It’s not a particularly compelling premise, but it gets the job done. All you need to know is that there’s a whole bunch of darkness in this world, and your duty is to cleanse it. You’re Link in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You play as a hunter armed with a bow and arrow, charging in with the intention of reversing everything the Godslayer has done - something you’ll learn that no one else there has managed to pull off, via notes on their bodies scattered around the map. Basically, a being called the Godslayer has begun to corrupt the land, killing its people and spreading fire across what was once a peaceful, beautiful place. It’s all very generic fantasy fare to be honest, and I forgot most of it the moment I started traipsing about the open-world. The Pathless’ lore is spoon-fed to you the moment you boot up the game, via several passages of text describing the world you’re about to enter. That doesn’t mean that it’s anywhere as good as those two games, but it’s still a really refreshing take on the open-world genre. Thematically, The Pathless feels very similar to Journey and Abzu too, only with a much clearer story to follow. I'm only mentioning this because the moment you boot up the game and see those dreamy visuals, and start dashing through the open-world with ballerina-like fluidity - those connections are going to make a lot of sense. Giant Squid is also made up of ex-staff from Thatgamecompany, who made Journey. The Pathless comes from developer Giant Squid, creatives of Abzu. The middle stages instead feel redundant, with combat going on too long without introducing any new elements.The Pathless is an interesting take on the open-world, monster-slaying game The final stage, which should be the emotional peak of the battle to make a victory truly land, ends up feeling short and anticlimactic.
These boss battles follow the typical multi-stage combat, but some of the stages land poorly.
#The pathless reviews free#
As players fight to free the four tainted gods of the land, they inevitably must face up against the gods themselves. This eagle is a mechanic, but players can take the time to pet their companion and, in an otherwise empty world, this relationship feels weighty and important, adding one more gameplay style.ĭespite some truly unique mechanics and an utterly beautiful world, there are moments when The Pathless fails to impress. They also carry the weights necessary for The Pathless' puzzles. This eagle will carry the player through the air to climb towers and sail over bodies of water. After rescuing the Eagle Mother in the game's beginning and tutorial section, players are gifted with an eagle companion. While the player seems to be the only person left alive in the world of The Pathless, they aren't truly alone. Though the gameplay and styles are different, their juxtaposition enhances the experience and actually works collaboratively to create a world that feels more fully fleshed out. Ultimately, the feeling of the ground being pulled out from under a player actually helps contribute to the unsettling nature of the stealth mini-game. The shift from quiet focus on moving puzzle components to the immediacy of hiding during a red storm feels jarring and almost as if two games were merged together. These red storms are avoidable but serve to break up the fast-paced quietude of the main game with anxious stealth missions. Players must find their friend by sneaking through the grass, avoiding movement while the tainted gods' headlight-like eyes are trained upon them. In these intense moments, the player's hawk companion is blown away from them. When this happens, players enter a storm of red light and heavy winds that gives the impression of a wildfire. This stillness is occasionally interrupted as the tainted gods cross a player's path.
The movement creates a flow state, almost as if the player is surfing on the ground from one target to the next. Players travel the large distances between puzzles and towers by running, gaining stamina and speed boosts by hitting targets with arrows as they go.
But what sets The Pathless apart is its sprawling, open-world explored in a Sonic the Hedgehog-esque speed-run. To accomplish this, the player is provided only with a bow and arrow and companion eagle, limiting the ways of interacting with foes and puzzles.īeating the mini-bosses and ultimately the big bad in a beautiful, fantastical world seems almost cliché for video games at this point, and the similarities to such epics as Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are readily apparent. Each god must then be faced and brought back to the light by destroying the Godslayer's hold over them. To return light to the world, the player must secure the lightstones, guarded by puzzles, and return them to the obelisks that have been overrun with darkness.
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