I'm a terrible guy to preview games, because I'm a big whiny baby when it comes to spoilers. A few years ago, I was despondent at having to preview BioShock, a game I didn't want spoiled in any way. So when I showed up for a demo with the developers, I refused to let them show me anything. I told them to just start playing the game from the beginning and I'd watch. When I previewed the Mines of Moria expansion for Lord of the Rings Online, I asked the developers not to show me any of Moria. I'm currently under a self-imposed press blackout for MadWorld, so don't expect to read anything about it here until it comes out.

So here I am trying to preview for you The Path, a game about which I know next to nothing. What I can tell you is why I know next to nothing about it. In other words, I can tell you what made me immediately close my web browser, decide to read nothing more about the game, and mark March 18th on my calendar.

Read about The Path after the jump.

It was that screenshot up there. Let me explain.

If you pick through the website for The Path, you might get the impression that this is just another American McGee "HEY, SEE HOW DARK I AM!" twist on an old fairy tale. Some of the artwork looks typical of American McGee's Alice. In other worlds, sullen little girls with too much eyeliner. Also, consider this description from the developers at Tale of Tales in Belgium:

The Path is a short horror game inspired by older versions of Little Red Ridinghood, set in modern day. The Path offers an atmospheric experience of exploration, discovery and introspection through a unique form of gameplay, designed to immerse you deeply into its dark themes. Every interaction in the game expresses an aspect of the narrative. The six protagonists each have their own age and personality and allow the player to live through the tale in different ways. Most of the story, however, relies on your active imagination.

But dig a little deeper. The grandmothers-house.net site lets you click on images of each of the six versions of the protagonist, who seem to be Little Red Riding Hoods at different stages in her life. Each one has her own page, decorated like a scrap book with images and bits of text. If you start with Ruby, one of the older girls, you get "night is a space where even the soul can expand", which is truly worthy of someone's terrible LiveJournal poetry. But work your way backwards through the younger girls. Ginger squeals, "I hate the stupid stuff with kissing and happy smiles and dressing up pretty". Robin, the youngest and most traditional Little Red Riding Hood, says "I heard a howling in the woods today. A singing wolf!" Scroll down and you'll see she mentions a tickle in her belly and wishes she could just go hug the wolf.

Each of the girl's pages also includes opinions on the other girls. The basic feel is a group of sisters with different perspectives. Could this be a videogame with fully developed female characters? If this sort of writing is present in the game, I have to wonder if The Path might live up to its own blurb, particularly if it's short enough to emphasize the writing rather than trying to pad out the gameplay.

But a videogame isn't a book, so it's really encouraging to see some wonderful artwork, which seems to go much deeper and wider than the first impression of American McGee edginess. When I saw that screenshot posted at the top of this already-too-long entry, I immediately thought of Edward Gorey, whose illustrations and stories are dark disturbing images about lost childhoods. Is this what the creators of The Path are onto?

I emailed them to ask. It turns out they'd never even heard of Edward Gorey, who must not be very big in Belgium. But on Monday, I'll tell you what I discovered in the ensuing email exchange, which finally sealed the deal that I want to know nothing more about The Path until I can actually play it.