Review - The Path

'The Path' is described as a short horror game based on the story of 'Little Red Riding Hood'. It was made by 'Tale of Tales' and is available for download through Steam for home computers.

Path is unique in that it breaks what is conventional for video games. It only has two rules: go to Grandmother's house, and stay on the path. Following these rules results in a failure for the player. The rules are meant to be broken because the game is about growing up.

There are 6 chapters and an epilogue in the game, each represented by a girl. They can be played in any order (except for the epilogue which is played last). The girls are of various ages ranging from 5(?) to late teens, and each of them has a different view of the world, theirselves, and what life is about. All of them are naive to the dangers of the world that are reflected in them, and that is where the wolves come into play.

The wolves are all metaphorical (except for the youngest girl). They range from a natural disaster, to idolizing bad people, to hedonism. In order to succeed in a chapter, the player must give in to the girls' 'wolf'. Once players reach the epilogue, they play as what I believe is either a seventh girl, or the seventh wolf (It's a game that make you think). Also, as you wander the forest you may come across various items. Different girls interact with these items and provide deeper insight into the girls' minds. After all this, players are left before Grandmother's house with a girl whose broken from suddenly 'growing up', and the house's interior has become a twisted reflection into the darker parts of what the girl has become.

The display is minimalistic. There are breif control instructions at the start of the chapters, but otherwise no commands are displayed. The forest loops infinatly, and a crude map appears every 100 meters to show where you've been. The only real landmarks are what appear at the edge of the screen. Pawprints indicate the direction a wolf area is in, white swirls show where the girl from the epilogue is who'll be around key items and can return you to the path, or there may be a small icon of an item if your collect enough flowers.

The game can try your patience at times with how slow the girls walk, and running pulls the camera up and pointing down so you can't see around you. This, however is by design to make the players feel defenseless and to force them to observe their surroundings. There is a ranking system for each chapter, but this is generally a farce (possibly to drive completionists and perfectionists nuts). A good game that has to be tried to truly be understood.