Gaming Impression Part 2: The Path - In Which I Become a Killer of Innocents...

I like this trailer better...

The PATH ----- Launch Trailer from Tale of Tales on Vimeo.

.

In Brief:
Three words/phrases that sum this game up to me (which I’ve seen elsewhere): Metaphorical, dark fable, morality-play.

“The Path” is a game for the emotionally and mentally adventurous, for fans of psychological horror and people ready to be tweaked, disturbed and perhaps self-exposed. It’s 10 bucks for a very rich 6 hours – 8 hours to “solve,” but the impressions and lessons stay with your psyche much longer. I like it and exploring the website offers even more information. The game is deceptively innocent until you start to engage with it and then it turns delightful...and then chilling and disturbing. This is NOT for children.

***

Details Part 2: Wolves, The Point and You.

The girls are interesting but the villians, the wolves are diabolical. I truly love heros but I understand how a spectacular villian makes a story shine. Each girl has a wolf matched and looking for her as you walk the path and especially if you walk off of it. No two wolves are the same nor do they look the way you might expect. There is a lot of metaphor and symbolism with the wolves but they are also pretty darn awful. There is one other character in the game that I should mention, a Girl in White who shows up randomly and can help you find your way back to the path or items of interest...but she is not always around. And it is so easy to get lost in the forest.

When you choose one of the sisters and start to play, the game advises that you go to grandmother's house and stay on the path. You can do that actually right off the bat without encountering anything more than the path and perhaps a bird till you get to grandmother’s house and grandmother, but the game tells you by doing so you’ve failed. The first time I played I chose Scarlet, the eldest. Took her straight down the path and to grandmother’s house. I kept waiting for something to jump at me, or something to grab me – and while the music was unnerving none of those things happened. I went to grandmother’s creepy little house and saw her. I was rewarded with a screen afterward, which told me I had failed, it even grades you – I earned a D. I realized I hadn’t wandered and found secret things. I hadn’t met any wolves. I had been dutiful and nothing good or bad occurred.

It gave me the option to play Scarlet again and this time I immediately went off the path and into the atmospheric forest. If you walk you move slower, but you see more around you than when you choose to run. I did both and started to collect special flowers, or rather I put Scarlet in the line of sight with the sparkling collectibles and she chose to gather them. I saw structures that Scarlet couldn’t interact with but made her “think” of one of her sisters. Eventually, we met her wolf and it got real….creepy, dark and morbid ( I am deliberately trying not to get too specific and omitting a few things in case you play it). Think about the video from the movie “The Ring,” that has purpose in every frame but generally lets you puzzle WTF just happened after you see it. Images flashed that were disturbing, confusing and then… Scarlet wakes up on the ground in the pouring rain and looks…. so wrong. Moves wrong. Broken. She makes a torturous journey through her grandmother’s house to see her grandmother. Due to things I found and due to Scarlet’s new state the house offered different...views.

Then the game told me that I had earned an “B” and I realized that the grading screen does give pertinent info but it is also a twisted lying F***ker because essentially I got a "B" for killing Scarlet, leading her toward a really awful death. I could have helped her discover things and avoid her wolf and that awful fate but then …I’d also never know some things that I learned. The question for me regarding Scarlet in this instance becomes was it truly physical or metaphorical death. As I'm not at the end yet, who can say? I am leaning toward both right now since Scarlet is no longer an option to play. Can’t wait to play this to the end and then perhaps play again as there are many random elements that seem to make this a new challenge each time.

Some years ago, I’d have said this can’t possibly qualify as a game because it wasn’t traditional. Then “Myst” came out and people adjusted their definitions to include it. This is more interactive than “Myst” and puzzling in a different, personal way. I believe this little arty experience qualifies as a game. The morality of the choices you are presented and how it is handled is part of its dark twist. And there is still a lot more to it that I haven't mentioned.

In my experience the game really is playing you, your perceptions, your behavior, your morality, your choices and understanding. If the circumstances and morbid morality doesn’t get to you, maybe what you learn about yourself will.