The Pathless Review — It's About the Journey

The power to instill a sense of wonder and exploration in a player is not something easily done by a game. There are so many open up-world games today that experience like they'd be better suited as a linear series of missions because the worlds they're set in don't tell a story of their ain. The Pathless is a perfect example of an open-globe game defined past a earth that justifies its own existence.

The Pathless comes from Giant Squid Studios, the developers backside 2022's ABZU. Grammy Honour-Nominated composer Austin Wintory makes a return to requite some other Giant Squid game a fantastic soundtrack. The team's progression from ABZU to The Pathless is pretty clear: both games accept the thespian exploring an ancient and forgotten world and take a heavy emphasis on player discovery. Giant Squid games aren't worried well-nigh telling complex narratives. Instead, their focus is on atmosphere and narrative themes.

The Pathless tells the story of a skilled archer known as the last Hunter as she journeys across an isle on the edge of the world, a place where the realm of man and the realm of spirits intersect. Her goal is to reclaim the light and lift the curse that has been put on the world past the Godslayer. To practice this, she'south tasked with freeing the gods from the curses the Godslayer put on them.

The gameplay for The Pathless is unique. It's something I've never seen before and works in a way that when I was done, I felt similar I had been doing information technology for years. In guild to move quickly around the large isle, the Hunter needs to refill her sprint meter past shooting talismans that have been scattered across the world. There are thousands of talismans littered everywhere then there are rarely whatever moments when you're gunning information technology through a forest or an open field that you're worried virtually running out of juice.

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"[The motility] is the absolute highlight for The Pathless."

Wreckfest | Stadia Release Trailer

When I first started the game, I was worried about how that mechanic would work. Speed and accuracy are not things that typically get mitt in hand, so to remedy that, Giant Squid threw accuracy out the window. There is no aiming mechanic in the game which means that hitting targets isn't nearly your precision, simply instead your timing. This mechanic works outstandingly well and is the absolute highlight for The Pathless.

The talismans y'all shoot requite you a outburst of forward momentum in add-on to refilling your meter, so, for example, if yous're trying to go beyond a big canyon quickly, y'all need to time out your jumps too every bit exactly when you desire to hit each target. If your timing is wrong, you might notice yourself falling. While it might be a minor setback, missing a spring isn't the end of the world all cheers to your eagle companion.

The hawkeye is a useful tool for traversal and puzzle-solving while besides serving as the Hunter's lone companion. The emptiness of the world is made credible from the moment the Hunter sets human foot on the beach. The world is strewn with the skeletons of those who came before who occasionally take messages for the Hunter to read which requite the player a glimpse into what life is like outside the island equally well as what has been lost. Information technology has some interesting world-building that helps enforce some of the themes the game is trying to convey.

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The main loop for The Pathless is centered around exploring the world to find offerings for the gods. This lifts the dark aura around them and allows the Hunter to get close plenty to free them from their expletive. To get offerings, you have to solve puzzles that are placed throughout the world.

The pacing starts to be an issue when looking at the puzzles themselves. While slowing things down every now and then helps me capeesh the moments when I'grand whipping around mountains, I would take liked some puzzles to incorporate the movement mechanics from the residue of the game. Most puzzles revolve effectually lining upward hoops to shoot through or finding blocks to weigh downwards buttons. While the puzzle blueprint is mostly pretty good, the lack of integration with other mechanics makes them feel disjointed and sometimes slow.

The game is purposefully obtuse in where the side by side puzzle lies which is something I like. Other than using the Hunter'due south "spirit vision" to get an thought of where to get next, exploration is upwardly to you. There's no minimap or HUD and then the world has a sense of wonder and mystery to it that'south akin to Breath of the Wild—the principal objective is e'er clear, but so much of the fun in The Pathless comes from the journey.

"…so much of the fun in The Pathless comes from the journeying."

Considering of its obtuse nature, the game tin can last every bit long every bit yous want information technology to. If you're feeling adventurous, you lot don't have to keep the story going and tin spend as much time as y'all desire in any given area to discover all the secrets hidden inside information technology. It would probably merely have taken me 4 to five hours to end if I were only blazing through the story, merely similar to Breath of the Wild, that's non really the point.

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The only downside to spending a lot of time exploring the globe are the sections when a corrupted god will surround yous with their dark aura causing you lot to be separated from the eagle. These sections totally impale the pacing and but aren't very fun. You take to avoid being seen by the god by moving very slowly to get to your eagle. Information technology's weird to me that the game would take away the unique flow of its traversal to railroad the thespian into an uninteresting stealth department.

The boss fights with the corrupted gods themselves are, nonetheless, epic and feel larger than life, just they all start to blend together towards the end. The first fight was invigorating and exciting and I couldn't wait to see what other kinds of encounters in that location would exist with the different gods, but I was disappointed to notice out that they all are pretty much the same.

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"My biggest critique of The Pathless is that most mechanics aren't taken far enough."

My biggest critique of The Pathless is that most mechanics aren't taken far enough. The incredible movement mechanic is only used to get you from place to place and doesn't cease upwards meaning a whole lot in terms of puzzles or boss fights. There's a section in each fight where y'all hunt the god through a called-for wood and it's the highlight of the entire game considering you're using the skills yous've learned from moving about the globe in a much more tense environment. Now, mistiming a shot might mean being hit by a fireball or losing momentum and letting the god go away. However, those sections are few and fleeting.

At the end of the day, the traversal alone is plenty for me to recommend The Pathless. It's just fun to get from place to place using your bow; everything else is just a bonus. The overall story is good with performances from Laura Bailey and Troy Baker, the different environments are vast and beautiful, and while the puzzles take a wide range of difficulty, they're still fun to effigy out. It's just a shame that there'southward no synergy between each individual gameplay loop. The Pathless is admittedly worth your fourth dimension if you're looking for a game with a sense of take chances and a rich atmosphere.

the pathless