The visuals The game was originally made for kids, and it had suitable graphics. These are nowadays as outdated as they can be, and the resolution is so low, that there are black borders everywhere. The game did not age well. The Sound The soundtrack is quite okay, and offers a small variety of short, but nice tracks. The Story This game doesn’t really have a story. But each of the characters lives a more or less realistic life, in a daily routine. It makes them feel rather natural, even though they are talking animals. The Gameplay Basically you look at pictures, can touch objects, and explore a relatively small world. It might be fun for kids, but most people will probably find this game to be rather boring. However, I will admit that there is a lot of detail, so if you’re into detailed environments, you might actually still want to play it. The Playability On most modern hardware, the version offered on Steam and GOG is playable, and if it isn’t at first, you have to either install Quicktime or run the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP or sometimes both. The Price You can get the game for 6 US-Dollars on GOG as a standalone game, or for the same price on Steam, along with two other similar games from the same developer. 2.8/10 (Very bad) If I would’ve rated this game from a perspective when it just came out, looking past the graphics and resolution, this would be the rating: 3.4/10 (Bad) The new additions of the Masterpiece Edition alone, including the new areas, colors and voice acting are mostly ok, and fit into the game rather nicely, so my rating for them alone, leaving out the rest would be: 5/10 (Average) (shortly extended) Video version of the review: https://youtu.be/PjUOMcZGrII
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.
Pathologic is a very unique game. At least I know no other game quite like it. It consists of story for the most part. Other than that there's a lot of walking, which can unfortunately get quite boring at times. The story is about a plague in a small town, in which 3 doctors arrived, for different reasons, now trying to fight the plague. You have to play one of these three doctors. There are various quests you have to fulfill. The side quests sometimes have rewards that you can make use of, and as for the main quests... If you fail to fulfill those before the day ends, well something bad happens. Your actions in the game matter. There are many choices to make, most of which have at least some minor impact on the game. As for the gameplay, it's challenging. You have to eat and sleep regularly, so that you don't die of exhaustion or starvation. There are many enemies in the town, one way or another, you'll have to fight other's at some point, with a combat system which consists of either shooting with weapons, which never takes long, because most of the time a single shot with a weapon is enough to kill someone, including the player, or of running back and forth, with each time you're running forth, you attack and each time you're running back, it's mostly to dodge enemy attacks. And then there's the disease. (You can of course abuse saves to never get infected, or waste so many drugs on healing yourself that you won't have any drugs left for others). Overall, I can say Pathologic is not a game for everyone to enjoy, but it is unique in it's own ways, and if you like rather challenging survival games with a lot of walking and reading, you should be enjoying this. Personal rating: 7/10 Neutral rating: 5.5/10 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.
