearm, what I shall lovingly call a multi-pistol. While the arms only have two mods, a third can conveniently be set in the sidearm.
The rapid-fire mod in Journey To Foundation is probably preferable for most encounters against the Ardent. Their troops tend to swarm in small areas. So, it is far easier to land shots, even when one isn’t making as much effort to aim as is required by the sniper mod.
Some might call the aiming with this mod ‘janky’, but is shooting in virtual reality ever not going to feel just a little janky? It is also very slow compared to the shrapnel mod, which hits a wider area on a target than either of the other two mods. But just two shots to the mask of an enemy, and they’re usually down permanently.
At some points in Journey To Foundation, clues will also be hidden behind things like puzzles. Going up to a chest or locker, one can pull out a ‘hacking tool’, available on the left arm next to the plasma torch, to solve interactive puzzles.
Each of these puzzles consists of a large cube that can be manipulated with both controllers. To unlock the puzzles, one has to lead a specific color line through light grey squares. Care must also be taken to ensure that, when there are more than two colors, each color has a clear path to its corresponding ‘end’ block.
These puzzles are fascinating. I’m no expert at a Rubik’s Cube and will probably never solve a scrambled one, but this puzzle reminds me of that. It tickles a part of the brain that wants to solve puzzles and get through abstract problems with equally abstract solutions. As cool as these puzzles are, though, a puzzle with far too many colors exists. There didn’t seem to be a way to solve it quickly enough to sneak away unseen.
It isn’t always the hacking tool that comes to the rescue in Journey To Foundation. Oftentimes, important pathways lie hidden behind objects only the plasma torch can get through. During a few missions onto a planetary surface, Agent Ward must shimmy through a ventilation shaft. Being able to get in requires melting the screws off using the plasma torch.
Grabbing the torch using the right controller and second trigger, one can set the torch on using the top right trigger. Just hold the torch close enough and long enough to melt the screws, and the pathway opens up. At one point, Journey To Foundation reveals a clue hidden behind a painting. It looks extremely expensive, but I still have to burn it to get to the clue behind it. After frying the entire border, the painting disappears. There is far less fire than expected.
Visually speaking, Journey To Foundation might be equated to arcade box shooters. As stated earlier, that is really not a bad thing. With the medium being virtual reality, getting the ‘crisp’ detail some may demand isn’t always possible.
The developers still do a great job with their character design. Each of the main cast members has an outfit that seems to be unique to them. Background characters are distinct enough that they don’t appear to be a singular design copy-pasted across the storyline.
Very little of the space environment in Journey To Foundation is 3D, with most of it being colorfully painted 2D images. It’s an understandable choice, considering the scope of the story developers are trying to convey. It adds a certain charm to Journey To Foundation, making one feel as if they’ve been tossed between the pages of a book.
The laser gun blasts, next to spaceship engines, are probably the loudest noise in Journey To Foundation during a transition scene. Dying enemies are comedic when it comes to their death noises, adding to the arcade aesthetic. One can appreciate the emotions the actors try to convey when it comes to their dialogue. Vex, personally, feels the most animated about her feelings, with Astoria Durand being a close second. But when it comes to Commander Bo, it is alluded to at the beginning that his flat tone is him hiding his emotions. It just feels a little weird.
Journey To Foundation is an interesting ride through an alternate future of the galaxy. The story is large in scope, and every Chapter takes a fair amount of time to complete. No level goes by quickly, even with movement set to teleport. It would admittedly be a little boring if the levels go by too quickly.
Enough content exists throughout the game to keep a player visually occupied, and the galaxy that exists does not feel empty like some worlds might. As the chapters in Journey Foundation are about an hour each, you’ll want to invest in a backup power supply if you want to play in one go. It is a great game with an immersive story, but you’ll want to give yourself a break occasionally. It is definitely worth a shot if you’re a fan of arcade shooters and VR shooters in general.
