I first heard about this game on NPR. This  game, The Path is dark horror game.  It is the tale of 6 girls on their way to grandma’s house.  It should sound familiar as the game is based on the tale of little red riding hood.  But this isn’t a game for little girls.

This is a game for women.

There is only one rule in the game.  Stay on the path.  But rules are made to be broken.  As you walk each character down the path, it’s easy to find distractions, birds, sounds, a mysterious girl in white, and various artifacts shadowed in the distance.  The moment you step off the path, color leaves your world, and you are inundated with sounds.  The path disappears as you go deeper and grandma’s house disappears from your thoughts as survival becomes paramount yet a red herring.

For the goal, you see,  is to find your wolf.

The wolf is different for each girl and depends on the desires the girls talk about as they wander.  The wolf is rebellion and consequence.  It’s the choice in life that’s not always pretty but also something you want.  When you encounter the wolf, the imagery of what comes after is more than disturbing.  It alludes to rape and murder.  This isn’t a game where you come out alive.

In a sense it’s a game of innocence lost.  The themes of growth, life and adolescence prevail here, with a moral imperative of reminding you where bad choices leave.  To be good you must stay on the path but if you do, you won’t grow or learn.

Life’s lessons are hard.

If you like horror games you might like this one.  The Path is slow and deliberate.  The game is covered in a Gaussian blur and cracked reality.  It’s disturbing and enlightening.  There is no direct violence but it defiantly alludes to it.  More than once my phone would go off and I would jump.  Letting out a small scream.  And all I was doing?  I walked alone in the woods.