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The Way

The Way Game Cover
76%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
grinding, replayability
80% User Score Based on 626 reviews
Critic Score 65%Based on 2 reviews

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The Way Game Cover

About

The Way is a single player arcade platformer game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by Puzzling Dream and was released on May 20, 2016. It received mostly positive reviews from both critics and players.

Journey to another planet and discover its secrets in order to bring your loved one back to life. Experience an adventure, inspired by old school classics like Another World, Heart of Darkness and Flashback.

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The Way screenshot
The Way screenshot
The Way screenshot
The Way screenshot
The Way screenshot
The Way screenshot
The Way screenshot
The Way screenshot
The Way screenshot
The Way screenshot
The Way screenshot
+5
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80%
Audience ScoreBased on 626 reviews
story215 positive mentions
grinding30 negative mentions
  • Beautiful pixel art and stunning environments evoke a strong nostalgic atmosphere reminiscent of classic cinematic platformers like Another World and Flashback.
  • Engaging, emotional story with themes of love, loss, and sacrifice effectively told through minimalistic narrative and environmental storytelling.
  • Challenging, well-designed puzzles that encourage logical thinking and reward patience; the soundtrack and sound design complement the game's immersive sci-fi setting.
  • Platforming sections often feature clunky, imprecise controls, unforgiving one-hit deaths, and sparse or poorly placed checkpoints, causing frustration and tedious repetition.
  • Some puzzles are obtuse or unintuitive, requiring trial and error or external guides, with certain long puzzles involving excessive backtracking and unclear objectives.
  • Later parts of the game have abrupt shifts in gameplay tone, including unwelcome bullet-hell and chase sequences that feel out of place and further exacerbate control and difficulty issues.
  • story
    442 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story is widely praised for its emotional depth, minimalist and atmospheric storytelling, and compelling sci-fi themes centered on love, loss, and sacrifice. While some find it captivating and integral to the experience, others feel it loses momentum midway or lacks depth and development, with an anticlimactic ending. Overall, it effectively drives player engagement through its artful presentation and mood, despite occasional narrative and pacing flaws.

    • “The narrative unfolds gradually, often without lengthy exposition, relying instead on environmental storytelling, brief encounters, and the player’s interpretation of events. This restrained approach gives the story a melancholic tone, allowing themes of love, obsession, loss, and sacrifice to resonate quietly beneath the surface of the gameplay.”
    • “You play as a father searching for his missing daughter in a post-apocalyptic world, exploring stunning landscapes and uncovering a touching story.”
    • “The story is beautiful, emotional, and strung through every moment of the game.”
    • “After a long (too long?) series of combat and platforming sessions, the plot suddenly rushes to a close.”
    • “The story telling and world building drops as new aliens appear for one scene and disappear, characters foreshadowed are just sequel bait after the credits, and cliche twists drive the game down.”
    • “All in all, it saddens me that a game with such a brilliant beginning (again, one of the best written and executed I've ever seen) gradually devolved into an uninspired succession of puzzles and action sequences, some even completely outside the context of the story.”
  • gameplay
    181 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of "The Way" blends precise platforming, challenging puzzles, and occasional combat, drawing heavy inspiration from classic cinematic platformers like Another World and Flashback. While the mechanics evolve thoughtfully and offer variety, many players find the platforming clunky, the difficulty punishing with frequent insta-deaths and sparse checkpoints, leading to frustration and trial-and-error gameplay that may test players' patience. Despite these flaws, puzzle design and atmosphere receive praise, making the gameplay rewarding for fans of demanding, old-school puzzle platformers.

    • “Gameplay blends platforming, puzzle-solving, and occasional combat into a cohesive whole.”
    • “Early on, the mechanics are relatively simple, but the game steadily introduces new tools and abilities that expand the complexity of both puzzles and traversal.”
    • “Challenges often require players to combine multiple mechanics, such as manipulating objects at a distance, redirecting energy, or positioning teleportation points with careful timing.”
    • “But: crappy, slow gameplay with frequent insta-death and infrequent checkpoints.”
    • “It's slow and absolutely padded with simple puzzles and gameplay elements.”
    • “Controls are not good at all (keyboard movement controls aren't good for platforming and my Xbox One controller didn't work for shooting at all even after rebinding the fire button), the save points are badly placed (forcing you to replay large swaths of a level after making one wrong control input at the end of a long sequence), and there are some questionable mechanical decisions (there is a final boss fight which introduces completely new mechanics for some reason).”
  • graphics
    180 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game features stunning, high-quality pixel art graphics that expertly blend retro aesthetics with modern lighting, creating a unique, atmospheric sci-fi world reminiscent of classics like Another World and Flashback. The visuals consistently receive praise for their detailed environments, cohesive art direction, and the strong mood they establish alongside the soundtrack, though some note occasional animation inconsistencies and a stylistic disconnect in movement. Overall, the graphics are widely regarded as a major highlight that deeply enhance the storytelling and immersive experience.

    • “Breathtaking visuals: the game's art style is stunning, with gorgeous environments.”
    • “The art style is used masterfully alongside some really good designs for an alien world that is completely unique.”
    • “The graphics, music and story come together perfectly to create a hauntingly beautiful world to explore and understand.”
    • “Ugly, outdated retro pixel graphics, that's why.”
    • “Sure, the developers will insist it's "art" because they saved a lot of money on hiring an artist or doing 3d graphics, but this is all really a tacit admission that they know it looks bad, they made it look bad on purpose because they simply weren't capable of making such a game with up to date graphics.”
    • “Infact even a few of the logic puzzles seem random because the graphics are so poorly thought out that you can barely see the connections.”
  • music
    179 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's music consistently receives high praise for its atmospheric, haunting, and immersive qualities, often compared to iconic scores like Vangelis' work on Blade Runner. Composed with ambient, melodic, and sci-fi synth elements, the soundtrack perfectly complements the pixel art visuals and enhances the emotional tone, mood, and overall player experience. While some find occasional repetition or volume issues in extended sections, the vast majority agree the music is a standout feature that elevates the game's mysterious and evocative atmosphere.

    • “The soundtrack complements this visual style perfectly, using ambient and melodic themes to underscore moments of solitude, danger, and emotional reflection.”
    • “A stunningly beautiful game, where vibrant pixel graphics meet one of the most atmospheric soundtracks I can remember!”
    • “The music has a mystical, alien quality, relying heavily on bizarre synthesizer effects, droning melodies, and haunting production.”
    • “The music is passable, but not remarkable, and unfortunately it is non-stop.”
    • “A few areas dragged on so long I was forced to go into the menu and lower the music audio because it was starting to get on my nerves.”
    • “Completely boring, the music is uninspired, and I've been stuck on the same jump for 20 minutes.”
  • atmosphere
    98 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game excels in creating a deeply immersive and atmospheric experience through its haunting, synth-driven soundtrack, richly detailed pixel art, and evocative world-building that blends sci-fi and emotional storytelling. Reviewers consistently praise its thoughtful, mysterious ambiance reminiscent of classic titles like Another World, highlighting how the art, music, and narrative cohesively build a compelling, otherworldly mood. While some mention gameplay frustrations, the atmosphere remains the game’s defining and most celebrated strength.

    • “The pixel art is sublime and the sense of scale is palpable in every scene along with its impeccable atmosphere punctuated by perfectly integrated music.”
    • “A stunningly beautiful game, where vibrant pixel graphics meet one of the most atmospheric soundtracks I can remember!”
    • “The audio is wonderfully atmospheric, giving a real Blade Runner vibe, and the story of the protagonist who can't get over the death of his wife gives it an emotional appeal.”
    • “The atmosphere felt so sad, lifeless, overall pretty good for this kind of a story.”
    • “It's rather good to say the least and does well to preserve the atmosphere of its inspiration.”
    • “The right atmosphere is created using the appropriate music and text description of objects (even the non-interactive ones).”
  • emotional
    54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game "The Way" delivers a deeply emotional and atmospheric experience centered on a father's quest in a post-apocalyptic world, with themes of family, loss, and sacrifice. Its touching narrative is enhanced by beautiful art and a haunting soundtrack, fostering strong player connection despite occasional gameplay frustrations. Overall, it stands out as a heartfelt indie title that effectively blends emotional storytelling with thoughtful design.

    • “You play as a father searching for his missing daughter in a post-apocalyptic world, exploring stunning landscapes and uncovering a touching story.”
    • “A deep emotionally touching story yet it is minimalistic as there are very few characters, it gives you a feeling of solitude letting you have deep empathy towards the protagonist and his quest.”
    • “The artwork is beautiful as anyone can see, the atmospheric music sets the stage, and a compelling, emotional narrative keeps nudging you forward until the end.”
  • grinding
    31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Grinding in the game is frequently described as tedious and frustrating, with slow, repetitive platforming and puzzles that often require trial-and-error retries leading to dull busywork. While some find the challenge nostalgic and engaging, many criticize the frequent backtracking, clunky controls, and poorly balanced checkpoints that amplify the grind. Overall, patience is needed to push through the slow pacing and repetitive gameplay elements.

    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “Playing a game shouldn't feel like a tedious chore.”
    • “The game is just tedious; the gameplay is very dull and boring. Buy this if you have an immense amount of patience.”
  • replayability
    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game offers around 10 to 11 hours of gameplay but has limited replay value overall. While some players find moderate replayability in exploring locales and optimizing puzzle completion, most agree it’s best enjoyed through a single playthrough.

    • “Replayability is decent.”
    • “To me the appeal for replayability comes from visiting the locales and trying to finish the puzzles as efficiently as possible.”
    • “There's not much replay value, but it's well worth a playthrough if you have the patience.”
    • “Also, there is no replay value in this.”
    • “It was 11 hours for me, and there's very limited replayability.”
    • “Tldr; awesome game with about 10 hours of gameplay and little replayability.”
  • stability
    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is mixed, with frequent crashes, glitches, and unresponsive controls reported, including save slot issues and occasional soft-locks. Minor graphical quirks and keyboard bugs also affect gameplay, alongside problematic DualShock 4 support. Despite these issues, many players find the overall experience enjoyable and hope for future patches to improve stability.

    • “The game is not really buggy, but the one bug I encountered actually kind of soft-locked me, or nearly soft-locked me, midway through the game.”
    • “Puzzles are great, smart and have no glitches.”
    • “This was a lovely game, but the version here on Steam is unmanageable for some reason: crashes, glitches, the resolution setting has a mind of its own, and the controls are very strangely unresponsive.”
    • “This game crashed multiple times for me and there were multiple save slot glitches that I faced, not to mention the annoying checkpoints during platforming sections.”
    • “Some keyboard glitches here and there (keys get stuck and you continue walking even without pressing the keys) and some minor graphical nuisances like a ladder that isn't obviously usable on a wall that you bypass easily will occasionally make you angry.”
  • optimization
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game shows some effort in optimization, but significant issues remain, such as frequent character deaths from minor falls and a poorly optimized progress system.

    • “The devs put some effort into optimization, too.”
    • “Your character dies from falling an inch down, progress system is very poorly optimized at various levels.”
  • humor
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game features classic, witty one-liners inspired by quotes from other games and movies, adding a nostalgic and familiar comedic touch.

  • character development
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development in the game is considered weak, with story and dialogue lacking depth. The setting is underdeveloped, which diminishes player immersion.

    • “Story, dialogue, and character development are a little lackluster, and the setting could have been explored more thoroughly to help immerse the players into the game and story.”
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65%Critics’ scoreBased on 2 critic reviews
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10h Median play time
8h Average play time
7-10h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 8 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

The Way is a arcade platformer game with science fiction theme.

The Way is available on PC, Mac OS, Xbox One, Windows and others.

On average players spend around 8 hours playing The Way.

The Way was released on May 20, 2016.

The Way was developed by Puzzling Dream.

The Way has received mostly positive reviews from both players and critics. Most players liked The Way for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

The Way is a single player game.

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