Play Pathway: Perfect Blend of Virtual Nostalgia for 90s Games & Graphics

Pathway is a great new indie game (for PC/Mac/Linux) on Steam that beautifully encapsulates a recent trend in games and other Internet culture at a time when 3D graphics are almost indistinguishable from real life: Virtual nostalgia for simpler, more abstract simulations. Obviously Minecraft with its charming blocky graphics (which the creator made blocky by choice, he told me years ago) is the king of this phenomenon, but games like Pathway take this nostalgia several steps further, consciously evoking user interfaces and gameplay styles from decades ago. Specifically:

• The Indiana Jones LucasArts adventure games from the 90s.
• Squad/turn-based RPG/strategy games from the 90s, most especially Jagged Alliance.
• Rogue-like games with randomly generated maps, most especially the 90s classic Nethack.

All this beautifully orchestrated together into an irresistibly charming (and often very challenging!) game that also  incorporates features that wouldn't be possible in the 90s, such as dynamic lighting and a rich, orchestrated soundtrack (which again, consciously call out John Williams' Indiana Jones scores).

Surprisingly, Steam reviews for Pathway are decidedly mixed at the moment, but that could very likely be because many of Steam's younger players aren't feeling the same specific, soothing nostalgia that I do, while playing. But if you love the classic LucasArts games and also miss playing games like Jagged Alliance, and also love rogue-likes, you will probably love Pathway.

Comments

[vwfan]

Totally love the style. You might wanna also check out The Last Night with its blend of nostalgic pixels, cross 2D/3D visual effects, lighting and cinematography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pupdeq1MoVw

[Wagner James Au]

Wow that one looks great! Really shows how much dynamic lighting is usually more compelling than high-res graphics per se.