Path of Giants Switch Review – Ice Covered Puzzles

Path of Giants is a beautiful action puzzle game by Journey Bound Games. It is a unique twist on the puzzle genre, and it surprisingly adds story elements to keep your interest while the puzzles challenge your thinking. But does Path of Giants hold up against the other puzzle games you can buy on the eShop? Well, there is only one way to find out!

In Path of Giants, you take control of three different explorers: Bern, Matchi, and Totch. It is their goal to traverse the path of giants in search of lost treasure through the icy caverns and snow-covered cliffs.

The story is fairly simple, but what I really appreciated about Path of Giants is that Journey Bound Games did a fantastic job giving each of the three explorers personality and had them dialog frequently throughout the main campaign.

For puzzle games, this is a nice change of pace, as story elements (If there are any at all) are usually subject to the beginning and end of the campaign. But with Path of Giants, we get a lot more than that. We get to see three characters consistently interact and talk about what they were doing as they make their way through these puzzles together.

It is a nice story of teamwork, but it is also an abstract story about fantastical beings and the mystery surrounding them. Even though the game did not necessarily need this, it definitely helps to give it more substance and reason for clearing.

As far as gameplay goes, though, at its core, Path of Giants is a puzzle game, and a unique one at that. You control three different characters, and through varying ways move all three of them to their respective platforms in order to transfer to the next area.

The puzzles are fairly simple, but they definitely grow more difficult as the game progresses.

For example, in the first few areas, you are learning about climbing and using the three explorers as platforms for each other. Later on, colored platforms and switches come into play, which really mixes up the gameplay.

Stages consist of three different multilayered puzzles where you tap to control each character and move them to where you desire. At the end of each stage, you are presented with a circuit-like puzzle where you need to connect all three colors in the same line by flipping panels. It is a nice flow, and each stage takes a reasonable amount of time to clear, making this a great game on the go.

Speaking of which, Path of Giants is a significantly better experience in handheld mode thanks to the mobile-like touchscreen controls. A quick tap-tap will set the explorers in motion and onto their goals. Compared to docked mode or using JoyCons, which requires you to move a cursor with the left stick, the touchscreen controls are much more fluid and feel more natural.

Within each stage, there are also 3 hidden gold pieces for you to collect as well, giving you a little more to do in between puzzle solving. These gold pieces are rather easy to find, but it still brings a nice little extra fun to the mix and I rather enjoyed that.

There are also achievements to unlock for all you achievement hunters out there, but I did find that the achievements were not so challenging, as most of them unlocked naturally through normal gameplay. However, it is still a nice extra incentive to add more to an already wonderful package.

The ominous and haunting soundtrack of Path of Giants sets the tone really well and helps to immerse you in this world of mystery. I absolutely loved how the songs transition during each stage to give each area a more robust feel.

Sound effects and the explorers little voices are perfect and provide a cute-factor that helps balance the game’s intensity.

The game looks beautiful, and I love the layout and designs of each stage. All of the puzzles look amazing, and all of the clues you need to see are visible, as long as you are paying attention.

A cool feature in the settings is that you can change the colors of the explorers. Initially, they are green, blue, and orange, but each one can be three different colors, all of which look great and are quite vibrant.

As far as performance goes, Path of Giants runs like a dream. Loading times are minimal, I experienced no hiccups or lag, and there were zero graphical problems whatsoever.

Path of Giants is going to set you back $7.99, which is a little bit more than its STEAM and iOS counterparts. Despite that, I think the price tag is more than justified, and the game provides a good amount of bang for your buck.

You get 13 Main Story stages and 4 more extra stages that were originally DLC. There are over 80 puzzles included in these 17 stages, and all of them provide a great progressive challenge.

The only downside is that once you clear everything, there is very little reason to come back. However, since the price is so reasonable, I feel like the few hours you spend with the game are more than worth it. I highly recommend Path of Giants, especially if you are a fan of charming puzzle games, as this is definitely one of those.

Path of Giants Review provided by Nintendo Link
Publisher: Journey Bound Games
Release Date: April 14, 2020
Price: $7.99, £6.19, €7,39
Game Size: 283MB