So I have basically been out-of-my-mind obsessed with the Pathologic series by Ice-Pick Lodge. I picked up the original game on Steam for like $1.29, about a month before
HBomerguy's video came out.
Imagine my feelings when I got SUPER hooked on the much-improved sequel, Pathologic 2, in the glorious year 2020.
The games are very Russian, and center around twelve disastrous days in a village in the remote Steppe (easily understood as Russian though not explicitly stated, and the time period is likewise vague). There are three healers, a Bachelor of Medicine, a Haruspex, and a strange faith-healer girl, who all arrive on the first day in one way or another. Things are tense from the word go, as two prominent members of the community have died grisly, mysterious deaths. By Day 2, the disease is spreading.
In Pathologic 1, you could pick any of the three healers and experience the twelve days from their perspective. In Pathologic 2, they only were able to complete the Haruspex's campaign, but it's incredibly improved as a game overall.
Loss, failure, the relentless and cruel march of time, senseless and unavoidable death, avoidable deaths that are your fault, and the inability of your mortal body to keep up with the demands of the crisis (hunger, exhaustion, and infection will likely catch you before anyone else does). Rampant death and misery, and eventually a suggestion that perhaps you never had any real choices at all, despite all you've done, good or bad. Fun!
So yeah these games rule, 10/10 on the videosgame scale.
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