The Pathless review

The Pathless is a newly released game for the PS4 and PS5 made by Giant Squid Studios. To be clear the Pathless is a game very much worth the 39.99 if you like open world puzzle solving, nature, and exploring beautifully and freely in a way like no other game before it; but you should not expect it to be the powerful silent stories such as ABZU and Journey.

If you are familiar with the two other game Giant Squid's directed, you will no doubt see similarities with its art style and story structure. ABZU’S influence can be seen everywhere, which is one of the game pluses. As the Archer you explore five different lands rescuing the sprits of five different animals, on your quest to bring light back to the world.

The difference between The Pathless and it’s predecessors is it’s best feature; the game play. The Pathless lives up to it’s name, as you are in complete control of where you go and do. There is essentially no hand holding, and it is up to you to use your ‘vision’ to help guide you around the steeps. The Archer shoots targets as she run, jumps, and flies. Moving is a joy and made me think of fondly of Gravity Rush in terms of The Pathless’s freedom and detail.

As someone who loves puzzles, I was overjoyed with how diverse and interactive the mysteries of the many ruins of the world. Often I had to explore more or give great thought to the tasks, but not once was I ever stopped or frustrated for being unable to solve. The Pathless is a fair game, but also a forgiving one. It makes clear how it’s puzzles work early on, and from then on you have the tools to solve them yourself.

It’s forgiveness also help when it comes to the combat of the game. The boss fights are essentially a combination of running, jumping, shooting, and occasionally quick time events. Like the fast-passed exploration, the battles are also streamlined to be quick and action driven. You cannot, however, die. At worst you will be knocked out of a ring and let recover until you chose to continue, or else you will simply fall behind a target or need to repeat an event from a short time ago.

Now as for the story I found it to be lacking when compared to the silent master pieces of ABZU and Journey. The end has emotion to it, and I enjoyed it, but The Pathless’s voice acting written lore works against the game. Not because any of it is done badly, but because it adds little more then what I could discern simply by what I saw happen in the game. If anything, uncovering the lore raised more questions then answers and robbed me of any vagueness I could use to imagine the story myself. I am all for branching out, and Giant Squid has done incredible jobs with their mechanics and gameplay, but a studio with such a good track record and style could have easily handled the plot and story without words. That style is a strength of theirs, and they weren’t far off from it already. Knowing less about the Godslayer would have made him more believable, and easily he was the worst part of this magnificent game.

The Pathless takes much of what works and what is fun and runs full tilt with it. Depending on how you like to play I have no doubt you will enjoy the time it takes you to play.

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