Stolen Pixels #117: The Path Will Take Her to The End

[Shamus Young]

Stolen Pixels #117: The Path Will Take Her to The End

This week Shamus writes a villanelle about The Path. A game that, like another famous villanelle, refuses to let players "go gentle into that good night."

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[The_root_of_all_evil]

Totally depressing. Awesome.

That's The Path all over.

 

[Swaki]

wow, as i read along eyeliner started to appear in thick lines and my cloth became tighter and darker.

great comic really captures the essence of the path.

 

[Ploppy]

Wow. I can honestly say I never expected to see a Stolen Pixels featuring a poem about rape.

 

[VaioStreams]

interesting

 

[Doug]

Totally depressing. Awesome.

That's The Path all over.

To be honest, I found the Path a poor game; you get lost and end up looping in circles so much, I ended up with a bad case of simulation sickness from the samey woods and so forth. A simple minimap could have at least allowed me to see where the hell I was going, rather than just having one pop up every 30 minutes for all of 3 seconds. It might sound like a petty gripe, but getting lost in the forest for 2 hours, constanting getting stuck in a circle of area's you've already been is a sign of a poor design.

Wow. I can honestly say I never expected to see a Stolen Pixels featuring a poem about rape.

Rumoured rape; that was a joy to heard in game. Although to be honest, I doubt it was rape and think the emo's just want the most depressing view they can manage to find.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

To be honest, I found the Path a poor game; you get lost and end up looping in circles so much, I ended up with a bad case of simulation sickness from the samey woods and so forth. A simple minimap could have at least allowed me to see where the hell I was going, rather than just having one pop up every 30 minutes for all of 3 seconds. It might sound like a petty gripe, but getting lost in the forest for 2 hours, constanting getting stuck in a circle of area's you've already been is a sign of a poor design.

Now this sounds like a game versus story problem. You sound like you went in expecting a game, because from what you've described, that's EXACTLY how the girl should feel. Constantly getting stuck in a circle of areas. And a minimap would have totally destroyed the atmosphere.

 

[Doug]

To be honest, I found the Path a poor game; you get lost and end up looping in circles so much, I ended up with a bad case of simulation sickness from the samey woods and so forth. A simple minimap could have at least allowed me to see where the hell I was going, rather than just having one pop up every 30 minutes for all of 3 seconds. It might sound like a petty gripe, but getting lost in the forest for 2 hours, constanting getting stuck in a circle of area's you've already been is a sign of a poor design.

Now this sounds like a game versus story problem. You sound like you went in expecting a game, because from what you've described, that's EXACTLY how the girl should feel. Constantly getting stuck in a circle of areas. And a minimap would have totally destroyed the atmosphere.

I'm pretty sure the girl was meant to be feeling terror and fear or at least lost; I was feeling bored, annoyed, and increasingly motion sick after the 5th attempt escape the loop so I could find the items they expect you blind explore for.

 

[Rusman]

Thank god I just got bored and went back online to see this, downloading "The Path" right now, looks pretty good.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

To be honest, I found the Path a poor game; you get lost and end up looping in circles so much, I ended up with a bad case of simulation sickness from the samey woods and so forth. A simple minimap could have at least allowed me to see where the hell I was going, rather than just having one pop up every 30 minutes for all of 3 seconds. It might sound like a petty gripe, but getting lost in the forest for 2 hours, constanting getting stuck in a circle of area's you've already been is a sign of a poor design.

Now this sounds like a game versus story problem. You sound like you went in expecting a game, because from what you've described, that's EXACTLY how the girl should feel. Constantly getting stuck in a circle of areas. And a minimap would have totally destroyed the atmosphere.

I'm pretty sure the girl was meant to be feeling terror and fear or at least lost; I was feeling bored, annoyed, and increasingly motion sick after the 5th attempt escape the loop so I could find the items they expect you blind explore for.

See there's only one problem. Your goal is to get to grandma's house. Meaning the compass would constantly be pointing to grandma's house. And anyone who read the reviews for it knows Grandma's house causes you to fail.A map would also be useless as the game is meant to be set in the woods. NO ONE MAPS THE WOODS!

 

[Doug]

To be honest, I found the Path a poor game; you get lost and end up looping in circles so much, I ended up with a bad case of simulation sickness from the samey woods and so forth. A simple minimap could have at least allowed me to see where the hell I was going, rather than just having one pop up every 30 minutes for all of 3 seconds. It might sound like a petty gripe, but getting lost in the forest for 2 hours, constanting getting stuck in a circle of area's you've already been is a sign of a poor design.

Now this sounds like a game versus story problem. You sound like you went in expecting a game, because from what you've described, that's EXACTLY how the girl should feel. Constantly getting stuck in a circle of areas. And a minimap would have totally destroyed the atmosphere.

I'm pretty sure the girl was meant to be feeling terror and fear or at least lost; I was feeling bored, annoyed, and increasingly motion sick after the 5th attempt escape the loop so I could find the items they expect you blind explore for.

See there's only one problem. Your goal is to get to grandma's house. Meaning the compass would constantly be pointing to grandma's house. And anyone who read the reviews for it knows Grandma's house causes you to fail.A map would also be useless as the game is meant to be set in the woods. NO ONE MAPS THE WOODS!

Well, 2 things then:

1) Compasses point NORTH. They don't have to point to ingame objects, they can point to fixed directions. At least that way I could see if I was changing direction enough to go where the brief glimpses of the map showed.

2) Yeah, but no-one see's a map overlayed onto their vision every 200 steps either, so maybe we shouldn't apply real world logic to this, hmmm?

 

[Susan Arendt]

To be honest, I found the Path a poor game; you get lost and end up looping in circles so much, I ended up with a bad case of simulation sickness from the samey woods and so forth. A simple minimap could have at least allowed me to see where the hell I was going, rather than just having one pop up every 30 minutes for all of 3 seconds. It might sound like a petty gripe, but getting lost in the forest for 2 hours, constanting getting stuck in a circle of area's you've already been is a sign of a poor design.

Now this sounds like a game versus story problem. You sound like you went in expecting a game, because from what you've described, that's EXACTLY how the girl should feel. Constantly getting stuck in a circle of areas. And a minimap would have totally destroyed the atmosphere.

I'm pretty sure the girl was meant to be feeling terror and fear or at least lost; I was feeling bored, annoyed, and increasingly motion sick after the 5th attempt escape the loop so I could find the items they expect you blind explore for.

See there's only one problem. Your goal is to get to grandma's house. Meaning the compass would constantly be pointing to grandma's house. And anyone who read the reviews for it knows Grandma's house causes you to fail.A map would also be useless as the game is meant to be set in the woods. NO ONE MAPS THE WOODS!

Well, 2 things then:

1) Compasses point NORTH. They don't have to point to ingame objects, they can point to fixed directions. At least that way I could see if I was changing direction enough to go where the brief glimpses of the map showed.

2) Yeah, but no-one see's a map overlayed onto their vision every 200 steps either, so maybe we shouldn't apply real world logic to this, hmmm?

The designs that appear around the edge of the screen act as guides, pointing you to objects or, at least, the way out. No need for a minimap.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

2) Yeah, but no-one see's a map overlayed onto their vision every 200 steps either, so maybe we shouldn't apply real world logic to this, hmmm?

True, and we should bring game logic into an experience like The Path either. If you want a walkthru then I'm sure there's one on GameFecks, but for most of us that really enjoy it, The Path deliberately ignores conventions.

If you just want to finish the game, go to Grandma's house. I'll be in the woods, getting lost, and loving it.

 

[Doug]

The designs that appear around the edge of the screen act as guides, pointing you to objects or, at least, the way out. No need for a minimap.

To some object, yeah. Not to the ones missing from your 'inventory'; and if you miss stuff out, you don't get the full end sequence. And I'm pretty sure I did go looking for...

Spoiler

I went looking around for my missing items a few times, and in the course of this encountered the wolf. When I left the wolf scene incomplete and when looking for the missing collectables, and tried to return to the wolf, there were not pointers to him

 

[LeeshaJoy]

A map would also be useless as the game is meant to be set in the woods. NO ONE MAPS THE WOODS!

Fun fact I discovered through playing the game: you *can't* map the woods, because it's generated randomly every time you play.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

A map would also be useless as the game is meant to be set in the woods. NO ONE MAPS THE WOODS!

Fun fact I discovered through playing the game: you *can't* map the woods, because it's generated randomly every time you play.

Damn randomly generated woods! DAMN THE OUTDOORS! Although that would make the game diffrent.

 

[samsonguy920]

Awesome villanelle...I could hear additional voices chime in with each frame, adding to the atmosphere.
Might just have to take a peek at this, I like getting lost in the woods.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

To be honest, I found the Path a poor game; you get lost and end up looping in circles so much, I ended up with a bad case of simulation sickness from the samey woods and so forth. A simple minimap could have at least allowed me to see where the hell I was going, rather than just having one pop up every 30 minutes for all of 3 seconds. It might sound like a petty gripe, but getting lost in the forest for 2 hours, constanting getting stuck in a circle of area's you've already been is a sign of a poor design.

Now this sounds like a game versus story problem. You sound like you went in expecting a game, because from what you've described, that's EXACTLY how the girl should feel. Constantly getting stuck in a circle of areas. And a minimap would have totally destroyed the atmosphere.

I'm pretty sure the girl was meant to be feeling terror and fear or at least lost; I was feeling bored, annoyed, and increasingly motion sick after the 5th attempt escape the loop so I could find the items they expect you blind explore for.

See there's only one problem. Your goal is to get to grandma's house. Meaning the compass would constantly be pointing to grandma's house. And anyone who read the reviews for it knows Grandma's house causes you to fail.A map would also be useless as the game is meant to be set in the woods. NO ONE MAPS THE WOODS!

Well, 2 things then:

1) Compasses point NORTH. They don't have to point to ingame objects, they can point to fixed directions. At least that way I could see if I was changing direction enough to go where the brief glimpses of the map showed.

2) Yeah, but no-one see's a map overlayed onto their vision every 200 steps either, so maybe we shouldn't apply real world logic to this, hmmm?

The designs that appear around the edge of the screen act as guides, pointing you to objects or, at least, the way out. No need for a minimap.

Spoiler: There be spoilers here!

Exactly. The white swirls show where the Girl in White is. The black lines show where the Wolf is.

Also, one thing many may not have figured out- once you get a fair distance from the path, it disappears. Yep, you're well and truly lost in the woods, little girl. The only way to find it again is to either go through the encounter with the Wolf, or stand still and let the Girl in White lead you back.

Shamus, allow me to say that you really captured the feel of The Path (not to mention Ruby's little-miss-Emo attitude) in the comic.

 

[Clashero]

To be honest, I found the Path a poor game; you get lost and end up looping in circles so much, I ended up with a bad case of simulation sickness from the samey woods and so forth. A simple minimap could have at least allowed me to see where the hell I was going, rather than just having one pop up every 30 minutes for all of 3 seconds. It might sound like a petty gripe, but getting lost in the forest for 2 hours, constanting getting stuck in a circle of area's you've already been is a sign of a poor design.

Now this sounds like a game versus story problem. You sound like you went in expecting a game, because from what you've described, that's EXACTLY how the girl should feel. Constantly getting stuck in a circle of areas. And a minimap would have totally destroyed the atmosphere.

I'm pretty sure the girl was meant to be feeling terror and fear or at least lost; I was feeling bored, annoyed, and increasingly motion sick after the 5th attempt escape the loop so I could find the items they expect you blind explore for.

See there's only one problem. Your goal is to get to grandma's house. Meaning the compass would constantly be pointing to grandma's house. And anyone who read the reviews for it knows Grandma's house causes you to fail.A map would also be useless as the game is meant to be set in the woods. NO ONE MAPS THE WOODS!

Well, 2 things then:

1) Compasses point NORTH. They don't have to point to ingame objects, they can point to fixed directions. At least that way I could see if I was changing direction enough to go where the brief glimpses of the map showed.

2) Yeah, but no-one see's a map overlayed onto their vision every 200 steps either, so maybe we shouldn't apply real world logic to this, hmmm?

The designs that appear around the edge of the screen act as guides, pointing you to objects or, at least, the way out. No need for a minimap.

I've been ninja'd. It took me about 20 minutes to figure that out, and the "frustrating" part of the game, which is wandering aimlessly until you find something, disappared. The best part is that they're easy enough to ignore if you want to play "realistically", since you start to see them as part of the bizarre art style.