Giant Squid and Annapurna Interactive are bringing the PlayStation 5 launch title The Pathless to gamers when their PS5 arrives. Is it worth a look amongst the sea of AAA titles? I think so. Let’s talk.
Story
You are an archer and you’ve been tasked with bringing back possessed Gods from the clutches of a Godslayer, who has no intention of going quietly. Armed with an eagle, you have to traverse large tracks of land, gather up talismans, and release the possessed Gods from their horrific burden. All of this while sliding your way around town.
The story for The Pathless is something that Giant Squid took right out of Journey, as there is no real speaking from your hero in the game, though plenty of ‘CAWWWW’ comes from the eagle, who certainly has more lines. The game seemingly wants you to process the story in your own way, much like Journey did, trying to figure out how Gods were captured, how you need to save them, and how you’re going to do that — all through visuals and cues. Of course, there are some moments in the story that lead you from point A to point B, but the world is open to your adventurous interpretation. If you enjoyed Journey, then you’ll enjoy the construct of this story, as it is simple, passionate, and engaging in the most defined ways.
Those defined ways
The gameplay is for the most part open world. You can jump from God to God in what would seem like a predefined order, or you can treat the gameplay like a buffet where exploration and dabbling here and there might suit your fancy a bit. While the game certainly will force you to save the first God and put you through an expected tutorial, as to allow you to understand how the game functions, it will set you up so that you can jump back and forth between Gods if you want. The land you explore is tiered and after taking down the first God and saving them, it all opens up to your pacing and pleasure. For example, I jumped between the second and third God by accident and found myself needing to go back to wrap up the second before continuing the third. They call this game The Pathless for a reason…well, probably multiple reasons. One I can mention (above), one that I can’t (nowhere to be found — don’t ruin it).
To get around this world, the game’s movement design is pretty clever. As you walk through the world you will find these floating/burning icons all around you. Armed with a bow, the game will encourage you to shoot them, which will add endurance/stamina to your run. Your ability to run, much like in real life, is finite, which means you have to keep shooting these things to go fast (just like Sonic). As tiring as that might seem, the game actually makes movement quite exciting. Should you really want to get things going in the right direction and quick, you can hold down L2 to run, then hold down R2 to shoot. As you run and shoot, the archer will do a quick slide and you can keep doing that slide as long as you have targets to hit. It’s more fun than what you just read and it keeps the gameplay flow going.
Now, getting back to our eagle friend, the eagle helps you with tasks and with movement. Starting with the latter, as you complete levels, the eagle will gain the ability to lift you up into the air. When you level up the eagle, that means an extra lift, which translates to your ability to get through the land quickly and actually reach higher plains in the game. This is partly how the eagle functions when it comes to getting you to, for a lack of a better Obi-wan term, higher ground.
As for tasks, the eagle does a variety of things to help you progress. You can count on the eagle to lift heavy objects, help you solve puzzles, and help you fight bosses. The eagle is really a secondary weapon and helper that adds value to the game experience and that is cleverly wedged into the gameplay design. Plus, you get to pet and take care of him/her (their business). The petting part is mainly when the eagle is hurt, so be sure to give that beautiful creature all the pets in the world when the time comes.
On the level design side of the game, The Pathless is a bit plain, but maybe purposely so. You have a lot of open land, which comes to life in three seconds when you go from the start button to the gameplay. The world is huge and mostly empty, sans some animals running around (no, you can’t kill them), and ruins laying everywhere. The openness of the world can be overwhelming at times, but no more than if you saw Breath of the Wild for the first time. Unlike BotW, there just isn’t a lot to do other than go from landmark to landmark. That doesn’t mean it isn’t beautiful, especially with the PS5’s ray tracing abilities, but it just feels a bit lifeless at times. Again, maybe that’s on purpose, but it is noticeable, especially given its girth. That doesn’t mean the game is bad, it just means that you might feel a bit lonely. Honestly, that could also be the purpose of the game when you’re trying to save Gods to preserve the lands. Personally, for me, it was fine. I enjoyed sliding the hell through everything and just getting the world going in a fast manner. As mentioned before, the girth is evident the first time you look around. Everything is huge, everything is right there in front of you, and you get a definite gauge of the world’s scope. It can be breathtaking.
On the enemy side of the tracks, you’re looking at puzzles and actual bosses. The puzzles range from simple bow play to timing puzzles and accurate bow playa, and even some flaming jar/mirror/bow play (enjoy that one). The puzzles are crafted quite well and aren’t overly difficult, yet there is a good sprinkle of a challenge to them. They do happen more frequently than boss battles (duh) and reward players by giving them individual talisman. Those talismans act as activators for gigantic towers, which turn a tower’s light from red to white. The purpose of the light turn is to locate bosses and make them appear so that you can fight them. Otherwise, those bosses will make appearances from giant fiery red plumes and attack you randomly. It’s a wonderful horror show when that occurs. Anyway, the puzzles and bosses balance out, and, as I said prior, the puzzles aren’t overly difficult.
The boss fights are the real deal, though.
The bosses are gigantic, mythic Godly animals that will absolutely (bleep) your (bleep) up, if you aren’t properly prepared. They are beautifully designed creatures that come in all shapes, sizes, and powers. I think that outside of sliding and moving around a big landscape, I had one helluva time with boss battles. I won’t give any of it away, but every battle is unique and far from cookie-cutter design. Giant Squid really put some thought and time/effort into making you feel how good the designs could be in the game. While the bosses do contain patterns, which can be frustrating to pick up on at times, seeing the next boss and getting to see how they fight is one helluva treat. I can’t remember the last time I really enjoyed seeing how far a developer could push things, but this game made me want to keep going to see the next boss.
As for other odds and ends to the gameplay design, this game is going to be one good challenge for those looking to platinum it. It has a lot of things it could offer up as trophies and I know it’s not going to be super easy. There are plenty of items to see, read, discover, and collect. If someone, such as THE Alex Tudor, our platinum king, is looking for a game to give them some sort of challenge, then The Pathless will be that game.
Let’s wrap this puppy…errr…eagle up.
Conclusion
The Pathless is a wonderful balance between puzzles and boss battles contained in a giant landscape. The gameplay design, specifically the boss level design, demonstrates the possibilities this new generation of consoles might offer.
