path of giants is a fantastic puzzle game, a bit on the easy side, so perfect for the whole family. there's practically nothing to criticize about it, and I'm the nitpickiest person I know.

the story is fine for a game like this, 3 guys (they look and sound like jawas) are hunting for some treasure, good luck. there's a bit of chit-chat before some levels and a nicely-drawn intro and outro, so what little narrative there is, it's presented pleasantly.

the three amigos all have their own colors (which can be changed if need be), and the goal on each level is to help them assist each other to reach the end of the area and open the door to the next one, eventually leading to something shiny.

controls are excellent. mouse and controller both work, I used the former, and while nothing's rebindable, I couldn't find a fault in pointing & clicking. select the desired character, tell them where to go, that's it. right click is instantaneous unlimited undo and zooming is also a possibility with the mouse wheel, but there's no need for it, everything's clearly visible. you can tilt the camera a little to the left and right as well, which isn't much use either, but it's there.

every level has 3 or 4 regular puzzles, each taking up a single screen, and there's another one on the door leading to the next area. the creatures start on the left and have to reach the right side and their respective destination based on their jacket color. they can't do much on their own, walk around and climb ladders is pretty much it, can't even climb rocks only a bit taller than them, so they're in constant need of each other, but they don't mind climbing on each other's head to reach another platform or climb off one.

there will be a lot of moving around, stepping on color-coded pressure plates for a temporary effect, activating switches that permanently change the area (these can be used by anyone), going through doors that are basically teleporters, or entering wooden elevators and abusing the pulley system. there are also colored tiles that only appear when that particular character is selected, but even if you leave them in the middle of one of these bridges and switch to someone else, they won't fall down.

no timer, no timing, no enemies, no move limit, no permanent fail-states due to unlimited undo right until the beginning of the current puzzle, and the game even tells you if you painted yourself into a corner, time to go back a few steps and re-think the strategy.

at the end of each level there's a pipemania-like puzzle to open the door, and blocks can be rotated clockwise and counter-clockwise with left and right click, something even games entirely focused on rotating stuff can't always manage, and the door puzzles aren't that intricate, so it wouldn't be a huge deal if only one direction was available.

there are also pots to break, serving as collectibles to unlock some bonus content. several of them are scattered around the levels, some sneakily in the background, but only 3 of them count, the rest can be broken for fun.

the main story consists of 12 levels, and with all the coins collected from the pots, a hidden chamber opens up to conclude the narrative, plus 4 bonus levels, making it 17 levels in total, 4 or 5 puzzles on each, as I already mentioned. it's not a difficult game, the bonus levels are slightly trickier though. pulleys and rotating wheels always confuse me and they had me stumped here a few times as well, but nothing too taxing. completing everything takes about 5 hours.

it's worth noting that the game doesn't waste your time. animations are just the right speed, don't take too long, and no need to wait for one character to finish moving, others can be controlled in the meantime, unless they're in each other's path or otherwise blocked, of course. also, progress is saved after every puzzle, so if you have to quit mid-level, you can, just make sure it's not in the middle of the current puzzle, as it'll get reset next time the level is loaded.

the presentation is perfect as well. I mentioned the cutscenes already and I loved the look of the levels, great art style, not too busy, really charming, cute animations, the music is beautiful, the sound effects are good too.

gibberish during dialog is one of my biggest pet peeves. I've had to pass on entire games because they couldn't offer voiceovers or simply blessed silence and I couldn't even finish watching the trailer, let alone spend several hours listening to it, but in this game even gibberish is done right and a separate speech slider got patched in just before release, so you can mute only that if you want while still having music and sound effects.

besides separate volume sliders, there's one for camera shake, dialog can be turned off entirely, windowed mode and resolution options are available, as well as colorblind options when selecting jacket colors for the characters. there's an in-game representation of achievements and level selection. individual puzzle selection, in fact, don't even need to replay the whole level in case you missed a pot or just want to play a puzzle again, simply select a checkpoint. and everything can be accessed while playing, not just from the main menu.

can't emphasize enough how well-put-together the whole game is. all the settings, attention to detail, small quality of life stuff nobody would miss except for me, but they're all there. this is how you port a mobile game to pc, but most pc developers could learn a lot from it as well. also about how to make stress-free puzzle games that don't waste your time. highly recommended, especially at this price.

[b]path of giants[/b] is a fantastic puzzle game, a bit on the easy side, so perfect for the whole family. there's practically nothing to criticize about it, and I'm the nitpickiest person I know. the story is fine for a game like this, 3 guys (they look and sound like jawas) are hunting for some treasure, good luck. there's a bit of chit-chat before some levels and a nicely-drawn intro and outro, so [b]what little narrative there is, it's presented pleasantly.[/b] the three amigos all have their own colors (which can be changed if need be), and the goal on each level is to help them assist each other to reach the end of the area and open the door to the next one, eventually leading to something shiny. [b]controls are excellent.[/b] mouse and controller both work, I used the former, and while nothing's rebindable, I couldn't find a fault in pointing & clicking. select the desired character, tell them where to go, that's it. right click is instantaneous [b]unlimited undo[/b] and zooming is also a possibility with the mouse wheel, but there's no need for it, everything's clearly visible. you can tilt the camera a little to the left and right as well, which isn't much use either, but it's there. every level has 3 or 4 regular puzzles, each taking up a single screen, and there's another one on the door leading to the next area. the creatures start on the left and have to reach the right side and their respective destination based on their jacket color. they can't do much on their own, walk around and climb ladders is pretty much it, can't even climb rocks only a bit taller than them, so they're in [b]constant need of each other[/b], but they don't mind climbing on each other's head to reach another platform or climb off one. there will be a lot of moving around, stepping on color-coded pressure plates for a temporary effect, activating switches that permanently change the area (these can be used by anyone), going through doors that are basically teleporters, or entering wooden elevators and abusing the pulley system. there are also colored tiles that only appear when that particular character is selected, but even if you leave them in the middle of one of these bridges and switch to someone else, they won't fall down. [b]no timer, no timing, no enemies, no move limit, no permanent fail-states[/b] due to unlimited undo right until the beginning of the current puzzle, and the game even tells you if you painted yourself into a corner, time to go back a few steps and re-think the strategy. at the end of each level there's a [b]pipemania-like puzzle[/b] to open the door, and [b]blocks can be rotated clockwise and counter-clockwise[/b] with left and right click, something even games entirely focused on rotating stuff can't always manage, and the door puzzles aren't that intricate, so it wouldn't be a huge deal if only one direction was available. there are also [b]pots to break, serving as collectibles to unlock some bonus content[/b]. several of them are scattered around the levels, some sneakily in the background, but only 3 of them count, the rest can be broken for fun. the main story consists of 12 levels, and with all the coins collected from the pots, a hidden chamber opens up to conclude the narrative, plus 4 bonus levels, making it [b]17 levels in total, 4 or 5 puzzles on each[/b], as I already mentioned. it's not a difficult game, the bonus levels are slightly trickier though. pulleys and rotating wheels always confuse me and they had me stumped here a few times as well, but nothing too taxing. [b]completing everything takes about 5 hours.[/b] it's worth noting that [b]the game doesn't waste your time[/b]. animations are just the right speed, don't take too long, and no need to wait for one character to finish moving, others can be controlled in the meantime, unless they're in each other's path or otherwise blocked, of course. also, [b]progress is saved after every puzzle, so if you have to quit mid-level, you can[/b], just make sure it's not in the middle of the current puzzle, as it'll get reset next time the level is loaded. [b]the presentation is perfect as well.[/b] I mentioned the cutscenes already and I loved the look of the levels, great art style, not too busy, really charming, cute animations, [b]the music is beautiful[/b], the sound effects are good too. gibberish during dialog is one of my biggest pet peeves. I've had to pass on entire games because they couldn't offer voiceovers or simply blessed silence and I couldn't even finish watching the trailer, let alone spend several hours listening to it, but in this game [b]even gibberish is done right[/b] and a separate speech slider got patched in just before release, so you can mute only that if you want while still having music and sound effects. besides separate volume sliders, there's one for camera shake, dialog can be turned off entirely, windowed mode and resolution options are available, as well as colorblind options when selecting jacket colors for the characters. there's an in-game representation of achievements and level selection. individual puzzle selection, in fact, don't even need to replay the whole level in case you missed a pot or just want to play a puzzle again, simply select a checkpoint. and [b]everything can be accessed while playing, not just from the main menu[/b]. can't emphasize enough how well-put-together the whole game is. all the settings, attention to detail, small quality of life stuff nobody would miss except for me, but they're all there. [b]this is how you port a mobile game to pc[/b], but most pc developers could learn a lot from it as well. also about how to make stress-free puzzle games that don't waste your time. highly recommended, especially at this price.