The way, is the last project of Bloober team. The Polish studio wants to continue its good work in the industry, presenting its most ambitious launch to date. It is not for less, since The way comes directly to the latest generation consoles. The latter, added to details such as the presence of the composer of silent Hill, Akira Yamoaka, generated great expectations.
The launch of this game is quite a hit on the table by the Polish company. And, in this adventure, we will control the medium Marianne. Which will be able to move between two dimensions, the spiritual plane and the mortal plane. These two dimensions are loaded simultaneously during play, which means that on many occasions we can see the same scene from both perspectives at the same time.
With all this it comes to us The way, a game that tries above all to tell us a story full of dark secrets and paranormal events. I anticipate you already, that we are not facing a horror adventure, we are rather facing a thriller. Having said that, in Marianne’s skin we will live an adventure that begins with the death of our protagonist’s stepfather and a call. A call that will launch a desperate search for the Niwa hotel. This is where the new Bloober Team story begins. But What was the end result of this ambitious project? We reveal it to you in the following analysis.
An art from another world
Being a launch game for the next generation of consoles, many of us couldn’t wait to see it on the move. The way on our consoles. The result leaves a good taste in the mouth, but certain nuances should also be emphasized.. On the one hand, the scenarios are for the most part simply spectacular. In that sense, we are looking for a solid and very detailed product in almost all of its sites. Rooms full of details and fantastic lighting effects.
Even so, we must emphasize in the rest of the sections of the game, the fantastic art direction shown in the scenarios of the spiritual dimension. The work done by the Polish team is superb and makes you stop and contemplate what is shown on our screens more than once. Hands sticking out of the walls, disfigured faces, all this creates a simply brilliant setting.
However, despite this great job with the storylines, there are other aspects where the game doesn’t look particularly good. In this case, we are talking about the modeling of the characters and their animations.. Either way, the result is quite poor and although not having a bad finish, they are not at all noticeable or compared to the standard of the previous generation. In addition to this, the game currently has FPS issues, suffering from occasional falls. While they don’t hinder the development of the adventure, they can be boring.
Paranormal sounds
Accompanying the graphics section of this version we find a truly exceptional sound section. The melodies of the Japanese composer are magical and manage to convey to the player sensations typical of the saga silent Hill. Although they are not too frequent, there are times when the game gains a lot of impact because of them.
Also, it must be said that the voices are generally very well worked, yes, they are all in English. Although it has English voices, the game is translated and adapted in Spanish. Of course, there is one voice that stands out from all the others; the creature. Without going into details, during our adventure, we will have a kind of demon who will pursue us and who will speak to us during these pursuits. Her voice is spectacular and it will echo around every corner until we manage to escape from it.
Slow fire
Once we have taken control of The way, we realize that the study has put an important weight on its history. It starts in a simple way as we have already mentioned, with a simple phone call that invites us to go to the Niwa hotel. In this first environment we will begin to unravel a story that will unfold slowly and deliberately.. Something that goes with the pace and mechanics of the game, which we’ll talk about later.
This slow pace often causes parts of the story to lose interest a bit, and despite the story not being bad, it is broken up into so many fragments that the player can lose interest. This is due to the fact Much of the story is not collected directly in the adventure, but is diffused through the sets in the form of documents, echoes and memories
You must be clear that The way, is a game that unfolds and develops at its own pace. This way we will have some very slow first bars, which will accelerate as we approach the home stretch of the adventure. All of this brings us to a story that lasts about 8 hours.
Classic reminiscence
So far, we have highlighted many virtues of this version. However, how do you feel at the helm? In the first place, The way, borrows many features from former rockers of the horror genre.
It’s something that we see as soon as we get to the controls. The cameras in the scenes are fixed and only change when we move around the scene, that is, the player cannot rotate or move them at will. A very interesting point and one which will make many game lovers like the first Resident Evil o Silent Hill feel at home. Like this more than obvious wink, there are many others, such as the approach of the camera when opening doors or interacting with objects.
On the other hand, our character’s control is pretty rough, largely due to the camera position, which as we mentioned before is fixed. In many occasions this can be annoying when interacting with objects, although in general we will not have any problems.
Double playability
Leaving aside this classic approach, The way is a graphic adventure that invites us to solve puzzles that bring us closer to the truth behind this story. Many of these puzzles will be solved with the use we can make of the two realities.
In that sense, the premise is really interesting, since we will have a lot of interactions between the two planes and they are perfectly integrated into the gameplay of this version. However, After a few hours of playing, we will see that the development of these mechanics is somewhat lame.
The first thing is that the puzzles are really simple, in fact they are too. The vast majority of them are resolved simply by moving forward, waiting for the same game to give us the item we are looking for.. In that sense, the game is disappointing, because having puzzles like these just requires you to turn on the autopilot and know that you don’t have to think, because the game itself will give you the answers sooner or later. Plus, many of these puzzles follow the same pattern, so they become overly predictable.
Without a doubt, this is a major problem in the work of Bloober Team. Not having a minimum challenge for the player, makes it difficult in many situations with the immersion obtained from the artistic direction. The only thing that breaks this monotony is the creature encounters, although to be honest they aren’t really stimulating either, since the structure is maintained from the first encounter to the last.
In definitiva The Medium…
The work of the Polish team is a product that surprises with its artistic section and invites the player to enter his world. Unfortunately, despite the good work of the first point, the playable plane fails to exploit the fantastic idea of two dimensions.. Stay at this point in a game that poses no challenge to the player and offers very little in the playable plane beyond enjoying its history.
Despite this, The way, is a recommended product for those who want a different experience on their next generation consoles. Finally, one cannot forget that despite the hype generated around this game, this is a double A version, which means that the production levels are quite far from the other versions. Without further ado, we say goodbye to you here, but not before reminding you that if you liked this analysis, you have many more here.
The way
Pro.
- Fantastic setting and artistic direction
- A magnificent soundtrack
- Its two dimensions
- Use echoes and memories to gain more information
Against.
- His puzzles are exceedingly simple
- The player has no type of challenge
- Some problems with your FPS
About the Author
Psychologist who enjoys cooperative games, RPGs and shooting anything that moves.
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