5/5 ★ – eatpotatochip's review of Pathologic 2.

Before I say anything else, a note - Pathologic 2 is a must-play, if not a must-love, and I want you to go buy this game (or try it on Game Pass) and experience it. It’s not a skill-based game where you learn to master its mechanics and win it - the game is designed to make you feel powerless and hopeless, and as you continue on, victory will mean scraping by and surviving. It has also immediately become one of my favourite games of all time. Pathologic 2 is a 2019 game that’s less of a sequel and more of a reimagining of the original Pathologic. Made and based in Russia, both games put you in the shoes of a protagonist, a relative newcomer to a small town, who has to deal with their relationships with the other people in the town, many of whom have lives and ideologies and agendas of their own, and face a plague that is set to destroy the town altogether, trying desperately to save the city in 12 days. Time passes without you, and events will occur whether you’re there to witness them or not. You always have a bunch of things to do each day, but you also have to take care of your own hunger, thirst and exhaustion all the while, sometimes having to choose taking care of yourself over saving someone else as a result. It’s intensely stressful and sometimes near-unbearable as an experience, but the writing and setting is so captivating that you’ll keep wanting to continue and see your journey to its end. The setting involves magical realism by way of rural mythology - the town has strained relations with the rural folk that live in its slums and still work with the traditions of the past, and their traditions are based in some sort of reality. You meet strange inhuman creatures that live alongside the rural folk. Tree roots groan and offer herbs when you pour blood on them. Your dreams echo with the voice of the land - and the oncoming plague. Pathologic 2 is an uncompromising work of art that is a must-play, and if you’re worried about the difficulty, it offers a whole bunch of sliders to customize the experience and make it easier for you - or harder, if that’s what you prefer. For people who want to view games as art, but feel that art can’t be constrained by having to satisfy and reward the person experiencing it (like nearly every other game), play Pathologic 2. For people who want a different kind of experience from all the games they usually play, play Pathologic 2. For everyone else, still, please try it out. Don’t go in expecting something like Dark Souls or Skyrim - this is a wholly unique experience, and I really want you to try it for yourself.