Road Not Taken Reviews

Road Not Taken is ranked in the 56th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
6.5 / 10.0
Aug 18, 2014

The entire game just boils down to pairing together items to save children. The narrative aspect of Road Not Taken is surprisingly thoughtful for its style of gameplay, but there isn't much to keep players engaged, nor is there any kind of incentive to keep playing after Year 15. On top of this, the game-stopping glitches we encountered should not have been an issue for a game this light on the PS4 hardware. Nevertheless, Road Not Taken is still a solid, if unspectacular puzzler on its own.

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7 / 10
Aug 15, 2014

But that isn't the problem with the puzzler, however; difficulty in and of itself is not criticism. Though the beasties change – and the increased difficulty with each round will definitely get you thinking – the game itself never does. Its art style, tone and unique gameplay all make for a fascinating experience that you should certainly give a try, but it's hard to ignore the sense of repetition you'll encounter as you play. Randomly generated puzzles results in increased replayability, but it also means a lack of variety – and that forms the ultimate demise of Road Not Taken when it is so clear there is a direction, an end goal, a climax. Original and novel it is, but there just simply isn't enough reward to keep you going against the odds.

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Aug 14, 2014

Road Not Taken is an insidiously clever randomly generated puzzle game that stumbles sometimes around awkward design.

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7 / 10.0
Aug 12, 2014

It's amazing how sometimes the simplest of puzzle ideas can turn chaotically complex. Road Not Taken is definitely one of these games; don't let its cutesy art style fool you in the slightest. Or the raccoons. Pro tip: you see a raccoon, find a way to build a fire and make raccoon soup as fast as you can.

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CGMagazine
Jason D’Aprile
Top Critic
8 / 10.0
Aug 12, 2014

The game's underlying dialogue and storyline is engagingly downbeat and adult.

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7 / 10.0
Aug 11, 2014

When I first started playing Road Not Taken, I was completely enamored by its premise, style, and world. Slowly, bit by bit, I started having a little less fun as the levels progressed, as the game's initial intrigue wore off a little more. That's not to say it eventually becomes unplayable as I did enjoy the majority of the game, but make sure to bring extra patience along with you on this trip through the beaten path.

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7 / 10.0
Aug 11, 2014

Road Not Taken might not always be successful in making players feel remorseful for paths avoided, but the game itself stands as one journey that at least everyone should attempt; if only to expose themselves to the game's frustrating, yet undeniably fresh idiosyncrasies.

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Aug 10, 2014

Although punishingly difficult, Road Not Taken's charming graphics, engaging story and unique gameplay make it more than worth the pain.

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Aug 10, 2014

Despite its often infuriating difficulty, Road Not Taken is a fascinating journey where how you play it makes all the difference.

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8 / 10.0
Aug 10, 2014

Road Not Taken proved to be a very unique game for its genre, or genres actually. The interesting marriage of what could feel like a mobile title, with the punishing difficulty and creative narrative of a console indie makes Road Not Taken a great game to have in your PS4 library. Also, in the Book of Secrets, this is the note under goat says "Goats eat flowers and then poop. Why? Because they are goats. Stop trying to change the world," and how can you go wrong with that?  

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7.6 / 10.0
Aug 8, 2014

Road Not Taken is an interesting little game. It's tough and sometimes even unforgiving, and I should add that it's not entirely stable. I came across several bugs in the game and it crashed on me twice, so that should be mentioned.

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8 / 10.0
Aug 7, 2014

Road Not Taken might not have too much in common with the Frost-written poem with which it shares a name, but it does manage to deliver a meditation on the value of choices and the importance of making the right ones, while also offering the player a complex layer of actual game mechanics to explore.

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7 / 10
Aug 6, 2014

These reservations aside, Road Not Taken is fresh, interesting, beautifully presented and demonstrates an intricacy of design that will obsess a certain type of player. It's an acquired taste, though, despite its popular ingredients.

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Unscored
Aug 6, 2014

It's unquestionably smart, almost intolerably cute, and splendidly novel. I'm not quite convinced the balancing is right, and think the levels become too cluttered, too quickly. But it remains completely lovely to play despite it.

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ZTGD
Top Critic
8.5 / 10.0
Aug 6, 2014

The combination of the small decisions and details that go into tackling each level, alongside the grander themes of opportunities gained and lost, is a quality that makes Road Not Taken a cut above most puzzle games.

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8 / 10
Aug 5, 2014

Road Not Taken is a game that you should not take lightly. It is a challenging puzzle game with big cuddly scary teddy bears, little white rabbits and scary Witches. It is hours of fun and frustration. Thanks to the shrines, you are able to stop at any point and come back later to pick up where you left off.

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7.3 / 10.0
Aug 5, 2014

Rogue-like puzzling is a brave experiment, but the results can be frustrating

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IGN
Top Critic
6.7 / 10.0
Aug 5, 2014

Road Not Taken is an fun mix of puzzling and roguelike, but it doesn't have much staying power.

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3 / 5.0
Aug 5, 2014

Road Not Taken is a decidedly "okay" experience, as its strategic gameplay is fundamentally flawed from the very beginning. Matching puzzles and roguelike mechanics make for an annoying combination, as the core gameplay isn't exciting enough to bring players back for more.

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6 / 10
Aug 5, 2014

It has some interesting ideas, but Road Not Taken is too often both frustrating and confusing.

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