Here's the short review, to help you decide if this is worth buying. First, listen to Booty Queen by Lizz King. If you like that song, adventure games, or getting caught in the rain, then buy this thing. If you expect some kind of tight time-cycle between action and response, if you expect strategic depth or even a modicum of decision-making depth, if you expect any level of rapidity, you should pass. Most of the reviews have made the dual mistakes of either praising this game uncritically or dismissing it out of hand because it does not suit the reviewer's personal tastes. "The Path is the art of the goddess, and if you don't like it you're a philistine!" meanders over to the other extreme, reacting "not a game, wtf!" I have a secret weapon that no other reviewer has applied, co-op mode. I played this with a 19-year-old Argentian that I also wolf on periodically, she's a non-gamer but did work at an Xbox call center.
If you're ready for a "Slow Game" that will disturb, enchant and challenge psychologically, go buy it now and come back for the debriefing. If that doesn't sound like your ticket, that's cool, because I'm about to rip this thing open with my wolf claws of keen analysis; blood and spoilers will follow.
First off, this is a game, there's even a goal. The goal is to get a family of girls systematically assassinated by a primeval force more ancient than time. The explicit goal is to go to grandmother's house and stay on the path, but doing so represents a life wasted, a struggle-free journey to old age. These girls are better than growing old. The game is weakly interactive but in a way that massages the frontal lobe and if you open to it, the soul. The core gameplay involves figuring out what the 3rd person characteristics are of each of the girls. Figuring these things out enables you to say "ok, I bet this girl would interact with that object", which leads to results. Finding these psychological treasures unlocks new rooms in grandmother's house after the girl is literally or metaphorically raped and wanders into a Silent Hill abattoir before being murdered by a "wolf" in familiar form. The quite moments of interaction without a goal highlight the value and joy of the girls' lives, further accented by their inevitable fates; Shadow of the Colossus achieved a similar sense of fate but with swords and boss fights.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, shedding all the literal secrets, to give you an idea of what this game really does I need to describe the co-op. First get someone younger than you, on the cusp of adulthood, preferably someone who doesn't play games like you do, who is of the desired sex and who you happen to have screwed and slightly bitten earlier in the day. Her job is to control the girls, who are programmed to run off on their own whims from time to time, and your job is to offer her a teasing "strategy" guide, to trick her into being raped and murdered. I unlocked this strategic realization as I goaded my girl into completing each set, I wanted her to run around and do her own thing, but I was getting bored, I wanted something definitive to happen, I wanted to "win". She had run from the guy on the playground, but the illogical spaces of the forest, the disappearance of the path, the wrap-around (as seen in King's Quest II), had thrown her back to temptation.
"He's ok," I said, "you should say hi, plus there are points you can get in the playground."
"But he hit that girl!" she said, "I don't want to get raped!"
"Just relax," I said, "it's just a game, plus he's harmless".
That was when it hit me, I'm the wolf.
As the guy slipped Ruby a cigarette, my co-op partner had flashbacks to when she was 16, to past encounters best forgotten. She woke up at the end of the path, Ruby seemed broken.
"No, you got me raped!"
"Aren't you going to go in the house?"
"No, I'm going to a public phone."
But the public phone was very far away, and the developers had intentionally left the victim walking very slow, so that the path of least resistance is to go into the house, to walk into your doom with hobbled legs like in nightmares where your instinctual flight impulses are dulled by sleep paralysis.
She got frustrated and quit. When she returned to the room, Ruby was not there. I encouraged her to pick another girl. The game continued. Eventually she got clued into the program, she's a bit twisted too, so she really enjoyed it. She told me she loved the game. As she unraveled these girl's lives and personalities, my role as wolf-guide waned, I'd tell her to slow down when running so as not to miss anything, to stop and pick the flowers, to check out different scenes for further clues and items, but she got the reins well comfortable. The illogical spaces and vertigo of 3D flux had her a bit tripped up, whereas my gamer-honed sense of direction was on point. Ultimately however, she became her own wolf and liked it, and in this manner the real game was completed.
Here's the deal: this game succeeds at appealing to an audience segment that does not usually play games, and in a baroque and crafted way that many hardcore gamers relish about their chosen genres, not in some watered-down, Wii Fit kind of a way. It is, in other words, an important benchmark for the high's evolution into the true mainstream, beyond this indie-games-versus-blockbuster-games false dichotomy, I'm talking about those extra billions who could really be succored by interactivity, but have been ignored. At the same time, my partner claimed that she wished she had more choice, she enjoyed the morbid thrill of mouse-buttoning these girls to their all too certain and well-rendered deaths, but she wanted to have a real say in the matter. Many games have thrown out this post-modern caveat of low interactivity finished with a good aesthetic so that the player consumes their own defeat, The Execution being a much more minimal... execution. This is the legitimate negative criticism of the game because it's coming from an audience subset that isn't trained to want goals and strategy, but rather wants choice instinctively. The auteurs at Tale of Tales are right about Slow Games and subtle pleasures, but they're wrong about gameplay being extraneous. What The Path does right and what other games do right are not mutually exclusive. Nonetheless, this is a bold step, not in the right direction, but in one of many awesome directions.
Special Thanks
The VIP password wasn't working but I wanted to play this, so I tried to get it on Steam. Steam discriminated against me because I'm a foreign resident. Same with D2D. I tried buying from their site directly but my Paypal account didn't have cash, so I tried an e-check. It wouldn't let me download it until the payment cleared. I tried again, frustrated. Then a bug in my paypal accounts prevented me from adding a card. Finally Paul Eres suggested he gift me the game and I pay him back, but then he went to dinner so I asked Darius. Thank you to all, particularly Darius, for lending me artistic gameplay liquidity.
The two e-checks cost me $70 in overdraft fees.
Also, Vicki wants me to add she's my girlfriend and not some trick.
Rape (sorry)
I hate to bring up the rape thing again, but I disagree with a lot of reviewers saying that the girls are all raped, even metaphorically. Two of them are clearly killed, and none of them are clearly raped. The attacks as I saw them:
Literally eaten as a metaphor for untimely death, betrayal by a friend, spiritual epiphany and/or disillusionment, killed by car crash or corruption into drug use, eroticized murder (the closest of the six to rape), and destruction/suppression of personal dreams and belief in talent.
To call murder rape (for example) is to oversimplify and trivialize both. I'm not sure why people seem to think the girls are raped... maybe they can't reconcile the magical-realistic way that they're able to walk to Grandmother's House after their respective attacks.
Shifting Imagery
@GregoryWeir
Got into a long argument with 8Bit Hack about that exact topic on his blog. After lots of quoting and citing, we suddenly realized that our end sequences were dramatically different. Depending on what items you collect, the things inside the rooms for the final sequence will change dramatically. Hell, it's not like the imagery is very concrete to begin with but once you start factoring in that we're all seeing fairly different end sections and you realize how diverse the game can actually get.
Initially I got a sense of
Initially I got a sense of rape but it was subtle, then I read that review trashing the game where the guy is just beating the drum about it, my girl saw that and imposed it into our play session, mainly because it makes good sense. When Ginger opens the shed at the campsite and gets points, that was an interesting moment, because she´s like "I´m going to get that stuff" and then you open the door and there´s this sleazy mattress (like the one I use) and you realize, "oh shit, this is where it happened" and the little girl has a vague sense on her face that something is amiss.
The force more ancient than time that I was referring to seems like an alien predator that does harm to these girls, whatever the nature of that harm. However I think the developers really wanted us to explore that beast within outselves via the surrogate of these characters. When the whole thing is completed, in the starting room, that´s when I realized it was all a psychological thing.
Review copies
Patrick: Let me suggest a sentence that might avoid issues like this in future. "Hi, I review games for Play This Thing!, could I get a review copy?"
Review copies
Once every few millenia when all the planets are in alignment, or to celebrate the beginning of a new ice age, I write a review for Play This Thing....I'll remember that idea.
Which reminds me, I have to stop playing POWDER long enough to write up a review.....
Seriously
I love almost all of the reviews for play this thing, but the99th - in the future can we avoid writing about your sexual exploits?
Particularly, emphasizing their nature as younger than you and "on the cusp of adulthood" and then going on to describe how you enjoyed being a "wolf" to them is offensive and has no place at all on a video game review/discussion blog.
The rest of the review is fantastic and I'll be picking this game up shortly, but leave out the offensive, meta-level commentary about your conquests.
A lot of that meta-reference
A lot of that meta-reference was exaggerated for thematic resonance, I actually have a very on the level relationship with the girl, she's only a bit younger than me. The biting thing, come on man that's part and parcel with the theme of the game. The other thing you have to consider is the creators are a married couple and they made this game, clearly the thing they're expressing is something we should have no taboos talking about and is compatable with healthy equality. Just because we say we're equal doesn't mean we aren't animals with evolutionary psychological tendencies. I think it's entirely appropriate to make allusions to the wolf within in describing the resonance of this game.
Greg: I did, the gave me a password, it wouldn't work, and I was so intruiged that I had to buy it. It was the desire that did me in.
I was thinking it was a bit
I was thinking it was a bit too much information, as well. Not that it's bad, but more like I'm sure we could all give a little too much information about our physical relationships too. Unless we all get to drop some potentially shocking stuff we do, thus changing the nature of this site (playmything?), let's hold back on that :)
"or dismissing it out of hand because it does not suit the reviewer's personal tastes."
Given they made the graveyard as well, it's not just personal tastes that tie in. It's in an interactive medium and if the game goes against that in any particular way without telling you in advance, there's issues there.
Mind Games
When I play a game about greed, I'll tell you about tripling my money in a month and losing 3/4ths overnight, if I play a game about vengence I'll tell you about my experiences in middle school, if I play a game about losing one's family, I'll tell you about when my Mom had cancer. Let nothing remain hidden, the light of the truth will play us all.
Let's talk about SEX!
This is the argentina in the review.
I liked the game, very much...and I think there's nothing wrong with the sexual dimension of it.
If you think there is something wrong with talking about sex you shouldn't play the game because it's all a BIG metaphore for sexual psycology. Also the girls were definetly raped...except for one...
I don't think he gave a LOT of information...at all.
There's nothing wrong about sex or talking about sex or having sex. Of course no-one should be raped...ever (I think)
Have sex! :)
Review copy
Thank you for this interesting co-op review!
Sorry about the password. We had removed all logins at some point because we were suddenly getting a lot of hits from a torrent site. But if you had emailed us, we'd just have given you a new login.
Michael Samyn, Wolf. ;)
Co-op
By the way, there is actual co-op in the game, accessible after you finish it once. Buggy as hell, though they may make an update.
Lay off the 99th
I've perused this site for about seven hours now (as I only found it by a stroke of luck while trying to find out if Greg is ever going to appease us Cups and Sorcery fans and lo and behold I love "Dwarf Fortress" to which this site mainly gives high praise, so I decided to check it out in greater depth) and I'll admit that occasionally I, too, have become a tiny bit - offended is not the word - perhaps 'uncomfortably moved' by the level of discretion that the99th exhibits in his reviews. Then I see that people have actually posted requests that he tame himself up a bit, not just here but on a number of review boards.
I find this far more 'uncomfortably moving' for two reasons.
First, the99th is a critic, and by extension an entertainer - he is there to deliver what the people who click his name and read what he likes and dislikes (because they like the same) WANT him to deliver. I don't see anyone accosting Roger Ebert for sitting around like some kind of super-lazy reject from down syndrome camp, waving his thumb around in the air like he deserves a gold star or something, so lay off the99th for doing it HIS way. Like every reviewer on earth, if you don't like his style, or his reviews, then find someone who's reviews you DO like and stick to hunting for THEIR name when you do your searching.
Secondly, as he IS an entertainer, I find that as slightly disturbing as his comments may sometimes be (and I'm well aware that occasionally this is only due to my not understanding some reference) I can't even be sure that this internet personality is the slightest bit real...but what I CAN be pretty certain of is that the true emotionally revealing individuals are the folks that are requesting him to tone it down. I don't want to know YOU people. I don't want to hear about YOUR very real likes and dislikes (that have nothing to do with games), so please find another reviewer and let the man do his reviews in peace.
Recall that you are on a review site that caters to INDIE games, you know like INDIE movies...like all kinds of wierd shit that strange people that hang around your local coffee house at 2am think up so that you don't ever have to. Frankly I dare say that you have absolutely no right to come here and then throw around your likes and dislikes, especially when they 'go against the indie grain' so to speak.
Lastly, as I said, I'm only here because I'm a relatively big fan of Grek Costikyan RPGs and novels, so I actually created this account solely to speak my mind about this one issue. I have no intention of ever posting again, so you can check all your personal flames at the 'post reply' button. It's doubtful I'll ever see them, and aside from that I'm far too old to get into silly internet wars with people over stupid things that bear no true weight on my life or theirs. For those who really burn to argue with me just take it as writ that we argued for about six pages of posts, and then I gave in to you because you are simply too ub3r. For those others who need a quick ego check and a reminder of where you are and why you should post here, this post is for you. Do with it as you will.
Peloquinn
PS: To whomever does the moderating around here - I am a tabletop RPGer and video game player/tinkerer, not a forum junkie, so I do apologize for this post being quite long and likely as inappropriate as the posts to which I refer. I absolutely expect that it will be summarily deleted. No worries.