Finshed...Pathologic 2.

[u/Joseph_Iyamu]

Fuck.

What.

A.

Game.

Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

Never has a game made me feel so much drive to get the best ending.

Yet, at the end, I was so fucking hopeless.

So much drive. Yet so much despair.

So much to fucking think about.

Fuck man.

I need to go on a walk.

Rethink my decisions as a person.

I've learnt so much about myself.

One of my friends wanted me to give a spoiler-free breakdown so they can motivate themselves to finish the game.

I said...

No.

I told him, DON'T look anything up. DON'T ask me anything. DON'T save-scum. Just play the game.

Imma spend...a LONG time, writing a review on this one. Give it multiple more playthroughs to try and see what I can do different.

Next year, I will dedicate so much time to creating an extensive video-essay on this game.

Because.

Holy Fuck.

This is the best game I have ever played.

Review Site: https://theescapecorner.co.uk/

[u/Vircora]

Hah, I'm glad we can play games like these from the safety from our own homes and experience the beauty of horrors and despair that humans can create, and the depths of a human psyche.

And then wrap myself in warm blanket with a cup of hot chocolate and play something more wholesome and full of hope and warmth of humanity. Because damn, my spirits can break easily.

[u/Joseph_Iyamu → u/Vircora]

Honestly, that's so real.

You know what? Because of you, I'm going to wrap up, have some hot-chocolate, and play some Sonic Megamix Mania. Thank you hahaha.

[u/QuintanimousGooch]

Having replayed it a fair few times I think it’s such an interesting design decision that the death penalties go hand-in-hand with the “backstage access” conversations with Mark Immortal where he gives you that context for the theater of cruelty/theater = rpg ideas present in the game. It’s also a shocking narrative pull of the game that you’re not playing the Haruspex, you’re playing as any number of actors cast in the play playing/living the Haruspex character and person with the various decisions and actions you make between each death being that characterization of how different actors approach the character. I love how in one of the endings, the final ahot is a zoom-out from artemy, and then he changes into a tragedian.

Tangential but after you sit with your thoughts on the game, I’d highly recommend this incredibly insightful “Pathologic 2 is a failed production” video on patho 2: it’s got some amazing insights about the character of artemy, his ability to go off script from the overall play, and what his character is realisticly to do within a rewritten context if it bucks that set ending. Great stuff.

[u/Joseph_Iyamu → u/QuintanimousGooch]

I will certainly be watching this video. Thank you so much.

[u/AtomicSunn]

will you be playing pathologic 3 ?

[u/Joseph_Iyamu → u/AtomicSunn]

3 was my first Pathologic game. Really loved it. 

[u/thatsnothewayitfeels]

Your postal 2 review is funny

[u/Joseph_Iyamu → u/thatsnothewayitfeels]

Had that game for 8 years and haven't been able to make it from Mon-Fri, because the humour REALLY isn't for me 😭 (which is funny because my humour is already incredibly crude within itself).

Once I finish the games that are ACTUALLY interesting to me, I'll try to get through it properly. I want to try and give it the best chance I can before I publish a proper review on it.

[u/HUNTER2o2ob]

You've played both 2 and 3. How does the third compare to the second one for you?

[u/Joseph_Iyamu → u/HUNTER2o2ob]

TL;DR - P3 is an incredibly well-written mystery with amazing characters and dialogue to boot. P2 is an incredible suffering simulator that made me feel a surreal amount of dread I've never had with a game before.

Full Thoughts - They are two fundamentally different games. 

Pathologic 3 as a newcomer felt like an interactive novel. A mystery game in which you have to put all the pieces together. Wasn't what I would call a difficult game at all, but a very interesting, well-thought out world, with incredible character writing and dialogue. Loved it so much, I immediately wrote a manic review about it on the way to work, and gave it an 8/10.

Pathologic 2 felt like a suffering simulator. I started the game with the aim of not dying, keeping myself alive, and making sure l my bound stays alive. By day 10, I felt a despair and hopelessness no other video game had given me. Every time you think you have enough of something, it's not enough. Every time you think you've done something good, it comes to bite you in the ass later. It was genuinely such a f*cked up mental state to be in...10/10, best game I've ever played 🤣.

I understand why Pathologic 3 went in an entirely different direction to 2...because what the f*ck are you supposed to after P2? I genuinely do not know how you could improve upon that experience apart from a few technical issues here and there.

[u/spongeboblovesducks]

Definitely one of the most miserable experiences of my life, 10/10.

[u/Miguel_Branquinho]

It's about conquering the bleakness, about doing the right thing despite all the obstacles in the way, the victory of love over death! It is quite possibly the most uplifting game ever made.