The Way is a puzzle platformer about a man wanting to revive his dead wife.

I thought this was an interesting experience. I wish there were more games like it. The puzzles are all really good, the locations look great, the music is good, and I think that's what the game really got right.

However, I was kind of disappointed with the story and the other gameplay elements. The story is about as basic as it gets. Man's wife dies, he goes on a quest to an alien planet to bring her back to life. It's not even a big focus, oddly enough. Any development we get on the main character and his wife are minimal, and the story's main goal, it seems, is to just get the main character to new locations. To use a comparison, It's treating the story like a Mario game would, when it should treat it more like a Zelda game (If that makes any sense).

To make more comparisons, on a scale of NES Castlevania to Ori, The Way... runs past Castlevania. The controls are super stiff and you die from jumping like 10 feet down. Now, for the record, Castlevania III is one of my favorite games ever, because its level design and gameplay is built around those controls. While the level design is alright, and the controls work fine for puzzles, when it's trying action, the game is pretty dull. It doesn't go for action too much, but the game should've made all of its action scenes more puzzle-based if it wanted to have it at all.

I'd like to give this game a 6/10, but there's just too much I don't like. I wish there were more puzzle platformers like this that were actually good. I guess there's just not a market for this kind of game. If any of you guys know of games akin to this one, please let me know. Anyway, if The Way looks interesting to you, you might enjoy it, but there's a lot better you could play. If you want a sidescroller with good puzzles and story, play Iconoclasts.

Seriously, an average rating of 2.8? Really? I found The Way to be a somber but captivating 2D adventure similar in gameplay and controls to Another World and in atmosphere to The Dig.

The Way casts you as an unnamed astronaut, traveling to a far-away planet in search of the sector to eternal life. Along for the ride is his late wife, encased in a glass container that keeps her from decomposing. The essentials of the story are told early on, with the bulk of the game having you spelunk your way through alien temples in search of the mysterious McGuffin. But as days turn into weeks, into months, into years, into decades even you can feel the astronaut becoming more embittered and desperate in his quest.

The pixel graphics are gorgeous, taking you through lush jungles and decrepit alien installations, with an ambient and serene soundtrack underscoring the exotic locations. As for the gameplay, puzzles are challenging but far from impossible. To help you solve the game's mysteries you're equipped with a strange orb artifact. Its four distinct abilities help you traverse the many obstacles and deadly traps, like short-range teleporting or telekinesis. However, much thought has been put into making the various problems unique, which means that you rarely (if ever) feel like you're treading water with variations on the same set of puzzles.

The Way's biggest problem is its somewhat stiff and clunky controls. Most of the time they work fine, but come up short on a couple of occasions like the handful of platform jumping puzzles thrown into the mix. They're few enough for you to cool down pretty quickly, but good lord are some of them frustrating. Like a god-awful desert trek, with a sand monster ready to pounce at you if your timing is off by just a half-second. I'll admit that I was ready to walk away after 20 minutes of dying on the same damned screen. Glad I didn't though.