Mind: Path to Thalamus E.Edition

60%
Game Brain Score Based on 458 reviews
  • story
  • graphics
  • gameplay
Mind: Path to Thalamus E.Edition Game Cover
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"Mind: Path to Thalamus E.Edition" is a first-person puzzle-adventure game that takes players through a surreal world filled with challenges to solve. The game features a variety of environments and weather conditions that affect gameplay, as well as a rich storyline that unfolds as the player progresses. Using a unique mechanic that allows players to manipulate the environment, they must navigate through the dream-like world to uncover the truth behind the protagonist's memories.

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Reviews

60%
Audience ScoreBased on 458 reviews
story84 positive mentions
stability19 negative mentions
  • Stunning visuals and beautiful environments that create an immersive experience.
  • Creative and unique puzzle mechanics that challenge players without being overly difficult.
  • Atmospheric soundtrack that complements the game's surreal aesthetic.
  • Weak and often annoying voice acting that detracts from the overall experience.
  • Confusing and poorly executed narrative that fails to engage players.
  • Frustrating gameplay mechanics, including tedious backtracking and invisible walls.
  • story303 mentions

    The story in "Mind: Path to Thalamus" has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it underdeveloped, confusing, or lacking engagement. While some appreciate its emotional core and visual metaphors, others criticize the narration and voice acting as detracting from the overall experience. Overall, the narrative is seen as a weak point in an otherwise visually stunning and puzzle-focused game, with many suggesting that the gameplay would benefit from a more subtle storytelling approach.

    • “The story is actually quite interesting: it has good character development, wonderful visual representations of the plot, and an intriguing concept representing the subconscious mind of the character.”
    • “The story was pleasing, and I actually found myself emotionally affected at times, be it fear, sadness, awe, terror, or joy.”
    • “Overall, if you are looking for a challenging yet relaxing game, with beautiful visuals, great music, a pretty well thought-out story, and a satisfying conclusion, this is probably something you will enjoy.”
    • “The story isn't engaging enough to make me want to hear more.”
    • “The story tries to be deep and fails, and the voice acting is horrendous.”
    • “The story is both very generic and very lacking.”
  • graphics169 mentions

    The graphics of the game are widely praised for their stunning, surreal aesthetics and beautiful environments, often described as top-notch and immersive. However, some users noted issues with performance, graphical glitches, and inconsistencies between the visuals and gameplay experience. Overall, while the visuals are a standout feature, they are sometimes overshadowed by gameplay flaws and technical limitations.

    • “The visuals are absolutely stunning and the soundtrack is simply the best video game soundtrack I have ever listened to.”
    • “Mind: Path to Thalamus is a fantastic example of what the indie development scene is capable of producing, from the gorgeous visuals right down to the engaging story.”
    • “The visuals and aesthetics are outstanding, and are easily the highlight of the game.”
    • “Graphics are nothing like the trailer.”
    • “I did appreciate some of the visuals like skyboxes and reflections, but overall the graphics and especially textures were low quality.”
    • “The graphics are clumsy and hard to run; it might look good on a better computer, but this rig has been able to run way prettier graphics than this managed to show me.”
  • gameplay132 mentions

    The gameplay of "Mind: Path to Thalamus" has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its beautiful visuals but criticizing the simplistic and often repetitive puzzle mechanics. While some found the puzzles engaging and creatively designed, others felt they lacked depth and clarity, leading to frustration and a sense of monotony. Overall, the game offers a visually stunning experience, but its gameplay is marred by inconsistent mechanics and a lack of challenge, resulting in a less satisfying experience for many players.

    • “The gameplay is basic, you walk around, jump, and sometimes carry a ball to place it in the right area.”
    • “Overall, mind: path to thalamus is a great gaming experience, with great game mechanics, superb graphics and an engaging story to keep you occupied for hours.”
    • “The game is stunning and puzzles are designed well to teach you mechanics while gradually ramping up the difficulty.”
    • “This isn't even cheating, because you never even get an indication of what you are supposed to be doing, and as you get to more difficult versions of those puzzles (where the teleport distance is not long enough to cover the gap) you are clueless that there's this whole 'find/turn on the bridge' game mechanic.”
    • “The gameplay is still so boring as to be nauseating; the VR can look cool with floating rock islands and reflections at times, but that's canceled by how often you get a closeup of some ugly texture smeared across a mountain face or in the grass that hurts your eyes.”
    • “However, the gameplay is rather weak, as the puzzles are too easy (and too short).”
  • music91 mentions

    The music in the game is generally praised for its beauty and ability to enhance the atmosphere, with many players describing it as relaxing, haunting, and emotionally impactful. However, some reviewers noted a lack of background music at times, which detracted from the overall experience, and expressed a desire for more frequent musical elements throughout the gameplay. Overall, while the soundtrack is often highlighted as a standout feature, its sporadic presence leaves some players wanting more.

    • “The music and art are beautiful.”
    • “The soundtrack is great, the voice acting in the narrative is fine, and the story is really nice and touching, with a lot of meaning behind it.”
    • “The player is taken on a journey, and both the music and the artworks make for a spectacular atmosphere, not to mention some really beautiful scenery.”
    • “Only downside is that it doesn't have any background music at times.”
    • “I encountered very little music.”
    • “Most of the time all you hear are the sounds of the environment; music is quite rare, though it's very fitting.”
  • atmosphere48 mentions

    The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its immersive and surreal qualities, with many players highlighting the stunning visuals, beautiful landscapes, and a remarkable soundtrack that enhance the overall experience. While some reviews note that the game may lack depth in story and action, the aesthetic environments and engaging puzzles create a captivating journey that resonates with fans of atmospheric and explorative gameplay. Overall, the game's atmosphere is considered its strongest selling point, making it a recommended choice for those who appreciate atmospheric puzzle games.

    • “I immerse myself inside this astounding atmosphere and leave breathless and in awe, every time I enter... time & time again!”
    • “The atmosphere is amazing; it is really good art-wise, with beautiful landscapes and textures and a great soundtrack.”
    • “The player is taken on a journey, and both the music and the artworks make for a spectacular atmosphere, not to mention some really beautiful scenery.”
    • “I have already accepted it as a walking simulator based on atmosphere, and I was poorly wrong (well, it is a walking simulator based on atmosphere, but it includes something more).”
    • “Unfortunately, some people may be giving this game a worse review than it deserves because a) they're not playing it in VR, so they're not getting the atmosphere, b) they're playing it in VR but without a motion platform, so they're getting sick.”
    • “Some of the words he says are poorly pronounced, the mic overrides or pops at some points which is not only disturbing the atmosphere, but is also unprofessional.”
  • stability19 mentions

    The game's stability is frequently criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs and glitches that significantly impact gameplay, including issues with teleportation movement, graphical errors, and control problems. While some players appreciate the beautiful environments and engaging puzzles, many feel that the game's technical issues detract from the overall experience, suggesting it may not be ready for a full release. Despite these concerns, some users note that an enhanced edition has addressed many of the bugs.

    • “So much teleporting... my biggest gripes are the teleport-only movement, which glitches a lot.”
    • “It's buggy and playing with Vive and its motion controllers - this is the way I've done - becomes a nightmare: problems with falling off the wooden bridge panels on one level, problems with invisible colliders that don't allow you to move freely on another, and such.”
    • “Upon launching the game, it alters the room scale flooring, disables the Steam dashboard from coming up, controls are confusing, graphics settings are inconsistent and buggy (set to all ultra, but display is blurry).”
  • emotional19 mentions

    The emotional aspect of the game is highlighted by its touching narrative that explores profound themes such as bereavement and family tragedy, resonating deeply with players despite some criticisms of the writing and voice acting. Many reviewers appreciate the game's ability to evoke a range of emotions through its visuals and soundtrack, creating a unique and immersive experience, although some feel the execution may not fully meet its ambitious emotional goals. Overall, the game is recognized for its strong emotional core and ability to engage players on a personal level.

    • “Not many games attempt to explore the heart-wrenching themes the player is presented with.”
    • “Its atmospheric, emotional impact is its strongest selling point for me.”
    • “The story was pleasing, and I actually found myself emotionally affected at times, be it fear, sadness, awe, terror, or joy.”
  • grinding16 mentions

    Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, with slow walking speeds and excessive backtracking contributing to a sense of boredom. While some puzzles are praised for their cleverness, many are criticized for being overly simplistic or frustrating, leading to a lack of engagement and immersion. The beautiful visuals and atmosphere provide some appeal, but they are often overshadowed by the monotonous gameplay experience.

    • “A masterclass on how to make the most tediously boring puzzles imaginable: dilute the few puzzle elements in an ocean of space.”
    • “It's too bad because this game had so much going for it, but the static environments, tedious puzzles, rigid characters, and confusing story made it really difficult to fully immerse myself in what the game developers had to offer.”
    • “The puzzles themselves aren't that difficult, it's just the repetition of walking around the same spots back and forth that gets tedious.”
  • optimization9 mentions

    Overall, opinions on the game's optimization are mixed. While some users report significant performance issues, particularly in VR, others praise its surprising smoothness and efficiency, even on older hardware. The general consensus suggests that despite some graphical limitations, the game is well-optimized for a variety of systems.

    • “The game seems very well optimized and runs perfectly fine on my 5-year-old machine with a GTX 580 card.”
    • “Games like this, when I max out, are usually smooth but have rough spots or hiccups every now and then, but even with max settings and VSync, I had liquid smooth performance with absolutely no lag at all.”
    • “This wouldn't be as much of a problem if the game didn't suffer from performance issues despite the simple graphics.”
    • “Now, the graphic controls are few and limited, but the amount of optimization in the game is shocking.”
    • “Also, the performance - seriously?”
  • replayability5 mentions

    The game suffers from a lack of replayability, with many players noting that once the story is completed, there is little incentive to play again. This is a common issue among story-driven titles, leading to a consensus that the replay value is effectively zero. Despite its short length, some players still find the initial experience worthwhile.

    • “One of its weak points is fairly common among story-driven games: replayability is completely out of the question, just like in Frictional Games' 'Amnesia' and 'Penumbra' series.”
    • “Replay value is absolutely zero, because once you've been through the game, the driving force behind why you kept playing has been lost.”
    • “The game has absolutely no replayability at all, and with the fact that the character annoyed me that much, I'm quite happy that I never have to hear his voice again.”
  • humor3 mentions

    The humor in the game is noted as being quite funny, particularly in the puzzles, which are described as surprising and entertaining. However, some players feel that the overall story lacks depth and humor, suggesting that while the game excels in atmosphere, it could benefit from a more robust narrative.

    • “Very funny indeed.”
    • “The landscapes are breathtaking and the puzzles are really funny and surprising (though I would have preferred harder ones), and the storyline has a strange metaphysical air... just buy it.”
  • character development1 mentions

    The game features strong character development, enhanced by an engaging story and impressive visual representations that effectively convey the character's subconscious mind through thoughtful metaphors and motifs.

    • “The story is actually quite interesting: it has good character development, wonderful visual representations of the plot (all the visual metaphors and motifs are excellent), and an intriguing concept (representing the subconscious mind of the character).”
  • monetization1 mentions

    Reviewers express disappointment with the game's monetization strategy, suggesting that the quality of the in-game music does not match the high standards set by its promotional materials.

Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

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Play time

29hMedian play time
21hAverage play time
4-37hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs

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