The folks who made The Path (reviewed here) have released Fatale, their next game. Well, "game". They'll be the first to tell you they're not doing what most people do when they make a game. And they're not doing it even more with Fatale.

I have no idea what's going on with Fatale, but after spending about twenty minutes with it, I do know it's got none of the advantages of The Path. The Path began with an immediate and powerful hook and an inviting setting. You chose from among several little girls, all distinct and expressively presented. You were then dropped at the edge of the woods with a simple and clear task: get to Grandmother's house. These are familiar gaming tropes. Choose your character. Cross the map. These things will be subverted as The Path goes in unexpected and bewildering directions, but any gamer can appreciate the initial hook.

Fatale has no such advantage. You begin shut in a prison that you cannot escape. After you serve your real-time life sentence, the second act begins. Now you're a disembodied perspective, hovering awkwardly through some moonlit seraglio (pictured). There are no easy goals. As far as I can tell after floating around a bit, there's no immediately apparent interaction.

There's nothing here to grab me, much less anything to keep me going. I think I'm supposed to be blowing out candles. Fatale is supposedly based on Oscar Wilde's play, Salome. The opening sequence seems to be from the perspective of John the Baptist just before he's beheaded. Interesting, but short-lived. And now I'm floating around, with Salome herself nowhere to be found. It's not a good sign when a game is so aimless that I fondly recall being locked in a room.

You can get Fatale here for seven dollars. If you do, you'll have to let me know what I missed.