I changed green to magenta just because I liked how the color popped. Another nice feature is the ability to change the colors of each of the explorers if you’re colorblind and have trouble differentiating between blue, green and yellow. That’s certainly a welcome feature, as restarting the entire puzzle is not as palatable as rewinding a couple of moves. And in those cases, the game will even let you know so you don’t waste time trying to fix it when you can’t. The pathfinding is handled so well that you won’t really feel the need to use the undo button until much later in the game when it’s possible to get into an unsolvable position. In fact, I didn’t even notice there was an undo button until fairly deep into the game.
There are no timers or move limits and the characters run quickly enough that most mistakes are easy and painless to fix by just moving them around again. There’s an overall sense of polish with the game that just can’t be ignored and is quite impressive for a two-person team.Īs all good puzzle games do, Path of Giants encourages experimentation. The soundtrack ties everything together well, with music that suits an adventure without getting repetitive and overstaying its welcome. Of course, there’s also the “woohoo” I already mentioned. And though the story isn’t voice-acted, the gibberish you hear instead is so cute that you won’t even mind. When they land on their buttons, there’s a brief but grandiose hymn to celebrate. When not in use, they plop down, waiting for someone to climb on them. They move like they’re wearing too many layers, possibly because their moms dressed them and wanted to make sure they’d be warm enough. The explorers themselves have the cutest animations as they run about and jump on each other. The environments are not as frame-worthy as Monument Valley’s, but don’t let that fool you. But what kept me enthralled with Path of Giants even when I found things to be on the easier side, was the presentation of the game. The puzzles themselves are well-crafted, though are unlikely to truly stump seasoned players. And last, all three heroes cheer in adorable excitement and continue on to the next level. Then, at the end of each level, you have to solve a rotating pipes puzzle to create paths that connect all three colors.
There are also connected baskets that respond to the explorers’ weight, and other mechanics I’ll let you discover for yourself. Those buttons usually move platforms around, allowing you to transport an explorer to another side of the room he couldn’t access before. As you progress, you’ll encounter things like bridges that only a specific explorer can walk across, or square buttons that only one explorer can activate.
The controls are all very simple, never hindering gameplay. You simply tap an explorer to select him and then tap another tile to make him run there. Each character is a different color and you need to get them to the matching buttons to move on to the next puzzle. Early on, you’re mainly maneuvering the three adventurers around each other and through doors that act like portals. Most of the game involves these climbing mechanics, so it’s a good thing that watching them trample on each other’s heads never gets old.Įach of the game’s thirteen levels are broken up into three or four separate puzzles. This means one of them has to sit down against a wall so another can climb on his head to the upper platform. But once upper and lower platforms are introduced, the explorers need to start working together. At first, there’s a straight path for each, so nothing fancy is required. It has you guiding each of the explorers to their corresponding goals by simply tapping a tile to get them to run there. I knew from that first moment that this would be a special game. When the three explorers first enter a new room, they look around in awe and, even though their faces are just black holes with two yellow dots for eyes, there’s so much expression in them.