Pathologic 2

Game of the year for me, so far. In Pathologic 2 you play a local folk doctor returning to his isolated home town after time away studying more traditional methods. You are one of the few Kin (an aboriginal steppe people, far as I can tell) born into a caste allowed to break the taboo of cutting into bodies. Very quickly upon return, you find your father has been murdered, the locals convinced you are responsible just as a terrible plague re-emerges. Your (competing) goals become to find out who did it and to complete his work— if you can figure out what that work is. But it seems to involve the fates of town’s children who are threatened by the plague, and of the Kin, your people. The story that follows is fascinating and harrowing and challenging. I’ve played through it twice, and I’ve been thinking about it all week. Maybe the closest I could come it to is Planescape: Torment or I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream as thoughtful, lore-heavy, dark adventure stories. I think I recommend it more to people looking for adventure games than for people looking for something like Skyrim-with-horror or Silent Hill. Now, for gameplay: even with the new difficulty sliders, the game is unforgiving. However, dying doesn’t end the game! If your goal is to understand what is going on, then there is as much (more, sometimes!) content in failing as there is in succeeding. One thing I think is under-emphasized in tutorials and will save you frustration: sneak. You can sneak less on lower difficulties, but it’s not optional late game. Anyway: please buy this game so there’s a huge community around this game. It’s wonderful, it’s not like anything you’ve ever played, and it deserves to be talked about.

-Improves upon the original in essentially every way. -Incredible sound/visual design and atmosphere. Equal parts beautiful and terrifying. -Systems are perfectly balanced. Each mechanic serves a purpose and contributes to the overarching narrative themes. You will be pushed to your limits and then kicked while you are down. -One of the most well-written and intriguing narratives in video games. -Exploitation of the interactive medium is unsurpassed. -One of the best explorations, in any medium, of the brutality and desperation of the human condition. -Outside of certain dreams, the closest thing you'll have to a religious experience.

Pathologic 2 is a haunting, punishing, dark, wonderful game. Its developers got hit hard by the financial crisis in Russia, so although they're planning on developing campaigns for two more characters, that's a bit up in the air. I didn't think a depressing Russian game about being starving and poor while surviving a plague could be just as fun and engrossing as Mass Effect. Then I played Pathologic 2. Pathologic 2 is unlike any game you've probably ever played. It's a game where getting your hands on a loaf of bread feels like getting an epic drop; it's a game where everyone is an asshole, but they're so sympathetic and flawed you quickly grow attachments to them and feel genuinely heartbroken when you are unable to cure them. The story is framed as a Brechtian theatrical performance. It's as weird as it is entertaining, a fact not lost on the characters of the game itself. Many of them proudly wear this fact on their sleeves. Some of them know that they're video game characters and make jokes about it. Honestly, you have to try it to see for yourself. There's so much heart and creativity in this game, so many mysteries that you have no chance of seeing everything in one playthrough - even if you save-scum - even though it takes place over just 12 days in a small town in the Russian steppe. Pathologic 2 is one of the most memorable games you will ever play. I cannot recommend it enough.

After deeply analyzing the ending that I ended up choosing in Pathologic, I realized that this gaming experience represented for me one of those instances in life where your way of thinking is altered, perhaps not drastically, but even to such a point that I believe that now I see life with a clarity that previously eluded me. Pathologic has an enviable rhythm, which catches and forces you to play for just one more hour; it has a script that, as a writer, I can only dream of achieving, and that gives depth and charisma to its characters, because no one is purely bad or purely good in this story, and every decision is important, drastic, and has bittersweet consequences. It is a difficult game, so much that it becomes overwhelming, but the game explicitly tells you this has a purpose, so you trust it and accept it, waiting for a life lesson ath the end. So, ¿does it pay off? It does; I won't spoil anything, but the feelings of triumphalism and satisfaction once you reach the end while never turned the difficulty down, become rewards that you want to talk about to everyone. The game truly transforms this experience into your own, hard-earned story. The soundtrack stays with you for days after it's finished, and the art direction is beautiful and immersive. I have nothing negative to say about this game. I treasure the 35 hours it gave me, and although I am dying to experience a second round to explore closed avenues and better understand some details of the story, I am proud of every decision I made on my first journey. On the other hand, if one is a playwright, novelist, or screenwriter, Pathologic plays like a Brechtian play, and as such is a wonderful, intellectually powerful example, which has a lot to teach. Ultimately, I think it is a masterpiece.

Pathologic 2. Pathologic 2... This game is a reimagining of the original Pathologic. While the basic story, town, characters and gameplay are similar, the game does have it's differences, and is quite a different experience too. I don't want to tell too much about the story here. You play a doctor, trying to find a cure for the so-called sand plague. Although I never really had any problems in the original game, I actually began anew after the first half of the game, because I thought it would be too difficult to survive now. One of the main problems in this game is hunger. Instead of the quests from the original, in this game, you just talk to people to witness events and gather thoughts about them in a mindmap. You're not even supposed to see all of them, but instead only a part of them, a part of the whole story. As weird as it may sound, but the whole storytelling here is surprisingly good in my opinion. In the original game, you had to save people from the sand plague. Unlike in the original, unless you fully heal someone, there is no guarantee, that giving the sick people antibiotics will make them survive for another day. Like in the original, once you get used to it, and learn a few tricks, on how to survive, or how to fight, it becomes a lot easier. Overall, this game is a huge improvement in almost every aspect. Gameplay-wise, story-wise, but also on other smaller aspects like the graphics. Should you play this game? I guess it depends. The game consists of a lot of talking, walking, and being almost dead. But it is unique in it's own way, and if you don't have a problem with a lot of reading, or a real challenge in terms of difficulty go ahead. Personal rating: 9/10 Neutral rating: 8/10 Note: This review was shortened because of GOG's limit of letters. I have a slightly longer version of this review on the Steam page of this game! I am also currently doing a playthrough of it on my Twitch channel, the link to which you can find on my profile.