Hard to express my disappointment in Giant Squid's output. It wasn't until the last legs of this game that I learned it was by that studio; the developers of Abzu, and offshoots of the crew from Thatgamecompany - but it contextualised everything.
It's almost insulting how formulaically they seem to conceive their titles, they might just continue to make 'emotional, artsy' games where the Good Blue defeats the Evil Red until heat death. It's all too convenient, it's the type of theming you come up with while playing Halo multiplayer, made all the less engaging and challenging when you take into account that it follows the very same beats as Flower, Journey, and now Abzu. Giant Squid's games feel robotic, outside of paying the aesthetics lipservice, there is no narrative throughline to keep them together, everything feels present because "they should be" rather than because there is a story that needs told.
It takes more key inspiration from Shadow of the Colossus this time around, the framing and gameplay is essentially identical. This only serves to make Giant Squid's unsubtle hand cause ripples throughout the game at the absolute worst moments. Trying to conjure the quiet grace of Team Ico in one scene, then throwing a tutorial prompt that pauses the game at your face which reads "Press and hold flap while gliding to perform a Super Flap. This powerful move will consume a large number of flaps.", I couldn't help but laugh.
Pathless was not without merit - if it innovated at anything, it was making the normally tedious task of travelling across a vast videogame landscape into a far more engaging affair. A sprint meter that would only get refilled with well-timed shots at ever-present targets that litter the world map. I'll miss those next time I'm expected to hold the analogue stick forward for ten minutes to heavily approach a waypoint on the other side of an empty grassy field. Also present is some nice music that punctuates key setpiece events, including some very engaging boss chase sequences.
It's almost insulting how formulaically they seem to conceive their titles, they might just continue to make 'emotional, artsy' games where the Good Blue defeats the Evil Red until heat death. It's all too convenient, it's the type of theming you come up with while playing Halo multiplayer, made all the less engaging and challenging when you take into account that it follows the very same beats as Flower, Journey, and now Abzu. Giant Squid's games feel robotic, outside of paying the aesthetics lipservice, there is no narrative throughline to keep them together, everything feels present because "they should be" rather than because there is a story that needs told.
It takes more key inspiration from Shadow of the Colossus this time around, the framing and gameplay is essentially identical. This only serves to make Giant Squid's unsubtle hand cause ripples throughout the game at the absolute worst moments. Trying to conjure the quiet grace of Team Ico in one scene, then throwing a tutorial prompt that pauses the game at your face which reads "Press and hold flap while gliding to perform a Super Flap. This powerful move will consume a large number of flaps.", I couldn't help but laugh.
Pathless was not without merit - if it innovated at anything, it was making the normally tedious task of travelling across a vast videogame landscape into a far more engaging affair. A sprint meter that would only get refilled with well-timed shots at ever-present targets that litter the world map. I'll miss those next time I'm expected to hold the analogue stick forward for ten minutes to heavily approach a waypoint on the other side of an empty grassy field. Also present is some nice music that punctuates key setpiece events, including some very engaging boss chase sequences.