What Critics Are Saying About The Pathless

One of the PS5's strikingly beautiful launch titles happens to be Annapurna Interactive and Giant Squid's The Pathless. The upcoming action-adventure game puts players in the role of the Hunter, who uses her bow and arrow to fend off rabid foes while she tries to lift a curse set upon an island. Just a few days before its impending launch, critics have offered their final impressions of the game. Judging by its PS5 Metacritic score of 81, The Pathless comes highly recommend.

Press Start Australia's Kieron Verbrugge was enamored with the game and awarded it with a 9. "The Pathless is the next great indie adventure," said Verbrugge. "Whether the joy you take from it is in its unique and super-slick traversal mechanics, or the arresting world and faultless artistry, there's no denying that Giant Squid has absolutely nailed it."

Game Informer's Andrew Reiner gave the title a final score of 8. "The Pathless is a wonderfully different game that makes you feel like you have ownership over the entire experience and are not being led along by a pre-scripted playbook," explained Reiner. "It's one of those adventures that will stick with you long after you play it."

IGN's Jonathon Dornbush also gave The Pathless an 8 and spoke very highly of its unique character movement mechanics and approach to puzzles. "The Pathless' reliance on a simple but engaging movement system allowed me to explore Giant Squid's beautiful open world with ease, placing its challenge more on the environmental puzzles you inevitably arrive at rather than on the journey itself," Dornbush stated. 

Tom Orry of VG24/7 made it clear that The Pathless shouldn't be ignored. "I hope it isn't lost amongst the PS5's bigger, noisier releases, as it's something different and uplifting," asserted Orry. "It's rare to find such tension and threat in a game that's also so peaceful, but Giant Squid has managed it."

GameSpot's Mike Epstein gave The Pathless a final grade of a 7, with points taken away for its stealth sequences and boss encounters. Overall, Epstein enjoyed his time spent within the game's gorgeously animated world. "Most of The Pathless plays to its mechanical strengths, free-form exploration, satisfying movement, and methodical puzzle-solving," Epstein noted.

The Pathless sounds like it's one of the better PS5 launch titles that gamers have to look forward to on Nov. 12. Come 2021, it will be joined by a nice batch of first-party exclusives sprinkled throughout the year.