PATHOS Reviews

A good puzzle game in the sokoban-style in which you have to find the optimal way, in term of number of moves, to solve each level.

I absolutely love this week, it took me very long to conquer it. I want you guys to come out with a sequel or something similiar. Thanks’

Great puzzle game that gets difficult surprisingly early on. While not the focus of the game, graphics are slick, and the soundtrack is pleasant. Oh, and the narrative actually works! Probably not the best for super casual play, but if you enjoy puzzles that take (sometimes pretty substantial) effort to solve, it's definitely worth your time to give this game a shot.

PATHOS is a Sokoban-style puzzle game where you have to move blocks out of your way to find a path to the "X"it. You will get no extra moves from the starting gate, so plan your moves wisely. From the very beginning of the game, you'll start to be tested on your ability to think laterally and outside of the box. The first few levels weren't overly difficult, but by the second board, you'll start to scratch your head quite a bit. As of this writing, I've progressed to the "Moonbud" puzzle. Since some of these conundrums can take several hours or possibly even days of thinking, it's not going to be a game you're able to blast through unless you're a literal genius or you cheat your way through. For the price, you'll get your money's worth tenfold. This is not a game to be finished in 10 or 20 hours although most of your in-game time will be spent thinking and using trial-and-error to get to your solution. The graphics are simplistic but polished, which is just right for a puzzle game of this difficulty. Right now there's not a ton of different music selections, but one thing I do like about it is that every once in a while a new music track will slip into the game's playlist at a random stage of progress. Imaging my surprise when I started hearing an Egyptian-style track playing through the speakers when I hadn't heard it before (it came up at the tail end of the track cycle, not at the beginning.) Some players have wished for an "Undo" button in the game, but personally I feel this takes away from the game's difficulty and cheapens the experience. Having to help other friends figure out certain puzzles, this forces me to replay the puzzle all over again--and unless you've got great muscle memory or have captured screenshots of the solutions, it can be easy to forget how you did it in the first place. If you want a puzzle game that will test your limits and frustrate you while putting all of that frustration on your shoulders (the game is not cheapened by bad controls or mechanics,) then be sure to pick it up. It's an underrated gem that will fly past most gamers' radars, and should get more attention than it deserves due to its ingenious and maddeningly "easy to learn, horribly difficult to master" level-design. You'll be glad you did. I think. :)

One of the best Ultra-Cerebral Puzzle Games that puts the grey matter [strike]in agony[/strike] to work Huge thanks for fixing the game which made me continue right off my old save!

I enjoy this game, but lately the story text has disappeared and there's no way for me to add it back in with the new update. I'm a little disappointed.

<[i]Edit: The game is now free and most but not all bugs are fixed, take it for what it's worth. Still no undo so if that's a dealbreaker, the deal's been broke.[/i]> [h1]Buy it! The only thing more mind-boggling than the puzzles is the price: the price is [u]absurdly[/u] low for the amount of content [i]Pathos[/i] offers: [i]DOZENS[/i] of hours of gameplay.[/h1]Highly recommended for anyone willing to become fully obsessed with it: I lived and breathed nothing but [i]Pathos[/i] for around 2 months. It offers [u]ridiculously[/u] challenging and rewarding gameplay, with a sweet soundtrack to boot. It's probably the most difficult puzzle game I've ever played in any medium. I only wish the Dev would fix a few remaining bugs that [spoiler]prevent reaching the final FINAL set of levels[/spoiler], but don't let that scare you away: you have dozens of hours of gameplay before you'll even confront that issue. EDIT: I just played [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/344480/]Quell[/url] for the first time. If you like Quell but want an insanely challenging, much longer game that has a bit of the same vibe, try PATHOS!

Yes, I must definitely say some things about Pathos. I can say Pathos is a sokoban style puzzle game with ‘permadeath’ element, but this doesn’t give you any clear information about it. Honestly, nothing is clear in this game, nothing is funny about it. I didn’t even understand at first what this ‘permadeath’ thing could cause. It caused my days, my weeks, my months. I remember I was more young and more handsome while playing it for the first time. It ruined my life for almost a year. [spoiler] (and definitely not just mine. Cheers, guys, you all were great!!) [/spoiler] While buying it, I was expecting a difficult puzzle game but later, I realized this is not a game. This is pure torture. This is exactly a punishment. I’m still going crazy when thinking about it. Such a degree of difficulty is really amazing. Alright, this is definitely a very interesting type of torture. Of course, first levels are easy, then they are getting harder, then getting harderr, then harderrr, then harderrrr, then harderrRR and harderRRR and hardeRRRRR. It is insane. 150+ levels. This is absolute madness. I don’t even mention about count of moves for further levels. Some levels are sooo sick that you can’t even look at them much long. It was so humiliating. Also, there is another very big problem about Pathos. It is absolutely infectious. Sometimes you pause the game or quit the game because of troubles, failures, fatique, fear, loathing, etc. In fact, only your body can quit the game, but your brain can’t stop working in the background. My playtime may be 230 hours but it definitely felt like a full year. (Honestly, I quit playing it for 4 months and then turn back). I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, about them, about the paths, about blue boxes, about icy boxes, about rotten ones, about red circles, about orange dungeons. I really couldn’t stop thinking about it while doing something else, walking, working, eating, reading, driving, even while sleeping and dreaming. Pathos clearly penetrated into my brain and into my muscle memory, more like a virus. This was absolutely the most maddening side of Pathos, for me. But with this virus inside you, it is even possible to digest a level which has 100 moves, 300 moves, even 900+ moves, it is very interesting… Alright, Pathos was sick. Great level design, just great. Incredible world concept. Killer ‘permadeath’ concept and of course, very fantastic soundtracks, it was a love at first sight. But, I must warn you again, this is not a game, this is the evil itself. Finishing it was like escaping from hell. Just try it if you are brave enough, determined enough and patient enough, otherwise, don’t even think about it. It is NO joke!! --- Warning including spoilers: There are some informations about the game on steam page. In fact, first part of it is true, so true: “It may take weeks, months - it might take years to piece it all together”, but the rest of it is not true!! [spoiler] There’s absolutely NOTHING waiting at the finish line for the admirably zealous! and I must say this is the most sad part of this game. This game is clearly broken and developers have to do something about it. No player deserves such cruelty! We did 101% after months but didn’t even take the 100% achievement! Isn’t it funny? and where is that GATHER world? I really wonder if such a world has ever been created! Also broken achievements, broken breakthroughs! (by the way, I really don’t want to talk about these breakthroughs, I still didn’t understand why they are necessary for this game, but they must be another type of torture, of course) Devs, please do something about broken things! Please, MAKE PATHOS GREAT AGAIN!!! [/spoiler]

I am not much of a gamer. It's not that I look down on them, they're just not really for me. Not to mention that growing up (and including now) I have always had Macs and my parents had a strict anti-video-game policy in the house. I do, however, like puzzles. This game is FRICKIN ADDICTIVE. It had me under its damn spell from the moment I touched it in beta to the minute I was able to get home and pre-order it. I created a STEAM account just for this game. I hijack my husband's PC all the time, desperate to get to the next level. I dream about possible solutions and love that it forces you to think outside the box (literally). The music is relaxing, the story line intriguing and pensive, and the graphics are simplistic yet inviting, likw the way that the soft blue glow of The Twilight Zone beaming from a tube set in a darkened living room is an enticing enggement The puzzles are challenging, almost cathartic, bring you to the edge of raging despair right before calling you back with its siren song. For every moment of irritating ire spent shaking your fist at the screen in the hopes that maybe if you yell at the pixels loudly enough, a secret answer will reveal itself to you, there is an incomparable triumph that comes when you inevitably make it to the next level. And since it's such a new game, it hasn't been spoiled yet by cheat guides. Tl;dr: 10/10 would buy again. Can't wait for OS/mobile dev.

[b]pathos[/b] is a really difficult sokoban-like where the goal isn't to push boxes to their designated places, but for you to reach the exit by pushing boxes out of the way. sounds easy, it most certainly isn't. there's even a story, from what I've read it seemed a bit pretentious, but it can be turned off if you only want to concentrate on puzzling. [b]150+ levels[/b], you need a certain amount of 'bits' from solving them to unlock further chapters, but every level within each is accessible at once. wasd or arrows to move, can't be held to move more than one tile, annoying, but steps are numbered, nice. mouse wheel to zoom, but the mouse cursor never disappears, another oversight, and there's a [b]mandatory move limit, once reached, the level resets[/b] for one more unnecessary annoyance. the next (and far from final) nail in the coffin is the [b]lack of undo[/b]. as always, it doesn't make the game more difficult, just a lot more cumbersome and tedious than it should be. some of the later levels involve hundreds(!) of moves, which would be painful to figure out even with undo, let alone without. and if you haven't suffered enough, be it from puzzle difficulty or having to re-do everything on a level after a misstep, there are also [b]breakthroughs[/b], additional challenges in the game. they can be brought up from the menu in alphabetical order, each has an accompanying image as a clue, the achievemenet list has a bit more info, and not only do you have to figure out [i]what[/i] to do, but also [i]where[/i] to do it, on which level. [b]some of them need audio clues, but they were stored on the game's website, which is not available anymore[/b], so check the forum for download links. honestly, who thought this would be a good idea? why not just store them with the rest of the game? and if you can't be bothered to change it, at least don't let the domain expire. one takes some effort, the other some money, pick one. the presentation is pleasantly minimalist (except one of the fonts for the in-level story bits, too basic) and the audio is fantastic as well, but there's only a master and sfx volume slider, plus resolutions and windowed mode via the unity launcher. and for such a story-heavy game, [b]there should be an in-game place to re-read all the story bits without launching every level separately[/b]. gotta cater to masochists, no problem with that, but some of the design decisions are questionable at best. [b]with a few improvements it would be a truly excellent game[/b] for a more than reasonable price, except [b]it's broken, the final level set hasn't been accessible for years[/b] without editing the save file (there aren't enough bits otherwise), and some breakthroughs are also broken. not sure how something like this can result in all those positive reviews, people (including developers) really have no standards these days. [b]obviously don't waste money and time on this until (if ever) they decide to fix what they're asking money for.[/b]