And actually may well not be effective against the plague in Pathologic. It’s…not just a disease.
I give Pathologic 2 the score of 4 creepy mimes out of 5.
I don’t think there’s any game more topical for the COVID-19 era.
But nevermind being topical. Pathologic is one of the ten best games I’ve ever played. Well, certainly not the best “pick up and play right now” kind of game, but one of the most engrossing and enlightening video game experiences. It’s a Schindler’s List kind of thing.
There are very few games with world building of this quality. It has its own social classes, creation myths, social beliefs and economic quirks. For example, street trading is described as a spiritual experience between two people and the inhabitants of the Town think that making holes, in people or even in the ground, is the ultimate taboo. Not practical for a surgeon.
The game has its own struggles, between modernity and tradition, between worldviews and of course between life and death. The game has a lot to say, but it still feels succinct. Nothing really exists outside of the game’s Town, and nothing else is really needed. It’s a disgusting, perfect snowglobe of miasma and human corruption. Plus, the mechanics are not just tacked on the world, they play an integral part. In fact, they help you play your part.
As some other reviews pointed out, Pathologic 2 is not a game about an epidemic; it’s a game about the breakdown of society.
Which means it’s also a game about the economy. How disease can hurt it, break it down. About hyperinflation, scarcity. And what it means for you . It always amazed me that video games, even in medieval settings, have absurdly modern economic systems: even the most remote village in the world is well-stocked with an infinite supply of identical items and prices are the same everywhere in the world or roughly similar. One of the main draws of the game is how it messes with your economic expectations. For example, when the news of the outbreak spread between the first and the second day, prices in stores double.
The game teaches you that money is just a piece of paper and that food has real value. Since money is scarce, you have to supplement it with the game’s robust ecosystem of street trading.
I can’t really spoil what the other setbacks are, that’s half of the game’s draw.
The game does its own thing in other ways. Every game wants to be a moooovie now. Pathologic wants to be theater. It’s a different feeling. Characters don’t just talk with those enormous half-lit close-up shots, they perform . They proclaim their worldview, they deliver speeches. There’s a lot of fourth wall breaking shenanigans too and that was originally a theater term.
About the difficulty… yeah, the game is probably harder than it needs to be. Even as a veteran of Pathologic, I had a tough time. They somehow managed to make it harder than the original! Hunger could probably be toned down a bit, even in the game’s “Intended” mode. The game wants, no, practically begs you to roll with the punches and not throw in the towel at the first challenge, i.e., reduce difficulty or save-scum.
Coming from any other company, I’d be laughing my ass off at that statement. But here, they’re right. The struggle is kind of the whole point of the game, even if it does detract from “experiencing the story”. Pathologic 2 is more Survival Horror than Survival Sim. Or maybe Economic Horror.
But the game is not that hard. A lot of it is smoke and mirrors and managing expectations. For example, don’t expect you can do everything and save everyone. You can, but not without a ton of prior knowledge. The quest system is also somewhat realistic. In other words, not every quest gives a nice reward, all wrapped up in a bow. Some quests are actually dead ends and some make you worse off. Completing quests… is bad? What? I know, right?
For what it’s worth, the game tells you this repeatedly. You should put yourself first. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Then again, a game that messes with your power-fantasy or completionist expectations will always be a tough sell… even more if it also laughs at your economic expectations!
With that said, getting the player to stomach high difficulty is often a question of excellent design, but Pathologic 2 is no Dark Souls. There are some fundamental flaws in the design. When you die, you get a permanent punishment (a 2% reduction on your maximum health). However, you’re still sent back to your last save point, all the progress before that being lost. Likewise, if you need to give medication to someone, why use up three tinctures for exact diagnosis before using antibiotics if you can try one at random and reload if it’s the wrong type? Gosh, every important character sits right next to a save point!
So it makes no sense not to reload when you encounter a problem: you’ll skip the punishment and you would’ve gone back to the last save point anyway. You have to save as often as possible… whatever the devs say, the game is basically designed for save-scumming. Or you can treat your first few days as a test run. Or y’know, you can tone down the difficulty.
I’d rate the game 5 creepy mimes out of 5, but the loading times are obnoxious, at least on PS4.
The game is also generally much more polished than the original, but there are a few things I miss. For one, the game has tons of fog, which looks good, but obscures the game’s landmarks… wondering what is up with that cyclopean Abattoir or that looming Polyhedron is part of the intrigue. Secondly, the music is good but doesn’t have that insane quality anymore.
But most of all, Pathologic 2 is obviously just an enhanced third of the original game. Don’t think this is some Early Access scam, however. This is a full game. It just goes to show what a tremendous achievement the original was. I only played one character in the original and I still consider it one of the best games ever. I don’t think there are that many games with multiple storylines where every one of them feels so fulfilling, so exhausting that you can put the game down with complete satisfaction.
So basically, what I’m saying is buy this game jerks, so they’ll have enough money to add in the other two stories.
Excellent write-up, @Woodlance. Thank you.
I own the first game, and started playing way back near its first release, and then again when the HD version came out, but man. While I could recognize that I was playing something really special, it just didn’t grab me. No. Rather, I couldn’t grab it. I really do want to try it again though, and have nearly done so a number of times over the years.
That said, would I be better off just jumping into Pathologic 2 then, rather than going through the first game first? Can the fog you mentioned in Pathologic 2 be turned down? I see you played on PS4, and I’d be on PC, so I may need to check into that.
I haven’t yet bought the second one, primarily because I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that I’d need to set aside some large chunks of time to fully appreciate it. And since I’m currently laid off work, I do have the time. The mindset is another matter. It was difficult for me when I played the first game, but maybe my head just wasn’t in the right place.
I’ve got to hand it to you, I was never really tempted to play this game but your write up may have changed that. And it is, after all, on Game Pass. Nothing ventured, nothing gained …
Oh, you should start with Pathologic 2. It’s a massive visual upgrade and the mechanics are a lot more polished. They used those extra mechanics to make the game harder, but hey, that’s grim Russian devs for you.
All you should do is keep in mind that there’s two other (potential) player characters in the game with you and you’ll get the “full” experience for your character arc. Otherwise, the focus put on some characters doesn’t really make sense.
I wouldn’t sweat it about the fog. It’s a tiny issue and it’s balanced by the game’s overall extremely moody lighting design. Besides, they made the Polyhedron shine in the night, so you can orient yourself with its otherworldly glow.
So, it turns out there is an option to turn subtitles on, it’s just not in the “language” menu where the selection for the subtitle language is. Annoying.
After starting over with the subtitles turned on, I have finished Day 1, and I am worried about my continued survival. Against my better judgement I chose their intended difficulty level. Thirst is no problem, but I fear I may starve to death. I don’t even want to think about immunity at this point. Having attended the theater at midnight, I am now quite wary of dying.
I guess that means it’s working as intended? Let me know if you want some spoiler-free tips.
For what it’s worth, they made the game even harder than the original, but you really don’t need a perfect playthrough to get a satisfying ending.
EDIT: Right, I’m doing a second run for the cheevos, which work now!. So I’m running inside an infected district, looking for a heart and there’s this dead lady in a house, you know? Remember how I told you in the game cutting a dead body is considered a taboo worse than incest? So, uh, basically, I rip her heart out in front of her family and hightail it Benny Hill-style before they beat me up to death, also dodging two infected villagers grasping at me for the kind of help they are beyond receiving.
She wasn’t even using it anymore! Screw you people, I need it… for science! O_o
So Pathologic 2 is half off ($17.49) on GOG now as part of their big Summer Sale until June 15. That means no more excuses from me, dammit. It’s in my cart right now.
One question remains: The soundtrack. Looking on YouTube, it appears to be over 3 hours long?!? A gave it a brief listen, and love what I’m hearing so far.
- Is the soundtrack a must-buy? I realize I can listen to it anytime on YouTube, but I prefer my own copy bought legitimately. I’m leaning heavily toward picking it up, as it’s also on sale.
- Is it really 3 hours long? Or did that YouTube dude pad it out somehow? YouTube link.
I dont know, I don’t buy video game soundtracks, but it does seem to be that long.
Oddly enough, my favorite track from the game doesn’t seem to be in the soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN9DIX24U4g
Great dramatic timing for it in the game too!
EDIT: I like this one too.
The context: everything is fucked and it’s all your fault.
Okay, okay one last post and I’ll stop gushing and move on. Gosh, 2019 has been a great year for well-written games and I’d put Pathologic 2 in the race as well. Sunless Skies and Disco Elysium are very well written games, but they both definitely have a “guys, look at me, look how clever I am!” side. Pathologic is stately, slow, but is as deep as any video game has ever been.
Damn I hope they get to finish it.
Other random, not-too-spoilery observations:
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Your childhood friend Lara acts like a jerk for days and you don’t really know why. Except… you do know. She still grieves over the death of her father, she says as much on day one. But nobody seems to care. You’re too busy with your own stuff: my dead father, my reputation, my mission as a doctor! I wouldn’t fault the player for not remembering either and I love it when you as the player feel the same emotion as your character.
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The army: The Powers That Be sent an artillery brigade instead of a field hospital unit. According to the soldiers, they’ve been sent here because their leader is a bit too popular, so somebody is hoping they’ll get infected and die or kill enough civilians to fall into disgrace. I’ve seen token soldiers in horror movies that were either completely incompetent or monstrously efficient, but I’ve never seen any that thought the whole thing was actually about them.
Gah, I’m not even going into all the really interesting (but spoilery) stuff.
This is a great article, but beware it spoils everything!
I have the original Pathologic in my Steam library–is it worth actually firing up? Or should I just go with Pathologic 2?
Upthread roughly 10 posts, @Woodlance says you can just go ahead with Pathologic 2, which has thus become my plan. Also, when I picked up Pathologic 2 at GOG during their big sale, I managed to get the game down to $14.99 by picking up all the other stuff associated with it. Otherwise, if all you want is the game, it’s $17.49, which is as low as I’ve ever seen it.
I’m currently watching an excellent analysis of the first Pathologic on YouTube. It was uploaded in November of 2019. I imagine it is spoiler-heavy, at least for the playthrough this guy did. It’s over two hours long, but my god, it’s one of the most well-written videos of any kind I’ve ever watched, informative and entertaining. Also, the plague in the game along with his commentary eerily parallels the virus situation we’re dealing with now.
I bounced hard off the first game, and this video might be a necessary watch for me to attempt giving that game another go. He does a beautiful job of explaining what is going on in the game, and he did over 600 gigs of video capture (over 68 hours of gameplay) to get the footage he needed. It’s truly a fascinating watch if you have any interest in the game. Nicely edited and beautifully narrated.
I fired this up again last night, and I’m picking it up what it’s laying down for the most part, but boy oh boy is it an awful lot of walking around. That’s why I usually end up drifting away from this kind of game. The core “gameplay” of “moving from one place to another” is just…not interesting.
Edit: as for the first game, I’m still tempted to play it by videos like the one you posted, Giles, but oh my godddddd the Changeling’s voice acting. Aside from her delivery, which is bad, why does she talk like she took an entire bottle of Nyquil? No human has ever spoken at that speed.
I won’t argue that it’s really dry stuff. However, once events start to unfold, I think it’s the planning on how to do stuff that’s more interesting than the actual walking, and every new day brings some event that messes with your prorities. The walking is like, less than half as boring as it was in the original… can you imagine?
This (link) seems to be the freshest news from the studio. It turns out things are not as bad as they were in last year’s articles. The team lead is not as burned out as they said, finances seem okay, two mobile games in the works, Bachelor will happen someday with very different mechanics (by the sound of it, it’s a long time away…), expect news this summer.
Right now, they actually seem embarrassed that they made a game about an outbreak.
As it turns out there is a Tabletop Simulator mod of the tabletop version of this game, and once the John Company game I am in wraps up (which ought to be shortly) I could possibly try to run a forum game of it. I will delve more deeply into the module and the rules and see if this is feasible. Any interest? It would probably be easiest if I played the Sand Plague, which would I believe leave the three roles open for three other players.
Well, considering all the time I’ve spent talking about this stuff, I’m in.
Bought this on the PS4, and just got to the beginning of what appears to be the proper first day. That into was extremely unsettling and disorienting, but I’m digging the tone.