I'm excited to discuss a new indie game that was released yesterday (March 19th, 2009). The game is called The Path and it's one of the best games I've played so far this year. I have not had much time to play it considering that I only bought the game today but so far I'm extremely impressed with it, especially given that Tale of Tales' last game was The Graveyard which I hate with every particle of my being. At only $10, I cannot express enough that this is one of the better deals in gaming at the moment.
The idea behind The Path is to alter the traditional fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood by giving it a modern (albeit still surreal) setting and using gameplay or more specifically the entire definition of a game to express the original tale's themes. Essentially, the player is told to go to "Grandmother's House" and to "Stay on The Path." If the player does this, they win the game within a matter of minutes. Woo Hoo! If the player strays from The Path however, they will find themselves experiencing a much more interesting but also more dangerous world. If the player chooses to wander around the woods they will find an assortment of items, locations, characters, and of course lurking danger. The experience in the woods and with the game's mechanics is further altered by which of six possible characters the player selects. The game is essentially optional, slow-paced, and only indirectly rewarding. As such, the player is challenged to either play the game as they know games to be or to stray from the path and seek a new definition of game.
This leads me to why I'm impressed with the game. It's one of the first games (not the only however) to explore the medium of video games and the relationship between players, games, challenges, and rewards. In addition to being a commentary on whether or not a sheltered existence is desirable, it is a valuable study of art asking: Can a player be aimless? Postmodernism is one of the more interesting trends in indie gaming at the moment, most notably explored by the Masocore genre with games like Psychosomnium and Seven Minutes, and it's refreshing to see it being approached through other design styles. For this reason alone, anyone interested in game design or games as an art form must play this game.
There are a few criticisms I have of the game. First, the controls can be occasionally frustrating which will undoubtedly immediately force some gamers away. Considering that it is an indie game, I am completely willing to overlook this one area of moderate glitches. The other criticism is merely subjective and is not even my personal opinion. The Path is simply not a game that most gamers will want to play. It has an extremely slow pace, it's controls require patience, and the average gamer will not get anything real from the experience (of course those people typically get nothing real from film, music, or literature either...). Overall, these criticisms hardly outweigh the entertainment value and artistic satisfaction that The Path consistently provides for the kind of gamer that dares to open their mind.