Gameplay
''Pathways into Darkness'' is a first-person shooter and adventure game. The game interface consists of four windows. The primary "World View" shows the player character's first-person perspective. Players move, dodge, fire, and use weapons and items using the computer keyboard (computing), keyboard. The "Inventory" window displays items players have acquired, the "Message" window relates events and the in-game time, and the "Player" window displays health and energy information. The game clock runs constantly during gameplay, except when in conversation; the player loses the game if the sleeping god wakes after a set period of time. Players fight various monsters as they explore the pyramid's halls and catacombs. They may pick up weapons and ammunition left behind by others to supplement their arsenal. As additional levels are unlocked, new weapons become available, including machine guns and grenade launchers. Players can absorb a certain amount of damage, but once their health reaches zero, they must resume their progress at the last saved checkpoint. Resting in place replenishes health but saps game time and leaves the player open to attack. Scattered throughout the levels are other items players may use. Potions have different effects: rare blue potions, for example, rid the player character of poison and damage. Other items provide money, or points that increases the player character's maximum health. Crystals can be used against enemies to freeze, burn, or otherwise harm them. Through the use of the yellow crystal, players can converse with Previously Living Sentient Beings or "PLSBs". Conversations provide players with puzzle information, strategies for defeating monsters, and story background. Rather than relying on a branching tree of conversation options, players type keywords into a dialogue box. When a certain keyword (typically found in a previous statement by the dead person in question) is entered, the dead person will give a response. The manual gives a starting point by mentioning that all dead people respond to "name" and "death", by giving their name and describing how they died, respectively.Plot
''Pathways'' casts the player as a member of a Special Forces (United States Army), US Army Special Forces team sent on a mission to the Yucatán Peninsula. On May 5, 1994, a diplomat from the alien race known as the Jjaro appeared to the President of the United States and informed him that on May 13, an ancient godlike being sleeping beneath a pyramid would awaken and destroy the Earth. The only way to prevent this catastrophe is to prevent the god from awakening. The eight-man Special Forces team carries a nuclear weapon, with the goal of entering the ancient pyramid, descending to the bottom level where the god sleeps, and activating the bomb to stun the god and bury it under tons of rock. The player character's parachute fails to open, and they fall unconscious in the landing. Awakening hours later, the player finds almost all their equipment inoperable. Reaching the pyramid on foot hours after the rest of their team, the player must complete the mission before the god awakens in five days. In the pyramid, the player finds bodies of squad-mates, the remains of Spanish language, Spanish-speaking treasure hunters, and fallen members of a Nazi Germany, Nazi expedition from the 1930s who were looking for a secret weapon. Additional plot elements can be revealed by speaking to these dead, enabled by the yellow crystal. The game's ending changes depending on whether the player has a Electric beacon, radio beacon to call for extraction, and when the nuclear device is set to explode. Forgetting to set the bomb, or setting it to explode at any time past the awakening of the dreaming god, results in Earth's destruction. The device's detonation before the player reaches a minimum safe distance results in a pyrrhic victory. The most favorable endings are achieved by leaving the pyramid with a beacon for evacuation at least twenty game minutes before the device is set to go off, or without a beacon if the game ends with enough time for the player to escape on foot.Development
''Pathways'' was Bungie's fourth game and third commercial title, archived aReception
''Pathways'' was a critical success. Inside Mac Games reviewer Jon Blum wrote in 1993 that ''Pathways'' was "one of the best Macintosh games I've ever played". ''Computer Gaming World'' described ''Pathways'' as "a dungeon crawl, pure and simple". While describing the game before obtaining a gun as "tedious" and criticizing the small number of save points per level, the magazine praised the "simple, elegant and easy to use" user interface and "excellent" graphics and sound. ''Computer Gaming World'' concluded that while "somewhat weak on actual game play", ''Pathways'' was "a job worthy of a strong recommendation". ''Macworld''s Steven Levy commented that the gameplay and graphics were extremely smooth. He singled out the creatures for specific praise, likening them to "something that might have come from a brain-merge of Tim Burton, Anne Rice and Hieronymus Bosch" instead of simple line drawings. Complaints and criticisms of the game included the difficulty level; Blum found some segments too difficult and that it was possible to spend hours playing before realizing that the player had made an irreversible mistake. Jones admitted that the game was harder than he intended. The title received several awards, including Inside Mac Games' "Adventure Game of the Year" and ''Macworld''s "Best Role-Playing Game", and was listed on the ''MacUser'' 100. ''Pathways'' sold more than 20,000 copies, beating expectations and making it Bungie's first commercial success. It was the third bestselling Macintosh title of the first half of 1994 after ''Myst'' and ''Sim City 2000'', with projected seven-figure sales for the year. The game made Bungie enough money that the company was able to move from Seropian's apartment to a dedicated office in Chicago's South Side (Chicago), South Side. At their new location, the Bungie team expanded and began work on another first-person shooter, ''Marathon Trilogy, Marathon''. Interviewed by Inside Mac Games, Jones said that he did not believe that there would ever be a sequel to ''Pathways''. "There's a lot of reasons for that, one of them being that I tend to dislike sequels," he said, "A lot of cool things have happened with the rendering technology since ''Pathways'' shipped, and it suggests some different products which don't really fit into the ''Pathways'' world." ''Pathways'' would later be bundled in a box set with the ''Marathon'' series in 1997. A Mac OS X port of the game was produced by Man Up Time Studios in 2013, members of whom were early Bungie fans that became acquainted with the company through ''Pathways''.References
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