To find one’s path is a difficult trial. You haven’t even faced the several challenges lying ahead yet, and here we are trying to decide and predict how these future events shall unfold. Why is choosing your own path so important and when did it require so much time and thinking? When did this construct of a path form and why? A path is normally a route we follow. A hiking trail in the middle of the woods, or a highway leading us to the countryside. A path physically is this linear structure we travel along, but a personal path is far more different. To choose a path for ourselves is to choose our fate. Who we will become as time passes on. The actions we take along this path will ultimately lead up to the end goal, and our personality created along said path will affect how others view us. Whether we’re a good person or not, our influence on others may even give them the idea to follow a path similar to our own. However, they can’t entirely copy the path we formed. They can take inspiration, but they too will have to form their own personal path. There is no such thing as a singular path to take, but a path you can create. Using your mind to form the paved foundation and your tears to fill in the crevasses. You can become what you dream to be and branch off the road.
This is the description I think of when it comes to the individual’s path. Of course I’m not the first one to explore the concept as dozens of other creators and artists around the world have expressed and symbolized what it is through their work. This is especially the case in the realm of video games as the idea of finding a path is covered over and over again. Horizon Zero Dawn and how it tells the tale of an outcast working her way up to becoming an icon for the people to look up to. Ghost of Tsushima and the decision between being an honorable warrior or going against your code to do what has to be done. Elden Ring and trying to figure out what faction or higher power should rule a corrupted world. It’s not just big budget games which cover the idea of the path. Smaller indies like Ori and The Will of The Wisps and The Artful Escape have explored the journey through the path and either finding your own identity or becoming what you were destined to be. The path, despite being never ending, has been dabbled into way more than you could have expected. However, no other game I’ve played covers the idea of the path quite as well as The Pathless. It was developed by Giant Squid who also made Abzu, and it was an indie released and made for next generation hardware.
The Pathless, much like its older brother Abzu, was not all that successful during release and as a matter of fact it did much worse. Reception wise The Pathless wasn’t as well received or covered from mainstream critics despite it being positive reception , and the game sold even worse. I’m assuming the main reason The Pathless failed was not only due to how it came out of nowhere without much knowledge or developer updates behind it, but it had to compete with other big next gen games coming out at the time. Demon’s Souls, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Yakuza: Like A Dragon, and a bunch of others. The Pathless was overshadowed much like any other indie game being released amidst a busy month of releases, and it’s a really big shame that it failed because I personally believe this is one of the best indie games to come out during 2020. As a matter of fact it’s one of the best games to come out of that year. The Pathless may be smaller in scope compared to other contemporaries in the open world sandbox genre, but there’s a lot the game gets done right during the short five hour runtime. It goes for a more free approach like Outer Wilds or Elden Ring, and it does so tremendously. The Pathless is truly special and it's what inspired me to write such a dedicated introduction sequence for it. Today we’ll be talking about why I loved The Pathless and why it utterly deserves your attention.
Story
The game takes place in an ancient world on the brink of ruin. Gods are real and they come in the form of large glowing animals who look after the people. In return the people worship them and offer them gifts showing their dedication to these all powerful gods. Luckily these gods aren’t corrupt and any mistakes the people make are easily forgiven. As long as they treat one another politely and take care of the environment that is all the gods could hope for. That is until a strange corruption begins to flood the land. Disbalance creates chaos and the gods whom the inhabitants look up too stop responding to their calls for help and guidance. Much like the gods, the world grew silent as well and disparity was all that was felt during the dark age.
We then cut to a sailboat making its way to an island. Once the sailboat reaches land a young huntress steps off and slowly navigates the wilds she found herself in. There aren’t any monsters in sight and if there are living beings it’s just small mammals. Grasslands and buildings of a past civilization as far as the eye can see. It’s unclear what the huntress seeks on the island, but it’s not until we get deeper into the forest that we learn. We find a giant spiritual eagle chained to the ground and in immense amounts of pain. Could this be one of the gods? One of the spirits who went silent and wasn’t able to prevent the ensuing chaos? The shackles which hold the eagle down have this energy to it similar to the darkening corruption, and the only way to rid these shackles is to shine light upon them. The huntress locates towers around the region and by powering them with emblems she creates a triangle. A beacon which can shine light upon the spirit and contain the darkness so that a healer of some sort can suck the disease right out of them. The huntress is this healer. She heals the eagle, and the winged colossus reveals herself to be the mother of gods. The being who helped birth and guard this world for hundreds of years.
Out of nowhere a being emerges. This man wearing a three eyed mask, floats in the middle of the air, carries a blade, and speaks with a menacing voice. A dark aura emits from this being, and he may just be the one responsible for the current apocalypse. He calls himself the Godslayer and claims to have toppled the very gods whom the people worshiped. He plans to corrupt all of them and create a singular path for the world to follow. There may be only one way and he’ll make sure no one is there to stop him. He obliterates the mother spirit and takes her power for his own doing. The huntress is shocked to see what had happened and seeing the mother spirit reduced to ash believes there is no hope left for the dying world. Suddenly a spark of hope springs from the ashes. A new foundling is born and resembles the spirit which died amongst the huntress. The eagle is weak at first, but gives the huntress powers so she may catch up to the Godslayer and face off against the foes that stand in her way. These foes are the children of the mother spirit. Now twisted and unable to control themselves. The huntress must free these spirits from the Godslayer’s control and defeat him atop a floating island in the sky. Only then will the world be free of chaos and peace will roam the land once more. Run through the night! Destiny awaits!
Gameplay
The game is an open world sandbox, but it doesn’t play in the way you’re probably thinking right now. Most open world sandboxes have you collecting stuff, unlocking new equipment to use, climbing a tower or picking up an item to unveil more of the map, fulfilling side missions and doing activities to level up, and eventually progressing the main story once you’ve done enough content and believe you are ready to move on. Open world sandboxes can be bloated at times due to the amount of content packed in due to how the developer needed to fill in the massive world, and while I can overlook open world bloat at times depending on how much fun I’m having with it that doesn’t excuse how you are grinding through to get to making core progression. There are very few open worlds which avoid this tedious grindest and the only one I’ve played is Outer Wilds. Luckily, The Pathless is an open which avoids the grindstone mindset.
It’s not as free as Outer Wilds or Elden Ring as not every area is available from the start and you can B-line towards it, but at the same time you aren’t as constricted as dozens of other genre entries. You aren’t following a map, constantly looking at a radar, or doing exactly what the text on screen is telling you to do. You just find a point of interest and go towards it. You let what is in front of you lead you forward rather than a bunch of guides the devs left for you. It avoids the hand holding design philosophy, but due to how easy it is to see important landmarks or points of interest you will never reach a point where you are truly lost or can’t find the item you need to progress with the story. Towers which need to be activated always glow red, and the lightstones needed to activate these towers will be encased with a red glow as well. Everything is spaced out in such a way where you aren’t being bombarded with things to do, which makes it the least grindy open world I’ve played. There’s no maps to fill out because there is no map to refer back to, and no enemies or encampments to clear out because the world isn’t throwing you a combat scenario every five minutes. It’s just a nice open world to run around in and explore.
What you’ll mainly be doing throughout the game is lighting up towers scattered throughout the world to create a glowing triangle. Each region has this massive storm of corruption roaming around and if you get caught in it you face off against one of the four corrupted gods. You’ll either have to run away from this cloud or sneak around the corrupt goods as it searches for you. To navigate around the world you have an eagle companion and it grants you abilities to platform with ease. The eagle allows the huntress to fly over long distances and propel the huntress to higher areas by carrying her. However, the eagle can only lift the huntress so many times and to increase the amount of times it can lift her higher you must pick up crystals. These allow the huntress to level up and flap more times in the air. You won’t have to be grinding for crystals as you level up instantly whenever you complete a region, but searching for these optional resources can help by giving you more powers earlier in the game. Besides that the huntress has a bow which she can use to shoot targets. Didn’t I say this was a combat free game? Yes, but no. The huntress wears a headband which allows her to see talismans floating throughout the world. Shooting these talismans grants her energy. Boosting her forward and filling up a stamina meter. Using the stamina meter allows the huntress to run across long terrain, and by shooting talisman while running you can keep up the pace by having a never ending stamina meter. You can even shoot talismans while jumping in midair to launch yourself, and there are even certain talismans later on which have special properties.
Lightstones are hidden behind puzzles and these puzzles utilize the skills of the huntress. Your ability to aim and understand the mechanics of the game. These puzzles are never too complex and can be solved quickly if you think diligently. There are even times where you’ll have to utilize your eagle to carry stones to weight down buttons, or full contraptions that open the way forward or rearrange these holes you must shoot your arrows through to have a better impact on a target you have to hit. One the lightstones are collected and you power up the three towers of a region you can face the corrupted god of said region. This is why I didn’t completely say the game doesn’t have combat, because once you enter the contained storm you enter a boss fight consisting of two to three phases. The first phase has you chasing the boss and shooting glowing eyeballs on its back. Trying to keep up while also avoiding the hazards it throws at you. Shoot the eyeballs enough and you trigger the next phases. Here you’ll have to fight within an arena, avoid its attacks, and try to find openings to hit weak points. These bosses are really fun and focus around a core staple so that you can pick up on them quickly. Besides that, The Pathless is a simple yet elegant open world. Hopefully you can defeat the Godslayer and bring hope back to the world.
Thoughts
The Pathless is one of the best indies I’ve played this year and might as well be one of the best open world sandboxes I’ve played. Swimming in a sea of unoriginality and laziness we find a diamond sitting at the bottom, and that diamond was one of the best purchases made. I will say though The Pathless may not be for everyone. Like I said there isn’t any combat outside of confrontations with the corrupt gods, you spend most of your time running around, and people are going to find the simplistic gameplay loop repetitive as there isn’t much else to do besides running and solving puzzles. Do I find The Pathless having less content than other open world titles? No, in fact that’s my favorite aspect about The Pathless. It focused less on the variety that could have been provided and focused more on what they wanted to do. Create a beautiful world as the player progresses and let them roam around wildly without being restricted.
The core gameplay loop that is there is one I adored. I loved running around the world, shooting tailsman, and seeing if I could maintain that constant flow of movement. The mountain area I’m gonna say is the best area in the game, because it’s so big and gives you enough room to move around. Combine that with how the player should have a ton of flight abilities and boosters by then and they can just glide to each location. The puzzles are fairly designed and there wasn’t a point where I spent thirty minutes in one area trying to figure out what to do. The game doesn’t have a map, radar, or mini-map to refer to but this adds to the exploration. You look for a point that appears to be interesting and make way towards it. You may even want to stand on high points of the region or even those towers you don’t have enough lightstones to activate to spot one in the far off distance. The Pathless is simplistic, but it isn’t shallow. If it was shallow it would have ideas that feel half baked and needed to be explored further. What is there works and creates a gameplay loop that works perfectly to me.
A lot of people are going to say this game takes heavy influence from Breath of The Wild and I do understand where they are coming from. The art direction is top notch and uses a lot of shades of blue and green. The world is heavily composed of cool colors and cell shading. The music is brilliant and stones to each moment of the game. The presentation and how mystical the world of The Pathless is. However, I feel The Pathless borrows more from Shadow of The Colossus rather than Breath of The Wild. The world is empty and whatever is left are ruins, so this creates a sense of loneliness while traveling. The bosses have specific points you need to strike and you need to hit all of them before these massive titans can fall to the ground. The theme of light and darkness, well it exists in both games, but it feels more akin to Colossus and the deeper meaning lying beneath. The Pathless has a more lively world though personally.
What caught me by surprise with The Pathless was its story. The game isn’t dialogue heavy which is a relief and allows the player to soak up information at their own pace. There are corpses containing messages to what happened before, and it helps build the world to what could have been a simple game about saving corrupt gods and killing the one enslaving them. The story symbolizes fate and how there isn’t a correct way to pursue an idea. People must be offered the choice and even if they aren’t provided guidance or influences to work off of they can still find a way to work towards a goal. A path. A trail they can follow which will build their character, personality, intelligence, and make them outstanding human beings. I also love how everyone in the game speaks a foreign or made up language. It helps the player feel like they are in a world far beyond our own. The ending was a satisfying conclusion to this epic journey and there’s even a secret ending to unlock which adds a happier note to what was a sad destiny.
The Pathless is an absolute masterpiece and any complaints I can think of are just nitpicks. The game lasts roughly around five hours which is short for a lot of people, and this short runtime is hard to justify the purchase price of forty to fifty dollars. It’s best to buy the game when it’s on sale or maybe get the physical version which can be found for twenty dollars if you look in the right places. Even then I don’t mind the short runtime, because if the game went on longer I would have gotten annoyed by it easily. The Pathless can also be classified as an artsy indie game, because it mainly focuses on its story and visuals. There are these moments where you have to stealth around and if you get caught you lose level up points, but the punishment isn’t really that bad. That and it’s impossible to lose against bosses. However, where The Pathless differs from Gris and Abzu is that there is actual gameplay and you feel like you are working towards something. It’s an artsy indie that sets a new bar for the artsy indie genre! I strongly recommend this game and it pains me to hear not many people have tried it out. In the end I am going to give The Pathless a 9.5/10 for excellence at best.
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