#all this to say that when pathologic 2 bachelor route drops im basically going to be coming at it from a place of religious zeal

[iamthekarmapolice]

IPL are announcing whatever they plan to announce today….if it’s the bachelor route I’ve been waiting over 4 years for this………

[eskewcity]

hi! im thinking of getting the pathologic games, if you don't mind me asking, what are your favorite things about them (if you've played them already)?

Ohh boy okay so for ref I am only about to finish the first character’s route in the first game and have about 11 hours in the second but I think I can speak on it a bit. I’ll talk about it under the cut for the sake of people that don’t care lmao

Now I consider pathologic 1 and 2 as separate (but equally spectacular) entities even if they are imaginings of the same story but for the sake of brevity I’m lumping them together for this. 

 So for one, I think the main draw for me for sure is the atmosphere and story. The gameplay in itself involves a lot ( and I mean a lot) of walking to quests and trying to keep your stats maintained and men throwing knifes at you and tying to make sure the people you are meant to protect don’t get the plague which in hindsight can be boring but goddamn there’s something so haunting walking through a town that is slowly being consumed by a plague and having to run against the clock as you are desperately trying to stop it. I really recommend you use headphones when you play these games because the sound design is just peak and really gets you immersed right away. Additionally, the game tracks all time when you are not in dialogue and you will miss vital quests that are needed to finish the game if you don’t complete them in time and then your fucked. And when this happens, the game keeps going on and moving forward as if you are really someone who is trying to stop a mysterious plague in 12 days and not just playing a video game which is a great fuck you to anyone who has ever delayed main quests in a game to go do random side quests instead.

It’s also quite evident from the beginning that the town itself is deliberately set up to be strange not even with the impending doom of a plague, especially when you play as the bachelor. The people that speak to you talk in a very theatrical manner and have customs that seem odd but are written in a way that are so naturalistic to those npcs that eventually you as the player come to somewhat just accept what their customs are even if they are still odd to you. Even the bartering system is quite interesting in this way as you get to understand it and the needs of each specific type of character you come across. You realize it’s not as simple as I give you money and you give me things for charcters with the specific items you want, though there are stores for basic necessities like food.

Like I mentioned the gameplay itself isn’t anything to write home about but the writing makes you so curious on what started this mysterious plague and makes you keep playing despite how tedious it may get. There’s also the additional layer that you play as one of three characters (only for pathologic 1 right now though!) for each playthrough who are all trying to find an explanation and solution to the plague. However, it gets interesting when you realize that even when you don’t play those other characters, they still exist in the same universe that you are in and you interact with them as they try to follow their designated path whilst still being slightly worse than you as you aren’t controlling them. This means that the things that one character does during one playthrough that you may think are weird from an outsider’s perspective, creates an entirely different perspective when you play as them and understand their motivations. 

I don’t think it’s a game for everyone and I myself didn’t even buy it for a while even after starting a lp of pathos 2 last year cause I thought it was a little weird for my tastes but it’s honestly been one of the most engaging games I’ve played in a while. I could even go on with how the implications of the very first scene in pathos 1, even before selecting a character, is watching them act out a conservation on a stage discussing the roles they will play as even before the same really begins but smarter people have me already have so i will not dfhgdfhjgdshf. Even if the resource management is hellish, I keep finding myself playing it for hours on end and that’s honestly saying something. Now this is the part where I realize I rambled for far too long and drop a bunch of video essays and dip, peace. 

Pathologic & the Friendly Rivalry Between Developers and Players

Pathologic 2 is an Underrated Masterpiece

Heroism in Futility; Pathologic, The Void, and the Hero Narrative

Pathologic Analysis; Themes of a Dying Classic

Pathologic is Genius, And Here's Why

Pathologic, For Those Who Will Never Play it