Creepiness
rules in this upcoming release from Belgium-based Tale
of Tales.
Six sisters, aged nine
to nineteen, find themselves traveling through the forest to visit
their grandmother. But which path will they take? The path of needles,
or the path of pins? For the focus of the game is not on the destination,
but on the journey chosen by each sister to arrive at her destination.
Inspired
by The Grandmother’s Tale, aka Little Red Riding Hood, The Path is a realtime interactive metaphorical horror
experience that is attempting to break new ground in the genre. It
is primarily a short, single-player game of exploration that will
allow you to control an avatar and there is only one rule to the game,
‘Stay on the path.’ But to play, the rule must be broken, yet there
could also be benefits to not breaking the rule.
The chilling graphics and
atmospheric music set the appropriate mood, but The Path
is also a game of choices and with six sisters with varying personalities
to choose from, it promises much replay value.
Founded
by artists Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, Tale of Tales is known
for their experimental titles such as The
Endless Forest – a multiplayer screensaver – and The
Graveyard – a short – but absolutely immersive – non-game
about an elderly lady who visits a cemetery. Their video game projects
are a cross-pollination of the unique game structure of The Resident’s Bad
Day on the Midway suffused with the literary eeriness
of inSCAPE’s classic The
Dark Eye. While projects like these don’t often, if ever,
meet with financial success, they do encourage creativity and experimentation
from others who may have never considered game development as an outlet
for their talents.
The
official website for The Path has some great wallpapers
of each of the six sisters along with some intriguing gameplay footage
and a teaser,
and the gallery
page has a synopsis of each sister.
We hope to have a hands-on
preview and/or review for you soon, but until then, be careful which
path you choose for it may lead to. . .
