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Pardon the dust! This page includes some jargon that hasn't been added to the site's glossary yet. I'll be around to fix this later, but sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime. |
Review: The Path
At a Glance
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How to Save and Pause:Your overall progress is saved when you reach Grandma's House, return home using the phone booth near the beginning of the path, or quit the game. There are three save slots to choose between, though the first one is automatically used when you initially begin the game. Note that your location in the Woods is not saved when you quit. Pressing ESC will bring up the game's menu, pausing the game. Time needed per session:Expect to play for long periods of time, as the player has limited control over how much time they spend in the Woods.
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Does this game pose issues for Christian players?
 | No - this is a great game for Christians This game's major theme is about the dangers of temptation and the need to use discernment - a surprisingly Christian message for a game that bills itself as a horror game. |
Screenshots
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/the_path_0.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/the_path_1.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/the_path_2.jpg)
Game Overview
Based loosely on the story of Red Riding Hood, the Path is an unusual game; normally, players are expected to take on the role of their character, and thereby control their actions. In this game, players are more detached from the action, and can only guide their character along their journey. What they do when they arrive is entirely their decision.
Gameplay takes place in three phases. First, players choose who they'll guide to Grandma's House. These are six sisters to play as, each having their own unique personality and interests. These differences influence what can be found or be interacted with in the Woods, so you'll need to play as each sister at least once in order to see everything.
As the third phase is little more than walking through Grandma's House to join her in her bedroom, let's focus on the second phase of the game, which is where the game itself comes in.
At the beginning of each journey, the game reminds you of its one core rule: stay on the path.
Following the path is as easy it is boring. There's nothing to see or do along this straight road, so players will probably start getting fidgety before they're halfway to Grandma's. On each side of the path, the dark Woods seem to go on forever, and if you glance over you may see something deep inside like an object, a glint from something shiny, or maybe even another child dancing around in the distance. These temptations are there to invite the curious players to break the game's only rule.
Eventually, you'll find yourself leaving the path to explore the Woods. To have your character interact with something, have them walk nearby until it appears as a ghostly silhouette on the left of the screen. They'll walk over and do something as soon as you let go of the "move forward" button. Exactly what they'll do depends on what you've found - they might just make a comment, or perhaps they'll play with it for a bit.
Triggering these events is the real goal of the game, and as you play, you'll unlock various tools to help you find the rest of them and keep track of what you've already done. Of course, this wouldn't be a moral lesson if you were completely free to break the game's all important rule - there are also consequences for leaving the path.
You see, once you've wandered away from the path, you won't be able to find it again on your own. It's not just a matter of being lost: the section containing the path is explicitly removed from the game world once it's out of sight. The only way to find the path again is to locate that other wandering girl (called the "Forest Princess" in the manual) and let her lead your character back.
Readers may already have guessed what else there is to worry about in the Woods. After all, this game is a retelling of Red Riding Hood, and if you're lost in the Woods, there's a chance that you'll encounter the Wolf. Exactly how the Wolf appears is different to each sister, but the theme is always the same: it represents a destructive temptation.
Interacting with the Wolf is optional, but if you do, Bad Things happen. The immediate effect is that the sister you're guiding is dumped outside of Grandma's House in the pouring rain, and during her trip through the house the environment will be corrupted and distorted like a horror film. Finally, she'll collapse before reaching the safety of Grandma's room.
The other result of interacting with the Wolf is that you won't be able to play as that sister again. This makes it impossible to go back and collect anything you missed while playing as her.
Overall, this is an unusual experience about playing with temptation and the risk of getting burned by doing so, making this an interesting game for Christian players. Even the horror aspects are very minor, and if you play it safe by leaving the Wolf alone, maybe even ignorable.
Gameplay takes place in three phases. First, players choose who they'll guide to Grandma's House. These are six sisters to play as, each having their own unique personality and interests. These differences influence what can be found or be interacted with in the Woods, so you'll need to play as each sister at least once in order to see everything.
As the third phase is little more than walking through Grandma's House to join her in her bedroom, let's focus on the second phase of the game, which is where the game itself comes in.
At the beginning of each journey, the game reminds you of its one core rule: stay on the path.
Following the path is as easy it is boring. There's nothing to see or do along this straight road, so players will probably start getting fidgety before they're halfway to Grandma's. On each side of the path, the dark Woods seem to go on forever, and if you glance over you may see something deep inside like an object, a glint from something shiny, or maybe even another child dancing around in the distance. These temptations are there to invite the curious players to break the game's only rule.
Eventually, you'll find yourself leaving the path to explore the Woods. To have your character interact with something, have them walk nearby until it appears as a ghostly silhouette on the left of the screen. They'll walk over and do something as soon as you let go of the "move forward" button. Exactly what they'll do depends on what you've found - they might just make a comment, or perhaps they'll play with it for a bit.
Triggering these events is the real goal of the game, and as you play, you'll unlock various tools to help you find the rest of them and keep track of what you've already done. Of course, this wouldn't be a moral lesson if you were completely free to break the game's all important rule - there are also consequences for leaving the path.
You see, once you've wandered away from the path, you won't be able to find it again on your own. It's not just a matter of being lost: the section containing the path is explicitly removed from the game world once it's out of sight. The only way to find the path again is to locate that other wandering girl (called the "Forest Princess" in the manual) and let her lead your character back.
Readers may already have guessed what else there is to worry about in the Woods. After all, this game is a retelling of Red Riding Hood, and if you're lost in the Woods, there's a chance that you'll encounter the Wolf. Exactly how the Wolf appears is different to each sister, but the theme is always the same: it represents a destructive temptation.
Interacting with the Wolf is optional, but if you do, Bad Things happen. The immediate effect is that the sister you're guiding is dumped outside of Grandma's House in the pouring rain, and during her trip through the house the environment will be corrupted and distorted like a horror film. Finally, she'll collapse before reaching the safety of Grandma's room.
The other result of interacting with the Wolf is that you won't be able to play as that sister again. This makes it impossible to go back and collect anything you missed while playing as her.
Overall, this is an unusual experience about playing with temptation and the risk of getting burned by doing so, making this an interesting game for Christian players. Even the horror aspects are very minor, and if you play it safe by leaving the Wolf alone, maybe even ignorable.
Points of Interest
Flowers offer hints
You can find up to 144 flowers in the Woods. They glow faintly from a distance, and are often easy to spot as your character walks (not runs!) along. Pick up enough of them and an indicator will be added to the edge of the screen, pointing the way towards your character's next objective. This is especially useful early in the game, before you've unlocked many abilities.
Many collectibles
The main point of this game, when you come right down to it, is to find the twelve items and twelve memories that are hidden somewhere in the Woods. Each sister is associated with six of these, and while there is some overlap, you'll still need to send each girl into the Woods at least once to find them all.
Collecting things also makes small changes to Grandma's House, such as opening up additional rooms, adding objects to existing rooms, or in the case of the flowers, simply adding a bouquet in the entryway.
Collecting things also makes small changes to Grandma's House, such as opening up additional rooms, adding objects to existing rooms, or in the case of the flowers, simply adding a bouquet in the entryway.
Unlockable abilities
As you complete more and more trips to Grandma's House, you'll slowly unlock new abilities to help you explore the woods. This includes a map, an inventory overlay, and icons that indicate the rough location of the Wolf and the Forest Princess. The latter tends not to be terribly useful, however, as she seems to spend more time hanging around your character later in the game.
New Game Plus
When all six sisters have dealt with their respective Wolves and you've completed the epilogue, everyone just quietly returns to their original positions in the selection room and your game restarts. However, you get to keep everything you found during the previous game, so there's effectively no way to actually lose.
Steam Community Features
There are no achievements to earn while playing this game, but you can earn a set of Steam trading cards that feature different moments from the sister's misadventures.
Controls sometimes get "stuck"
Perhaps the biggest flaw with the control scheme is how characters can become stuck interacting with things. By this I mean that they keep re-focusing their attention on something, making it surprisingly hard to move them away from some objects. Part of the problem seems to be an issue with collision detection - they get stuck on something in the environment, and that makes the game think they've stopped moving, which in turn triggers the interaction event over again.
Concerns and Issues
Poor behavior
The main recurring theme in this game is that everyone is tempted by something. If you visit a girl's events in order, you'll find that they always end up getting themselves into trouble before they even see the Wolf. In short, they end up creating their own traps through ignorance, willfulness, or rebelliousness.
This nicely parallels how sin and temptation work in real life - we don't have much control over what tempts us, but when we choose to act on them, those temptations become sins. Likewise, the Wolf never attacks the girls of its own accord; you must choose to interact with it.
This nicely parallels how sin and temptation work in real life - we don't have much control over what tempts us, but when we choose to act on them, those temptations become sins. Likewise, the Wolf never attacks the girls of its own accord; you must choose to interact with it.
The Wolves are scary
The Wolf appears in a different form to each sister, and many of its forms suggest that very Bad Things are going to happen if you stick around. Robin, for example, sees the Wolf as a blood stained werewolf, while Ruby first encounters the wolf as a young thug dragging what appears to be a body bag.
The fact that none of the girls seem aware of the danger they are flirting with may well be the true horror of this game.
The fact that none of the girls seem aware of the danger they are flirting with may well be the true horror of this game.
Carmen is taken advantage of
Triggering Carmen's Wolf event is unusually difficult, with might be a good thing. One of her earlier events involves helping herself to the woodsman's beer, and this can easily be followed by interacting with the woodsman himself (aka, the Wolf). Not only does the woodsman come off as extremely creepy towards her, Carmen's corrupted version of Grandma's House features moaning sounds, which strongly implies that she was sexually assaulted by the woodsman.