Pathways: Jacob's Fortune

### Rating

* ESRB: T for Blood & Gore, Crude Humor, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol and Drugs, Violence
* PEGI 18 for frequent moderate to strong violence.

### Genre(s)

* Action/adventure
* Sandbox

### Platform(s)

* PlayStation 4
* PlayStation 5
* Xbox One
* Xbox Series
* Nintendo Switch
* Steam
* Humble Store
* Epic Games Store

**Pathways: Jacob's Fortune** is an action/adventure interactive film sequel to Venture. The game introduces a previously blocked-off region, an island with towns made of the ruins of multiple hospitals and prisons.

## Synopsis

After getting shipwrecked on a mysterious island, Robert Jacob journeys to a hidden village. There, a revived civilization awaits him... along with an enemy he never knew he made...

## Story

Silvan ruler Qow Bryagnol sails to an island off the coast of his country, hoping to build a death camp there. However, Bryagnol’s ship is attacked by revolutionaries led by Clip, a cannibalistic bandit who wishes to overthrow Bryagnol. While the battle is tense and results in heavy casualties, Bryagnol ultimately kills Clip by impaling him through the head with a sword. Soon after, the revolutionaries find themselves outnumbered and jump ship, leaving Bryagnol’s forces with a victory. Bryagnol breaks his sword’s blade while trying to remove it from Clip’s head, and ultimately kicks the cannibal‘s body off of his ship. Clip‘s corpse sinks to the bottom of the sea, joining many others.

2,100 years later, Robert Jacob, while fishing on a wooden boat, is attacked by a gigantic Bacculite-like creature. The Bacculite reprimands Robert for killing the Wyvern and taking her egg from the Wyve dimension, stating that he has destroyed the balance in nature. Confused, Robert fends off the sea monster by blasting one of its tentacles off with a blunderbuss, but not before his boat is destroyed. Jacob jumps on a piece of debris and tries to hold on, only to get hit by a massive wave. After getting tossed across and under the sea, Jacob blacks out.

Hours later, an unconscious Jacob washes ashore on a sandy shore, before waking up. Noticing that his hand is sinking in the sand, Jacob abruptly pulls it out, before exploring the beach. Robert soon finds and enters a village, where he is politely greeted. Robert meets Robyn Jacob in the village, both of which lived unaware of each others' existence. Despite this, Robyn is aware of Robert’s involvement in the world, claiming that she knows Venturians who were just recently resurrected. After Robyn lets Robert in her hut, he ultimately deduces that bringing the Wyvern’s egg to the earthly realm caused the mass revival. Starting to worry that he has ruined the future of Planet Venture, he is reassured by Robyn that the Venturians weren't supposed to go extinct. Robert disagrees, stating that the Venturians went extinct for a reason and that he has undone the work of potential deities. Robyn walks off, disturbed, as Robert rests in one of her beds for the remainder of the day, wishing that he worded things differently.

The next day, Robert sets off from the village, thanking the villagers for their kindness and shelter. After an hour of walking, Robert comes across a savage, terrifying village. Jacob finds a group of tribesmen and asks where he is, but one of them mutters something incomprehensible. Robert leaves the village, but as he walks away one of the tribesmen pulls out a blade made of bone and tries to attack him. Jacob quickly reacts, pulling out his blunderbuss and killing the attacking tribesmen. This causes the others to attack Robert as he tries to fend them off. Getting alerted by a horn, many of the tribesmen converge where Jacob is, upon which he decides to flee. Jacob runs through the village, going through dwellings and running atop rooftops. Eventually, one of the houses explodes, leaving part of it without a wall. Jacob runs up to the damaged house, uses a ladder, and leaps out of one of the windows. Robert lands outside of the hut and slides down a smooth hill. Some of the tribesmen continue to pursue Jacob as he skids down the slope, brandishing giant cleavers. After landing, Robert saddles and rides a native Hideulater, before getting it to run away from the attacking villagers. Atop the creature, Jacob either outruns the tribesmen or kills all of them with his blunderbuss, before escaping from the village.

After Clip's forces attack the Pathways Village, their children are abducted, and an extremely rare Tanzanite crystal is stolen from a memorial. Robert Jacob agrees to retrieve the crystal and locate the taken children after the village's leader Ashlyn Debussy gives him permission to take the crystal for himself.

## New Features

* A new campaign with over 12 hours of content and professionally motion-captured cutscenes.
* A new level cap that allows players to become even stronger, faster, and better than before.
	+ Note: Base game's level cap is used on servers with players who don't own Pathways. The cap will not be reset and can be utilized on private servers or those that only allow players who own Pathways.

* New enemies, from resurrected Venturians to the ferocious Epic Beasts who were once lost to time.
* Brand-new equipment. Whether you're fighting off hostiles with a Steampunk Arrow Gun or casting spells with a Magic Wand, things aren't how they once were.
* Over 100 new sidequests.

### Characters

* Robert Jacob
* Qow Bryagnol
* Abilene Bryagnol

#### Pathways Village

* Robyn Jacob
* Oleksa Fry
* Cas Fry
* Seira MacIntyre
* Adelaide Sokolović
* Ashlyn Debussy
* Nicander Gourkuñv
* Jibril Casilla
* Guard Gualtiero
* Guard Jeptha

#### Endeavors' Village

* Brénainn Pagan
* Coel Ren
* Yosef Zamora
* Dieudonné Pinus
* Vinko Zagori
* Grete Rodrigue
* Auston Hrdoric

#### Untergang Village

* Rhŷs Willimon
* Brân Jaime

#### Clipiwana Village

* Clip
* Witch Doctor Kalyma

### Weapons

* Flintlock Pistol
* Ranger Revolver
* Ranger Snubnose
* Ranger Rifle
* Ranger Shotgun
* Ranger SMG

## Behind the Scenes

* Pathways: Jacob's Fortune was conceived by Crocodilians, Trigger's friend on Discord, as an expansion to Venture. Most of the new features were also suggested by Crocodilians, including the game's title and synopsis.

## Does the Dog Die?

* Is There a Dead Animal? Multiple depictions of carcasses and meat throughout the game. It's worth noting that few if any of the game's creatures resemble real animals.
* Does the Dog Die? Ululaters and Hideulaters resemble dogs and they can die.
* Does an Animal Die? Many animals die, but none of them are real (i.e. Porcus).
* Are Animals Abused? Yes, by both likable and unlikable characters, although the former try to kill humanely so it's debatable whether it counts as abuse.
* Does a Horse Die? The Venture equivalent of horses can die.
* Does a Cat Die? The "Lana" aren't cats but they're close enough and die over the course of the game.
* Are There Bugs? There are huge, unfriendly insect-like creatures found throughout the game. Some scenes involve multiple tiny pests, notably one where they're crawling all over your character's body from a first-person perspective.
* Does a Dragon Die? The Wyvern died in the previous game and there are flashbacks that show its impaled corpse.
* Are There Spiders? Crawlers are titanic spiders that try to kill people.
* Are There Snakes? Yes, giant ones with large, razor-sharp fangs at that.
* Does Someone Use Drugs? The player's character can consume fungi that makes them hallucinate and Robert is possessed for part of the game after getting force-fed blood with drugs in it.
* Is There Addiction? It is implied that characters are addicted to the Venturicano drink and Pagan displays obsessive behaviors that are said to cost hours of his time.
* Does Someone Abuse Alcohol? The player's character can drink alcoholic beverages until the screen starts swirling and they vomit.
* Is There Finger/Toe Mutilation? Both; a guy gets his fingers sliced off in a cutscene and a freezing person breaks off his toe in another; the latter is later eaten.
* Is Someone Tortured? Robert gets tortured by getting whipped, having a rope smashed between his testicles, and being waterboarded with drug-ladled blood.
* Is Someone Burned Alive? There are specific "environmental finishers" dedicated to shoving enemies into fire and a sacrifice gets immolated during a cutscene.
* Is There Shaving/Cutting? The game's combat relies heavily on hacking and slashing at opponents with visible gashes, including slashing throats in cutscenes.
* Is There Eye Mutilation? Robyn's eye is swollen after her face is scratched up by a Clipiwana member (it stays like this for most of the game). While the eye itself isn't disfigured, Robyn's eyelid is visibly scarred and she's extremely upset about this. Another character gets a similar injury to Robyn's, and one guy has an entire eye gouged out (offscreen but the bloody wound is visible). You can also shoot characters and creatures in the eye, which will cause white blood to spray out.
* Are Any Teeth Damaged? The player breaks a Clipiwana cannibal's entire jaw in one sequence and it sags off at one side. Specific teeth can also get damaged in combat.
* Is There Cannibalism? The villains are cannibals so yes. The only onscreen instances are Clip putting a severed toe in his mouth (it's implied that he eats it) and an obscured view of a Clipiwana cannibal feeding on a teenager's corpse.
* Does Someone Break a Bone? You can break people's bones in combat, they stick out but there's little blood outside of a cutscene where a knee gets fractured. The worst example might be a boss fight where you break the enemy's jaw on one side and it hangs off and jiggles around.
* Does a Head Get Squashed? During the hallucination scene you graphically smash a zombie's head into pieces and it's heavily implied that this was actually a person.
* Is There Genital Trauma/Mutilation? The player can beat the enemy's genitals and stun them if they're a man and Clip gets shot in the crotch during his boss battle.
* Is Someone Stalked? Pagan claims he used to stalk people and the mechanic from Venture where a lone enemy stalks you to plan their attack is lifted in this game.
* Is Someone Possessed? Possession through a sort of drug is a major plot point in the game.
* Is A Child's Toy Destroyed? You can find and destroy children's toys in many locations. Brénainn Pagan claims that he got attacked on a holiday after breaking another kid's toy.
* Does a Kid Die? Not in gameplay, outside of Dlab children. Countless children died to the Clipiwana and Qow Bryagnol and an infant is seen getting euthanized.
* Is There Ableism? Qow Bryagnol tried to kill everyone with autism and/or a disability.
* Is There Autism Specific Abuse? Qow Bryagnol attempted genocide on people with autism; this is obviously considered an act of evil, though.
* Are There Anxiety Attacks? Many characters have them throughout the game, notably Robyn Jacob.
* Are There Flashing Lights or Images? Yes.
* Does it Have a Sad Ending? While it's not a complete downer, the game's ending is still sad.
* Does Someone Struggle to Breathe? Yes.
* Does Someone Fall to Their Death? Characters fall to their deaths as a result of gameplay and in cutscenes.
* Is There Gun Violence? Yes, but the closest thing to a modern weapon is an SMG that's extremely hard to come by.
* Is There Blood/Gore? It's Venture so there's a lot of white blood.

## Parents Guide

### **Sex & Nudity**

Moderate

* Statues and paintings of humanoid monsters with erect penises can be seen.
* There are references to and mentions of sex that get rather frank but not exactly graphic.
* A woman moves a man’s hands to grope her breasts, fairly brief but her cleavage is visible.
* One puzzle requires players to flip a lever that changes the rotation of a statue’s penis, the solution is to flip the penis upside down and thus give off the look of an erection. The statue breaks apart before players can view this for long, however.
* When you save Robyn Jacob, your character ends up on top of her and both of them are humiliated because of their position, however it is not outright sexual and this is common in teen media, although the fact that this can happen with Robert Jacob, her father, makes it more concerning.
* If you refuses to apologize to Robyn after arguing with her, she ends up saying "You know what, I love you so dad gum much and you have every right to put your pecker in my vagina/grab my tits and bump vaginas with me, but sometimes, you piss me off more than a colored shower," which is extremely sexual dialogue and this is common in teen-targetted video games but like with the sex joke this is disturbing if you're playing as Robert Jacob.

### **Violence & Gore**

Severe

* While the most violent images are only cutscenes, Pathways is definitely the most graphic T-rated game since *Snatcher*.
* Characters are shot and stabbed with visible blood splatter and bullet holes in cutscenes. This isn't extremely graphic and the blood is rendered as white.
* A man is executed by getting vertically impaled through the mouth by a sword, staining the blade white.
* A character is shot point-blank in one cutscene, splattering a nearby wall with blood. There's a bloody bullet hole through the man's face and this is probably the most violent part of the game.
* Red blood sprays from a Kraken's tentacle after it is shot off by a blunderbuss.
* A man's fingers are shown getting severed and blood is splattered around them before he gets stabbed.
* Robyn Jacob's eye swells shut after she is clawed by a Carnid and it stays like this for the most of the game.
* One sequences requires the player's character to hang an assassian to death from during a battle, we see this in full detail with audio gore.
* A tribute's heart is extracted, partly offscreen but you can make out a chest cavity and blood oozing out; there's not much blood aside from on the heart itself, but the sacrifice (kept alive by black magic) is then torturously lowered into molten rock where he burns alive with blood dripping off of his body and the melting heart. This scene, while an obvious homage, is portrayed seriously in-universe and is extremely graphic and disturbing even considering that gore is white in Venture.
* Isolated instances of decapitation and dismemberment, as well as a character's intestines briefly depicted during a massive battle scene.
* Enemies can get run over by mine trolleys and the mining vehicles.
* Kids are enslaved, they're whipped regardless of whether they are obedient and we hear tortured screams and crying.
* The player's character is forced to drink blood, which is kept in the mouth of a decapitated head.
* You can impale enemies with burning weapons and improvised implements like a kebab as well as lob them into a lava pit which causes them to melt without blood.
* Clip, the villain, wears an ox skull with a shrunken head on it and eats a fellow Venturian's toe, Clip also chews and gargles brain matter and urine.
* Black magic is used to torture the player's character with a burning sension and later with getting impaled repeatedly, there is also a scene of bloody flogging torture.
* At the end of a boss battle your enemy is dragged under a crusher and he is obliterated off-screen with clear sight of blood all over the vehicle, super disturbing.
* Severed arms, legs, fingers, toes, and flayed skin with some blood are depicted in the Clipiwana lair.
* An animated sequence depicts the Clipiwana tribe massacring a town filled with innocents, beheading and dismembering countless people as well as animals with depictions of white gore. Two armed characters get pieces of them shot off, one has his arms blown off and the gory stumps, including bone, are seen as they flail on the ground, while another one has his head shot off. Three animals are killed; two by melting into realistic gore and bones and one by getting their head shot off/open with blood coming out. A character's arm is also seen wriggling after getting sliced off, blood coming out as it does.
* A baby is killed by a poisoned dart; there's no blood and the killing isn't graphic but it will probably scare sensitive players (hell, even people accustomed to M-rated games might find this part difficult to cope with).
* A torture sequence depicts a character getting water forced down his mouth and getting kicked in the genitals repeatedly.
* There are two scenes where the Clipiwana cannibalize teens; one of them is just the disemboweled body (brief but graphic) and the other shows the eating but no blood.
* The game has a non-canon ending where Robyn slits her throat and dies; white blood oozes out but it's seen through a bluish filter.
* Whoever you play as gets killed almost an endless number of times in combat, either getting devoured alive by monsters, beaten to death, impaled/transfixed, shot, drowning, burning or melting alive graphically, or getting crushed to white bloody chunks, this is only if you get damaged enough.
* If you fail some quick-time events you can get impaled by arrows in the eye, throat, brain, heart, or crotch, you can also die by getting shot in the brain or heart.
* Your character dies from a murder-suicide after someone grabs you and jumps from extremely high or into lava (only if you fail a quick-time event).
* The player's character is killed by getting blown to pieces by TNT if they fail a quick-time event.
* Robyn Jacob has to go through a room filled with bugs and one of them enters her vagina and kills her from inside (we only see it go up her skirt and this is just a quick-time event fail) and the player's character has to escape from a hole full of Wyvefleas who enter your orifices and eat you alive if you lose the QTEs.
* The player's character can get killed by melting in magma, sometimes in that you can't escape from after triggering (this kill is unbelievably graphic and will horrify and infuriate some players).
* Your character can drown to death, get buried alive, or die from chemical agents if they fail some quick-time events, slow and realistic asphyxiation is shown.
* There is a scene where everyone in a room consumes brains from decapitated animal heads, live baby monsters, and large stinkbugs, unbelievably graphic and gory.
* Enemies are shoved off of a ravine into a ditch below, bouncing off of the gorge's walls and getting devoured by sea monsters, this is on-screen but we mostly just see clothes getting ripped up by the serpents and blood. When Clip dies the camera follows his mutilated corpse as it falls off of the landmass, bouncing around it.
* Clip gets a hole blown through his torso with blood and visible bones, the actual mutilation is offscreen but this is very gory and focused on in some shots.

### **Profanity**

Moderate

* Shit, pussy, dick, asshole, and the middle finger gesture are used frequently.
* Surprisingly for a game from its time, slurs like "retard", "d\*ke," "f\*ggot," and "n\*\*\*er" are used.
* If you argue with the guards in the village one of them will say "fuck" but this is avoidable. Even though this is rated TV-14 on HBO Max, they should've rated it R because this is an extremely mature part in the film/game.

### **Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking**

Moderate

* Hallucinogenic plants and beverages can be consumed.

### **Frightening/Intense Scenes**

Severe

* Themes of death, suicide, discrimination, verbal and child abuse, mental disability, religion, war, existentialism, mental illness, corruption, self-harm, and hate are present throughout. This evidently isn't a lighthearted or cheerful game.
* Some monster designs may frighten children, particularly their rows of razor-sharp teeth and uncanny movements.
* One of the most terrifying things that happens is in the first scene where we hear a dramatic speech about how manipulation is to key to intelligent life and everyone manipulates others and is manipulated themselves, consciously or not. For the most part, the game is terrifying on a PG-13 level but very aberrant.
* The parasite Holocaust is frightening and will terrify sensitive players, half of the game is set in a world called "The Underworld" and it's effectively confirmed that it is hell, which it looks exactly like. Again, not much worse than Venture.
* There is a scene between the middle and the end where a baby gets killed (there is no way to save them) and words can't describe how depressing this scene is for sensitive players especially because the character who gave birth to them is significant and she looks forward to having her adorable baby. This is also a super emotional scene because the woman just had the baby and she is distraught over their sudden murder.
* There is a scene with bugs all over the place, crawling over Robyn Jacob (who the player controls during this part), while this part is triggering and there's a horrific death if you a fail a quick-time event it is still little compared to the excessive child abuse that pervades the game.
* An extremely mighty overseer senselessly whips a child, mostly off-screen but there are pervasive instances of kids shrieking in agony as they get flogged on-screen.
* The player's character is tortured with dark magic, this is made all the more unsettling because this is done by a kid who takes sadistic pleasure in agonizing you.
* Almost everything listed under Violence & Gore is scary, intense, and disturbing, the game is more dark and disturbing than most M-rated titles.

## ESRB Rating

* Rating: Teen
* Rating Descriptors: Blood & Gore, Crude Humor, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol and Drugs, Violence
* Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S
* Rating Summary: This is an adventure game, set in the Venture universe, in which players assume the role of Robert Jacob and his allies on a mission to save the planet. As players progress through the story, they explore ruins, rainforests, and subterranean mine shafts, frequently leading to fights with enemies. The depiction of violence is somewhat stylized, as characters' blood, flesh, and injuries are rendered white. Players use blades, guns, and other weaponry to fight fantastical monsters (e.g. humanoids, aliens, huge insects) and other human characters; enemies generally fall to the ground when killed. Combat is highlighted by impact sounds, cries of pain, and white blood splashes; some "finisher" attacks lead to further acts of violence; dismembering and decapitating non-human enemies, stabbing and impaling combatants in various areas. Some sequences depict more intense acts of violence; brief depictions of characters getting cannibalized, a man getting skewered through the mouth by a sword (partly-obscured), characters exploding into chunks of white flesh (i.e. "gibs"), characters getting shot in the head or having fingers cut off. Other sequences involve mature and disturbing thematic elements; children, including a baby, dying from euthanasia, a man jumping off of a cliff to his death; the impact is not seen. Crude imagery and gags are present throughout the game; characters investigating piles of feces from a first-person perspective, a character having diarrhea in a lake, a character getting covered in brown liquid (i.e. fecal matter). Some artwork in-game, such as statues, paintings, and a brief animated sequence depict nudity, including penises; one sequence requires players to alter the orientation of a penis on a statue; the correct option depicts the genitals in an upright position. Sexual dialogue is present in some sequences (e.g. "he stuck his p\*nis in her v\*gina"); one sequence briefly depicts a woman moving a man's hand across her clothed breasts. Throughout the game, players can consume alcoholic beverages and fictional mushrooms that lead to screen-distortion effects; some characters are depicted holding joints. The words "sh\*t," "d\*ck," "n\*\*ger," "f\*ggot," and "p\*ssy" are heard in the dialogue.

## PEGI Rating

* Advice for cosumers: *This game was rated PEGI 18 for frequent moderate to strong violence, motiveless killing of innocents, violence towards the vulnerable and/or defenseless, and frequent use of strong language. It is not suitable for persons under 18 years of age.*
* Brief outline of the game: *Robert Jacob and his daughter Robyn return to Planet Venture after killing the Wyvern, only to find that humanity has been mysteriously restored to the planet. Using the ruins of asylums and a death camp, civilization is restored in the form of the Three Divisions of Untergang. While at a party, Robert learns that something isn't right... dread approaches. After a horrifying attack, Robert and Robyn must journey past society if they are to save it from obliteration.*
* Content-specific issues: *Strong violence is depicted in cutscenes, such as characters getting shot and stabbed in the head, throat slashing, breaking bones in full detail, a sacrifice having his heart torn out before getting burned in lava, and a torture scene where a man has his crotch smashed into a rope repeatedly. Motiveless killing of innocents is depicted in a stylized sequence where players cut up peasants in a town, as well as scenes where players witness cannibals murdering unarmed characters. Violence towards vulnerable and/or defenseless characters is present in the form of children getting whipped and enslaved as well as a scene where an infant is forcibly injected with poison and dies. Strong language appears in the dialogue along with pervasive moderate language throughout the game and includes words such as ‘dick’, ‘shit’, ‘cum’, and 'fuck' as well as discriminatory language such as "n\*\*ger" and "f\*ggot."*
* Other issues: *The game includes implications of cannibalism, including a character swallowing a severed toe, and covers subjects related to racism and homophobia.*