The Traveler’s Path Review (Switch)
Summary: The Traveler’s Path is a must-buy for 3D casual-puzzle solving lovers. The price, mixed with the amount of content, is essentially one of the best bargains in the puzzle genre right now!
3.4
The Right Path!
Introduction:
The Traveler’s Path is a 3D casual puzzle game developed by East Asiasoft Limited and White Rose Games. From a bird’s eye view over a multitude of settings such as forests, deserts and snowfields, it’s your job to help the character reach his destination by swapping and rotating the pieces of the path that stand in his way. The Traveler’s Path holds over 50 different puzzles, each increasing in size and complexity. Through critical thinking, logic and analysis, you can line up the path correctly to help bring the traveler home.
The “Goods”:
The gameplay of The Traveler’s Path is a strongpoint. The smoothness of tile swapping, rotating and maneuvering allowed for a seamless process when it came to solving each puzzle. Once I mastered the controls, which are very straightforward, I found myself flying through the mazes with a unique level of gaming cockiness. Throughout my entire playthrough, I had zero performance issues, both technical and graphical, making the entire experience enjoyable from start to finish. Loading times are nearly non-existent. The ability to skip ahead to stronger levels keeps the game fluid when stuck on a puzzle that you wanted to come back to down the road.
The value with The Traveler’s Path is where the game hits the hardest. For $5, the game gives you over 50 different puzzles and over five hours (depending on your puzzle skills) of casual problem solving gameplay. While the replayability factor really isn’t there, The Traveler’s Path puzzles do have multiple solutions – which can present a longer playthrough for completionists. When you complete a puzzle, you are told how far you were from the best solution possible: the one that would get the traveler to his destination the fastest. There was a small level of replayability there for me, to go back to levels I didn’t get the best score on and work through it again.
The “Bads”:
The Traveler’s Path puzzles are set on different terrains: snow, desert, forest and more. At times the 3D graphics of the game can fall short of mesmerizing but it does fall in line with the casual approach the game gives out from the very beginning. A few more graphical twists and turns to the puzzle boards would have gone a long way, as oftentimes I felt many puzzles were somewhat visually similar to the ones prior.
Audio was in the same realm as the graphics: casual. For what the game was, a casual puzzle solving adventure, the audio stayed the course. However, if I am trying to help a traveler get home and battle some difficult terrains, there were times I felt the audio could have used a bump in intensity to add to the atmosphere of the levels.
A lack of puzzle complexity was my number one gripe with The Traveler’s Path. Yes, the gameplay and value is strong but the complexity of levels oftentimes left me wanting more. I found the solutions to some of the high level puzzles under thirty seconds, which was disappointing. To me, the best part of the puzzle genre is the gratification I receive when finally figuring out a level that took me hours to unweave. Similar to audio and graphics, the complexity just felt almost too, for a lack of a better term, casual. I did enjoy certain twists to puzzles, such as having to place tiles in specific priority based on colors or adding a second traveler to the mix. Unfortunately true challenges were few and far between, which left me wanting much more once I completed my playthrough.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, The Traveler’s Path delivers in value and gameplay, ultimately creating a calm puzzle solving experience that many will enjoy. While it isn’t a game that will keep you up at night with an intense playthrough or make you throw your console in frustration, The Traveler’s Path is a must-buy for 3D casual-puzzle solving lovers. The price, mixed with the amount of content, is essentially one of the best bargains in the puzzle genre right now. If you find yourself lost without a game to play right now, let The Traveler’s Path help you find your way home.
About the Author
Paul Garlic has been gaming uncontrollably since 1998 and is a published videogame reviewer, primarily for Xbox and Nintendo Switch titles. Garlic's favorite genres are Adventure, Soulslike & RPG. His top three favorite games of all time are Red Dead Redemption II, Elden Ring & God of War.
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