The Pathless

After Abzû took us on an enchanting journey into the depths of the ocean, the development team at Giant Squid Games returns to present its second project with the open-world adventure game The Pathless, which, like its predecessor, has a distinctive artistic touch. Well, what about the experience?

The story puts us in the role of a “sniper” who arrives on a mysterious island to lift the curse that threatens to destroy the world. The island used to prosper due to the “Giants” who protected it and provided it with various good things, but they fell before the “Way Finder”, a human who gained enough power to defeat and control them. In its quest to end the world and create a new world, the story essentially aims to justify the events while conveying a message about finding the right path in a form that has a religious dimension has. We do not agree with the suggestions and symbols contained therein and must draw attention to this point.

On a technical level, the game impresses with its cartoonish artistic direction and high level of drawing accuracy. We note here that the game tried to draw inspiration from the aesthetics of its world from “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”, but also did the game’s melodies, which are between Individual melodies and melodies in which you sometimes hear incomprehensible murmurs are attractive. The game itself relies on text to narrate events, as its characters speak an unintelligible language.

The Pathless is characterized by a very simple gameplay style.

In addition to the ability to move and jump, there is a button to shoot the arrow and another to use the mask you own, which is used in a series of puzzles, with a button to give commands to judge the eagle that accompanies you. The “snipers” do not move at high speed, but there are many amulets in use. Anywhere on the island you need to hit (the selection of the target occurs automatically and further pressing the button). increases the accuracy of aiming), rushing forward quickly and feeling the rush of hitting each target in a way that makes the experience of movement and exploration enjoyable, knowing that it is a large percentage of the experience and of concentration. On the exploration side The developer has abandoned the idea of ​​a minimap and fast travel points, which you won’t notice since moving around on foot is fast enough and fun when moving from one area to another.

The game world is divided into 4 regions, each of which is dedicated to one of the giants.

As you explore the game world, you will come across many puzzles based on several ideas. There are those where you have to use the mask Shows you some of the hidden things in the world. You will also take advantage of the eagle that accompanies you and your shooting skills. The puzzles return. To show the developer’s inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, many of these puzzles borrow their ideas from the game, while others incorporate some of their own ideas. The other thing these puzzles have in common is that they are also short and many of them can be solved in under five minutes. The goal in solving these puzzles is to gain experience points, which will give you the opportunity to race through the air with the help of your falcon or collect coins that represent the region’s giant.

Coins are used to restore the light in the three towers in each region, and once the light is restored in these towers, you are ready to face his giant. All confrontations begin with hunting and harming the giant in the region. Then we move on to the confrontation arena, and here each giant has its own way of confronting him. There is a certain idea on which the confrontation will be based. The confrontations with giants represent the only parts in which you will engage in battles in this experience, so the usual routine becomes movement and exploration, solving puzzles and then facing the region’s giant, all in a reasonable manner Paced, so you don’t feel like you’re spending a lot of time exploring and solving puzzles.

There are some intrusive parts whose purpose I don’t know. A storm appears in these parts as it moves around the world, and once the storm reaches you, the giant in charge of the area appears. Here the eagle that accompanies you will suffer damage and the storm will throw it away and you have to reach it without the giant seeing you. These pieces are broken. The experience is arranged in an annoying and incomprehensible way and is not designed appropriately. Usually what you want is the discovery that the giant’s movement is relatively fast while your movement is slow. Additionally, the environment does not contain enough elements to obstruct the giant’s vision, making success difficult. Success in this part gets you nothing, and failure means you lose some experience points and nothing more, and it can be said that this part is the only negative thing about The Pathless in terms of gaming experience.

Death does not exist in The Pathless, and as mentioned before, if you fail in the infiltration parts, you will lose some experience points, and in boss confrontations, if you get into trouble, you will be kicked out of the arena, and so on.

To return to the confrontation, all you have to do is re-enter the arena. The experience is of moderate difficulty and the experience is of moderate difficulty. The puzzles are generally not complex or difficult, making them an experience suitable for general gamers. We have to talk about the Arabic translation as we found it very excellent. Despite some spelling issues and some common literal translations, the translation was generally excellent and varied, using appropriate terminology to convey meaning to the player without getting into deep confusion. The translations are very literal and use a number of eloquent words in a way that impressed us. It seems that we won’t wait long before we find different games that receive excellent Arabic translations, whether they come from independent developers or from large companies.

There are many puzzles and a number of side challenges that the game offers, and the content provided through these activities doubles the lifespan of the experience if you want to complete everything. The game only takes about 5 hours to complete, so it’s a short experience, and if you want to complete all the challenges, spend another 4 or 5 hours. Pathless is an experience that is simple in its idea, perfect in its application, and enchanting in its world. It is one of the short experiences you can entertain yourself through the beauty and ease while maintaining the fun factor.