The Path

Title: The Path

Developer: Tale of Tales

Publisher: Tale of Tales

Platform: Mac OS X/ Microsoft Windows

Genre: Horror

Rating: M

Breakdown

The Path isn't your normal game. It's a single player horror game that seeks to take the popular fairy tale Little Red Riding hood and allow the player to explore the vast forest. This game is what the player makes and interprets from it. The gameplay is simple. You play one of six sisters, different ages and reincarnations of childhood personalities. They each have a story and they each have a 'wolf' to encounter in the forest. One by one, the player chooses one of the sisters from the apartment and takes them from the gleaming city behind them to the path to Grandma's house. One instruction is given; the player is told to stay on the path. Yet if the player follows these instructions they lose. They have not confronted their wolf.

The Path is an art game, an example of a small trend of games setting out to push what a game means. They are often emotionally compelling and with little instruction, asking the player to discover their path. The path fits right into this. There are many things to do inside the game, from gathering 144 shining gold flowers to finding objects which give the player clues to the meaning behind their wolves. The girls are controlled by walking with the arrow keys, and can run if the shift key is held down. Though when running, the screen becomes more and more blurred and the gold flowers are no longer visible. This is a punishment for ignoring the etherial atmosphere of the game, rushing for completion instead of enjoyment. And that's what The Path is really about, reminding players why they should be playing games. They point to the fast paced and objective based games these days and show the player what they can gain by slowing down and thinking.

Each girl has a specific wolf and a specific area where that wolf is found. They connect to their personalities and the follies of youthful ideas. Much of this is left for interpretation through cryptic, poetic narration given by the girl in connection to each object and the look of the wolf itself. Carmen, age 17, is a good example of this. She is the rebellion and budding sexuality of being a child. Her wolf is a hunter who she meets at a campsite. After flirting behavior like taking his hat and then reckless behavior like getting drunk from the beer at the campsite, Carmen sits down by the fire. The hunter sits with her and the screen goes dark. This means she has encountered her wolf. Carmen wakes up in front of the gate at there Grandmother's house. This happens with each girl, each holding themselves in a way as to clue into the experience just before. Carmen is holding her head and her body language is one of shame. One interpretation may be that she is hungover. The game never tells you. Once inside the house, each girl finds themselves in a series of surreal rooms. Depending on how many objects found, up to three rooms may open for each girl. Carmen's rooms are filled with images of trees and giant buzzsaws. A bed with a tree growing out if it is featured in one otherwise empty room. All around are sounds cluing into the experience of the girl.

Once all of the girls have made it to Grandmas house, the player can play through with them again to discover all of their secrets.

What other games is The Path like?

The path is one in a number of art games coming from the indie community. Yet art games sometimes trickle into the mainstream. Ico for the PS2 is an example of this.