Pathways Into Darkness

Pathways Into Darkness is a first-person shooter game. It has a well-constructed story that serves to trigger the action.

Your role is that of a member of an assault team. Your mission is to prevent a global catastrophe by destroying a creature that sleeps beneath an ancient pyramid. The thing is that you were left behind by your team, so it is you alone, with only a knife and a flashlight, in charge of blowing the pyramid with a nuclear device. However, there are many dangers ahead, so you will need to kill any evil creature and grab any useful or valuable item, such as various types of weapons, keys, crystals and treasures.

The game is definitely challenging; probably too difficult for some users, who could never get to the end. It takes a lot of time and patience to fulfill your mission. It is easy to get lost in the maze, even with automapping on. What is more, you may get killed by the abundant dangerous creatures or you can simply forget to pick an indispensable item. Regrettably, it is not possible to switch to a lower level of difficulty.

The game interface is somewhat different from those of other similar games. There are four windows. In this respect, you can see the character in 3D view as he advances through the maze inside the pyramid. The Inventory window shows a list of the items he has collected. Likewise, there is the Message window to show events as well as the Player window with information about the character's health and energy levels. The character's movement are controlled via arrow keys with total freedom to move and rotate.

Technically speaking, I would say the game's sound effects are much better than its visual design. Probably because it is actually a resurrection of an old game, its graphics look outdated compared with those of other similar games.

All in all, Pathways Into Darkness can be both challenging and frustrating, much of this depends on your skills. I would not recommended to young children or sensitive people, as it is certainly too violent. The product is available from the Mac App Store at no cost.