The Pathless

You awake in a lush forest: calm, tranquil, serene. An eagle makes your acquaintance as you grasp your bow. In the distance, a target appears, its crimson gaze provoking the reflex to shoot. Draw, aim, release and the arrow finds its mark. A surge of wind surrounds you as you propel forward, becoming momentum manifest. Without a single word of dialogue, you understand. This is the central conceit of The Pathless, a puzzle adventure by Giant Squid. Founded by developers of Journey, the studio previously created ABZÛ. While I have much respect for the former and the company’s artistic fidelity, this is where my love for the latter ends. What follows The Pathless’ strong opening is an exercise in tedium. The rest of the game is filled with unsatisfying puzzles, and boring boss fights to boot. There's even a mechanic that is introduced as something frightful at first, but quickly becomes an obnoxious hindrance to your progress. The player character is presented with a grand journey...

I know I am 4 years late to this party but with the release of Giant Squid's newest game "Sword of the Sea" I realized I really should write something about this game. Firstly I am a casual gamer who has never found value in things like achievements or pursuing higher difficulties so this was already a fantastic game, that being said it was such a fun game with realistic achievements that its the first game I have ever 100%ed (Im sure some might say that means the game was easy but tbh if you have fun and enjoy playing it that was a GAME if for). The game is Gorgeous with an immersive soundscape and music that for me really pulled me in and kept me going. I love collecting fragments of a story in games and I felt that the story being told and the world being presented was fun and engaging!! The games mechanics can be a bit finicky at first but I found once I got the hang of them they were really fun and you could get into a smooth flow that made moving around the beautiful environmen...

its beautiful but sadly its boring. i bought it on sale for 8 european schmuckaronies, and i'd give it a 5/10. it would do better as a shorter cinematic experience IMO, but i respect that they were making something a little more gameplay heavy than ABZU. sadly the gameplay falls flat, and becomes repetitive real quick. sad! because its beautiful, and you feel a lot of love poured into it. Sadly its just not a game i'd recommend, even if i wish i could.

I understand some of the negative reviews but I also think that if you've never played Journey or any game of Giant Squid then you may not vibe with their games. Their games require a bit of patients and imagination. The Pathless gets an 8 out of 10 for me. The open world and discovery is only hindered by a lack of depth in terms of things to interact with, repetitive objectives and sometimes boring puzzles. However the game also shines in those same aspects which I appreciated. Dialogue is limited and much of the story is pieced together through finding spirits of the deceased and pretty much using your imagination to fill in the past and present blanks of the story. I played a game called "Jusant" a couple of years ago where storytelling is done the same way. You don't interact with any people but storytelling is done through finding notes or spirits in the case of The Pathless. Overall, The Pathless is imaginative, calming, and at times breathtaking. Boss battles were pretty awe...

I don’t think that I have ever been this scared in a game that is not a horror game. Running around and collecting the idols that I needed to, then out of no where the beast gets closer. As hard as I try to out run it, it was often for nothing. The fear kicks in so heavily when all of the lights change and the music gets cynical. The impact that the moments of fear into the perfect timing of an arrow to finish off the boss was incredible. I often try to avoid any kind of reviews of games until I finish the game myself, or it’s at an appropriate timing with the experience that I have had that my opinion is sound. I stumbled on a negative review that mentioned the tedious nature of the puzzles and the lackluster in the boss fights. I think that this game is a perfect culmination of what makes games truly good. Not a game that makes you want to quit because the bosses are so mean, or a game that makes you have to google the solution to every puzzle. The Pathless provided an experie...

The Pathless is at its best when you're seamlessly gliding, sliding, and running through its beautiful, lush open world, figuring out its logic and puzzles, and just generally discovering new locales. The first two open areas after the tutorial were an absolute joy to explore! Luckily, the game isn't all that lengthy, with most of the open world being completely optional, so these initial areas were where I spent most of my time during my 6-ish-hour-long playthrough. However, after those first few hours, the cracks really started to show for me. I sincerely believe that if the developers were just more liberal with handing out rewards for engaging with the world, it would lead to a much better end product. Finding and solving an obscure puzzle, only to get the bare minimum upgrade to my "flight meter", quickly became unsatisfying. The puzzles aren't really all that difficult to solve; I'd say the hardest part of most of them is actually understanding that they're there in the first pl...

It’s ok and maybe recommend if there’s a heavy discount. But I think it’s pretty boring and definitely not worth the full price.

This game for me is mainly a mixed reaction after completing the game. From an artistic aspect of the game, such as the environment being beautiful, and having an explanation of some lore just by looking around. What I like the most about Pathless is just the arrows whistling when you fire them, as it sounds cool. The game itself feels fast and casual, as there are no severe consequences if you fail something, such as failing a boss simply launching you out of the arena with the current phase ongoing, or getting caught during stealth only takes away a couple of the game's upgrade currency (there's abundance, so don't worry). There are some aspects of the game that I do not like. I won't go into detail, as many people stated about its repetitiveness or the map feeling empty (both are true). What I do not like are two features in the game. One revolves around boss fights around the 2nd and 3rd boss, which is the forced camera angle. This is a problem because this change of camera angle...

Such an awesome game! Easily the most satisfying traversal system, whether it be zooming around the plains while trick shotting from your bow or gliding from your eagle, and surprisingly has one of the coolest open worlds I've played with. Also, THROAT SINGING!

Beautiful open world game with a cute eagle, outstanding music and unique art style, very satisfying gameplay, lots of small puzzles and epic boss fights. - The heart of Giant Squid games is their very well made and satisfying movement mechanics and this game proves it. Moving freely around the (big) open world map feels extremely smooth and rewarding once you understand how to use the terrain and the gameplay at your advantage. - The eagle companion is probably the most exquisitely animated bird I've seen in any video game or movie. Its movements are very realistic with an incredible attention to detail, especially when it flies alongside you as you run around, keeping its head balanced with the ground, its tail and wing movements rendered perfectly (too bad most of the sounds it makes aren't from a Golden Eagle but hawks and other raptors but that's a niche critique). - There are many puzzles around the map, most of which are optional for completing the game. My only real criti...