[Theodor Bastard - Children Are Burying the Doll] [Jojo's Bizarre Adventure OST – Awaken] [*POW*] I’ve got to say – it’s good to be back. Even if I didn’t think I’d be back here so soon. When I said “no more weird Russian games for at least a year”, I meant it. The thing is: for one, I didn’t expect them to release “Pathologic 2” so soon. And two: I didn’t think they’d contact me that very day, offering me a copy of the game for feedback. So, here we are. Let me start by answering the most common questions I’ve seen: “Is Pathologic 2 a remake of one?” Yes. "Is it an actual sequel to one?" Yes. “Do you need to play one to understand two?” No. See, the game starts at the end of “Pathologic 2” or maybe the end of “Pathologic 1” – it doesn’t really matter. Essentially, you start the game having lost it, and you are given a chance to restart. Kids are just playing hopscotch in a war zone and going to barbecues. [loud scream] You get the idea. So, how is it a sequel? Well, the first game is referenced from time to time, though it’s always gonna be subtle and usually up for interpretation. It’s typically not story elements, because, like I said, this is also a remake, but more meta commentary on how the first game turned out. This is more like a film remake, than a game remake. The main idea and framework – yeah, that’s usually the same. A person might share the same name, but they are completely different character now. Some huge plot elements could be reworked or torn out, or added in – it’s all up in the air. “Pathologic 2” does all of these things, but still acknowledges that the plot of the first game still happened. It may even challenge you on which you prefer, though the story isn’t that much different than one. Don’t worry, they still have all the trashcans everywhere. This dual nature of the game does make it tricky to talk about. So, we’ll talk about it as a sequel and a remake, which is going to get messy, but it’s okay – we’re here together. You know, because taking on one fever dream game by itself was just too easy, so here we go again. The game starts off on a train and with a new friend. The kind of friend who emerges from a coffin and then wants to tell you a secret. Just like in middle school. This begins one of the most surreal tutorials I’ve played in a game. You’re learning how to drink water and people are turning into mimes. Then, all of a sudden, you’re in Junji Ito’s Mongolian Thunderdome. And then you learn how to trade by exchanging hearts. This is a long tutorial sequence, but it is effective. Yeah, it’s teaching you how to play, but it’s also making the drop into the main game more cushioned. You’re starting off in a land of visions and metaphors. It’s disjointed, so arriving in a town feels like a relief from all of that. At least for now. There will be a lot more to learn, but it’s a great introduction. You know, it tells you what the buttons do. Unlike “1”. That just had these two guys giving you a huge information dump. They say so much at once, that you can easily miss out on essential info. This is probably why a lot of players didn’t know they can receive mail. It would all be cryptic unless you looked in the controls. You might think it’s odd to focus on the tutorial. Well, it represents the biggest change from “1” to “2”. See, the first game wasn’t just frustrating from the walking (even though that was a big part of it). It was the fact that you were frequently so aimless when playing it. You had all these characters to babysit and you check on them and usually they’d be fine, but sometimes they’d be in trouble. And you did this by walking across town and then you’d stare at them in the face. The difficulty for the first game did not come from hard survival mechanics. It was really easy to farm bandits and have lots of supplies forever. The challenge came from constantly walking, wandering if you’re wasting your time doing it. Along with mundane nightmare missions like this one. I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but this is a big change. “Pathologic 2” teaches you more and shows you more. The game is still more difficult, but as a survival and decision challenge. I’m deciding if I should fight or get the hell out – I’m not walking across town to someone who might be in trouble to just check up on things and wondering if rat poison will stop my heart. [muffled heartbeat] I got ahead of myself there. Some of you don’t know what this game is all about. You play as a surgeon named Artemy. He’s been off studying in a big city when he receives an urgent letter from his father to return home. So, he does, and three people immediately try to shank him in a trainyard. It quickly becomes apparent why he left, because the town is… bizarre. Bizarre beyond the murderers and the furries, which are part and parcel of any city. ÓwÓ You don’t know where the town is. It doesn’t really have a name, besides just “the town on the Gorhkon River”. It’s also uncertain when exactly this game takes place. I mean, yeah there’s a gramophone, but also the giant floating Polyhedron tower. There are also the creatures who want to trade organs or give you a canal tour. Then, you have all the townspeople. They are all over the place. Some look like Mongolian shepherds, turn of the century men, anime villains, this mime. This town is out of time and space. It’s an alien culture, that the character Artemy has to relearn and you, the player, have to learn from scratch. The situation like this would be hard to order a meal in. In Artemy’s case, it turned out that his father was murdered and there’s a serial killer on the loose. Many suspect the killer to be something called the Shabnak Steppe Demon. And that it heralds the arrival of a deadly incurable plague. Artemy has come back just in time for the opening of mass hysteria. You’ll need to discover who killed your father, save the town and save yourself. Now that you have the gist of it, let’s go over the presentation and detail. On a technical level the game is very impressive looking. The superb lighting, shadows and reflections do a lot to generate atmosphere. Besides just being nice looking when you’re moving through the game world, it’s used incredibly effectively in the set pieces too. “Pathologic 2” has a lot of creepy and surreal visuals. Especially, when you compare it with its predecessor. A lot of this graphical techniques just weren’t available for the first game. So, not only do they come off a lot stronger, there’s just more of them in general. Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect improvement. In conversation, the character models are great and they have a lot of subtle animation to them. They do breach into the uncanny valley sometimes, but that could be intentional. Whatever, it doesn’t look like “Mount&Blade” anymore. The animations outside of those, particularly in combat, are pretty janky. It almost looks like they were recorded at a lower framerate than the game is actually running at. People will slide around a lot and some things just look so odd that it gives everyone a kind of mannequin feeling. There’s still a lot of great animation work, but the lesser ones will take you out of it. Speaking of that kind of thing, there are some graphical issues. Mainly, these stutters and slowdowns. They seem to happen right before or slightly after entering a new area. That can happen by going from outside to inside or you’re just walking through town, and you cross an invisible loading line, and everything stops. This did improve after a patch, but it could still happen occasionally. I always thought the game was about to crash, but, to its credit, that never happened. The true terror of this issue only arrives in combat. There’s nothing like fighting a leper with a rusty shank and wondering if you die to time dilation instead. It never actually screwed me over, but it could have. And it needs fixing. Mark Immortell: “It’s not in the best shape as it is…” Now, as for the art direction – that is excellent. The world of "Pathologic" has a very interesting look to it. At a quick glance the town might look like a typical early 20th century European town. But it’s also being influenced by a tribal steppe culture. They bring with them innovative ideas, like regarding bulls as being sacred. This is a direct contrast to the town, who’s starting to industrialize. But rather than being completely at odds with each other, a lot of the town is the fusion of both cultures. The house looks European, but it has tribal tapestries inside. Makeshift contemporary hospital – shamans wearing bone bird costumes with glowing eyes. It goes beyond just picking out which element would belong to which side and blends into being its own thing. For example: the giant superstructures that are just looming over the town ominously. It’s hard to pick a category for those and going inside them doesn’t help much. Having this style work without being a complete mess is already a feat, but there is an entire other layer on top of it. Everything you’ve seen is underneath theatrical presentation. It’s like a big scary play. It’s not hidden or subtle either. Right when you get to town there are stage lights. Characters might act as stage hands or speak theatrically. Then you have the actual theatre building in the center of town, which predicts the future at midnight. But that’s another story… It sounds like a mess, when you spell it out like that, but it works because of the insane attention to detail. Even after two playthroughs, just coming back to record a few other snippets of things, I would keep finding stuff I hadn’t noticed before. Like, I didn’t notice at all that playground equipment had bull heads on it. It’s such a mundane object, but they went that extra mile to make it fit in the world. And then you have the surreal and horror elements sprinkled around in there too. “Pathologic 1” never quite hit this as hard as “2” does, but I won’t spoil all of that. Then they took everything in this setting and made an apocalypse happening on top of it. So yeah, that’s unique, to say the least. Still, visuals are only half of the presentation. The sound of the game has its own unique qualities to it, so I’ll start with the good fist. Conversation voice acting is interesting with that trademark “Pathologic” stage delivery jazz to it. CHANGELING: “Light feet and heavy heart, huh? It should be the other way around.” FURRY: “When the cat's away, the mice will play.” BACHELOR: “What you call such a man? A slave. You call him a slave.” CLAW PERFORMER: “Please, welcome The Outbreak!” CLAW PERFORMER: “The theatre is officially disbanded.” CLAW PERFORMER: “As well as other conveniences: running water, access to your own children, who never leave their beloved Polyhedron anyway.” Naturally, this is backed up by how well the sound builds atmosphere. Like the first game, the soundtrack is unique and has a lot of memorable qualities to it. This time around, it is for different reasons and is no longer the Genghis Khan directed “Half-Life 2” soundtrack. The music is more tribal, ethereal and mystic this time around. A lot of bells, sitars and chanting. Depending on your ancestry, this could compel you to dance or build a spice mine somewhere. Let’s check out a few samples. [Theodor Bastard – Darkness] [Theodor Bastard – Disappearing] [Theodor Bastard – Volch'ya Yagoda] [Pathologic 2 Original Soundtrack – Steppe] Then you have the creepier tracks, like the one that sounds like someone’s scratching on wood. [Pathologic 2 Original Soundtrack – Dream House] Then, sometimes, it gets really ominous. PLAGUE: “An open wound is a window into the world.” PLAGUE: “A shout is an arm reaching out from the gaping mouth…” “Come on, college boy!” It’s nice that the music is just as strange and otherworldly as the rest of the game. The environment in general has great sound mixing. That was my big audio complaint in “Pathologic 1” and it’s been improved completely. It was easier to get immersed this time, instead of having dogs bark and babies cry in my ear constantly. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the mixing of minor characters. The random background sounds and callouts of unnamed NPCs and all that. I get the feeling that the voice actors did not record in the same studio. Some NPC conversations don’t sound like they are in the same room. [some NPC conversations that don't sound like they're in the same room] There’s also not enough variety among the NPCs. A pyromaniac arsonist and a sick bandit sound exactly the same and have the same line. You walk around and you just hear “GET OVER HERE”. BANDITS: “Come back! Stop right- Stop right there!” BANDITS: “Stop right there!” BANDITS: “...anywhere! You are not going anywhere!” [falling bomb] GUARDSMEN: "It's quiet! It's quiet! It's quiet!" Wait, I’m not doing this again yet. I did check, and the Russian mixing for the main characters is also great and the mixing for random NPCs does seem better. They do have the same Attack of The Clones problem. Just instead of “STOP RIGHT THERE”, they go “ЭЭЭ СУКА”. (Russian for "Hey bitch!" Although, it's not what they are actually saying... )
They do have the same Attack of The Clones problem. Just instead of “STOP RIGHT THERE”, they go “ЭЭЭ СУКА”. BANDIT: "Hey, c'mere!" Ugh, it’s happening again, the disease is spreading. But I have the cure. [*POW*] BANDIT: "Agh, no, no!" It never ends. Anyway, I thought the presentation was great – very atmospheric and creative. It does fall short of being truly superb, because the areas that do lack polish give it a healthy amount of jank. In other words, the Slavic specialty dish. Now, I’m gonna briefly look at this as being a remake again. I think the presentation in “2” is better than “1” in every single way. But “1” does do two things in particular differently. The first is the contrast between the mundane buildings and the not-so-mundane… whatever this is. Except for very few select buildings, “Pathologic 1” was very grounded. It looked drab are boring to walk through, like some kind of commercial where someone’s about to take an antidepressant. Though, to its credit, this did make the strange buildings a lot more mysterious. “2” establishes a different world better, but that also means a lot more crazy buildings. Even then, “1” still had a few fantastical locations that I liked more than “2”. I like “2’s” direction a lot more in general, but this is a noticeable difference to me. It did make “Pathologic 1” more surreal, but also more mind-numbing. I’m sure there are a few sadists out there that prefer that. Then, you combine that with the second element, which is the drastic change in the music. I like the new music, but I do miss some of the more electronic-inspired tracks. I liked horse archer trip-hop. So, while I wish “2” had more of that, they did remix a few songs from “1”. [Pathologic 2 Original Soundtrack – Twyrine] Yeah, so that’s cool. Now I can finally get to all the game mechanics and how much there is to do and the changes, and… Oh... Boy, there’s a lot of them. I forgot how many there were… Oh, my head. Is someone shilling “Raid: Shadow Legends” near me? LOOPY MANDALORE: “Yes, I would love to buy the bull. If you say it talks, then I believe you…” LOOPY MANDALORE: “I think I got scammed… Oh shit…” Back to the review. So, to reiterate the goals, since it’s been a while: you need to save the town and save yourself. Now, you could go about saving the town by any means necessary or try to be a paragon of good – its up to you. Now, your own survival depends on several stats. Health is easy – Ivan stabs you, it goes down. You’ll need to find or make healing items to get that back. If you’re exhausted, go to bed. Or eat something like raw coffee grounds, just not too many or you die. Hunger is self-explanatory. If you need that explained… well, you are a cat. Same for Thirst. Though, it’s actually more complicated than Hunger in this game. We’ll come back to that. Then you have your Immunity, which protects you from being infected by the Plague and you really don’t want to be infected by the Plague. Getting clothing and certain types of immunity boosters could help you out with that. Though boosters are one-time use and clothing needs maintenance. Some food you eat can make your Thirst go up. It goes on. These stats are in a great balancing dance with each other. So, how do you get the stuff? Here is how it works: In “Pathologic 1” there was a web of bartering that I called “The Hobo Economy”. In “Pathologic 2” this is called “The Hobo Economy 2: Revengeance”. When you’re walking through town, you wanna check trashcans for stuff. Sometimes, they get a good haul and sometimes they are empty. You might find empty bottles, which you can fill up with water. You can save these for yourself, or trade them with the drunks for healing items. Different kinds of townspeople will trade different items, so you need to figure all of them out. You can trade with nearly everyone you see, so this is a big deal. Naturally, your biggest target should always be children. Kids are dumb. Give them scissors for morphine, raisins for immunity pills – they won’t know what’s going on. You can then sell or trade their items at stores to buy more specialty goods. Then, when times get desperate, people might start trading more of their valuables for essential items. Time is always passing in “Pathologic” and a new day brings a new economy. You can find clues to help anticipate how things will go, but you’ll never be 100% sure what the next day will bring. People do need to trust you to trade. This ties into the game’s reputation system. Instead of a single number, your reputation depends on what part of town you’re in. An action can only affect a single district or several. If you shank a plague victim who tried to touch you, the local district will go: “uhh, well…” They’ll talk about it, but it’s kind of understandable, so it won’t spread out from there. Now, if you fire on children with shotguns, and rob people, and mug people, and break into places, and harvest organs in the dead of night… Yeah, that will spread around, which is a shame, because illegal organ market’s doing really hot right now. I could keep going about what organs can do for you in a hobo economy, but I don’t want to be on this too long. My point is that, much like the stats, the gameplay mechanics are very tightly interwoven. It’s rare for there to only be one way to get something you want. The first game was somewhat like this, but the second game has expanded on it greatly. The walking, which was the skeleton of all of “Pathologic”, has been improved. If you didn’t notice it already, you now have the choice to sprint. That’s right, newcomers, running is a brand-new feature! However, your Thirst stat is also you Stamina – same bar. The more you run, and, naturally, get more thirsty, the less max Stamina you have. You recharge it, but it won’t be as much as before, until you get a drink. At the start of the game, this seems pointless – water is all over, why even have this? But when districts start getting hit by the Plague, the water sources could get infected. Barrels run empty, water pumps break and you need items to fix them. People like that. What if someone tries to kill you and you wasted all your stamina running? So, forget running and water, how about fast travel? Well, that could work, but it takes in-game time that could be slower if you just ran here. You need to find items to even pay for it. The boats might be closed due to airborne cancer or maybe the price will change. It went from one option – walk there – to several options that have trade-offs. Remember, the clock is always counting down. You also need to be thinking about the efficiency of everything you do. A lot of survival games are generous with the time allowed to the player. You see a meter get low and you run off to take care of it. It will slow you down, but not really hinder your progress in the main story. A lot of problems will mainly come from your lack of preparation. If anything is timed outside of survival meters, it’s usually gonna be minor. If you die, you load up a safe point and you back at the same place with the same rules. This is were “Pathologic” shakes things up. This game has lots of quests to do. More than you could possibly do in a single day. So, you need to figure out which ones to do, but also survive, because you’re DYING. The boosters you get for a hospital quest are the same ones you need to protect your own immunity. You can go into this game always wanting to do good and not hurt the innocent, and that is possible. In a lot of roleplaying games, playing good means you get less stuff, but you get nicer dialogue and people being nicer to you. And being a bad guy means more stuff and angrier people. That’s not the case in this game. You have to make judgement call based off your own logic, rather than trying to game it. Breaking into a house doesn’t guarantee there is food to find – everyone else is starving. Using healing items to help some random guy doesn’t mean your reputation will go up. He’s just some guy. The player can rely on hospital work and that can change in a day. You kill and rob to save a lot of money, then some stores stop using money. Items that seemed worthless suddenly have great value. A cop loots the guy that you shot – do you then shoot him and take the reputation hit? You can’t just third-party a fight from a distance anymore – you need to take the risk and get close for the stuff. If this all sounds difficult and frustrating – it is. It’s a very hard game. The thing is: it’s also incredibly engaging from it. You can get bored playing “Pathologic 1”. I was bored for a lot of “Pathologic 1”. Now the sequel – that keeps shaking things up. The only day I did everything was the first one. It’s not always unfair. There’s a lot of hints that things are gonna change, and you need to watch out for them. I was having to break into infected houses and try to save babies for money and reputation. It forces you into making these decisions just to get by and the rules will change every day. It avoids the survival problem of being at the top with no challenge. You can have multiple saves at profile, but only these clocks. When you die, you meet the evil Willy Wonka theatre director. He then gives you punishments, like permanently knocking down your max Health, or making Hunger and Exhaustion come faster. By the way, this will be across ALL of your saves. There is no going back to avoid your mistake. The punishment is here to stay. How’s that for survival? Can I get some water? [glass vial shatters] Guess not… If this sounds like torture, it’s really not, especially compared to “Pathologic 1”. That’s not an incredibly confident bar, but I’ll give some examples. If you don’t like the death punishments, you can make a deal to get rid of them. HUTAMA: “For a price.” Your map highlights locations and points of interest, so you never get confused on where you are. You can hold a button to give yourself GPS vision on the go. That same button will also highlight characters who have dialogue, so if you need to talk to someone twice in a row, now you know. You keep a tab of things you’ve learned how to do and, best of all, The Mind Map. I hope other games steal it, because it’s genius. Some games give checkboxes or a journal to tell you what’s happening and what you’re doing. It’s hard to make it work, when the plot gets more complicated with more characters. The Mind Map organizes it like how you think. That being snippets of information that connect together. This allows you to visually trace the plot treads, so you don’t get lost with what’s happening. You see where holes are to give you an idea of where to investigate or who to talk to. You speculate on what has the potential for connections. Here’s a huge missing piece, connecting several stories. This one looks unrelated. There was never a moment, when I was truly lost on what to do. Instead of wondering if I’m going the wrong way or need to click someone twice, where is a button to make sure. Rather than making house calls across an entire city to see if someone needs help, now, at the end of the day, I know who’s fine, who’s at risk and who’s sick. This lets me create a plan at the beginning of the day – decide who gets what medicine. Choosing which quest to follow up on is just as important as making a choice inside of a mission. This is a story that branches out with characters having multiple outcomes. These people can have incomplete information, flawed logic, an angle, an entire laundry list of reasons why doing something for them might not have the best result. These are effects that you see in the game world and can cause other effects. As I said before, the challenge doesn’t come from the game being cryptic. It comes from genuine decision making. Even combat – something that you would think would be based of reflexive skill – is a dizzy nightmare. It’s difficult to do anything reliably in a fight and, yeah, it’s terrible. My strategy was usually: “try to kill them quickly and if it looks like it will be a long fight, just run away”. Guns fire erratically or jam if they’re not maintained properly. A late game optional mission to get a shotgun involves fighting three people at once. “Pathologic 2” considers that a huge deal in a videogame – fighting three men at one time. It can be hard to wrap your brain around. It’s a difficult game, but difficult for the right reasons this time around. Not to mention, in a patch they begrudgingly added difficulty options. You have the option to change nearly any parameter in the game, but “Pathologic 2” recommends you don’t do that. The stand-in for the director even laments not being able to make the game harder. So, why is this here? I rarely do this, but it’s time to talk about some other reviews. I don’t think this game is selling too well and I have some ideas why. [*thwop*] I’d like to present my case. Criticism I see the most is about the survival mechanics. Most reviewers lament it, calling it “tedious” and wishing you could just walk around the interesting world and talk to people about the mystery. That’s fair. So, here’s why that’d be a detriment. The characters in this game are well written and flashed out, especially when compared to “Pathologic 1” whose characters had traits, but they were so allegorical and metaphorical and... they were… It was difficult to see them as actual people. “2” gives you history with them – they make it personal. Decisions you make lead to their death or their survival. The game invites you to get invested in them, see what they can do, if they live through it. Protecting characters from the Plague is one of your main goals in the game. Actions you take can influence whether they get infected in the first place. If they do get infected, well, it’s up to you to save them. Plague-curing items are hard to acquire. You need to sacrifice time and resources to get them. The key word being “sacrifice”. You have to give something up to make this happen. Are you invested enough to go into areas and risk permanent punishments? Are you going to give up an item that would easily cure yourself, to help someone else? Do you upgrade your ability to carry more phat loot or focus more on the medicine machine? You’re not distant from the situation, deciding who lives and dies in conversations – you’re actively in it. You’re ALSO trying not to starve, you’re ALSO trying not to die of disease. It immerses you more into this situation – you’re part of the decaying city, not some immortal Time Lord observing it. You and the other characters that they want you to be invested in – you’re in the same boat. Their problems seem more real, because they are real for you to manage. You know, helping your characters be relatable, so you care what’s happening and maybe feel something. Without these meters, you have no reason to drop into a random house and see how normal people are doing. You never go out and hunt for supplies based off a tip. You never have a routine look in a house turning into a monster chase. You don’t need to question your decision or take a big gamble. Yeah, lets just remove the conditions that made those memorable events happen. Some of the most interesting conversations in the game happen right after you die. Because they know it’s hard and they do expect you to fail a bunch. I still have mechanical issues with this game. Muggers having the surrender mechanic is useless, not having an inventory auto-sort is a needless pain in the ass, and I still don’t get sneaking. I’ve rarely seen those complained about, but instead it’s the driving force of the game that’s being criticized. I don’t know. I guess, I’m just disappointed that “the games are art” crowd seems so obsessed with those walking simulators, where you don’t have a ton of interactivity or mechanics. Then you have this game, that did an excellent job at refining a concept that they had 10 years ago, and it’s being dismissed for not being one of those walking games. Maybe, we should think about why these mechanics are still there and not dismiss it as a mistake? When I beat “Pathologic 1”, I was dreading having to play a new character. I really didn’t want to. In this, I was excited to play the same character again, just to see what turned out differently. I loved it. The only thing “1” truly has over “2” is some more interesting story elements at points, and you can play as three characters. If you really want to know more about the story of “2”, you can just watch my video on “1”. All the new stuff in “2” is based on new character context, events and other stuff that would take forever to go through. IcePick Lodge had plans to add other two characters, but I don’t know now. I couldn’t in good faith recommend “Pathologic 1”, but "2" – I’ll say yes. In fact, I’ll go farther than that. I’m not a good salesman, but if this game sounded remotely like it would be interesting to you, go buy this game. GOG and Steam both have refund policies. If you don’t like it in a time period, just refund it. Even though it’s only one character, it’s a much more flashed out experience than the three that were in “Pathologic 1”. They improved on nearly everything I could hope for. I would hate to see it not get polished up and not get the other characters. I don’t want to watch it fade away and then in five years read in some publication that gave it a bad review that it was a hidden gem and we all just missed it. I want to see the other characters. I want to see the SulMatul video on them. So, if it sounds like your thing – check it out. I’ll see you in the next video. I also kinda want to try hard mode. I like punishing myself. Thanks to everyone who made this happen, and for waiting. I was out with an injury in late June and couldn’t get this finished, and I’m glad it’s over. Anyway, it’s time for question. 1st Recon Lylith: "Are there any games you like, that you don’t plan on doing video on?" Probably, “Morrowind”. Maybe “New Vegas” at this rate. Also, really long RPGs like “Baldur’s Gate 2”. I’m starting to wonder if those will be worth the time investment, because those will take a while to record properly. I don’t want the wait from now to the last video to become the new normal. Marshall: "When will you review a “Total War: Warhammer” game?" My plan is after the next Lord Pack, so it will be my December-to-New-Year holiday project, I think. I have no idea what they might rework or add in, so I don’t want to get start it now, just in case they end up fixing something, that I waste my time making footage for that. That video is my White Whale, after “Elite Dangerous”, which… I might have to hold off on that for a bit still, because I can’t sit for very long. Honestly, I’ve been sitting too long right in this moment, so… Next question! Victor: "Have you played a Zachtronics game?" I saw few of the MatthewMatosis videos on them, but I haven’t played any myself yet. I have a feeling they might be too strong for me. Joshua Mettlach (Shadow): "Are there any games that you didn’t like in a first playthrough, but liked in a second?" The big one I always think of is “Quake 4”, because I stopped playing that the first time I played it. “Doom 3” was the year before and I thought it was gonna be “Doom 3: Part 2”, so I just gave up on it. There is this spaceship, where Steve Bloom voices everyone on it, and that was the point where I stopped. Then, later I came back and now I really enjoy it. There will probably be a video on it, eventually. Alrighty then, have a great weekend!
He really hits an important point, I think, with how people dismiss difficulty as something that just exists for "hardcore gamers". It's nonsense if you give it any thought at all. Games like This War of Mine or Papers Please would be ENTIRELY different experiences without the difficulty of their game mechanics. The game makes you feel hopeless? Like life is too hard and you're not being treated fairly? Congratulations, THAT'S THE POINT.
The point of art is to make you think or make you feel, and negative emotions are often a stepping stone to weave together a greater complete experience. This is something we intrinsically understand in other media. When bad things happen we reflect and try to decipher the meaning behind them. But the second a video game asks you to actually shoulder consequences for your actions? Fuck that shit, I'm here for the art, not for a challenge!
He's absolutely right. There's a growing crowd of "games as art" proponents who don't genuinely want artistic games, they want cinematic experiences with narrative depth. They want movies where they're given control of the pace. And that's fine. They're allowed to enjoy those things. But when that same crowd shoots down games like this without even stopping to consider the artistic value, a little part of me dies.
I just wish more people would give games like these a chance. As far as I'm concerned, games that interlink the gameplay and narrative so closely are the peak of "games as art". Yes, they can absolutely be frustrating, but they're frustrating because you're invested and you don't want to lose what you've worked for. That's completely understandable. But you need to take a step back and understand that it serves a purpose.
As Mandalore says, when games cast you as an immortal observer, you aren't really a part of the world. Nothing is at stake. The only way that you can truly feel the weight of your decisions is if you, as the player, have something to gain or lose by making those decisions. And that can be frustrating, but it's also beautiful -- that sort of genuine thoughtful decision-making and the fear of wrestling with the potential outcomes is unique among media. It's something that only video games can simulate for us. To discredit these games as "too difficult" is to deny yourself a unique artistic experience.
Pathologic 2 is one of my favorites of the year (might end up being my favorite) because of how weird it is. The ambiance hits this perfect balance between creepy, surreal, and fantastical- absolutely loved it. I had some of the same problems with performance, and the difficulty was frustrating, but it's all within the world of the game. Any reviewers dismissing it on the grounds of difficulty don't get it. Like this PCGamer review:
Like yeah! That's the point. You're not given omnipotence to explore every mystery, to save every townsperson, to make everything okay for everyone in the town- because giving you that power is antithetical to many of the game's points. I say this as someone who does not traditionally enjoy difficult games, at all really. Usually if a game is too hard, I decide it's not worth continuing, and I'll just quit. When I died in Pathologic 2, I hopped back in, despite the game getting more difficult after each death.
Hearing this reviewer doubt the release of the other two campaigns is a bit worrying. I guess I hadn't considered that they wouldn't be released, but I suppose it makes sense that this wasn't a major hit with a wide audience. Really enjoyed the video though!
Oooh a new Mandalore video! Discovered him through his video on the first Pathologic and his content's pretty great! The stuff he covers aren't exactly games that I'd personally play, but I love his views and analysis.
Good to see Mandalore is back and with the new Pathologic. For anyone that doesn't know, he had a bad back injury back in June and hasnt been able to work on videos until very recently.
I'm still (and most likely always will be) salty for the harsh reception Pathologic 2 received in mainstream gaming reviews. Discussions seemed to hone in entirely on the difficulty, not only missing the point of it but also neglecting to comment on pretty much any other part of the game.
To me Pathologic is a window into a world where every person on earth has a game, or ideally all the games they could ever want, that feel like they were made just for them.
Its very much a "you get it or you don't" a "you adore it or you hate/feel nothing for it".
That's the thing though, thats ok! I am very happy the game exists for those who love it. I wish the industry could support every group getting all the games that feel made "just for them".
It might not be winning any awards in the internets collective Game of the Year debates. But the fact that it seems like its gonna end up on several individuals lists is great!
Not my kind of game, I suppose I should say. But I am so glad a sequel got made for those whose kind of game this is.
The treatment this game received from game journalists was honestly heartbreaking to me. It's such an amazing game, it's really what "games as art" should strive to do.
And it was slammed for what? Trying to be Dark Souls or something like that? Is any game that is not a semi-interactive movie by the sin of having gameplay that is not in the realm of connect-three somehow trying to be Dark Souls now? It such a weird comparison I still can't wrap my head around it.
I'm really glad Mandalore Gaming reviewed it, insightful and fair as always. Hope this review helps more people to find this game and try it out. It deserves a chance.
What's up with Eastern Europeans and making depressing, surreal and atmospheric games with a healthy amount of jank sprinkled in? Is it a cultural thing? Mandalore describing it as the "Slavic specialty dish" really struck a chord with me.
Pathologic 2 is not just an incredible game, but one of the few "art games" to come out in some time that achieves its goals. Of course there are substantial issues with its designs, but the overall objectives are fulfilled. Melding Kafka's isolation, Defoe's smallness, the philosophy of Platonov, and Brecht's theatricality it is a game that is able to transport its influences in mechanical forms. Rather than the usual heralded literary games like Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption, or Metal Gear Solid, the works of Ice-Pick Lodge have always been about using mechanical solutions to further narrative and ludonarrative-symmetry. From the beginning Ice-Pick Lodge referred to Pathologic as a simulator, rather than a game, which is entirely accurate.