Pathologic 2 Review for Xbox

Pathologic 2 is best described as a Physiological survival game with the aim to keep your stress at 11 through-out its journey. It has an artistry that rivals Death Stranding, an anxiety that rivals Alien Isolation and a difficulty that rivals dark souls. Nothing will prepare you for Pathologic 2.

Fans of ‘’This war of mine’’ will certainly know of the what I’m talking about, though I would say this make that game, look child-like in comparison. This is a game about the collapse of society’s moral, political and social fabric, in the face of destruction, with you being placed firmly at the centre.

The premise of the game is that you are Artemy Burakh, a surgeon who returns to the town at the request of his father, only to find him murdered hours earlier, and the town on the brink of an outbreak of horrific plague.

Gameplay

I have never played pathologic, and from what I can tell, this game is a remaster/re-imaging of the original, even though its classified as a sequel. The story takes place over twelve in-game days, with each day taking approx. about two real-life hours which pauses when in menu or in dialogue interactions. You start the game surprisingly at the end, which shows off the horrific outcome for the towns inhabitants, and the brutal nature of the residing forces attempts to curtail the plague. A quick deal with a mystical figure, followed by a selection of multiple supernatural dream sequences, leads you back to the beginning and the real start of your journey.

From there you interact with a variety of strange and wonderful characters who introduce you to a bunch of meters you will need to manage: stamina, hunger, thirst, health, exhaustion & immunity. These are paramount to your survival and will often be the Bain of your life as you progress. Careful planning and exploration is paramount to ensure that you are able to do the things you want with regards to exploring the games deep and dark world. If you get hungry, you health drains, but eating certain foods will make you thirsty. You must drink water constantly, or your stamina meter becomes diminished. For each and every action you will get more exhausted, which sleep will help, but in the process make you hungry and thirsty. Everything is tied in some way to each other and the games economy system, so it will require a good understanding of every aspect to keep you alive. 

Let’s be real here, you will die at some point and thankfully there is a save point system in place. You can save your game at clocks, however, they only exist in certain buildings. This means you need to ensure that you have good knowledge of where they are in order to preserve your playthrough. Once you die, you will re-emerge at the nearest clock. However, between your death and resurrection, you chat again with the mystical figure you made a deal with in the beginning. Here, he will state that no resurrection is free and in doing so, he curses you and says each death will make things harder. Now curses vary, and will effect your meters from less health to faster hunger or quicker exhaustion. Damn.

You soon find out that your father has been murdered hours before your arrival and that you are already the number one suspect. From here its up to you how and where you would like to progress. Do you keep on track with your dad’s murder, build a repour with the town’s child gangs, or just catch up with an old flame. Either way, you will be hard pressed to not find something to keep you occupied, with the game inhabitants providing you with some of the most truly thought provoking events I have ever witnessed. 

Forget Bioware’s in-depth NPC’s storylines, the characters here are written a level beyond. All are motivated by their own desires, failings and complex relationships, that will create a bond between you and them, that you wont soon forget. It is common place for their own agendas to ensure that they will lie to you, hide things from you and in some cases, cause you more harm than good. Because of this bond, the addiction to find out what will happen to them, will push you further forward in a bid to see the outcome. But beware, for every storyline completed, the game delights in equal measure, that there will be corresponding choices, actions and events, that will ensure some will never be. There is a knifes edge in working out who to help, albeit it maybe yourself first, with no clear path ensuring that your actions may result in a good outcome. This helps entrench that every single decision you make is critical and actually has an impact on the world.

To help manage this as best as you can, storylines and quests are arranged in a big web like pattern, on a screen titled “Thoughts”. Some have empty nodes which indicate that there is more to story arch that you need to uncover. Enquiry Icons are shown on the town map to help you go to meet whoever you need to speak to for the particular mystery you’re chasing. Each person you meet is added to your easily available wall of inhabitants, which is good to help catch up whom you may need to interact with. And in this regard, it proves a simple and effective solution, which always kept me on track regardless of what chaos was happening. 

And believe me, chaos will arrive, because at the beginning of each new day, the game introduces new intriguing stories whilst simultaneously infecting more of the town with the plague. Soon whole districts become infected with the airborne miasma, which eats away at your “immunity” meter should you enter it. And if that wasn’t enough at the end of each day, you also see how many people you have failed, or you thought to have helped, die. You see, there is no cure yet, you can only keep at bay the infection and that goes double for yourself.

This is where your skill as a doctor come to play, keeping the inhabitants alive is going to be a full time job! Thankfully, its all quite simple as it just a basic mini-game of clicking on potions and working out which colour pill they need. You can also perform surgery, such as autopsy’s, collecting blood, and sealing wounds, which is used often in the early stages of the game. However, this soon can take a darker more twisted path if you choose, when the things get dire and the plague is out in full force. Once this happens, helping others can become a life or death risk, not only for them but yourself. You will often have to make a choice to enter plagued districts to ransack houses whilst avoiding the affected citizens to accomplish some goal, but at the cost of some health. Before long, the plague soon kills the local economy and money becomes useless, so it then forces you to find alternative means to get resources. Killing, stealing and robbing are soon placed on the table for you to take part in, which could provide you with some much need items, but your reputation in that area will plummet. 

The simple reputation mechanic is based on your actions, and depending on them will give you good or bad rep in that particular district. Entering a district will give you a visual prompt stating “don’t care about you” or “you are hated” which can also be viewed from the map, and is one area you need to keep an eye on. If you have bad rep, people wont trade with you, avoid you or worse, hunt you. The inhabitants will do anything to survive and in a bad rep district, and you will soon be attacked by face-painted yobbos who attack on sight in a bid to collect recourses. The game fighting is a bit clunky, with simple swings, or stabs if you have a weapon, and a basic block for incoming attack. Whilst you may manage one on one, three or five assailants is instant death if you can’t get to a district that likes you quick enough. Now whilst most will moan about the fighting system, you have to remember you are not a fighter, you a doctor. This game character is set in a reality where it really wouldn’t make sense for you to be a boxing champion doctor, knocking out everyone you meet.

The games difficulty is based on its aim to be realistic and enthusiasm to make every step you take is met with a heightened state of unease and frustration. However, the developers realised that this will limit its audience to a select few, so they placed in one the most in-depth difficulty sliders I have ever seen. With journalists and gamers fighting over how inclusive games with a high difficulty can be, Ice-Pick lodge have resolved in completely. Every aspect of the games elements can be tweaked, from immunity, health, food drops and even areas of high anxiety are up for adjustment. Each element is carefully explained how this will not only effect the game but the developers intent. Now they would obviously prefer you to play it how they designed it, and there is even a little clap if you do revert back to its original setting. But they also realise that for this story to be experienced by all, customer options are best.

Graphics

Without a doubt there are better graphically better looking games out in the world, but when it comes to visuals that have been designed by their very nature to push a particular mood, Pathologic 2’s are almost perfect. From the games muddy bleak town design, persistent fog, otherworldly characters and enough symbolism to create its own new religion, this world is fantastically realised. Every aspect here is done to set a mood of despair and depression whilst showing off beautiful weird mythical creatures that make up part of the town folk. The mix of the mundane sitting comfortably beside the mythical, all facing this incoming doom, is stunning. NPC characters are made to look bland in game, but are then visually enhanced and framed with a unique mood lighting, when being talked to directly. It’s as if the games developers wanted to show that beyond the dull vail of the everyday, sits a majestic beauty, but only if your willing to engage with it. And as things get worse game wise, the disturbing visuals seem to get atmospherically better. Lighting here is a particular favourite of mine, perfectly uplifting crazy building designs and illuminating intense mood creating moments, superbly. The game mostly runs with a smooth framerate, however, I did notice some drops, slowdown and stuttering when entering new districts or buildings. A good patch should easily fix this. 

Sound

I cannot express how much I love the sound in this game. It’s haunting in all senses of the word and perfectly accomplishes it task to unnerve you at any given moment. The immersion has been cranked up to 11 and it won’t stop regardless of death. Distant screams, baby crying, shouts, mystical groans and even the distance breeze of the wind, add depth to an already deeply unhinged experience. By far the best thou is the folk lore music, which reminds me of something out of Senua Sacrifice, confirming to you that you are in a land like no other. Whilst dialogue interactions is limited to minor statements whilst you read text based conversations, what is said, has been expertly weighted to give you the right amount of tone in relation to your circumstances. A good set of gaming headphones or a decent soundbar is a must to get the real experience here, which I can tell you now you wont want to miss. 

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-

Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Pathologic 2 is "Must Own’’

I often review games to see what is fun, but that isn’t what this game has been crafted to do. It brutal unwavering goal is to torture you, whilst forcing you to look deep into your soul and make character questioning decisions. It is the closest thing to actually being right there, knee deep in the blood, mud and horror of this plague and it demands you soak it all in. Its visuals and sound have been crafted to not only heighten your senses, but to terrorise them and ensure you never forget a singular moment.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £29.24 or approx $35, and would easily give you about 30 hours worth of gameplay. With the replay ability to seeing how stories you didn’t complete, would turn out, this could easily be 50+ hour game. It is also currently on Xbox Games pass and if you have it, id personally say download now and try It out. And if you do like it, buy it, as the developer has mentioned there is at least one more DLC they want to do if they get the funds. 

Ice-Pick lodge have produced the most immersive twisted engaging game I’ve seen in years. However, like a painting in an art gallery, this wont be to everyone’s taste, and that’s ok. But without a shadow of a doubt, one thing everyone should do, is experience it for themselves.