For the last few days I've been playing, among other titles, a game called "The Path". Some of you might have heard about it, but for those who haven't: "The Path" is a small indie game that tells the story of little red riding hood, but from the perspective of six young girls, representing all sorts of adolescence vices. The game starts with a simple objective: Go to grandmother's house, and stay on the path. Of course, if you do that the game ends with a failure.

I say game, but this unique experience is more like an interactive story than an actual video game. You mostly just wander around the forest, looking for various items to interact with and collect. The most interesting part of this exploration is encountering the wolves; each girl has her own type of wolf that corresponds to her so called sin. The goal of the game is finding that wolf, after interacting with everything you can find (some objects can only be used by certain girls). I have not yet discovered if the amount of objects collected effects the game somehow, put I do know that in order to finish a level you must find and interact with the wolf; only than will you be able to go to granny's house.

The main reason I'm enjoying "The Path" is because of its refreshing art style and story telling elements. To tell you the truth, it took me a few tries to get used to the game, but once I did, I can hardly stop. Walking between the trees, interacting with all sorts of creepy items (and a weird little girl dressed in white), trying to understand what this specific character is all about feels like a waking dream, and once you see a girl to her journey's end, reality comes crushing down and the ugly truth is finally revealed.

While lacking any real gameplay experience, and focusing mainly on exploring, "The Path" joins such great indie games such as "World of Goo" and "Penumbra" in proving games don't have to have cutting-edge graphics and physics engines to be immersive and fun. Any adventurer who likes to talk a stroll in someone else's mind can do so in "The Path", and he might even enjoy taking in the sights of the beautiful forest, disturbing music and enchantingly twisted take on this classic tale about the dangers of growing up.

Support indie developers - play the game!