Whereas even the most non-linear films are locked into their running times and always inexorably moving towards an ending of one kind or another, video games can lend themselves to the visceral thrill of discovery like no other contemporary art form, and even without its other charms “The Pathless” would be worth playing just for how potently it crystallizes that phenomenon. There’s no way of “losing” in this game, because the fun here is solely in the ways you find to win. The only real threats here are getting lost and being sucked into the sentient “Red Storm” that slowly moves towards the Hunter at all times like a Jupiter-sized Nemesis (in which event you’re forced to deal with a clunky stealth sequence that breaks the game’s blissed out flow and steals a little currency from the player when they invariably mess it up, but otherwise carries no repercussions). Fall 150 meters from the spire atop one of the giant obelisks the Hunter lights in order to light the way forward? You get a PlayStation trophy. Get hit three times by one of the flame demons that you have to fight in order to reach the next floor of the game’s deceptively sprawling five-tiered environment? You just get a quick breather at the edge of the arena before hopping back into battle.

Not only are there no enemies in this eerily quiet world, but there’s also no death - aside from the eagle and a few others signs of wildlife, everything that can die in this place already has. International Gay Cinema: 33 LGBTQ Movies to See from Around the WorldĪ History of Unsimulated Sex Scenes in Cannes Films, from 'Mektoub' to 'Antichrist'Īnyone who’s ever played a third-person adventure game before will instinctively jam on the L2 trigger to make the Hunter move run, only to find that each dash siphons away at a stamina gauge that can only be replenished by firing arrows at any of the thousands of eyeball targets that hover in the air around her. With the exception of some puzzle components and a handful of surprisingly intense bosses, these are the only things that “The Pathless” offers you to shoot the Hunter’s bow is less of a weapon than a tool, but - when used in concert with the mystical (and mega-cute) eagle that players team up with in the opening minutes of this roughly seven-hour adventure - it’s all you’ll need to get to heaven.ĭespite the apocalyptic threat that looms over its story, “The Pathless” eschews typical video game stakes in order to embrace the medium’s unique penchant for exploration. 'Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy' Review: A Tribute to a New Hollywood Classic 'Bardo' Review: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Lost Between Truth and Pretentiousness Instructions are few and far between, and there’s no map overlay or mission objectives to help guide you to the next plateau (hit triangle and certain objects will glow yellow or red, but that’s about all the assistance you get). From the moment players assume control of the Hunter, they’re left almost entirely to their own devices. None of the others came back, and the clues they’ve left behind with their dying breaths aren’t much help when it comes to navigating an open world that offers only one direction: up.Īn enthralling mini-epic that unfolds like a combat-free cross between “Journey” and “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” Giant Squid and Annapurna Interactive’s “ The Pathless” strives to make good on the promise of its title. She arrives on the beaches of this nameless place determined to reach the magma-encrusted pyramid that juts down from the sky (a slash of “Neon Genesis Evangelion” in a game that otherwise sports a more rustic storybook vibe), and kill the three-eyed Godslayer who shadowed the land in darkness the neglected skeletons she finds strewn about the grass suggest that our Hunter isn’t the first to try. At the far edge of a cursed world, a pale Hunter - the last of her kind - sails to the island that bridges the human realm on earth with the spirit realm above.

The pathless