Mind: Path to Thalamus

Mind: Path to Thalamus appeared very promising. Considering I had recently been re-fantasizing about making a Myst-like, it seemed like fate when it suddenly appeared on the front page of Steam.

I wondered how such an exploration type game might work today. Would they be able to capture the beauty and level of detail of Riven without the constraints of the point-and-click mechanics? Would being able to walk freely around the environment enhance the experience and immersion in the space, or would it merely build up an expectation of more freedom than the game could deliver on?

All to say I was very excited to try it out, but unfortunately did not get far before I was utterly let down. Let’s go to the blow by blow:

The opening sequence was fine. Didn’t blow me away, but no complaints.

The next sequence… involved walking forward down a path while the narrator narrated at me (as he does throughout the game. I find the acting quite annoying as he very casually discusses his life-shaking tragedies) It was beautifully abstract and ethereal, with just this path floating in space. A path the game let me fall off of…? It’s not as if walking on the path proves any sort of challenge, so why let the player fall off at all? To laugh as he futilely attempt to exercise some agency? Is this the Stanley parable?

The most perplexing part of this sequence is when I had to jump across a small gap in the path. Was the gap supposed to make things more interesting? Should I feel proud that I found the space button? Surely you need to check that the player knows he can jump, so why not have me try to get up on a ledge, without the false-threat of failure?

At the start off the next segment was a touching interaction with a child’s drawing I chased down a hall, one wall etched with height marks as children grew over the years. And then suddenly I found myself in a completely superfluous labyrinth. The passage behind me had disappeared and I was stuck in a hallway. But wait, if I go to the end of the hall and then turn around, a new path appears, albeit a short one. At the end of that hall, turn around and I’m magically stuck. Turn around again and a new path appears. What? After having just completed a random set of moves and turns, success by trial and error + button mashing more than any sort of cleverness, I was rewarded with a train tunnel. As I walked through it grew darker and darker, until the screen was black.

What now? Was the game loading? Do I need to keep walking forward? I’m still not sure.

Eventually I came out to see some remarkably beautiful scenery. I found (or rather, was presented with) an object of some sort and picked it up as instructed by the sort-of tutorial. I followed a new path as the narrator talked about fog and having to master it. I received a Steam achievement named “Nivola”. Was I supposed to know who that is? I walked towards some vaguely textured low-poly sphere that stood out like a sore thumb. Upon reaching it I was teleported back some ways between a grove of trees. I approached the sphere again and was again teleported back to the trees. This time I dropped the object I had been carrying near the trees, and now the fog-sphere lets me pass. Why did this work? I have no idea.

In the next level I seemed to be in a more open environment. Clearly the game wanted me to follow the path, so I ran in the opposite direction just to see what happens. I’ll give them credit that they let me go pretty far into the desolate landscape before hitting an invisible wall.

The path eventually led me across a beautifully crafted bridge while the narrator lamented about purgatory in his “meh whatever” voice. Eventually I come to a passage I felt I should go through, but was blocked off. Luckily the path continued onward. A little further, at the end of the path, I found a mirror (with a poorly rendered wooden backside). Spinning the mirror reflected some light back towards the previous passage, now letting me through. Was that a puzzle?

Finally, level 3, the one that bested me…

Again there was a passage I could not reach because it was too high. There were some other platforms but they were too far away to jump. But wait, there was another vaguely-textured sphere thing. It seemed to act like wind and when I jumped on it, I got much more lift. Not enough to reach my passage yet. Oh, but now suddenly the sphere is expanding and contracting. I don’t know why. It seems, that if timed correctly, I could jump from one of the platforms, into the wind-sphere, and get enough lift to reach my passage. However, this involves turning 90 degrees in the air, in a first-person game. Platforming in a first person game. When has that every worked out well?

And so, 25 minutes in, I quit. So far I had walked forward a lot, solved a few “puzzles” without being sure if they were supposed to be puzzles, and was thwarted by first-person platforming.

From the trailer it is clear this game has a lot to offer. It’s a shame all of that is buried.