[eerie music] Right. [Captions by Solar Wind] Where do I even start? I'm no stranger to weird games, but this one is up there. This one is really up there. To put it simply, "Pathologic" is a Russian game, released in 2005. It garnered a lot of awards in its own country and went mainly unnoticed in the West. There are good reasons for that. For one, the English translation was incomprehensible. "Pathologic" made "EYE: Divine Cybermancy" look like a Marvel movie. But then, in 2015, an HD version was announced. It looked promising: some updated visuals, widescreen support and best of all – an updated translation. It also restored content that was cut from the English version, because the translation was so horrible, it was unusable. Not that a lot of people got to that anyways. So that came out... and it still remains obscure. So, let's get the game started to find out why. The game opens with a group of kids having a funeral for a doll. It's odd, but not as odd as the end gameplay. Changeling: "Our hands are no longer tied. Where are we?" Haruspex: "Well, the muscular contraction is there." Haruspex: "That means we're already inside of him." Haruspex: "This must be one of the ventricles. Right here." Changeling: "What a silly place." These are the three playable characters. Before the game's even started, they're arguing over whose method will be best for the job. The music is creepy and the dialogue and delivery is very... performative? Changeling: "Only a miracle can set us free without us having to destroy something." Changeling: "And I can do miracles, just let me." Then they do a stage freeze and it's all over. Watching this was optional. You could go to the door to choose a character at any time. So, you have the Bachelor, Haruspex and Changeling. You can only play the Changeling after you beat the game with one of the other characters, so I recommend the Bachelor. Time for videogames! [tribal chanting] Anyways. You're a bachelor of medicine. You've come to a strange town to investigate a claim that a man is centuries old. From the very first second I started playing, it seemed uncomfortable and cramped. There's something strange about this architecture. Even something as mundane as a stairwell seemed really creepy. It's almost like an Escher's stairway, like something's off or not real about it. The very first conversation you have with someone feels the same way. The writing is flowery and your first conversation is philosophical. It's almost like you're in a dream and it's reminding me of... Oh no... You get a map marker to the old man, and then your tutorial. From them. Your first look at the Town sure is ominous. It's like you're about to be practicing medicine in Silent Hill... Or Morrowind. These guys also talk to you like you're in a play, and explain the game's mechanics in the same terms. There's a day/night cycle, you can miss most of the events... uhh, you wanna visit important people, but not the common folk, because they’re extras. Okay wait, no, don't dismiss them entirely. Okay, there's some more philosophy discussion, but, wait a minute... this is gonna be a survival game. So, I need to figure out the Town, meet people and survive it. No problem. I'm dead. So, do I get a "game over" or... Oh right. I didn't save. Let's try that again. It turns out, you're never gonna meet your man. He was mysteriously murdered. There are strange things happening at the town that's weird enough already. The locals are eerie. They're usually polite, but very reserved with you, which is understandable, since you're from out of town. So now you're playing Mangum PI in a culture that's utterly alien to you. To make matters worse, rumors are swelling of a Sand Plague outbreak. You have no idea what the Sand Plague is, but the locals are terrified of it. The investigation points to a serial killer, but that's when things get complicated. People have ideas on who or what the serial killer could be. Some kind of necromancer? A local woman with a criminal past? What the hell is a "steppe demon"? In fact, what is this city? What year is this supposed to be? The style of dress is all over the place and everyone sounds so strange. Billy Herrington: "I had a feeling you would come..." The mystery keeps building. We'll come back to this. For now, I'm gonna talk about the presentation. Despite being an HD edition, on the technical level, the visuals are subpar. The original game was also considered very ugly for 2005. The regular NPCs have no variation. Every mugger uses the exact same model. They're always carrying a knife. So, fighting a group of them is silly, like they’re all coming out of a clown car. Just the same ball-cut bandit over and over again. All of the minor NPCs have a type and they too have no variation. Huh... This is every drunk in the game. This is every store owner in the game. This guy... you guessed it. Would be nice for there to be minor variation, even change their clothes, unless... [Mandalore's Onion Bro impression] The fidelity of character models and just about everything else is okay-ish for 2005. That's the best I can say for all the technical stuff. It is dated, but not horribly so. In contrast, the art-direction is interesting. Some parts of the town look roughly like post-revolution Russia. But then other parts look like they are from Mongolian steppe culture. Then you have buildings that combine the styles. You also have buildings that don't fit in at all. For example, the giant superstructures throughout the town. They're just looming over everything. I can understand a town having a big trainyard. What's not normal is your town having a giant polyhedron tower on the outskirts. The one that's breaking all physical laws and filled with children, the walls are all made of paper with writing on it. The entire city has a really peculiar taste in artwork. The whole town seems like it's in another dimension. How about these big buildings with no roof and no walls? How does something like this even happen? Wait a minute... Damn you, Cromwell were you here too? Not to mention all the strange non-human creatures in the town. They have a unique look – the whole art style does. The game builds so much mystery by just looking around. Because they include areas you would expect this place to have. But the strange buildings seem just as important to the city, but you don't know what they’re for yet. It doesn't look weird to look weird, there must be a purpose. At the same time, the game's trying to get something else out of you. So, let's talk about that second one. Back in the “Call of Cthulhu” video, I mentioned that some of these older games have an uncanny valley effect. It's when the visuals are dated, but just good-looking enough to trick your brain a bit. "Pathologic" fits neatly into this category. But there's something else off-putting besides the architecture. The colors. The game is drab. When you're exploring, it's very easy for parts of the city to blend together. It doesn't matter the time of day or the weather. Everything starts looking brown, or yellow, or green, or gray. It's ugly and miserable, like a never-ending funeral. Then you combine that with a low, foggy draw distance, and it's like you're living in a haze. Even on a good day, this place seems awful. Then things get bad. Really bad. And the only thing you can say is: "You know what? This seems appropriate." You have an alien culture, everything looks dirty and gross. Of course, the sky looks like Beijing traffic. The soundscape also seems to be off. You hear muffled sounds, like dogs barking and kids crying, but it seems to be right by your ear somehow. [dog's barking] A lot of the sound effects, especially the weapon sounds, are very subpar. [gun shot] [kids cheering]
[gun shot] [kids cheering] [gun shot] [kids cheering]
[gun shot] However, the music is a completely different story. Some of it sounds like it's sneaking up on you. [Andriesh Gandrabur - Most (Centre Theme)] [Andriesh Gandrabur - Boyni main] [Andriesh Gandrabur - Steppe Theme] [Andriesh Gandrabur - Indoor Horror] I've never heard anything quite like it. It has horns, tribal chants, upper notes, cow sounds... It's like Genghis Khan made the "Half-Life 2" soundtrack. A lot of the tracks are very atmospheric and kind of catchy. I wouldn't listen to it in my car, but I enjoyed it for what it is. It's the biggest, strongest nail in keeping the game's atmosphere together. It has a very special kind of atmosphere. The kind of atmosphere where you break into a dirty warehouse and fight 8 guys who all look like this. And then the music starts playing like a Mongolian trip-hop remix of that song from the "Fifth Element". This game is weird. This game is really weird. Oh, right, I should talk about the "game" part. Let’s get back to our Bachelor of medicine. Changeling: "You've changed." Changeling: "Or am I imagining things?" This game is frequently described as a survival-horror game. The emphasis is on "survival". There's a lot to manage and do and the clock is always ticking. There are several stats, that you need to manage: your reputation, your health, your immunity to the Plague, your hunger, your exhaustion and your infection. Health is self-explanatory: bad man hits you = no good. Your reputation determines how people treat you. If it's bad, store owners won't trade with you. If it's really bad, city guards and even the townsfolks will try to attack you. Kill them, and you'll lose even more. For example, you could break into someone's house, murder all the residents and their children and rob them blind, but then people are gonna gossip. That'll just mean more trouble. But you are trying to survive, so things might get desperate. You can increase your reputation by treating or helping the sick. But if your immunity is not high, then the infected could infect you. So, when one's running at you, your instinct might be to kill them before they can infect you, but people don't like that either. You are supposed to help the sick, not shish kebab them. People do like it when you murder all of the muggers. So, you shank them in the dead of night for more stuff and more reputation. But this comes at a risk to your health. There are very few traditional healing items. So, it could be better to try and avoid combat. Let the guards handle it. He's gonna serve and protect the hell out of that guy. Uh-oh... To get healing bandages and other specialized items, you have to understand the hobo economy. It's easy. What you do is dig through the garbage cans. Some have treasures like a broken razor blade or an empty bottle, others have nothing. So, whenever you're walking around town (which you'll be doing a lot) check all the trash. Really, you should be dumpster diving at all times. Then you wanna fill you bottles with water – there's a lot of places you can do that. Then you go and talk to the drunks who, for some reason, have all the healing bandages. So now you can trade water bottles for bandages and tourniquets. That's just how it is, or you can get them the other way. Now, you could be thinking, if melee is so risky, then why not just use guns all the time? Well, I would, but guns are very rare. They also wear down, become less accurate over time, so they need repairs. Ammunition is also rare and expensive. You could go to the KMart in the bad part of town, but there is a more obvious place to find bullets. Check the school children – they have plenty of ammunition. They sometimes trade for dumpster items, but all kids are different. You can scam little girls for antibiotics. Maybe you randomly found a piece of jewelry while walking around. Girls give good drugs and ammo for those. This edgy kid wants your knives. This awkward kid wants your nuts. The art of exploiting children is truly powerful. You always want the hobo economy in mind. Maybe you can find something that trade for little Sindy's novocaine. You get food to manage your hunger. Of course, depending on the situation the town is in, the prices for food can change dramatically from day to day. Are you getting a great deal or will prices drop five times tomorrow? Who knows… For dealing with the Plague, there are a lot of immunity drugs you can take. But these usually damage your health and you can overdose. You sleep for exhaustion. But now your hunger is going back up. Some food items might affect your immunity or hunger negatively. Then, there's dealing with the Plague. If you don't know how to cure it, you can only manage it. For the love of God, do not get infected. It will... oh God, it's here. You can find gear to increase your protection, find better gear, get your gear broken, get it fixed. It's almost an immersive sim. The problem is the execution. The idea of solving a mystery, while maintaining all these stats, is great. That's what the last game was about too. The thing is, the gameplay itself just isn't fun. The combat is very floaty and awkward. It's hard to tell the reach of your weapon. Guns quickly become inaccurate, making the hitboxes seem incorrect. It makes you wanna wait until the enemy is right in front of you, before firing, so you don't waste any of your bullets. The worst by far are the rats, because they can give you the Plague. Melee with them drove me crazy, and it took me a long time before I could reliably kill them that way. You can also sneak around and I honestly have no idea how that system works. I can risk shots here, because they'll never see me. The mechanics are there, but awkward, like it's an early build of it. Sometimes, the AI becomes silly, sometimes it just shuts down. When it is working, they mainly charge at you and swing. Even then, it wasn't uncommon for the pathfinding there to go nuts too. It's just not enjoyable. The weapon, that might bring variety, like a shotgun, just feels like every other weapon. It doesn't feel like a big step up. You are risking a lot in combat, but it's just so poorly done, that you don't feel its weight as much. Plus, you can avoid it by just running into a nearby building. Still, this isn't the worst part of the game. Not even close to it. Here's a good 90% of Pathologic: [Andriesh Gandrabur - Utroba Main] Uhh... [Andriesh Ganbradur - District Main] Yep, still going. [Andriesh Gandradur - Most Main] You are going to do so much walking. You might've thought that example was long. I don't think it was long enough. You can't run and drain exhaustion, you just walk. Going through garbage isn't something you do on the side, it's something to do to give you sanity. You take a trash break – back to walking. This is why the game has remained so obscure – all this walking. You have 12 days to survive and each in-game day is roughly 2 hours. The games I've seen people complain about being walking simulators are usually very short. In my play through the Bachelor, I did a lot of side quests, but not all of them. Do you know how long it took me to beat it? If you can't get into the story of the game, don't play "Pathologic". There's nothing for you here. I don't mean that in a derogatory way. From my perspective, the story is the only possible thing that could keep someone one playing this game. Is the atmosphere and music great? Absolutely. Can it carry a game that long on its own? No. I'm completely fine ignoring everything else in a game, if the gameplay is fun. If the story and writing is good, then yeah, I can forgive some things being subpar. This tested my mentality of that to the extreme. I didn't know how to word this. Then this one man summed it up perfectly. "What a terrible game, it's great!" Yeah, that's exactly right. This game is mundane and slow, it makes "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." look like "Ikaruga". But it's really captivated me. That's a good word for it. It's holding me captive to walk down all these roads. I usually only lightly talk about the story in a game, because usually I'm hoping that someone’s gonna play it themselves and come up with their own conclusion. But this time it's so impenetrable that I'm gonna get more into it. I'm not gonna talk about spoilers yet, I'll warn you. Back to the Bachelor. Every day you'll have a new main mission and also side missions. You have an in-game day to complete them. Naturally, your main mission matters the most. The Bachelor has several characters in Town who are Bound to him. Their survival is crucial for getting a proper ending. If you fail your mission or don't complete it before the day is over, one of your Bound will die. Depending on how far you're into the game, it could be possible to still get the proper ending. Were they significant for things to come? Maybe. I don't wanna find out. On the other hand, you can completely ignore the side missions. Unlike most games, these aren't always rewarding. You might end up paying $2000 out of pocket for something that's not worth it. Some cheap items and maybe some more background on a character. The side missions could have several outcomes besides failure. Some might give you rare items, some might give you nothing at all. Even if you don't finish them, they are worth looking into. Because there are angles. Every character has an angle. It could be for good, it could be for evil, greed, whatever. The point is that characters will lie to you. Not in a videogame fashion, like you're gonna get ambushed in some building. Rather, it's the purpose to what you're doing. If you're looking into an event, people will have different details. The truth is in what lines up. You learn there are three powerful families who have been fighting for control of the city for years. So, then you start to wonder – what's really a part of their culture? Is there really a Shabnak steppe demon or is this their version of a drop bear? Wait, maybe there's a demon. The more you learn about the people, the more you learn how to play them yourself. It's possible to fail a main mission and some side quests just by revealing too much in a conversation. If you know enough and the timing is right, you can call them out on a lie. When do you play dumb? When do you press the investigation? Not only do you need to figure out the bizarre culture – you also need to figure out how not to get played by people using it against you. So, you have a lot to think over, walking around the town. I still think it's far too much thinking time. Then the Plague hits. Now things are even more complicated. Who's really helping you to try and solve the situation? Who's using the Plague to make a power play? What supernatural forces are really going on? Every night there's an optional mime performance in the town theater. The thing is, the characters talk about what happened that day and foreshadow possible futures. How can that be possible? Sometimes, I understood what these plays were foreshadowing. Honestly, I have a really good feeling about the army coming to Town. My gut feeling just tells me that it's gonna be great. Some of the other plays, well... I had no idea what they meant. The game has big twists, but sometimes they twist again. On one day, you are playing “The Thing”, trying to figure out who might be a shapeshifter. On another, you might be out in the wilderness, looking for answers. All the walking across Town, all the awful fetch quests – yeah, they’re still there. They even pull out an identical twin logic puzzle at one point. It hooked me in hard. Everything that's horrible is still horrible, but I could tolerate it. They even lampshade how slow the game is. "This work is neither very time-consuming, nor mundane." "And it's definitely more than a mere errand. It's a very important mission." 👏 👏👏 👏👏👏 It's a marathon of a game. It did give me a lot of answers when I beat it, but even more questions to wonder about. Then I realized, that, after all of that, there were two more characters... What? After all that walking, all that... everything, you want me to do it again? I mean... What kind of psychopath would actually... Okay, the Haruspex is a little different. Dangerous. Unlike the Bachelor, he's from the Town. He's returned from studying medicine in the Capital. Unfortunately, now he's the town’s number one suspect for the murder. Due to being wanted, he starts the game with very low reputation. Most of the Town wants him dead. In fact, there are a lot of events that will make your reputation go down. Take his very first quest – which is to go out into the wilderness and murder a child. He's very much the hard mode character. I'm still not sure why I can play him from the beginning. With your low reputation, you can't trade from the start. You do have another option. See, the Worm creatures have a very peculiar way of gardening. It involves human blood. So, if you win a fight with somebody and have a sharp object, you can harvest their organs. Coming from The Bachelor, this is an extreme change. The hobo economy has now extended into the illegal organ market. In Steppe culture, you have to be born into a certain caste to open up a body. So, the organs are really only illegal because people don't like you. Trading organs with the Worm people for plants is very normal. These are desperate times. So, you might have to take desperate measures. I got five kids to feed. Besides healthy organs, you could also get infected organs. The Bachelor had a lot of trouble with that one. You know, cultural law trouble and all that. You can explore around in the wilderness to collect plants. Sometimes, you find a hotspot or a trail of them. Usually, it's a needle in a hay stack, I mean, Jesus Christ... I can't pick up that one. Which plants can I pick up? I don't know anymore. You can find multiple recipes that all make the same thing... until later. Then you can make cool stuff. This is neat, but I honestly wish they restricted you more. You can still dig through the trash and do other stuff the Bachelor did. The one thing you don't get is a special eye glass which detects the infection. If you walk slowly, you won't have a problem with that anyways. Wait, did I say "walk slowly"? Those clouds will chase you, which you should expect when the cloud that is made from screaming human skulls. The biggest distinction is how the characters treat you and the missions. The Bachelor does learn a lot of town lore, but not very deeply. He's very scientific, rational and set in his ways. Initially, he's wanting to learn about the culture, not learn from it. So, of course, people don't want to bother. But the Haruspex is a local, and those who do trust him, really trust him. They reveal things the Bachelor never learned. Open with information he struggled to get. Admit, they’re lying to the Bachelor. It’s all running in parallel. You’re getting a more complete picture of the narrative. You’re learning the deeper parts of the town’s lore. You participate in their rituals and sacrifices. Learn about their worship of bulls. Many of the locals believe the whole worlds rests on the back of the Bull. The Bachelor dismissed this stuff, but now you’re part of it. Even some of the plays, which seemed like nonsense before… now I can get what’s going on. You have a new set of Bound and you learn more about characters who you barely talked to before. You can even talk to the Bachelor, like the Bachelor talked to you. The parallel narrative is really cool. But everything that was bad before, is still bad. And, in some cases, even worse. Sure, the combat is still awful. But there’s a big chunk of main missions that are filler, tedious or both. I’ll open the door if you bring me 50 vitamin pills. The ones that a shop owner might have a dozen of, if I’m lucky. The kid might have one to three. How about a dozen or fifteen? Fifty. Bring thirty clips of rifle ammo. How about a “he went that a-way” quest. Just going around asking where someone is, only to end up right in the beginning, where you started. Then you have three days of time trial missions. I thought this was already a time trial! There’s even an awkward boss fight. It’s like they are trying to find ways to stretch it up more than it needed to be. It’s like they had ideas of who the Haruspex should talk to and what about, but they didn’t know how to get him from point A to point B, so they just made some stuff up. The thing is, you still go from point A to point B, but now with extra errands. One day something interesting might be happening. The next day it’s a scavenger hunt. The good half of this is really good, but the other half is wasted potential. With all that said and done , I can’t talk much about the third character yet. Without saying too much, it does have interesting ideas, but it feels even more rushed than this was. Go to that house. Are they bad – yes or no? Repeat. Hi, doggy. Okay, so now I’m gonna talk spoilers. If you don’t want them, go to here: Haruspex: “You will act justly, but your justice will blind you and become his demise." You really wanna stick around for this, huh? Haruspex: "This calls for the gentle hand of a surgeon…” Alright.
Haruspex: "This calls for the gentle hand of a surgeon…” The time in Town changes the Bachelor. He’s just trying to protect these people and find the cure to the Plague, but things keep getting in his way. The customs interfering in his research, the rampant corruption, the power games. His hope is that the army might sort things out, but that becomes a slaughter. Even the military as faction is breaking apart. It’s all a mess. He's seen the town go from full of life to a war zone, to basically empty. He’s understandably lost his faith in humanity from this. So, what would he have to turn to? The Polyhedron. The impossible structure, separated form the town by a river. In the last days of the game, your map will begin to change, showing a new angle of the city. It starts to match his investigation of the Plague. He finally has it figured out. There’s no steppe demon. The structure was put into the ground deeper than any building before it. The locals made claims that blood would pool around its support spike, but it wasn’t blood. It was infected ground water. The Plague comes from the earth below the Town. It all makes sense now. And this amazing Structure protects the people inside of it from the Plague. After everything the Town did to the Bachelor, there’s only one thing that makes sense now. The army needs to shell this town to the ground. The Structure may have inadvertently caused the Plague, but we need to keep it – it’s a miracle. So, the town gets shelled. No more city, but we get the Structure. The locals have several subplots that span an intricate web. I’m not gonna delve too deeply into those, but instead focus on the main themes of the game. Now, our first word of the day is “Contradiction”. So much in the game contradicts each other. In Russia, the game is titled “Plague: Utopia”. The word “plague” doesn’t always refer to disease. It can just mean “destruction” or “calamity”. But a “utopia” is a perfect world. Happiness, free for everyone, forever, that kind of thing. So, it would be “Destruction: Perfection”. How could those complement each other? Hmm. Let’s look back at the game. The Town is a culture of nomadic steppe people, but also industrialized. The musical lyrics are very tribal, but most of the instruments are electronic. An infection that destroys all life, but a building that can make your dreams come true. Tradition versus progress. You’re a doctor, who kills to survive. The game acknowledges it. How can the Plague and the Structure complement each other? There’s an argument that what’s been happening is harmony. Some live, some die – that’s nature, but now it’s taken to an extreme. There are characters who believe what’s happening is the road to Utopia. They believe the Plague to be a physical law. Almost like the Plague is a kind of Newtonian reaction to the Structure being built. A reality-breaking wonder is met with a reality-breaking tragedy. Huh... Well, there’s all that theatre stuff. The philosophy is summed up like this: "there’s a “top” in “utopia”, but don’t let the word deceive you:" "it’s all about what’s down below. It requires dirt." There are arguments that it can exist, but it shouldn’t exist. Is it really perfect if it’s causing suffering too? And that’s when I realized: how perfect is it that it’s filled with kids? Sure, you can dream of a perfect world as a kid. Then you think about it when you’re older and have more life experience. Do you think it’s possible for everybody to have a perfect ideal world without anybody else being left out? Oh, right… Merry Christmas, everybody! Okay, so if you didn’t pick it up, our second word is “Utopia”. This is starting to feel like a bleak “Pee-wee’s Playhouse”, so I’m not doing the words anymore. There’s a lot of ways to interpret it. The Tower could represent childhood innocence and the Town can represent growing up. The Infection could be progress drowning out tradition or vice versa, I don’t know. The Universal Law thing would explain why the buildings and the streets themselves have scabs and signs of sickness on them. The roads in Massachusetts are just like this. There are criticisms of lives being viewed as disposable, which is pretty common for Russian games. There is one other big thing I want to touch on. But what about the other character? While his route is kinda blander, he does have some reveals. His map also changes, showing the town resting on a Bull. The cattle processing abattoir has a second purpose: taking the blood from the cattle. They claim to pour it into the veins of the world and they can extract it warm whenever they want. Then it suddenly came to me. Why did the Worms need blood for farming? The caste permitted to cut open bodies is related to the one who could dig into the earth. Inspired by the Bible, puritans wanted to build the city upon a hill. In "Pathologic", maybe, just maybe, they tried to build it on a Bull. Or the Utopia is a bad idea and we’re feeding it our children. After investigating and mulling it over, it becomes apparent that the blood beneath the Town was poisoned. You can make a cure using special blood from beneath the Town, but the disease seems to be coming from the Tower. Or it could’ve been this guy’s fault. I don’t know. Anyways, he has the exact opposite solution: destroy the Tower and save the Town. So you do. The kids love it. It could also be implying technological regression or stagnation, but I’m not sure. So, here’s the kicker: you need all of your Bound to survive. However, you can also heal the Bound of other characters. This means sacrificing your rare Plague-curing items. This is a pain to pull off. If you saved the Bound of another character, you can choose their ending. And something else more important happens. The Powers that Be send you a letter, inviting you into the Polyhedron. What could it mean? What’s that on the right? Is that… Oh no. Oh God, no. Not after all this. Please don’t, I beg you... Ohhhh noooo. [Mandalore having mental breakdown] Woody: “YOU ARE A TOOOY!”
[Mandalore having mental breakdown] “Look at our magic sandbox! Isn’t it crazy? Everything is alive inside of it…” Breathe… Keep in mind – you see this after playing it for 20 to 60 hours. This is the big reveal – the Town is a magic sandbox. It’s a game kids made after a funeral to cope with loss. A funeral for someone who died of the Sand Plague. Oh, my head… “The hero has been deceived. It was vain, it was all in vain. The hero was but a puppet…” Wait a minute! This is written like a funny tragedy in a play! It’s mocking. There’s something to this. \ Well, I’m already in this deep and you are too. What happens when you save ALL of the Bound? Well, the same thing as usual, except afterwards you get an invitation to the town theatre. From the people, who executed the whole thing. Time to find out. Sure, you can take my coat. Oh my God. These are the stand-ins for the developers. You can argue with them about the game and your role in it. You can ask who they are, but you already know. They are “a collection of poorly rendered polygons on a screen”. Your character may be a toy, but aren’t the children who made the Town, a doll too? They made a mocking “it was all dream” ending just to ask you “why would you be mad it’s all a dream”? You knew from the moment before you even played that it was all made-up. A story-driven game can’t give you true freedom, because, yeah – everything you do is already pre-determined, all the variables. You already know that, no matter what you play, in the back of your mind, but here it’s bringing it to the forefront. After being so invested in the game, this blew me away. What a perfect trap! Someone would only play through the misery of this game for the story, and even then, they pull the rug out from under you. I hate this, but I really like it. This is stupid, but it’s brilliant. “Inevitability”. Wait, I thought we stopped doing that… Your fate was sealed from the first screen in the game. Inevitability and fate are constant themes through the game. I’ve seen this theme in a lot of Eastern European games before. It doesn’t mean everyone there is sad, it’s just a different cultural mindset. And boy, did "Pathologic" set my mind somewhere. The game constantly saying that it all ends. Random characters foreshadowing the god children. It was hammered into you from the start – you just didn’t know what it all meant yet. Yet, there’s still another pressing question. What about the Changeling? Gotta play that one. [cough cough] Yep, here I am. I know it’s all a lie, but I’m still here. [cough] Oh, “Path of Logic”. So, the English title had a meaning too. Anyways, in this fresh hell you play a girl who wakes up in dirt. Your reputation will be falling no matter what, so that’s nice. You are little girl, so the garbage cans look bigger. I think, that’s a positive change, I don’t know. Your hands have magic healing powers, so that helps you get your reputation back up. You can even cure the Plague, but you could get infected yourself, so be careful. Of course, I can heal you, come my son, feel the power of… [ded]
Of course, I can heal you, come my son, feel the power of… Turns out, it might instantly kill sinners. Okay, let me try and heal this sick man then. No? Okay. It can only do it on a people with a really, really contagious disease. “The town is only a month old.” Yeah, I know. Good luck in the SCP dungeon. The things being revealed now are already revealed by the other two characters. In fact, I was thinking about those ones more. Maybe the world is supposed to be a Bull. That’s why there are scabs on the ground. The Changeling can’t use normal weapons, only the special revolver. I diagnose you with dead. I made up a twin sister for the killings, but maybe she’s real now. You have a mindpower to force people to tell the truth to you, but it’s all really minor details at this point. The Tower has the dreams of children, etc. There’s really not much happening. Oh, I can make the cure to the Plague with my hands. Wait, wasn’t I doing that? I’m thrown off. The Polyhedron is an ideal, yeah, we know. Tell Volgan, that I can save the Town and the Tower. Now people will need to periodically sacrifice their blood to keep the Town and the Tower preserved. So, there will need to be constant sacrifice to maintain the balance between tradition and progress. Okay, I get it. Our gods are children. Look man, you gotta believe me, it’s all a lie. So, the Changeling caused the Plague, but lied about having a sister, who can heal, but then the healing sister lied about the Changeling being real, which… made her real? Yeah, I’m gonna do this again – guys, what’s going on here? Okay, so, the Changeling is both a protagonist, but also the Plague, which is… the contradiction, you know… One thing’s healing and destroying and it’s all together, but now it’s in the character. Hey, look, that’s a good question down here: why “Changeling”? Yes, tell me, please, tell me why I just played this character. “Well… initially, we were going to rest content with just the destruction," "but then we quickly slapped together a different ending…" "We didn’t plan anything". They were rushed in dev time. Laugh it up, you and Volgan, just laugh it up. I’m not playing the "Void" for at least a year. No more weird Russian games for at least a year. Here’s my grand finale – my conclusion: "Pathologic" is about walking around, picking up trash. This game is hard, and it’s not fun, and it was made with that intention. While I can’t quote it verbatim, the developer basically said “games can be more than just being fun”. They achieve that. I will never forget this game. The story, the setting and the writing are fantastic. The game has so many interesting ideas. It might also be the most boring and mundane game I’ve ever played. It’s a… contradiction. At the time of this video, it’s ludicrously cheap. If you’re interested, but don’t want to deal with all the walking, I would still encourage you to get it and here’s why. The same developers are working on a complete reimagining of the game. Changing and improving the stories of some characters, updating the visuals and, most importantly, cutting down the walking. It has a free demo out, called “The Marble Nest”, check it out. The thing is, this game’s gonna be episodic. It was going to be one big game, but then the economic crisis in Russia caused the deal to fall through. The first episode will be about the Haruspex and not the Bachelor. They might not be in trouble, but it’s enough to get me worried. The story of the original game is very similar to "Darkwood": artists turning into game designers. They had to cut a lot. So, I’d like to see what they can do when they realize their ideas better. This is a hard game to recommend and if I did, it would mainly be for the Bachelor. I’m really torn on this. I don’t think I can keep a good conscience and tell people to play this. You know what you’re in for. So, that’s the video. See you next year with… something. Thanks for watching! And thanks to all the people making this possible! I guess I will end up using that community post thing, since when I said I’d only post the updates in the other stuff, people didn’t like that. So, before the New Year, I’ll post a big thing of plans going forward. Okay, let’s do some questions. “How did you get a larger than average eastern europhean viewer base, товарищ”? I don’t know. They might just be more vocal. This was by far the most requested game I had this year, but I had to wait until a had a proper time to put into it. And another one: “Have you considered DOS game videos?” I’ve got some ideas. “When can we expect reviews of console games”? This upcoming year. I have some ideas. “If a game has a steep learning curve, do I try by trial and error or look for some kind of beginner guide?” Trial. The last time I kept using a guide for a video is for "Aurora". That game had a bonkers interface. So, I kept having to look up what I was trying to do, because I couldn’t find it. I think it’s still getting ported. “Any more game reviews with a series”? Yeah, there’s one in particular I want to do, so I can complain about the remaster. The second game is also good and has a really cool DLC I don’t see people talk about much. Alright, I’ll have more soon. Have a Merry Christmas! I can’t believe I played all of that. Did I get pranked? Why has every Russian played this? It’s never like a Russian "Jet Set Radio" no one’s heard of. No, it’s always stuff like this. I’ve gotta get out of here. Finally, real games.
I can't figure out why his videos are so good like even the games I would never play or have any interest in are just amazing to watch.
I thought he had already covered that game, I must be thinking of someone else.
Either way, Mandy's videos are not to be ignored.
This game is pure art.
The atmosphere is so heavy in this I literally couldn't play it for too long, but man oh man was it good.
If you haven't tried it - give it 3-4 hours, it'll draw you in and won't let go.
I never even heard of Pathologic before last year, but I gave the Classic HD translation a whirl as part of a play-every-immersive-sim quest... and holy shit.
One of my all time favorite games now, and it's not a long list.
Love this guy's videos!
Him, Primative technology and speedrun world record progression videos are all sparse but worth waiting for
Was so interested in this game, then they announced a remake (now sequel?) as Pathologic 2 and I've been stuck at a buy-or-wait crossroads. I read it's a new story but it's also set in the same town with the same characters and same over all plot afaik so I'm not sure how much of a new story it can really be.
And then you get into the arguments about poor translation and controls being part of the experience and you shouldn't even play the HD remake...
At least PathoHD is only $2 on steam ATM.
i've tried and failed at The Void so many times. even with that massive document someone put together I just never got it. great game tho, 10/10 would get confused again.
PS - i was young and thought i was gonna see nudity.