Pathologic 2

I had read a ton about the original Pathologic, that it was this incredible immersive sim unlike any other game out there. A living breathing brutal world where you're constantly fighting for your life. I had Pathologic 2 on my list because it sounded like it improved on a lot of problems of the original. And then Steve recommended it with a glowing review saying I must play it. Well, I played it and I both love it and hate it. Arguably mostly hate.

Let's start with the bad. The gameplay is incredibly wasteful of the player's time and frustrating. The main gameplay loop is you have these set of survival timers like thirst, hunger, stamina, exhaustion, etc. And you're constantly fighting to keep these up. Add in a game with a brutal economy that over time makes it harder and harder to get the resources required to keep these meters alive. Then add in fixed save points. Then add in that if you die you go back to your last save. Then add in janky combat where you can easily die. Then add in a large game map that's mostly empty that takes a while to get around and where you're forced to move across it a lot over time. The combination of all of this is where all my hatred for this game comes from.

By the end I had just started cheating by spawning items in my inventory and then eventually turning on god mode after I was killed inexplicably in an unavoidable fashion two times in a row and had to reload saves, wasting like 10 or 15 minutes of my time. It's tragic because I think some basic QOL improvements could go a long way here.

The last thing I'll complain about is that while the game is designed to be obtuse and impenetrable, and some people see this as a strength, for my particular playstyle (completionist) I hated it. Specifically one of the characters Murky requires you to do a couple specific side quests and have a couple specific conversations to save her. And by the time I realized this it was too late. She was just inexplicably dying and the only way I could reverse it was to reload a save an hour or more back. I hate that. It's fine if you want people to learn things over time and hide some things but don't make easily missable opportunities that require an entire new playthrough. HATE that.

The reason why I'm giving this a 6 instead of a 5 or a 4 is because the story, the atmosphere, the characters, the writing, the music are all so original and so cool. They did a fantastic job of creating this crushing brutal atmosphere. The writing is so philosophical and weird and cool. The mystery and lore of the town being uncovered is wonderful as well. And even the gameplay: I enjoyed crafting medicines and having to make hard decisions over who lives and who dies. You really do feel the stress of having this town's future resting on your shoulders.

So would I recommend people play it? Maybe not? Or at least not without turning the difficulty down fairly early on. Maybe using a guide? Am I happy I personally played it? While I loathed a solid portion of my time with it I also loved many moments of it and I'm happy I understand why people love this game.

RIP to waifu Aglaya Lilich. I was said they didn't allow me to flee with my love interest in the last moments. Her fate was sealed.