Mind: Path to Thalamus E.Edition
- August 5, 2014
- Luka Nieto
- 5h median play time
Get on Steam"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.
Mac OS
PC
Steam Deck
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- Stunning visuals and beautiful landscapes that create an immersive experience.
- Creative and engaging puzzles that challenge players without being overly difficult.
- Atmospheric sound design and music that enhance the overall experience.
- Weak and often confusing narrative that detracts from the gameplay.
- Poor voice acting that can be distracting and takes away from immersion.
- Frustrating mechanics, such as the ball dropping easily and slow movement speed, which can hinder puzzle-solving.
- story530 mentions
- 28 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The story in "Mind: Path to Thalamus" is often described as weak, confusing, and poorly integrated with gameplay, with many reviewers noting its lack of depth and coherence. While some appreciate the emotional themes of grief and personal loss, the execution is frequently criticized for being melodramatic and lacking engaging narration. Overall, the visuals and puzzles are praised, but the narrative fails to resonate with many players, leaving it feeling disjointed and underdeveloped.
“The story unravels, full of heavy themes such as regret and remorse.”
“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 is well constructed, and is told very well.”
“An overly abstract walking simulator with a few puzzles and an unremarkable story about dealing with grief.”
“The story isn't engaging enough to make me want to hear more.”
“The story is vague and disconnected as the game mechanics.”
- graphics321 mentions
- 58 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their stunning and surreal aesthetics, often described as breathtaking and beautifully crafted, creating immersive environments that enhance the overall experience. However, some users noted inconsistencies in graphical quality, performance issues, and a lack of compelling gameplay to match the visual appeal. Overall, while the visuals are a standout feature, they are sometimes overshadowed by technical flaws and simplistic puzzle design.
“The graphics are stunning and have been crafted with great care and attention to detail.”
“The visuals and aesthetics are outstanding, and are easily the highlight of the game.”
“The graphics, save one or two low res textures, are uniformly exceptional; in a few places you can practically hit 'screenshot' and you've got yourself a 1920x1080 wallpaper, yes, they're that good.”
“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.”
“Even with everything on ultra, the graphics and aesthetic have little wonder, quality, or creativity to impress you with.”
“Graphics, playability, everything... deplorable... if I'd released this, I'd make it look like an accident so my family would get something!”
- gameplay232 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 73 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "Mind: Path to Thalamus" has received mixed reviews, with many players finding the mechanics simplistic and poorly explained, leading to frustrating trial-and-error experiences. While the game features visually stunning environments and some creative puzzle mechanics, the repetitive nature of the puzzles and inconsistent gameplay detract from the overall experience. Despite its artistic merits, many reviewers felt that the gameplay was ultimately dull and lacking in depth, making it hard to fully engage with the game.
“The gameplay is actually interesting there.”
“The puzzles were pretty obscure at first, but once you get the hang of the puzzle mechanics they were a welcome challenge to pace the game.”
“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 puzzles are okay, building upon the mechanics you’ve learned in earlier worlds, but most felt like busy work and some were a bit buggy.”
“Gameplay as I said is dreadful.”
“Mind: Path to Thalamus is a beautiful game with some of the worst gameplay I've ever experienced.”
- music133 mentions
- 55 % positive mentions
- 43 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally praised for its beauty and ability to enhance the atmosphere, with many players appreciating the serene and haunting soundtracks that complement the stunning visuals. However, several reviews note that the music is sparse, with some moments lacking background music entirely, which detracts from the overall experience. While the soundtrack is often described as exceptional, many players express a desire for more frequent musical accompaniment throughout the gameplay.
“The sound design and music are beautifully crafted.”
“The music supports the game, feels well placed in concordance with most of the visuals and enhances the gameplay.”
“The visuals and music of this game actually gave me chills.”
“Only downside is that it doesn't have any background music at times.”
“I encountered very little music.”
“For a problem-solving game, it lacks 'mood'; even though it is supposed to be taking place inside someone's mind, it desperately lacks music to give it some oomph.”
- atmosphere90 mentions
- 69 % positive mentions
- 28 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its stunning visuals, immersive environments, and effective sound design, creating a surreal and captivating experience. While some players found the pacing slow and the narrative lacking, many appreciated the game's ability to transport them into a beautifully crafted world filled with aesthetic appeal. Overall, the atmosphere is considered the game's strongest aspect, making it a worthwhile experience for fans of atmospheric and exploratory gameplay.
“I love the atmosphere of this game, the idea and the way you get transported into another world.”
“The atmosphere is amazing, it is really good art-wise, 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.”
“The initial setup was intriguing and the settings were beautiful with rolling vistas and some atmosphere, but the lack of guidance, bare bones dialogue, and bugs made for a slow and unrewarding experience.”
“One can't appreciate the atmosphere while cursing against the developers, or praying the narrator will stop talking.”
“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.”
- grinding30 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, primarily due to slow walking speeds, repetitive puzzles, and excessive wandering in expansive environments. While some puzzles are clever, many are described as overly simplistic and lacking in engagement, leading to a sense of boredom and a lack of accomplishment. The beautiful visuals and atmosphere provide some appeal, but they are often overshadowed by the monotonous gameplay experience.
“The major problem with walking sim puzzle games is that puzzles are really slow, tedious, and often not interesting.”
“Unfortunately, there's a tremendous amount of tedious trudging you need to go through to get to these puzzles, and the world just doesn't sustain interest long enough to justify that.”
“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.”
- emotional30 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is highlighted by its touching narrative that explores profound themes such as bereavement and family tragedy, often resonating deeply with players. While some reviews note issues with narration and writing quality, many appreciate the game's ability to evoke a range of feelings, from joy to sadness, through its visuals and soundtrack. Overall, it is recognized for its strong emotional core, despite some criticisms regarding its execution and coherence.
“Not many games attempt to explore the heart-wrenching themes the player is presented with.”
“It dares to reach out and touch you on an emotional level with brutal honesty and harsh realism.”
“The story was pleasing, and I actually found myself emotionally affected at times, be it fear, sadness, awe, terror, or joy.”
- stability28 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is frequently criticized, with numerous reports of bugs, glitches, and frustrating physics issues that hinder gameplay. Players have experienced problems such as teleportation glitches, sound issues, and unresponsive controls, making the game feel unpolished and at times unplayable. Despite these stability concerns, some users still find value in the game's environments and puzzles, suggesting that the experience may be worth it for those willing to tolerate the technical shortcomings.
“So much teleporting... my biggest gripes are the teleport-only movement, which glitches a lot.”
“Poor physics make this game unplayable, at least on macOS. The ball keeps falling from the player, making it an extremely frustrating experience. I could figure out the puzzles, but I don't have the patience to finish this buggy game.”
“It's buggy and playing with Vive and its motion controllers 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.”
- optimization19 mentions
- 16 % positive mentions
- 53 % neutral mentions
- 32 % negative mentions
The optimization of the game is highly inconsistent, with some users reporting significant performance issues, including high GPU usage, slowdowns, and crashes, while others praise its smooth performance even on older hardware. Overall, the game appears to be poorly optimized for certain setups, particularly in VR, despite some players experiencing satisfactory performance at max settings.
“The game works and is well optimized.”
“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.”
“It's badly optimized to start with, using way too much of my GPU for what I get on screen.”
“This game appears to be poorly optimized.”
“This wouldn't be as much of a problem if the game didn't suffer from performance issues despite the simple graphics.”
- replayability10 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is largely criticized, with many players noting that it is minimal or even non-existent due to its short length and underwhelming ending. While some achievements may provide a slight incentive for replay, the lack of engaging content and the repetitive nature of the experience leave most players feeling that there is little reason to revisit the game.
“Replay value is there, if you enjoy puzzlers.”
“There will be some replayability (maybe another couple of hours), but I really wish there was more to it.”
“Not much replay value though, and it is fairly short, so I would recommend buying it on sale.”
“So the replay value is actually less than zero.”
“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.”
- humor5 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as unpredictable and subtle, contributing to a unique experience that some players find amusing, while others feel it lacks depth. The puzzles are noted for their surprising and funny elements, though some players desire more challenging options. Overall, the game's atmosphere and wonder seem to overshadow its shortcomings in humor and storytelling.
“Funny thing about this game is you're never sure about anything, which both adds to and takes away from the experience.”
“The landscapes are breathtaking and the puzzles are really funny and surprising (though I would have preferred harder ones), and the storyline, it's simple and has an strange metaphysical air... just buy it.”
“Very funny indeed.”
- character development1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The character development in the game is praised for its depth and engagement, effectively illustrated through compelling visual metaphors and motifs that enhance the storytelling. The intriguing concept of exploring the character's subconscious mind further enriches the overall narrative experience.
“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
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviewers express disappointment with the game's monetization, suggesting that the quality of the in-game music does not match the high standards set by its promotional material.
