The Pathless is what I wish I could REALLY do with my life: fly across breathtaking landscapes while exploring abandoned ruins, solving puzzles, and effortlessly looking like a badass.

I’ve been itching to play The Pathless ever since I heard about it back in 2019. After somehow missing its delayed release in November 2020 (I’ll just go ahead and blame COVID, because honestly, what isn’t COVID’s fault at this point), I finally got to experience this action-adventure epic when it debuted on Steam last month. The Pathless is the sophomore project from Giant Squid, the studio co-founded by Matt Nava, art director of the award-winning Journey. An open-world fantasy exploration and puzzle game, The Pathless combines the vast landscapes and ruins of Breath of the Wild with the stark solitude and boss battles of Shadow of the Colossus.

GRAPHICS 9.5/10

Colorful and striking, The Pathless has a clean and crisp visual style.

With its cloud-piercing spires and towering, half-collapsed bridges, The Pathless shares more than one similarity with games like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian. All these titles feature a single courageous protagonist in a forbidden or semi-abandoned place, usually accompanied by an animal companion. Additionally, they embrace an atmosphere of isolation and use massive stretches of crumbling architecture as a backdrop. The incorporation of these familiar characteristics into The Pathless further cements my belief that Matt Nava is America’s answer to Japan’s Fumito Ueda, creator of the aforementioned games and founder of gen DESIGN studio. Both are masters in the field of video game design—they bring spirit to environments and characters alike with texture, palette, and lighting. You can see Nava’s fingerprints on The Pathless like brush strokes on a canvas, and it’s magnificent to behold.

SOUND QUALITY 10/10

It’s impossible to talk about Giant Squid’s work without mentioning iconic composer Austin Wintory.

Wintory made video game history in 2013 when Journey was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media at the Grammy Awards. His compositions for Giant Squid’s debut game, Abzû, won Best Original Soundtrack in 2017 at the Game Audio Network Guild Awards, and The Pathless took home the Guild’s award for Best Music for an Indie Game earlier this year. Basically, Wintory is the musical manifestation of Nava’s ethereal visual style; they complement each other perfectly. Under Wintory’s supervision, the Central Asian-influenced world of The Pathless is brought to life by a multitude of traditional instruments such as the igil, shoor, doshpuluur, and even the Swedish nyckelharpa. (If you don’t know what any of those are, that’s OK—neither did I.) Male Tuvan throat-singing is woven through the entire soundtrack as you explore the island, but when our protagonist launches her final assault on the villain’s lofty lair, a new female voice shines forth like a beam of light from the darkness. Wintory’s score culminates in “A Land, Which Was Not My Own” featuring Úyanga Bold, a Mongolian singer with impeccable vocal control and a voice as arresting as the Hunter’s blood-red attire.

In addition to its rich soundtrack, The Pathless also boasts an immersive sound design. The wind across the taiga, the piercing cry of your eagle, and the whistle of a freshly loosed arrow neatly sum up the audio experience.

GAMEPLAY 9.5/10

Sprint, leap, and soar across fields, forests, and tundra.

Even though this game has an enormous map, the devs opted to ditch fast travel in favor of a much more entertaining mode of transportation. Targets placed all throughout the levels boost your stamina when struck, requiring you to release an almost continuous barrage of arrows in order to maintain your momentum. This can be tricky depending on the lay of the land, but it’s very satisfying when you manage to pull it off for long stretches of time. The Pathless employs open-world exploration, but if you’re not feeling the wanderlust, you can utilize the Hunter’s spirit mask to pinpoint locations necessary for leveling up or advancing the plot.

Despite the game’s boss battle-focused storyline, the player doesn’t need to worry about dying. In this way, The Pathless finds its niche as a “cozy” exploration/puzzle/adventure game. Along with its Breath of the Wild-esque visuals, this game takes another well-worn page from the Zelda playbook with its put-a-block-on-a-switch- and shoot-torches-with-arrows-type puzzles. These classic mechanics should be familiar to most gamers (and a bit routine for those of us with a gray hair or two). All the puzzles are fairly easy and many are optional, but as we all know, solving puzzles means rewards, and rewards mean upgrades. The more crystals you find, the farther and faster you can fly, and the more fun you’ll have covering ground at breakneck speed.

CHARACTERS 8.5/10

The relationship between the two main characters, the Hunter and Mother Eagle, is one of this game’s highlights. Brought down by the Godslayer’s curse, Mother Eagle is defenseless when you first encounter her. Once you restore her power, she implores you to do the same for her children, the four gods of the island.

You can deepen your bond with Mother Eagle by petting her. She loses her ability to fly every time you enter a cursed area, so you must massage away the curse’s evil residue before you can work with her again. I like that they made this a necessary aspect of the gameplay rather than a just-for-fun feature. The animations when you clear your eagle of her cursed energy become increasingly heartwarming the more time you spend with her. 

While the bond between the Hunter and Mother Eagle is the heart and soul of the game, their nemesis may be the most interesting character of all. 

The Godslayer longs to destroy and remake the world in order to put it on the “One True Path” to salvation, but his methods are less than savory. No one seems to know exactly where he came from or what he is, but if you keep a sharp eye out in the beginning of the game, an enticing clue to his possible origins hides in plain sight.

STORY 7/10

The Pathless is your typical last-hope-to-save-the-world story: a lone archer on a quest to stop a power-mad cult leader from ascending to godhood and destroying the world. The tale of who the Godslayer is and how he came to pursue his diabolical goal slowly unfolds as you advance through each level and listen to the spirits of the deceased, whose remains lie strewn across the island. Much like Shadow of the Colossus, this game isn’t meant to stand on its story alone. The plot is like broth swirling around the real meat and potatoes of The Pathless: exploration, boss battles, and puzzle-solving sessions. Something has to hold all these delicious video game ingredients together, and that thing is the generic hero’s journey.

OVERALL 8.9/10

The Pathless plays smoothly, looks and sounds fantastic, and fulfills a deep-seated human desire to roam freely while achieving some sense of advancement.

If you missed out on this little gem last year, now’s the time to take it for a spin. It tops out around 24 hours—35 if you really want to comb through for all the secrets. The dialogue is a little trite and the story is fairly simple, but the gorgeous graphics, endearing characters, and flat-out fun gameplay more than make up for these minor deficiencies. I’m all about escapism in games, and this mythical world created by Giant Squid gives you the freedom to forge your own path.

The Pathless was first released on November 5, 2020 and is currently available for PS4, PS5, MacOS, iOS, tvOS, and Microsoft Windows. The version reviewed was the November 16, 2021 release for Steam. The reviewer purchased this game at full retail price.

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