Review: Stories: The Path of Destinies

Audience constantly wants to see in the video games non-linear stories: here you killed someone - and the story develops quite differently. But few of the developers offered to pereprohodit games in different ways and at the same time constantly see the consequences of their actions, try different solutions. In Stories: The Path of Destinies, that's exactly what happens.

The main character here is the cunning fox of Reynardo who seeks to intervene in the plans of the emperor arranging dark rituals for the awakening of the ancient gods. The first fork appears almost instantly, and decisions are made after each of the five small chapters (although sometimes it has to be done at other times). Save a friend or go in search of a powerful weapon? Capture someone or take them to all four sides? Such questions will arise constantly.

The first pass will take about an hour, after which the user will be returned to the very beginning of the book of fairy tales. The fact is that you can get to a good ending only in one way, and many forks only appear after several attempts. Therefore, pereprohodit all will have time after time, constantly choosing different paths, and at the same time and better understanding the motives of the characters. If you side with one or the other character, a lot of new information will become known about it - it is the use of these data and helps you find the best ending.

For example, if someone turns out to be a villain, the narrator will constantly remember this, even while reading out the stories that were heard during past passages. In total, there are four "Truths" that can lead to the "right" finale. Sometimes some decision leads to the death of Reynardo, and in this case the player either starts all over again, or must complete the chapter again, without repeating the same mistakes. It may seem as if the plot turns into porridge because of this, but there are not so many heroes here to get confused in names.

To visit old locations is necessary not only to understand history, but also to search for secrets hidden behind the doors of various colors. Reynardo carries with him several swords and with their help opens the locks. But only a fiery sword will allow to penetrate into the room, the entrance to which is guarded by the fire door. The Fox receives new cold weapons with the help of "crafting", collecting the necessary resources from the chests and broken vases, and each of the four swords can include additional spontaneous damage for faster destruction of enemies.
And they will have to fight with them all the time, as opponents meet at every step. Reinardo can swing a sword, but he has to learn a lot from scratch, since he has long since retired and lived a quiet life. Therefore, after a couple of skirmishes, he earns experience points that can be spent on all sorts of improvements, of which there are a lot of Stories . Increase the health reserve, increase the damage from counterattacks, make the speed of movement higher - there are many options, and many of them greatly simplify the passage. In addition, you can buy the opportunity to bounce several times to the side - then immediately recalled Hyper Light Drifter (although there the hero could jump back and forth without any restrictions). 
Among the opponents there are ravens of several types: ordinary, beating with simple attacks, and wearing shields or treating their allies. There are also strange fire creatures that release flames and explode after their death. Regardless of the type of opponent, the battle with him will look the same as with all the others: hit, bounced, hit. You can diversify the fights, using a hook and attracting opponents, but think of something else will not happen at all desire - some special magic the main character is not trained. But he can parry attacks, for which it is enough to reject the stick on the gamepad in the right direction, if an icon appeared over the enemy's head. "Boevka" is not boring, but because of the monotony of the enemies and the absence of any differences between the first and the fiftieth fight, you want to finish fights with time as soon as possible.

Because of this, the narrative suffers a little - if the user wants to make another decision in the fourth chapter, leaving the same choices in the first three, he will still have to go all the way from the very beginning and clean out the already seen locations again. Fortunately, the narrator perfectly performs his work and constantly entertains the player: he will give a joke about foxes, he will emotionally describe what is happening, then he will funnyly voice the characters in different voices. Given that in Stories there are already twenty-four endings, you can imagine how large the work done. And let the jokes here are sometimes trivial (yes, about the fact that the fox with a fiery sword is firefox, they will also say), sometimes they even make a smile.
With love, the authors approached artistic design. The story is told through a book of fairy tales with perfectly drawn illustrations, and while traveling the world, Reinardo visits beautiful and often bright locations. They are all linear, and finding multi-colored doors is not difficult, although leading to hidden chests of forks sometimes occur. The only thing that does not look good is the interface: it looks too sloppy, and subtitles can not be read while being on the menu or doing "crafting". Afflicted and prolonged downloads on the PlayStation 4 - on personal computers they are not so long.

Rate: 7/10