Pathologic 2 Reviews

[h1]Bizarre and Brutal, it's an impossible sell for everyone but its unique charm absolutely has appeal[/h1] First I'll state by saying that you do not have to have played the first game to understand anything here, it's something of a reboot/remake that focuses on only one of the routes from the original game which is fine with some elements of being an actual sequel. Point is, it's completely fine to start with this one. Onto the main stuff, this game's one of the more notable ones I've played, incorporating time-management and survival gameplay to make an experience that made me never want to waste a second or slip up and waste precious resources. [h1]It may sound basic but it's when things go wrong that Pathologic shines[/h1] Without going into spoilers, depending on certain factors like the day, decisions made, people neglected, etc. The townsfolk get put in danger, all those people you get introduced to can and probably will die without intervention. The hard part is managing your resources, like weapons, food, medicine and most assuredly... Time! With each passing day, times grows shorter and shorter, at first you may not notice it but as the days go on, you'll find that the game ain't lying. Your hunger depletes more rapidly, you find longer events may not be worth the time investment, and each day brings new problems that helped me understand the general gameplay systems by force. Things only get worse as you'll need resources to make it through the day, and as the days go on, things get worse. Stockpiling is a massive boon but can be hard in practice, looting houses is a mixed bag of results for a variety of reasons but bartering can get you far. Trading for items and figuring out what people want can be the difference between life and death, make use of it. [h1]Life is unfair, and that's (mostly) alright[/h1] Despite the survival gameplay being harsh and time being hard to manage (you can't be everywhere and do everything), things can be relatively managable, but sometimes the game will decide to mess with you. Sometimes people are put in danger or straight up killed based on chance, while there's stuff you can do to mitigate that, odds are you'll run out of luck eventually and have to live with it [spoiler]or savescum but please don't[/spoiler]. While certain interactions will change, you're never really outright punished for a characters death, life goes on and you will make it to the end so long as you persevere, but there is one lasting consequence you might end up cursing, and that's your own death. Outside of day 1, the town remembers how many times you've died, regardless of reloading, and will punish you as it sees fit. From lowered max health to worse loot, it can only make your life harder, but it's NOT the end of things. The punishments start out tame and like I said, the town remembers, while it's mostly the punishments that will remind you of your death, there are other reminders that are decently interesting to encounter. [h1]Speaking of the town[/h1] An incredibly odd mix of rustic environments colliding with almost cult-esque themes. Most of the houses look normal, if a bit copy/paste, but then you'll spot structures that defy the laws of gravity, massive towers meant to house the work population and the scenic steppe belonging to the local tribe with it's "odd" people that isn't even taking into account their culture and exploitation. This is the thing that ultimately got my attention, and while you'll see a lot of what it has to offer pretty quickly, there's still info waiting to be uncovered which makes it interesting. [h1]But there are some downright bad comments to make[/h1] Combat is quite frankly just bad, it's incredibly easy to stunlock most enemies to the point where I would say my preferred weapon was my bare fists, but realistically it was my legs as running away is mad easy. Considering how combat is frowned upon by the local population and knives/guns can drain my health from full to nothing in a second, I'd much rather just leave it alone whenever possible. While I think the death system is very cool, there's little reason not to reload before you think something goes wrong as, when you die, it just boots you back to your previous save anyway, so you might just be in a very similar spot that lead to your death without any escape other loading even further back. While I did want to keep the town population alive, I'd be lying if I said I cared for even half this cast, as most times I try and interact with them they just don't have any dialogue, usually needing an event to trigger conversation, this makes wandering around the town feel downright pointless at times, especially as certain places become empty as people start dying. Thirst feels kind of pointless, it's rather easy to maintain and to my understanding, never decreases past a certain threshold, making it the only meter you don't actually have to manage for survival outside of stockpiling your sprint duration. [h1]If you're interested, go into it with the expectation that this is something different and will use its difficulty to try and sell a setting instead of appealing to a larger demographic[/h1] It's hard, but fair, and personally I thought the experience was well worth it. It might be boring, stressful or annoying at times but it works FAR more often than it doesn't. If you're looking for something different, would highly recommend.

Immersive in a way few games have ever achieved. Buggy, broken, frustrating and hypnotizing in all the ways only Pathologic could be. One of the best games ever made

2ez. Why program multiple response options in the linear dialogues?

great world, love the art style, punishing but even dying over and over has a story to it

very well written story line,and realistic game play

[h3] Pathologic 2: A Game That Breaks You And Remakes You [/h3] Some games are difficult. Some games are punishing. Pathologic 2 is something else entirely. It doesn’t just test your skills—it tests your limits, your values, your very sense of self. From the moment you arrive in the plagued town, you realize this isn’t a story about winning. It’s about enduring. The air is thick with rot, the sky is heavy, as if mourning. The town itself seems to breathe in pain, its streets lined with fading footprints of those who won’t see another sunrise. [b] You are not a hero. You are not here to save everyone. You are here to survive—and survival is cruel. [/b] The game gives you just enough to scrape by, but never enough to feel safe. You will starve. You will grow weak. You will look into the eyes of the dying and know that you cannot help them. And the worst part? You will get used to it. It forces you to choose—who do you help? Who do you abandon? How much of your own humanity are you willing to sacrifice just to see another day? At first, I fought against the system. I tried to play perfectly, to plan, to strategize. But Pathologic 2 doesn’t let you be perfect. It watches as you stumble, as you break, as your convictions crumble under the weight of starvation and despair. It strips away that illusion, forcing you to accept failure as an inevitability. It made me confront my own stubbornness, my own selfish need to "get it right." And when I finally let go of that, when I accepted that suffering and compromise were my only paths forward, the game transformed into something else entirely. The town is alive—not just in its decaying streets and whispering corners, but in the weight of every choice you make. The faces you pass today may be corpses tomorrow. The laughter of children is a rare sound, swallowed by the hush of grief. The hunger gnaws at you like a rabid dog, and the exhaustion drapes over your body like a funeral shroud. Every meal you steal could be someone else’s last. Every step forward feels like trudging through the ashes of a world that no longer wants you in it. [b] The world doesn’t revolve around you, and it never did. [/b] Playing Pathologic 2 feels like drowning, yet somehow, you keep pushing forward. And when it finally lets you breathe, you realize you’ve come out the other side—changed, but never whole. I can’t say this game is for everyone. But if you’re willing to suffer, to embrace the unknown, and to truly feel, it’s an experience unlike any other.

A very engaging experience. A very thought-out story where each character has a place and every little detail is connected, forming something more than its parts. The gameplay is a fight with the time itself and resource management, where you almost never feel safe and confident that you'll succeed. Throughout the game, there are many interesting choices to make, that, if don't affect the main quest, present some sort of allegory that can be applied to many cases, so it makes you think of things from kind of a different perspective, categorize certain events. The ending(s) (The last 20% of the game, really) give answers to a lot of questions you may've had or you weren't sure of, putting the puzzle together into a picture that holds together surprisingly well. Works and looks well on a steam deck, min-med settings with full resolution, getting around 40-60 fps, depending on, mostly, the amount of effects on the screen (plague flakes, rain reflections) and the amount of rendered buildings. Amazing game overall, one of my favourites

A brilliant game. An experience of its own. You have to play it to understand it. (P.S: Sometimes NPC's stop interacting with you. You have to exit the game for them to start interacting again)

Played this game on Intended Difficulty, and I have to say, hardest game I have ever played. If you are looking for a hardcore survival experience with alot of variables then this game is a must play. Be warned though, dying many times and reloading many saves should be expected.

This game was above and beyond anything I was expecting going into the experience as an avid Pathologic Classic player. It is equally as challenging as the original, but provides some changes that are welcome and make the experience more palatable! I'm glad to see more of a fanbase for this title than it's former. Pros: -great storyline -interesting characters + lore -fluid controls -engaging gameplay -new mechanics like stamina and boat rides, which improve overall movement without taking away from the time management stress -nerfing the house theft option, making resource farming more challenging! (It made the original easier in comparison) -fluid map, making following the game and awareness of options easier than ever before! Cons: -exhausting experience (high tension with doing many tasks + time management) -Haruspex is the only playable character, offering less routes and objectives (the original offered the Bachelor, Haruspex, and Changeling - it felt like 3 different runs of the same game). The replay value is lessened from this. Not so bad considering the short but sweet self-contained Marble Nest dlc. -personally don't like the lack of option to skip Theatre plays on subsequent runs of the game (the longer ones drag). As a true Pathologic fan, I got everything I was expecting and more from this revamped version! I will always love the intensity to such a game, while also offering great lore and characters to make the experience enjoyable overall. Perfect modernised version of a cult classic! It's a difficult game, but I highly recommend it for those who are up for the challenge. 9/10