Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The Path’s creators, Tale of Tales return with a new game/vignette/thing. There’s no demo yet, but you can buy it directly from them for a mere seven dollars. It is – to quote the press release – “FATALE is an interactive vignette in realtime 3D inspired by the story of Salome, the biblical princess and protagonist in Oscar Wilde’s stage play, first performed in England 78 years ago today”. There’s an audio-only trailer below, which features the heady mix of Jarboe and Wilde dialogue, which will give you a taste of its vibe. More, I suspect, when we’ve got a copy and examined with our eyes.
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A couple of weeks after the micro-furore which followed its launch, the good ship Eurogamer send me off to evaluate Tale of Tales’ game of short horror and long walks. I start like this…

“There’s an urge to give it one out of ten. Maybe a two, because two sounds more genuine than one. One sounds like foot-stomping petulance. Two sounds considered, as if I really do mean it. I’m not, because I don’t, but it’d serve a couple of good purposes. Firstly, if considered solely as a classical game, The Path is bloody terrible. Secondly, if you’re the sort of person who cares about the review score, it’s almost certainly not for you and I should turn you off as quickly as possible.”

And then set controls for the heart of the sun. Join me!

Tale of Tale’s The Path is officially released today, and now available on Steam. Last week I wrote my impressions of the peculiarly evocative art project – trying to present a mixture of the opinions that formed in my brain, about a game that deserves attention/confusion. The twist on Little Red Riding Hood has you take six sisters on a journey through the woods on their way to Grandmother’s House. However, heading straight there isn’t how to play. It’s all about deviating from the task, and the path, and getting lost in the woods. It’s £7.25 on the UK Steam, $10 in the US, and 7,90€ in Europe. Do I recommend it? I do, but I sort of squirm in my seat at the same time. Well, read this, it explains it better.

Tale of Tales’ The Path comes out a week today. It’s a unique game, almost stretching the use of the word “game” to describe it as such, in which you take one of six Little Red Riding Hoods through the woods, on her journey to Grandmother’s house. However, simply completing this task is the shortest route the the game’s ending – indeed, if anything, finishing the game is really the last thing you want to do.

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Tale of Tales, they behind the IGF finalist The Path, are releasing a new short, The Graveyard, tomorrow now. We’ve had an early play, and encourage you to take a look.

Tales call The Graveyard “an explorable painting”, rather than a game, which is just about the perfect description. Your character is an elderly woman, walking with a cane, stood inside the entrance of a graveyard. There are two things you can do: walk forward toward a bench in the distance, or turn around and leave. But it’s not so much about what you do, as pausing and experiencing the scene.

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