The Pathless

The Pathless is an action-adventure video game developed by Giant Squid and published by Annapurna Interactive. Players control a nameless character, referred to as The Hunter, who travels to a mythical island shrouded in a supernatural curse. Instead of relying on traditional objective markers, the game focuses on intuitive exploration, archery-based movement and fluid traversal across forests, plains and ruins. Progress revolves around restoring light to regions controlled by corrupted gods, which culminates in boss encounters that blend chases, aerial movement and archery. The narrative is delivered through environmental storytelling and remnants of a fallen civilisation, keeping dialogue minimal. The game was released for iOS and macOS via Apple Arcade, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Windows in November 2020, and was later ported to the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in February 2023. The game received generally positive reception from critics, averaging a score of 77/100 for its PlayStation 5 version on Metacritic and 78% recommended on OpenCritic. Critics praised the game’s traversal mechanics, art design and soundtrack, though some argued that its open-world suffered from a repetitive structure.