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COMPLETE: The Way Remastered
Sep. 22nd, 2019 11:28 amThe Way (original version) is on Steam, but the remastered version on Switch adds some nice extras like voice acting, a music player, etc. plus "Game and level design changes based on players’ feedback." After doing some research, I have determined that this means they nerfed some of the more heinously unfair sections in the original. Whatever you do, please do not read the Steam discussions about this.
It is the future. You are Tom and your wife is dead, after a long battle with terminal backstory disease. Wracked with grief, you do what any normal reasonable person in this situation would do: Dig her up, steal her body and hook it up to a sci-fi pod, break into and steal a spaceship from the company you work for, and fly off to an uncharted planet you, your wife, and the rest of your old explorer team had been trying to analyze at one point, because some of the half-translated writings in the ruins mentioned something about something something eternal life something.
What could go wrong, right? But believe it or not, there are complications! You see, standing in between Tom and his goal is Éric Chahi's Another World (Delphine Software, 1991). Yes, The Way makes no attempt to hide its inspirations, even name-dropping them directly in the Steam copy. So all that's left, really, is to judge how good a job it did recapturing the magic of its predecessors.
Which brings us to the main point, and I apologize if I'm burying the lead here, but this game is so good you guys holy crap.
It's... they took everything you liked if you were a fan of Another World, and (at least if you're playing the Switch version) softened the edges on all the bullshit if you weren't, or if you're a fan of what you remember liking from having played it back in the early 90s without actually recalling the parts that haven't aged well. No unskippable ten second cinema sequences every time a slug bites you, for example; every death and restore is so instant that the only penalty at all is having to try again. For 95% of the game, the checkpoints are so generous that you may as well just respawn wherever you fell, since anything hard enough to kill you probably autosaved right before it. This does fall apart a little in the final sequence, where the checkpointing suddenly gets noticeably less generous, and "Oh my God, it sent me all the way back here?" becomes an issue for the first time in the entire game. It's still not Mega Man Unlimited or anything, but it was definitely a bit of a stumble right at the finish line.
The graphics are phenomenal, with a gorgeous pixel style that makes the whole game remind me of a less artsy and more straightforward Superbrothers. (Yes, you know it's saying something about Superbrothers when the actual literal Indie Game About Death is the less pretentious of the two.) The music is mostly understated ambience, the kind of subtle soundtrack that quietly adds to the mood without getting in the way. The kind of music that can be stuck in your head for hours before you even notice. The story hits hard toward the end, most of the puzzles are well done, it's just... it's all really good, okay? Really good.
This is a very melancholy game, all told. There are two endings and it's a bit arguable whether either one is "happy." It left Sara and me in that kind of "stare off into the middle distance and think about our lives" state (have a friend nearby when you beat it to administer hugs as needed.) But it's a beautiful and greatly enjoyable experience, well worth the pain. Highly recommended.
It is the future. You are Tom and your wife is dead, after a long battle with terminal backstory disease. Wracked with grief, you do what any normal reasonable person in this situation would do: Dig her up, steal her body and hook it up to a sci-fi pod, break into and steal a spaceship from the company you work for, and fly off to an uncharted planet you, your wife, and the rest of your old explorer team had been trying to analyze at one point, because some of the half-translated writings in the ruins mentioned something about something something eternal life something.
What could go wrong, right? But believe it or not, there are complications! You see, standing in between Tom and his goal is Éric Chahi's Another World (Delphine Software, 1991). Yes, The Way makes no attempt to hide its inspirations, even name-dropping them directly in the Steam copy. So all that's left, really, is to judge how good a job it did recapturing the magic of its predecessors.
Which brings us to the main point, and I apologize if I'm burying the lead here, but this game is so good you guys holy crap.
It's... they took everything you liked if you were a fan of Another World, and (at least if you're playing the Switch version) softened the edges on all the bullshit if you weren't, or if you're a fan of what you remember liking from having played it back in the early 90s without actually recalling the parts that haven't aged well. No unskippable ten second cinema sequences every time a slug bites you, for example; every death and restore is so instant that the only penalty at all is having to try again. For 95% of the game, the checkpoints are so generous that you may as well just respawn wherever you fell, since anything hard enough to kill you probably autosaved right before it. This does fall apart a little in the final sequence, where the checkpointing suddenly gets noticeably less generous, and "Oh my God, it sent me all the way back here?" becomes an issue for the first time in the entire game. It's still not Mega Man Unlimited or anything, but it was definitely a bit of a stumble right at the finish line.
The graphics are phenomenal, with a gorgeous pixel style that makes the whole game remind me of a less artsy and more straightforward Superbrothers. (Yes, you know it's saying something about Superbrothers when the actual literal Indie Game About Death is the less pretentious of the two.) The music is mostly understated ambience, the kind of subtle soundtrack that quietly adds to the mood without getting in the way. The kind of music that can be stuck in your head for hours before you even notice. The story hits hard toward the end, most of the puzzles are well done, it's just... it's all really good, okay? Really good.
This is a very melancholy game, all told. There are two endings and it's a bit arguable whether either one is "happy." It left Sara and me in that kind of "stare off into the middle distance and think about our lives" state (have a friend nearby when you beat it to administer hugs as needed.) But it's a beautiful and greatly enjoyable experience, well worth the pain. Highly recommended.