I’ve been semi-excited about this game since I first read about it in January or February. So now, it’s out, and I’ve played it. And I beat it. I think. Well, no. Er…maybe.

My initial reactions, upon playing this game:

Hour One: “God. What is all the hype about? I can’t even figure out what I’m supposed to do, let alone find anything thing in these fucking woods. I think I might hate this game.”

Hour Two: “Ooooooooooh. Well. Um. That’s disturbing. But I get it now. Actually, that’s pretty interesting. I think I might love this game.”

Hour Three: “Damn it, why can’t these girls walk faster? And what the hell was THAT just about. I think I might hate this game.”

Hour Four: “Oh. My. God. That makes perfect sense. I LOVE that. I need to read everything that’s ever been written about this game online. I think I might love this game.”

Hour Five: “Whaaaaaaaaat. Come on. That was so not necessary. I feel a little ill. I think I might hate this game.”

Hour Six: “How the HELL am I going to review this?”

All in all, I’ve spend around six hours playing this game. Let me clarify, though, and say that you could probably run through things in just a few hours, if you’re smart enough to figure out the navigation system quickly. I’m willing to bet that there are also people sinking 20+ hours into the game, trying to find all of the objects and unlock all of the rooms.

What is The Path? Ok, let me start at the beginning.

As you can see from the title screen, you’re going to get an “artsy” game. They don’t hide that fact at all.

Made by Tale of Tales, an indy company out of Belgium, The Path is a horror game based on the story of Little Red Riding Hood. For those of you who don’t know the history behind that fairy tale, the moral of the story was that strange men can’t be trusted. The Path is a completely new look at that idea. You’re given a very simple task – one by one, get each girl to grandma’s house, which is at the end of a path. Don’t stray from said path into the woods. Just get to grammy.

And if you do that? You fail. The whole point of the game is to break the only rule (stay on the path) and go out into the forest to explore.

In the forest, there are items for each girl to find, 144 flowers to collect, and 6 different “wolves” – one for each girl. there’s no clear navigation system to find the bad guys or objects (at least, not apparent at first), and the girls walk very slowly. We’re talking Romero zomie slowly.

I hesitate to call this a game. It is really more of an experience, and a horrible one at that. But that’s the point. If you aren’t unsettled and slightly sickened by The Path, check your pulse. You may be dead.

From this point on, there will be some SPOILERS, because this game is impossible to review without talking about some specifics. I won’t talk about any hints or ways to find things, but I will talk about some of the scenarios you will encounter, which normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but in a game like this, knowing scene in advance may change the effect of the game.

You’ve been warned.

With the exception of one girl, Robin herself, the “wolves” you encounter aren’t really literal wolves, but figurative wolves – people out to prey on the young girls. There’s nothing graphic in the game except your own imagination. You see short cut scenes and are left to put together the pieces yourself, which lead you to suspect rape, murder, and other atrocities.

After you encounter the wolf, who appears differently for each girl, the scene goes black and you’re dropped in front of grandma’s house. Instead of it being bright and sunny, though, it is now raining and the whole scene is gray. You ultimately have to slowly walk across the bridge and up the steps to the front door – and believe me, it is a walk of shame.

When you get into house, the horror isn’t over. Grandma’s house looks different for each girl, but it is bizarre, confusing, and horrifying, like a scene from a fun house. After making it through a few rooms, each girl drops and blacks out. Symbolizing death? I put a question mark there because it is really up to you to determine the symbolism.

Throughout it all, you come into contact with a girl dressed in white, who seems to want to help you. If you stand still in the woods, she’ll take you by the hand and lead you back to the path, so if you’re really frustrated, this is like a “reset” button. at some point in the game, she seems to be trying to warn you, and at other points, she seems to feel your pain and hugs you. If you encounter the wolf with all 6 girls, you get to run through the woods as the girl in white. What does the little girl symbolize? I’ve heard many theories – memory, conscience, love. I tend to believe that the sisters are actually one aspect of the same person – the girl in white – and that she’s a mixture of memory and innocence. That’s just my take on things, though.

So, I’ve read a TON of theories behind the meaning of the game in general. I don’t agree with any of them, and at the same time, I agree with all of them. I don’t think there is one right or wrong way to look at The Path, and I really love that

END SPOILERS!

I don’t want to get too mushy about this game, I do want to point out that there are some serious flaws, at least in my opinion.

First, I have to note – as everyone who has played the game will note – that the girls move REALLY slowly. I get it. The game is about patience and you’re supposed to think about the things the girls see. Really, though, by mid-game, you’re sick of it. You just want to be able to move more quickly because you understand that concept and its too boring to move so slowly.

Another flaw, in my opinion, is that some of the meaning is perhaps TOO deep. Maybe I’m just not smart enough to “get” it. Trust me, for most of the girls, the wolf encounters were creepy and full of layers of meaning that I loved peeling away. Some of them, I just didn’t get them.

Criticism three: the objects. You don’t need to collect the objects to move on in the game, and as I played, I collected about half of them. There didn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to most of them, though. They were just creepy objects, some of which unlocked rooms in grandma’s house. Maybe, again, I’m just not smart enough…I think I would have enjoyed it more if the objects contributed to each girl’s story. Maybe they did and I just didn’t get it. To me, they just seemed kinda random.

My last major criticism – and I know some people may disagree with me on this – is that there was no real closure. I understand that the whole point of an artistic game is to create questions, not answers…but damn it, I need a little something concrete here. I like that there’s a lot left to your own interpretation, but I don’t feel a sense of closure. I’m uncomfortable with that. Maybe that’s the point, but I don’t have to like it. I’m more a fan of, for example, Braid, which has many layers of meanings, and is definitely up to interpretation…but isn’t totally like “WTF” at the end.

I have to make one thing very clear, though – the game is gorgeous:

The whole environment is beautiful, and I love how the look and feel changes depending on whether you’re on the path, in the woods, or near a wolf. The game IS artwork. I love the stylized characters, too, and how they change at the end of the path, after their wolf encounter.

To go along with that, the soundtrack…yum. I mean, before you play this game, you probably never though the sound of a chain swing or the gasp of a women was horrifying. In combination with the music – wow. It is super impressive.

Rating this game is tough. I know that some of you reading this won’t like it. In fact, you may feel like you’ve wasted $10. Others out there – you’re going to LOVE it. So, even more so than most games, this rating is TOTALLY personal. I think, though, that if you typically like indy games with deep layers of meaning (like Braid) and exploration (like in Oblivion), you’ll enjoy this game. Just don’t give up on it. Once you start to understand it and how the navigation works, it isn’t as frustrating. I promise!

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