The Path Cover

IGDB / 10199

The Path

2009 74 / 100 Adventure Indie Strategy
The Path is a psychological horror art game developed by Tale of Tales originally released for the Microsoft Windows operating system on March 18, 2009 in English and Dutch, and later ported to Mac OS X by TransGaming Technologies. It is inspired by several versions of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, and by folklore tropes and conventions in general, but set in contemporary times. The player can choose to con Show full summary

The Path is a psychological horror art game developed by Tale of Tales originally released for the Microsoft Windows operating system on March 18, 2009 in English and Dutch, and later ported to Mac OS X by TransGaming Technologies. It is inspired by several versions of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, and by folklore tropes and conventions in general, but set in contemporary times. The player can choose to control one of six different sisters, who are sent one-by-one on errands by their mother to see their sick grandmother. The player can choose whether to stay on the path or to wander, where wolves are lying in wait.

World design Nicht eindeutig GameplayExploration ExperienceChoices MoodHorror

Deep dive / Spielprofil

What it is about.

A structured look at the narrative, game feel, and traits that define this game.

Story & context
The game begins in an apartment. The player is shown six sisters to choose from and is given no information about them other than a name. When the player selects a girl, the journey begins. The player is given control of the girl, and is instructed: "Go to Grandmother's house and stay on the path." As the player explores, they find various items scattered around. For a girl to pick up or examine an object, the player needs to either click on the interaction button or move her close enough for a superimposed image of the object to appear on the screen, then let go of the controls. The character will interact and an image will appear on the screen, indicating what has been unlocked; every item a girl encounters in the forest shows in some shape or form in Grandmother's house, and some objects open up whole new rooms. Small text will also appear, a thought from the current character. Some Show full description

The game begins in an apartment. The player is shown six sisters to choose from and is given no information about them other than a name. When the player selects a girl, the journey begins. The player is given control of the girl, and is instructed: "Go to Grandmother's house and stay on the path." As the player explores, they find various items scattered around. For a girl to pick up or examine an object, the player needs to either click on the interaction button or move her close enough for a superimposed image of the object to appear on the screen, then let go of the controls. The character will interact and an image will appear on the screen, indicating what has been unlocked; every item a girl encounters in the forest shows in some shape or form in Grandmother's house, and some objects open up whole new rooms. Small text will also appear, a thought from the current character. Some items can only be picked up once and do not appear in subsequent runs. However, each character will say something different about an object, so the player has the option to access a "basket" to see what they have collected. It is not required to find the Wolf. In this game, there are no requirements but the ending at Grandmother's house does change dramatically after the wolf encounter. The girl encounters the Wolf, there is a brief cut scene, and the screen goes black. Afterward, the girl is lying on the path in front of Grandmother's house. When the player enters Grandmother's house, the style of gameplay changes. It is now in first person, and the character moves forward along a pre-determined path. If the player got there without interacting with the Wolf, they arrive safely, cozy up next to Grandmother and are sent back to the apartment. The girl the player guided will still be there, and can be played again. If the player did go to the Wolf, then everything in the house is darker, and if the player remains still for too long, darkness clouds the screen, and something growls. Depending on the girl, doors are scratched, or furniture tipped over and broken, or strange black threads are draped across everything. Instead of ending with Grandmother, the music crescendos as the player enters a final surreal room before falling down, and things black out again. Images flash on the screen, featuring the girl being attacked by her Wolf, before the player is relocated back in the apartment. The girl played is not there, and will remain absent. When all of the girls have encountered their wolves, a girl in a white dress, who could be previously encountered by the sisters, becomes playable and visits Grandmother's house. The girl will then travel through the house, now a combination of all of the end rooms of the previous girls ending with the no-wolf room. Upon reaching the grandmother, the girl appears in the apartment covered in blood, but alive. The sisters all return through the door and the game starts over.

GameplayExploration ExperienceChoices MoodHorror GenreAdventure GenreIndie GenreStrategy ThemeHistorical ThemeHorror
14 weitere Tags
Traitexplorable world Traitexploration Traitfemale protagonist Traitforest Traitgoths Traitindie royale Traitmedieval Traitmultiple endings Traitmultiple protagonists Traitpsychological horror Traitsingle-player only Traitsurreal Traitsurrealism Traityoung protagonist

Watch / Trailer

Launch Trailer

Trailer metadata from IGDB; playback via YouTube in privacy-enhanced mode.

Game profile / Plain language

Everything relevant. Without the wiki wilderness.

Studio, play style, releases, and official sources — compactly prepared from external IGDB data.

01
Studios & ownership

Studio & publishing

Developer
Tale of Tales
Publisher
Tale of Tales
Franchise
Standalone
02
So spielt es sich

Spielprofil

Modi
Single player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
Historical, Horror
03
Wo & wann

Platform releases

  • PC (Microsoft Windows) Mar 18, 2009
  • Mac Mar 18, 2009

Prices / Stores

Compare first. Then decide.

Prices never affect your match ranking.

No live price for this game yet

The 36 price sources are now being checked in the background. Product prices found will appear automatically.

Physical & partner search

Search by edition and platform

1 / 5