Took 3 shots at the game

[DDRJake]

So I was working my way down my list of Indie games I own on steam and it came time to boot up The Path. I didn't know anything about the game and didn't want to ruin any surprises by finding out before playing so I just installed and away I went with it.

*Spoilers ahead for all you who want the game unspoiled*

The game loaded up, I picked a girl at random and off I went with Ginger. The game starts up and tells me to go to grandma's house staying on the path.

I do exactly this. After a fairly pretty but dull trip I get to grandma's, have a little daunting trip through her house then I see her at her bed, then I'm told I failed and back to the title screen for me. Back to the steam library I went too and booted up Defense Grid.

Couple days later I decide to try out the game again and stray from the path. I pick the youngest looking girl, deciding to do this in order now and I run straight into the forest. I ran for ages and got hopelessly lost. I didnt realise for a while that the forest loops back on itself and I was running around, picking up flowers with no idea what to do with them. I found a bullet and a needle and enjoyed her childish musings about them. I loved how running further into the forest would bleed the girl dry of her colour. I eventually found a graveyard and was wondering around when I noticed a warewolf...Which the wee girl instantly ran towards and started riding like an oversized dog.

The screen fades to black and she's lying outside Grandma's. It's raining, a fair amount of time has obviously passed and she looks tormented, abused, phased. Something just isn't right with the lass. I walk towards Grandma's for a painful amount of time and then had an increadibly surreal time stumbling about in there before falling into grave.

Bloody hell, thought I. That was morbid and completely unresolved and I don't think I really enjoyed it that much. Back to Defense Grid I go.

And like a fly to the light, the next day I was back on The Path. I played every single girl in order of age (as far as I thought. I may have mixed some up; hard to tell with these girls) and got all of their wolf endings. Not all of their items and room unlocks; I'm not really an item-hunting completionist these days. Well I didn't stop at all between them, I did 'em all and then the forest girl to boot. The game was horrifically unsatisfying in that it left me with no closure and little more than vague hints at what might have been happening to the girls. The rooms in grandma's house left me feeling helpless and uneasy.

Well after closing the game and reflecting on the 4 hours and 10Km combined distance I'd traveled I really felt like I'd experienced something most certainly out of the ordinary. Hell, I'm not even sure I enjoyed it. In fact I'm quite certain that enjoyment isn't something I got out of it, but there was something quite different there. Something quite profound and lasting and only attainable after running around a forest as a girl picking flowers and playing in an old bathtub before seeing an image of a great phalic tree impaling my bed.

I'd conclude this, but I can't even conclude it to myself, so I'll leave it at that.

[kara_bulut]

People claim this isn't a game. More like art thingy.

The funny thing is even the developers don't know what to call their game.

It's like someone just randomly painted colours on a paper and people told him
it was good and he should exhibit it. But in reality he didn't even know what
he did. He just was told it was good and he should sell it.

[DDRJake]

I certainly wouldn't put it like that.

[MichaelSamyn]

Thanks for sharing that, DDRJake. That's a great story!

The Path may not offer closure or answer questions, but it certainly is not random. Girls are not random. A forest is not random. Little Red Ridinghood is not random. It's very much about a lot of very real things.

These things, however, are complex. Maybe that's what The Path is about: how life is seldom simply a walk along a straight line.

[TrippleD]

Originally Posted by MichaelSamyn

Thanks for sharing that, DDRJake. That's a great story!

The Path may not offer closure or answer questions, but it certainly is not random. Girls are not random. A forest is not random. Little Red Ridinghood is not random. It's very much about a lot of very real things.

These things, however, are complex. Maybe that's what The Path is about: how life is seldom simply a walk along a straight line.

I agree.

Thanks for sharing DDRJake.

[disgruntled_gir]

So do you think where "You failed" when you obey the rules means you failed to live a life and take risks?

[DDRJake]

Not really, I don't usually overthink things.