It's amazing how sometimes developers shoot themselves in their foot, with no reason at all. I've played
The Way on release, because it was a puzzle/platformer like Another World or Flashback, which were games I enjoyed back in the day. I quickly abandoned it because it had terrible controls, one of the worst I had encountered by then and a terrible checkpoint system which made you replay entire sections before reaching the place you died (and you die a lot in this game). It had a good premise but terrible execution.
I knew it was heavily patched, so in the last Steam sale I bought it for 1,50€. And surprise: Now the game is great. Movement is fine, although you need to get used to it, but it's fine. Also, the checkpoints are much more sane now. If you finish a sequence, there is a checkpoint. No more tedious replaying of the same things.
Too bad, the damage was already done: The game had a justified 61 metacritic when it was released (I know because I keep track of the games I play and metacritic score is something I write down). Now it has 67, probably later reviewers played the patched version and 1 XBOX review (the game was released a year after PC) is at 80/100. So, I wonder: How many sales this good game lost due to the devs not having the patience to refine their game for some months?
The game itself has many things in store: Action sequences, platform sequences, but it's mainly a puzzle game, most of the time you solve puzzles. You need to pay attention to details for clues/hints and most of the puzzles are on the right level, even the hardest ones are absolutely logical. The game spices things up with new things and it's not repetitive. It has an interesting story which is well told without becoming tiring. Art is fine for what it is and music is meh. The game has character and atmosphere. I really enjoyed myself playing it, but it could achieve a much higher status if it had a proper release.