The Path is a short horror game developed by independent studio Tale of Tales. While many indie games usually offer lightweight action (like shooting bubbles around), The Path is focused on atmosphere, allegorical story and art. It's a modern interpretation of Little Red Ridinghood, but here instead of one little 'hoodie', you have six different sisters with their own stories.

The Path is phenomenally subtle and touching, I even would say spiritual. It manages to bring back that childhood feeling, when a forest seemed to be a mysterious realm full of secrets, surprises, fantastic beings or even beasts; when there was no solid line between daydreaming and reality. This is exactly what The Path is- a digital dream about little miracles, exploration and... allegorical "wolves" that await modern day girls. It's rich with intentional associations- allusions to death and sexual themes would be appreciated even by Sigmund Freud.

The story is also told in a non-traditional way. There's almost no narrative. Instead, it's being unveiled by interaction with the environment and other characters. All six sisters have different personalities and their own tales, they even experience the magical forest in different ways, meet different "wolves" and have different consequences. The Path is like a collection of six short novels, united by similar settings and the same task (go to grandmother’s house),

The Path is a slow game in a charming way. I'm talking not about 'no running' feature, but overall game pace. For instance, Ginger, one of the sisters, meets a 'forest girl' and they take their time to hug, to play and such, just like little girls would do. Then she would find a tree and climb into it, just to look around. All these little interactions are so natural and lovely that you're loosing the feeling of time flow.

There's no such thing like 'beating the game' with The Path. You can reach your destination- Grandmother's house- in few minutes but then you would face the screen "Failed: Wolf encounters 0/1, Collected Items 0/10, Unlocked Rooms 0/3". So you get back to search for the missed items and that's where The Path only starts. You'll be amused and charmed with little discoveries in the Forest of Forests and that's the essence of the game. The Path is not about reaching the goal, it's about loosing yourself in world of little miracles. Mind you the title has much deeper meaning than it would seem from the first glance.

Control system is phenomenally simple. Just imagine there isn't any button for action! Instead, you just don't move your character in an interactive area for a second and the action is triggered automatically. In fact, you use only a mouse or just one analog stick for everything (except the menu). Also The Path supports Xbox 360 controller and runs perfectly on Home Cinema set. It even grabs the screen resolution flawlessly which is more rare than you'd think.

HUD is very creative too. It's not absolutely absent, but definitely arty & innovative. For instance, if you can't see what your character is doing or you approached an interactive object, then a semi-transparent layer with details is displayed on top like in music clips. There's no map too. Instead, directions to points-of-interest are hinted by arty sketchy curves on the edge of the screen. These look so in-style with everything else that it even could take some time to realise their function.

Graphically wise, The Path won't make your video card burning (you can even lower video settings, which is handy for those with older PCs). However, the character designs are genuinely lovely and overall arty approach is more than charming. The music is simply hypnotising. It was composed by the goth rock diva Jarboe (ex Swans), also known as The Living Jarboe, and if you're into experimental/alternative music, then I definitely recommend checking out her discography.

Closing comments

The Path is an inspired happening and the return to old beautiful "art for art's sake". It's a digital dream, that explores psychological characters of young women through symbols, choices and consequences without happy ends. The Path won't appeal to the impatient, but those who are looking for creativity and drama would be greatly rewarded.

Verdict/Score

It would be disrespectful to start evaluating art with "stars" or numbers, you either like it or not (take Picasso paintings for instance). I personally loved The Path, but obviously the game isn't for everyone, because it stands on the opposite side of conventional shooters.

Around the network:

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Availability

PC: starting from 18th March 2009, The Path will be available for downloading from Tale of Tale, Steam, Direct2Drive, Gametap and Metaboli

Mac: estimated release- late April. It will be available from Tale of Tale site.