It has been nearly three years since I reviewed The Pathless on the PlayStation 5. I remember that this was my second go around with an Annapurna Interactive published title and thinking to myself, “Wow, this company really can choose them.” Well, I wasn’t wrong. Now, Giant Squid and Annapurna have brought this PS5 title to the struggling Xbox Series X that is in need of some fun games at the moment, and I have to tell you, this game still slays as it did three years ago.
Let’s go.
Still a solid 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 and bow, you must 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 part from your hero in the game, though plenty of ‘CAWWWWS’ 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 in a linear fashion, 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.
That gameplay still kicks
For the most part, the gameplay is 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 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.
To get around this world, the game’s movement is 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 must keep shooting these things to go fast. As tiring as that might seem, the game makes movement quite exciting. Should you really want to get things going in the right direction and quickly, you can hold down LT to run, then hold down RT 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 around the land, via sky, quickly and reach higher plains in the game. This is partly how the eagle functions when it comes to getting you to higher ground (hello there).
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 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 lands to explore, which is a good thing when you’re enjoying shooting, moving, and sliding. The world is huge and mostly empty, sans some animals running around, 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, 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 play, and even some flaming jar/mirror/bow play. What I mean by ‘bow play’ is that you’ll have to fire your arrows through holes into targets to open up doors or compartments. The firing of the arrows, what you have to hit, and the angle at which you hit them are what make the puzzles fun. They’ll put you to the test when it comes to figuring out strategies to get through puzzles. 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 talismans that help to free more Gods.
Now, 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. By fighting and defeating bosses, you free them and progress in the game. Otherwise, those bosses will make appearances from giant fiery red plumes and attack you randomly. For example, if you get caught in a fiery plume, your eagle will burn (not to death), and the boss beast will hunt you while you try to hide and make it to the eagle to rescue them. 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 bosses are gigantic, mythic Godly animals that will tear you up given the chance. 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.
The gameplay hasn’t changed much since the original launch of The Pathless. Honestly, I’m more than fine with that because you shouldn’t change what is entertaining. That being said, the biggest difference between this and the PS5 version is the load times. While not overly long, there is a difference in load times going into the game or into a save file. Other than that, I think this game is still gorgeous, still fun, and still mesmerizing as Journey was the first time I played it.
This is definitely a keeper.
Conclusion
The Pathless is still a fun game after all these years. It is driven by a deep story and simple gameplay mechanics. While I would have loved to see a bit more life in the world, the gameplay is still very much engaging and endearing.
