The Path

Let me just say that I will never play this game during a storm again. Once is enough, thanks.

Despite its apparent flaws, I actually liked this game. The first time I played, I did as I was told and led the character straight to the house. Naturally, I was a little confused to find out I had failed. But the next time around I deliberately ignored the directions and wandered off the path. I found the wolf rather quickly (the wailing cloud of mist was hard to miss), and was again confused to find myself dropped off outside the house. But the house was more sinister this time, and I began to understand that my actions in the woods had an effect on the experience I would have later in the house. I think, for me, the best part about this game was its not-so-subtle requirement to intentionally deviate from the set rules. Sure, it didn't leave a lot of guessing or problem-solving to be done (there really were only so many ways to go about getting to the house), but it was interesting to see how far I could take the characters. I made it a goal to go as far in each direction as I could, though I always ran into the wolf after a while. The character who intrigued me most was the Girl in White - I was excited to finally be able to play as her at the end. I can't really say what her role was, savior or otherwise, but I found her to be the most dynamic in terms of how she interacted with the girls and the woods around her. Though I agree with the comments about the slow movement of the plot and the meandering style with which plot points were achieved, I still enjoyed playing this game. I'm not much of a gamer, so I don't have a lot to compare this to, but I thought it was a unique way of telling a story, faults or not. Sometimes games don't need to be about excitement and speed, but more about developing a story and getting a feel for the world of the game.

My favorite Character was Scarlet. I like the element of her love of music. The wolf seemed more more enticing with the piano as his tool. I only liked her because I could identify most with her. I'm not a big video gamer so this really wasn't up my alley. I liked being able to pick the characters. I think it worked with Carter's style. Personally I think Carter keeps the elements of her characters personalities separate by making them multiple people.

The Path: Response

One thing that really stood out to me was the character whose name I believe was Scarlet.  I'm not quite sure if I remember her name correctly.  She had long black hair and red and black striped stockings on one leg; on the other leg was a leg brace.  I will call her Scarlet however, and hope that I am correct.  My favorite thing about Scarlet is the symbolism of her growing up right before your eyes.  When she goes into the woods, she is viewed as a little girl; however, when she finds the park and there is a handsome blonde man sitting on a bench nearby, all innocence seems to go away.  She sits next to the man and smokes the cigarette that he offers her.  I think that this must be symbolism of the girl losing her innocence or maybe even her virginity.  The entire idea of Little Red Riding Hood is that of a girl coming of age and wandering off the path to make her own mistakes.  Therefore, I believe that this snippit of the game is very well put together and symbollically sufficient.

The Path and Control

The Path draws on the video game’s unique element of control to engage the player and to emphasize moods and points. One of the first things that struck me about the game was the fact that, in order to interact with objects, you must release your controls. In Grandmother’s house, your path is preset—you can barely move your field of vision. The walking gives the player a feeling of control, but the speed becomes so painfully slow that the movement is inhibiting. The running gives you back that sense of free will (though in select areas you can only walk), but snatches it back as the view zooms out and up so that foliage blocks your sight and makes you feel more lost and helpless. The fact that control of the character is so limited highlights the inevitability of helplessness and pain and death in life. Feeling the urge to make the character run faster or interact with something, but knowing that you cannot make it happen—that it’s all up to the game—breeds a feeling of resignation that parallels the girls’ acceptance of their wolves. The fact that they give up control, that they essentially walk to their deaths willingly, speaks either to our ignorance through life or our realization that all paths end in death, perhaps even both (or none…I could certainly be way off the mark—yet only more evidence of my own inevitably-human lack of complete control/omniscience). Maybe this game even motions toward the vice in complacency, as the lacks of players’ ability to control happens nearest to the death scenes and following the controlling instructions to stay on the path make for an incomplete, boring playing experience.

The Path

I agree with Cass in the post below mine. I hated this game; in fact, I got so frustrated with it, I just stopped completely after a few hours. It was difficult to understand at first--there are little to no instructions, and they tell you to stay on the path, but everything that needs to be done is done off the path. And all that includes is running around with no real strategy or pattern, at a crawling, incredibly boring, pace set to dull, dull music. It was monotonous and time-consuming, hardly interactive at all, and so very, very slow. I didn't care if I succeeded at the level or not, there was no emotional investment in the game; I didn't like the characters, and absolutely nothing in the game even remotely held my interest. I detested playing it and it was in no way enjoyable for me.

cass ford & "the path"

I hated this game, and I hated it for a lot of reasons. First, I don't think it should have been a video game. Literally the only "interactive" part of it is the time you spend wandering around the forest at a painfully slow and awkward jog, looking for relatively meaningless things to collect before you encounter your wolf. At least they could have put the points closer together in a more coherent manner, or maybe let you see the map for more than three seconds at a time. The wasted time in between actual plot was annoying.

Second, I hated the music. It wasn't creepy. I didn't think the entire game was very creepy, for that matter. I hated that the story lines were so formulaic, and even though they tried to differentiate the characters, I thought they were essentially all the same. Part of this was intentional, to show that suffering is a universal phenomenon, but I didn't like it. After the second girl woke up mangled in the rain, I was like, okay already, I get it.

And what about the Red Riding Hood part? I think that tailoring each story to mimic Red's was contrived. Whatever traumatic event in the girl's life happened to her was the wolf. But what about the grandma? You didn't even see her in the house when you got there, at least for the characters I played.

The character I played whom I hated the most was Ruby, whom incidentally, I played for the longest amount of time. Everything she said was annoying. Even though she was supposed to be naive, she was obsessed with suicide and generally a brat, considering the way she talks about everyone around her being idiots. I didn't like how she romanticized suicide so much. If Ruby was a real person, I bet she would shop at Hot Topic a lot and complain about how stupid her parents and teachers are, while having too big of a superiority complex to even consider others' opinions. Because she is so alternative and non-conformist, and no one understands her.

As for the video game aspect, as I already said I had problems with the way it was interfaced and so time consuming. For as much "freedom" as you are given in the game, you really aren't given any at all, since you are forced to watch what happens with no variation. My boyfriend said, "The characters look like they are from a Tim Burton film," and I said, "I think that might be an insult to Tim Burton." The video game "Flower" was better than this one, and you play as the wind in that game. Seriously. The wind. It says in the user manual, "Let go of the controls and she will do the work for you." Oh yeah? Then why didn't you just make it into a film? The manual also says "If an object is far away, she may be able to find it if you simply leave her alone for a while." Any video game that requires game play to be leaving the avatar "alone for a while" is probably in serious trouble.

The Path- Alex Van Pelt

"The Path" was one of the most interesting games I've ever played, mixing perceptions of reality with the player's sense of "right" and "wrong". When I first clicked on a random girl, I followed the pathway straight to the house, never deterring. I failed that level, and was confused- why did the instructions tell me to stay on the path?

Answer? There is no path. Eventually you make it to the house, but not without various twists and turns. All of the characters had some sort of point about death vs. life- that, with the fact that all of them died after their individual temptations, or 'wolves', encountered them, made me think that his game was a metaphor for life itself. One destination- death- with different paths associated with each girl, which represented a sort of archetype of different types of people.

I was also surprised that the only girl to safely reach the house and pass through all the 'death' rooms was the girl in white. Even more curious was the fact that hanging about the grandmother's bed was a picture of the girl in white- she was the true Red Riding Hood, and she didn't have a wolf. She stands in the original first room, bloodied, while the rest of the other "Reds" come in one by one, but she promptly disappears.

The girl in white is the only character that didn't give in to temptation, and the only girl to reach the end goal of the grandmother successfully- is the game trying to tell us the same thing that the original fairytale is? Be good, and don't give into temptation? Or is it more fun to meet your own personal 'wolf' just to say you experienced it?