10/6/2023 0 Comments The pathless apple arcadeI also wanted to briefly note that the sound design itself is also very good. Regardless, the soundtrack here is excellent. I personally loved that it was more eastern influenced, I'm pretty sure I heard some Mongolian throat singing a la The Hu at one point. As with most everything else in the game the soundtrack is fairly subtle and subdued, though it more than packs a punch during the boss fights and cutscenes. The excellent art is coupled with an equally excellent soundtrack courtesy of composer Austin Wintory (of Journey and The Banner Saga fame). Couple that with an art style that really reminded me of cartoons like The Thief and the Cobbler (which is excellent film, btw) and games like Journey and you've got a title that's quite the looker. It uses a myriad of different hues of red, blue, and green and the image absolutely popped off my 4k tv. If there ever was a game that demanded being played in HDR, this is it. Yes, it may not have the highly detailed textures or photorealism of a modern day AAA game but it more than makes up for that with it's style and use of color. Simply put, the art in this game is outstanding. Of all the Shadow of the Colossus influences this game wears on it's sleeve the boss fights were by far the best executed. I found the boss battles to be thrilling, intense, and incredibly immersive despite their relative simplicity. They're broken up into two parts: chasing the beast down then an arena battle. Taking a cue from Shadow of the Colossus, the boss fights center around you trying to figure out how to take down a massive beast. As I alluded to earlier, though, the boss fights are the true star of the game. I wouldn't say this is the best or most complicated puzzler out there (of all the puzzles I finished in my 10 or so hours with the game I never got stuck) but the puzzles all do feel very rewarding to complete. The gameplay loop generally goes like this: discover new area, solve puzzles, use puzzle rewards to light beacon, light 3 beacons, fight boss, discover new area. As I mentioned earlier, it's a blast to shoot the talismans while sprinting around the island and the auto-aim is made use of in the games myriad of puzzles. As a proponent of gameplay first I was a little worried about this as it seemed to me like it could be used as a crutch to make the game too easy and remove any challenge. Despite playing as an archer in The Pathless you do not actually manually aim at anything. Speaking of shooting things, another devilishly simple but perfectly executed mechanic is the shooting. As you explore the island and solve puzzles you can increase your eagles ability to fly higher. You also have the ability to fly/glide, thanks to your eagle. While this may cause the game to look a bit like an endless runner to an observer, I found it to be a ton of fun, especially during the boss fights (more on those later). Players traverse the island by shooting talismans scattered all about. Instead you have to rely on your memory, landmarks, and your "spirit vision" which will briefly highlight points of interest in red or yellow. Sticking with the idea of simplicity, The Pathless' gameplay is about as simplistic as one could expect in a modern game. Regardless, I found the narrative to be interesting, emotionally resonant, and a highlight of the experience despite it's relative simplicity. blunt with the themes it wants gamers to take away from it as opposed to Team Ico's titles. The game's narrative structure definitely evokes memories of Shadow of the Colossus (even down to the characters speaking their own language), though I would say this game is a little more. That's it, just you, the island, the 4 spirits, and the big boss.Īs video game plots become increasingly complex in an attempt to be more cinematic and immersive it's almost a breath of fresh air to play a game with such a simple narrative. You do so by freeing 4 trapped spirits located throughout the island by exploring and solving puzzles with the help of your eagle companion. The plot of The Pathless is relatively straightforward and simple: you play as a nameless archer on a nameless island tasked with lifting a curse. Platform(s) - Epic Game Store, iOS, Mac, Ps4, Ps5 (played on) As we already have a review up for Blasphemous (which, if you haven't played it yet, please do so as it's excellent - they released a free DLC in August that adds a new game plus mode with 5 additional bosses and cleans up the graphics and map a bit) I'm going to review the other game I platinumed this weekend, Giant Squid's new open world adventure, The Pathless.ĭeveloper/Publisher - Giant Squid/Annapurna Interactive After a long weekend of playing through games I'd either gotten for Christmas or picked up during Christmas sales I decided I wanted to write a review of at least one of them.
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