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Path, The

EMAIL PRINT pc

6.8 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 31 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Tale of Tales

Developer: Tale of Tales

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Horror

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: RP (Rating Pending)

Release Date: March 18, 2009

Summary

The Path is a short horror game inspired by older versions of Little Red Ridinghood, set in modern day. The Path offers an atmospheric experience of exploration, discovery and introspection through a unique form of gameplay, designed to immerse you deeply into its dark themes. Every interaction in the game expresses an aspect of the narrative. The six protagonists each have their own age and personality and allow the player to live through the tale in different ways. Most of the story, however, relies on your active imagination. The Path is designed with accessibility in mind. There are no ticking clocks or monsters to defeat. No hard puzzles will ever halt your progress. Most activities in the game are entirely optional and voluntary. The player has all the freedom in the world to explore and experience. The Path is a Slow Game. Six sisters live in an apartment in the city. One by one their mother sends them on an errand to their grandmother, who is sick and bedridden. The teenagers are instructed to go to grandmother's house deep in the forest and, by all means, to stay on the path! Wolves are hiding in the woods, just waiting for little girls to stray. But young women are not exactly known for their obedience, are they? Will they be able to resist the tempations of the forest? Will they stay clear of danger? Can they prevent the ancient tale from being retold? [Tale of Tales]

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

VideoGamer

It will be years before a game made by the big budget software houses like Ubisoft or EA is brave enough to attempt anything remotely similar, but The Path shows promising signs that gaming is starting to grow up.

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GameFocus

This review does not tell you much about the game because if I started talking about it I would spoil the experience for you. Unlike all other reviews (at least so far) where you can talk about key features or experiences if I did that it would be wrong. What I can say is that The Path is an experience of exploration and emotion. You should enjoy the game in small doses and not rush your way through because it is a slow experience but a wildly artistic one.

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MEGamers

An experience like no other, The Path is as unique and engaging as it is unnerving.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Not an example of “games as art,” so much as a work of art deftly supported by a game.

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PC Format

Now play it, because I desperately need to talk to someone about it. [June 2009, p.100]

Gamers.at

The Path is art in videogame-form, and its weird ways have the potential to elevate it to the position of one of the best Indie-Games this year.

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Eurogamer Spain

The path doesn't take the most obvious course. It doesn't have a great control scheme. It doesn't even have a good one, to be honest, but it doesn't need it to be a very immersive experience.

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Gamer.nl

The Path is not a game, it's art. And damn good art too. If you're open to it, try it and draw your own conclusion.

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GameSpot

It's slow to unfold and simple to play, but you won't soon forget this extraordinary work of interactive fiction.

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Absolute Games

An art connoisseur will be in raptures over the perfect, highly stylized look of The Path. A gamer will walk about the forest for 10 minutes and uninstall it. And both will be right in their own way.

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GamingXP

The Path is a successful experiment and a good example that there are signs of innovation in the games-sector. The fascinating fact about this game is that you will have to use your own fantasy very much.

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GameZone

It is simple to play, but incredibly deep in its execution. It’s mystical, often perplexing, and more disturbing than pleasant. Think of it as an interactive fairy tale, and you’ll find it much less stupefying and maybe even a bit marvelous.

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IGN

One thing's for sure, regardless of whether you love or hate The Path, you won't forget it.

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PC Gamer UK

Flawed, intriguing art-game. [May 2009, p.70]

DarkZero

Selecting whether you play as the depressed emo girl or the teenage slut might add some replayability, but only if you enjoy the game’s generally sluggish and strange presentation. If it sounds like your cup of tea, you need only shell out ten dollars to walk The Path.

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Eurogamer

It's totally no fun. It's interesting, but there isn't a fun bone in its mopey body. But I've paid to go into modern art galleries. I've paid for really oddball, minimalist art films. I've gone to gigs where music is divorced from any physical reaction and raised to some cerebral, abstract place - and plenty of gigs where most sane human beings would consider there was nothing actually musical going on. I haven't, but could pay for experimental theatre tickets. Lots of poetry. Whatever.

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AceGamez

Whichever way you look at it, The Path is a phenomenal experience that has already generated huge amounts of debate over its adult content on message boards and forums.

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Thunderbolt

If you don’t like The Path, then you only spent ten dollars. And if you do like it, then it could well be one of your favorite games of the year.

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Eurogamer Italy

At the end, we should probably have split the final score in two parts and fixing it it's a very hard job. The Path is an experience more than a videogame as it is defined. The Path is not for everyone: you have not objectives, achievements and stuff like that. Someone could find this boring, someone else could think about an analysis of the life, when every step is a choice.

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PC Zone UK

If you have a lot of patience, follow The Path. If not, bugger off and pick up an FPS. [Aug 2009, p.75]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 31 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Guillermo L gave it a10:
Half way through the game I'd already been moved to near tears and laughter at the same time. The game is wonderful. The music and atmosphere make me want to own the soundtrack if that's possible, too. Yes it's a short game (can be easily played in half a day). But for ten bucks it gives more reward than most movies made. I hope to see more from these people and if possible something epic along the fallout 3 magnitude for size.

John R gave it a9:
This is NOT a game, so anyone who rates this according to a video game's criteria is dead in the wrong. This is not a FUN thing to play. It is not a shoot em up romp through a dark forest killing zombies and aliens. No --- this is a modernization of the age old fairy tale. Bringing the truth of these tales to a modern format. This is the realization of old into new. What this "game" is --- is a telling of a fairy tale without the happy little ending most people have converted them to. The true fairy tales before they were exploited by the hug a tree generations. You do not just get involved with the characters in this story --- you fall in love with them. Their nuances that you learn through their interactions with things in the world around them. Their personalities. Their loves and hates. You learn these things if you only have the patience (as most don't) to really play this through. You realize that these are not just a bunch of EMO-Goth girls as most people think --- but each with a different personality befitting their age range. It shows you the complete opposite of what one person said of this game: "This game shows that you can only succeed by leaving the path in life" --- no --- this is showing that yes, indeed, you have to leave the path to "succeed" in this game --- but that success is only so you can learn that one is best suited to the path. Just as the ancient fairy tales have always told. They are shock stories meant to keep kids "in line" and "on the path" and this is exactly what this "game" has come to do. So if you are going to rate it --- rate it based on that. So --- in that aspect, I give it a 10/10.

Bill M gave it a10:
This game is unlike any other game I ever played. It can hardly be called a game at all, it's more of a piece of art. There is no clear message or story, the focus of this game is on surreal imagery and emotion. I would describe the mood of this game as creepy yet beautiful. I highly recommend for anyone who has a creative gene in them.

[Anonymous] gave it a0:
Wow, just wow. The game shipped without the ability to change resolution or refresh rate. What does this mean for the unfortunate among us who's monitor can't recognize whatever the default resolution is? No game. To add insult to injourney, on the game developer's own forum they explain that instead of fixing this problem immediately they are working on the Mac port. Talk about horrible business decisions. The developer is saying that paying customers are less important than potential ones, ie as long as the customer has given them their money that's all they care about. Awful, simply awful.

Mark T gave it a7:
Love the ambition in this game, and there are some genuinely spooky moments. When it calls itself a slow game, however, it isn't joking... it's a fine balance, as slow is an unusual, therefore interesting, concept in games today, but boy, it sure does drag as you wander aimlessly around those woods. Consider it a $10 snack. Worth dipping into, but I suspect that not many people will have the stamina to get through very much of it.

Jason V gave it a9:
A frankly amazing experience. Not so much a "game" in the traditional sense - more of an "experience". Few games have ever so adeptly created an immediate and purely recognizable emotional experience for the player, and it's a triumph. However, you must have an imagination to play. This is not a game that is going to tell you a story - you must find the story inside it. If that sounds fun to you, this is a must-try.

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Path, The

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