#The pathless giant squid Pc#

The Pathless is available on PlayStation 4, Apple Arcade, PC and the next-gen PlayStation 5 console.įollowing the BAFTA-nominated, story-driven mobile game Assemble With Care, UK-based studio ustwo games is releasing the feel-good, ecological game Alba: A Wildlife Adventure on Apple Arcade on Dec 11. “It makes you tie navigation into exploration.” “If you want to know more about where you are, you’ve got to get up on top of something and look down,” Nava points out.

The result is that the game demands players to navigate the space in a new way. Nava says that The Pathless pushes everything further while including more traditional game mechanics and bosses, “but still with this slant toward accessibility, making it so that it’s not so stressful and with an eye toward pacing and flow, to make a game that’s both tranquil and intense when it needs to be.” “The atmosphere of the game is one of the biggest things that we think defines what a Giant Squid game is,” says Nava, adding that the visual quality, fluid movement of the character and connection with animals and nature are also signature elements of the company’s games. Those who did play Abzu will recognize the familiar feeling of the immersive world. “All of a sudden, we wanted to apply those kinds of sensibilities to an open world game,” Nava says, “yet make it so there’s pacing and a narrative that shines through.”

Prior to The Pathless, Nava worked on Giant Squid’s underwater adventure Abzu and the highly-immersive Journey at thatgamecompany, which he points out were smaller in scope, more linear in their storytelling and more structured in how they presented the narrative through the environment. “It’s very much letting you figure out where to go on your own,” Nava explains, “and that theme of being lost and finding your way is something we tried to align both the narrative and the player experience on.” With no quest map or logs available in the game, one of the themes it really hones in on is finding your own way in the world. “We invented a language that the characters speak, so no matter what language you are playing game in, you always get subtitles - it always feels like it’s from another place,” he says. Visually and narratively, Nava says that the game takes motifs and architectural elements from different cultures from all over the world, such as the Inca, Mayan and Aztec ruins, to create its own culture. “That’s the thing that I love about my favorite myths you hear stories from different cultures - the Aztecs, the Romans, the Greeks - and they all are so different in their motifs, but so universal in their themes.” “We wanted to create the experience of living a myth, so the events that you play are larger than life,” Nava continues, adding that a goal was to make the game feel foreign no matter what culture the player is from. “It’s that relationship that really defines the characters,” he says. Nava describes the Hunter character, who arrives on the island from a faraway place to combat a curse that many hunters have attempted before her, as “a master of archery and an incredible acrobat,” while the eagle lifts her through the air so she can go further.

To learn more, The Hollywood Reporter called Giant Squid creative director Matt Nava, who shipped Journey with thatgamecompany in 2012 and started at Giant Squid the next year.

The pathless giant squid