MIND: Path to Thalamus

For a game made by a team of any size, Mind: Path to Thalamus would be incredibly impressive. For a game made by such a small independent team, it's a masterstroke. Stunning, intelligent, fun, with wonderful puzzle mechanics and a thought provoking denouement, Mind: Path to Thalamus is a game that deserves to be remembered for a long time to come.

This is not the biggest game ever, but the price is not too big either. This game will take you about six to seven hours and there is some additional gameplay, so it is definitely worth trying.

A great "adventure puzzle game" with strong narrative and beautiful art.

Mind: Path to Thalamus offers memorable locations, great well-thought mechanics and intelligent puzzles with an almost perfect curve of difficulty.

MIND is a great-looking first-person puzzler with a nice atmosphere and promising but flawed gameplay that’s often held hostage to a narrative that falls flat on its face.

Mind: Path to Thalamus is, at times, messy, but it’s a beautiful mess, one that still exhibits powerful moments of emotional impact that are so true to the game and the medium that it’s almost painful.

Three years in the making, Mind: Path to Thalamus is a valiant effort on the part of Carlos Coronado. There are moments that impress, but the parts all add up to a mediocre story shoe-horned into a mediocre first person puzzler. I encourage the development team to keep it up, but I can’t really recommend this one as a must see.

This game shows how you can create something great if a person wants. A big video game of puzzles, without helps neither tutorial that make a great experience of game, i'm waiting a Spanish version.

MIND: Path to Thalamus to intrygujący tytuł, który łączy w sobie cechy kilku gatunków - z zagadkami logicznymi na czele. Fabuła potrafi jednak momentami znużyć, a powtarzane wciąż monologi głównego bohatera nieźle zirytować. Ukończenie gry zajęło mi natomiast około 5 i pół godziny (gdyby nie zagadki logiczne, czas ten byłby zapewne o połowę krótszy). Historia opowiedziana w tej produkcji nie jest w końcu aż taka zła, można było ją jednak nieco dopracować - tak, by szła w parze z całkiem niezłą rozgrywką. Nie każdy tytuł musi być przecież idealny, prawda? Wtedy szybko byśmy się nimi wszystkimi znudzili… Grę możecie nabyć tutaj. Plusy: + surrealistyczny świat, który momentami wygląda rewelacyjnie + intrygujące i nieźle zaprojektowane lokacje + całkiem przyjemne zagadki logiczne + momentami ścieżka dźwiękowa i grafika Minusy: – niedopracowany wątek fabularny – irytujące monologi głównego bohatera – finałowe starcie i zakończenie Pełna recenzja dostępna jest na blogu ****

I am quite a big fan of the emerging genre of story-driven adventure games: or walking simulators as the skeptics like to say. However they could hardly call that the case in Mind Path to Thalamus. This game actually blends heavy narrative elements with a bunch of puzzles. Its a unique combination thats has never really been split as evenly as they are in this title. Caught in a dream like state you must solve various challenges to reawaken your cognitive functions while battling your emotions regarding your tragic past. In my mind the story is the highlight of this experience. There isn't too much I can say as I don't want to spoil anything. The game starts with a hurricane crashing down on your home and you go charging in looking for your daughter Sophia. Immediately after you find you yourself in a strange land hoping from one landscape to the next. The protagonist is clearly going through a lot of turmoil and has a very dark outlook. The narrative starts out quite vague and hard to follow but as you progress it becomes more and more clear what is troubling your character. In order to recuperate you'll have to put your mind back together through a series of puzzles. The core mechanic revolves around these little tumbleweed balls. You must move the balls to different parts of the level to activate various features such as rain to lift bridges and darkness to open various gateways. Its a really simple idea that is milked for all its worth throughout this adventure. The difficulty doesn't seem quite as balanced as it could have been with many puzzles being quite easy while some are a bit frustrating. From a narrative perspective the puzzles actually seem purposeful. I'm used to story-driven adventure games typically being more relaxing so it was quite a different experience trying to solve puzzles at the same time. For the easier puzzles it wasn't so bad but two or three of the harder ones kind of pulled me out of my immersion in the story. I think the main problem is that this isn't a particularly long game. That is no surprise for a well polished indie game however in other puzzle centered games there is usually more time to train your brain on how to gradually get better at the puzzles. Mind Path to Thalamus was an interesting experience. Visually it isn't as stunning as some of its predecessors but some of the panoramic scenes are quite striking. I really grew to like the story and I found the protagonist's struggles quiet interesting. The puzzles are definitely a unique addiction to the genre and most of them are quite enjoyable. The tougher puzzles may disengage you from the experience but once you see them through you'll be right back **** in. This definitely wasn't the smoothest ride I've been on but I'm glad I saw it through to the end.

It's impressive it was created with such a tiny design team, and the atmosphere and audio are nice, but there are several major annoyances which sadly spoil the game. Firstly there are game breaking "collision" bugs. If you use or drop the puzzle sphere in the wrong place it can bounce out of range (or even fall through the floor) so you have to restart. Secondly, I suffered from highly distracting chronic screen tearing even with both the game options and GFX drivers forced VSync to "on". Other people on the net complaining about the same thing, and yes this is the proper release not an "early access build". Thirdly, keys are not remappable (a relatively simple feature) and are inconsistent. Up and down arrows move forward and back, but left and right arrows "turn" instead of strafe (but WASD work as expected and strafe not turn). Finally, the biggest annoyance is no quick save. Some of us have busy schedules and can only "snatch" 10-15mins during certain periods. If it takes 16mins to complete a chapter and you quit just 30 seconds before completion, you'll have to restart the whole chapter over again. What are us busy people supposed to do, not game at all until we have a clear 5 hours? Come on people, this is 2014 PC gaming not 1986 cartridge based consoles. Even Doom in 1993 had a QuickSave feature, as have many other small-dev Indie games over the years using the same Unreal engine... End score = I would have given 8 out of 10 without the 4 annoyances, but it shrinks to 4 out of 10 with them as combined they make the game highly frustrating rather than fluid and enjoyable.

Yet another pretentious artsy walking simulator, a-la Gone Home and Dear Esther. There is no actual substance in this "game", and nothing interesting happens.