Pathologic 2

Pathologic 1 & 2 are masterpieces of games as art. They are cruel and disturbing, but ask unique questions and do things you won’t see anywhere else. These are singularly unique experiences that are worth suffering through.

Thanks to its extraordinary aesthetic choices and its endless variety of roleplaying approaches, combined with the depth and exquisite wickedness of survival mechanics, Pathologic 2 is confirmed as an original, atypical, dreamlike, violent and masochistic experience.

Pathologic 2 is a punishing, twisted game that is burdened by some intentionally poor mechanics that, while interesting to analyse, detract from the game itself.

A gruelling mystery game that smothers its big ideas with dour survival mechanics.

Like an experimental art house film re-shot to more fully realize its original creative vision using modern technology and techniques, Pathologic 2 brings the tense, enigmatic streets of Town-on-Gorkhon to life like the original never quite could. It iterates and adds on top of what once was to great effect in nearly all but one particularly baffling area, and any gamer with a penchant for single-player games with a strong narrative focus should play through Pathologic 2 at least once for the one-of-a-kind experience that only it provides.

Original Pathologic was way too early to the “sandbox survival” boom, now its years too late. As for story – it’s basically the same: rich in ideas and lore, but very poorly written. [Issue#239, p.60]

An interesting narrative and eerie ambience are present, but frustratingly tedious survival features, poor combat, and performance issues plague the title.

The very definition of a masterpiece. The absolute greatest proof that videogames are an artform. I love this game so much. It's a stressful and uncomfortable experience, but also a beautiful story with some of the best writing I've ever encountered in any artform. Theodor Bastard's soundtrack is absolutely perfect, and the worldbuilding is excellent. Pathologic 2 uses every aspect of the game to tell a truly impactful story and the characters are so interesting. I'd give my life for Murky without a second thought. Please give this game a chance, it will be punishing, but SO rewarding.

Удивительный экспириенс, конечно. Наверное только в Море я готов терпеть подобную геймплейную духоту. Буквально работать врачом-торговцем-курьером-мусорщиком ради 20+ часов густой, мрачной, больной атмосферы. Механики выживания на задуманной разрабами сложности утомляют, но, в итоге, хорошо вплетаются в нарратив. Приходится менеджить время, обдумывать действия, прокладывать кратчайший путь по карте (это мне меньше всего понравилось). Хочется помочь всем и ради этого приходится побегать. Ну я и бегал, исходом доволен. Надо будет посмотреть чего разрабы там в 3 части придумали.

Imagine you have a friend who gets you your dream job. At your job while you are putting the finishing touches of your greatest project, the culmination of your interests and ability, you get a call from your friend saying they're about to killed and to drop everything and rush over and save them. You do so and go to their house and find the place empty. You go back to your job only to find your friend smashing your project to pieces. Then, to add insult to injury, they berate you for leaving your project unattended. That's what this game is. I like the doctor simulation aspect of this game. It's fun collecting herbs to make ingredients, rushing over to the patient's house, dodging the infected and gang members along the way, figuring out which medicine they need to increase their chances of survival, looting abandoned houses for money and supplies to upgrade your gear, and bartering with the townsfolk with the junk you loot for other junk you need, all while keeping your five survival meters filled. I wish that had been the entire game. What I don't like is when the game tells you to cross the entire map to complete some vague goal before a time limit is up, while doing everything it can to destroy your survival meters. Unfortunately that makes up most of the gameplay and is why I am in no rush to play this game again, while I would like to play the doctor stuff again, getting to it is a deal breaker. It's only intersting the first time when you don't know the story.

Reading these reviews, you'd get the impression that Pathologic 2 is a masterpiece of storytelling that chooses to use the video game medium to accent it's depressing world-building. What you actually get is an unfinished kinetic VN where nothing you do matters - you can quite literally ignore all the quest lines and do nothing but satisfy your survival meteres all day and you will still get the same choice between the same 2 endings (lookup the speed runs if you don't believe me). Amusingly, fans of the game will say "that's exactly the whole point of the story - nothing you choose in life matters!" If you don't enjoy survival games and don't like "deep" pseudo-intellectual stories like Disco Elysium you probably won't like this one.

A really bad game. I thought I'd give it a shot since it had decent reviews, but wow it ****. I'm slogging through the remainder just to say I beat it, but its painful.