Pathway

Bought this on a sale, played roughly 5 hours so far, I don't think I'll finish playing. There's simply very little to hold my attention here. The narrative barely exists, mechanics and combat are... functional I guess, but nothing stands out so far. Some mildly interesting characters are locked beyond annoying achievement-like requirements, which I probably won't ever get to accomplish before I lose interest in the game. I would say get this game on a sale if you really want to, but temper your expectations even then.

I am a big fan of the first game of its creators - Halfway. When I saw the trailers I bought the game instantly - a mixture of X-COM and FTL in Indiana Jones climate? Count me in! Unfortunately the game did not live up to expectations, there are 2 main reasons: 1. Graphics. I like pixelated graphics (although i regret more devs don't use nice 2d graphics) . I understand they are cheap to make, low requirements and have certain nostalgic charm to them. What I don't understand is why for the love of gods are fonts also pixelated? My eyes literally hurt from trying to play this game. Everything else is fine as long as its readable (it is) but why hurt me with awful pixelated fonts? 2. Gameplay. As in title - Gets really boring really fast. The combat is weirdly balanced - very long movement range combined with short weapons range and 100%-blank-shot-rules. It makes combat really discouraging shooting. Weapons don't differ mostly and every encounter is literally the same. The "on way" events lack actual decisions and start repeating on 1st adventure. Maybe I had too big expectations, but I am seriously disappointed.

Pathway is a fun and quirky roguelite, and an Indiana Jones meets XCOM meets FTL hybrid. The tactical combat is fun, the tone and setting is a great callback to Indiana Jones era adventures. I like the variations that can come up on each run; not just unlocks, but how some runs can have a whole crew dwindle to one guy clawing their way to victory, or you lose most of your mates and then finish with even more people than you started with. Unfortunately, I find that progression to unlocks is slow (not sure if more recent updates fixed this or not). Also, there isn't a lot of variation - lots of sand, lots of Nazis, not a huge amount of RNG events so you will see repetition after a while. Not a lot of absurdly-OP-yet-rare weapons to throw some amusing runs into the mix either, which is something I like in roguelites to break up monotony. So for these reasons, I think this game is most enjoyable if you play a run or two then leave the game for a while, then come back and repeat. If you just sit with it for days or weeks on end, trying to "finish" before moving onto another game, you're going to burn out and really feel the repetition. However when you take breaks from it, it feels like a fun romp each time (even after you start seeing some repetition)

Can't in good conscience gives this five stars even though I'm a big fan of their first game and enjoyed this game a lot. This is a squad-based tactics game with 3-4 heroes. Each hero has stats, their own abilities, and abilities granted to them by the gear they're using. Sniper rifle have overwatch, pistols double shot, light armor dash ability. There's about 25-30 hours of content across 5 or 6 missions, each mission consisting of 1-3 maps with nodes full of encounters, traders, or events. The closest comparison to this game is not really x-com, but Into the Breach. I say this because there's a big emphasis on manoeuvring and the game often feels puzzle-like. Properly flanking can guarantee hits for any hero, and weapon special abilities often have templates which can require proper positioning. Contrary to some reviews, there is not "full" and "half" cover like x-com, rather there is cover which decreases hit chance, and walls which block firing. Some cover also can be traversed, some cannot. Sometimes the cover is not clear from the map, and the user may think a pit offering no cover is actually a wall. There's a fair variety of enemies, grouped widely into nazis and cultists/zombies. And player characters will gain levels, abilities and loot through the campaigns. Players will also unlock new characters by achievements and there are some hidden characters that can show up in the game. The game can be a lot of fun, and the player will feel quite powerful most of the time due to the progression. This also means though that the game skews pretty easy once you figure out all the mechanics. You can adjust the balance, but only after you've finished the campaign, and once I finished all the campaigns I didn't see much reason to re-play it. I hope they add some additional missions. There is also a lot of lore and world building, but not enough narrative. Would like to see more emphasis on the story itself, maybe with script-based events in mission.

I consider it a very good game, maybe with a slightly steep learning curve. You quickly get passioned with your characters, while you develop your strategy.