Critical Path (video game)

Critical Path is a post-apocalyptic interactive movie adventure game. It was created by Mechadeus and released by Media Vision Technology. The game used real-time video, which gave it a look that seemed more advanced than most other games at the time. In reality, it was an interactive movie: most player choices either moved the story forward or ended it.

The story begins after a terrorist biological warfare event has killed 90% of the world’s population. Many survivors are sick or go insane. A group of soldiers tries to care for survivors and keep order at their base, but conditions worsen. The commander orders all sick people moved 70 miles away and tells his troops to shoot anything within a 30-mile radius of the base.

Kat, a helicopter pilot, returns from a reconnaissance mission to find her base destroyed. Another soldier, Nighthorse, suggests a Soviet submarine launched a nuclear weapon. Weeks later, a soldier named Grier makes contact with an island 300 miles away that is free of the sick and can take refugees. Nighthorse, Grier, Kat, and the player—an unnamed soldier—set out in two helicopters.

During the flight, the helicopter carrying Grier and the player has mechanical problems. It needs a part that is on the other helicopter. The player’s helicopter lands on the roof of a factory compound. As Nighthorse and Kat circle overhead, they are shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Nighthorse is fatally wounded and orders Kat to deliver the part to the other team.

Kat reaches the compound entrance and contacts the player by radio. The player is in a factory control room. He explains that Grier is dead and he is wounded and unable to move. They were caught in a booby trap while trying to enter the control room. The player can watch Kat through security cameras and her camera headset. The headset is soon damaged, so Kat can no longer hear the player. Instead, the player sends simple instructions using a signaling keypad. Kat has only nine bullets for her Uzi.

The player helps Kat move through the factory by turning machinery on or off, giving directions, and setting off booby traps. A black notebook on the control room desk contains hints about how the machinery and traps work, written in the ramblings of a deranged person.