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Pathologic 2

Pathologic 1 & 2 are masterpieces of games as art. They are cruel and disturbing, but ask unique questions and do things you won’t see anywhere else. These are singularly unique experiences that are worth suffering through.
78%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
optimization, grinding
92% User Score Based on 10,496 reviews
Critic Score 65%Based on 18 reviews

Platforms

PCPCXboxXboxXbox Series X|SXbox Series X|SPlaystation 4Playstation 4WindowsWindowsPlayStationPlayStationCloudCloudXbox OneXbox OneNVIDIA GeForce NOWNVIDIA GeForce NOW
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About

In Pathologic 2, players must confront a deadly outbreak in a secluded town with only 12 days to manage their resources, form alliances, and make difficult decisions to survive. The game is a narrative-driven dramatic thriller that explores the realities of a collapsing society and the harsh choices that must be made in lose-lose situations. Time management is crucial, as players must balance their bodily functions and gather resources while fighting against the plague and uncovering the town's secrets.

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
Pathologic 2 screenshot
Pathologic 2 screenshot
Pathologic 2 screenshot
Pathologic 2 screenshot
Pathologic 2 screenshot
Pathologic 2 screenshot
Pathologic 2 screenshot
Pathologic 2 screenshot
Pathologic 2 screenshot
Pathologic 2 screenshot
Pathologic 2 screenshot
+12

92%
Audience ScoreBased on 10,514 reviews
story1.2k positive mentions
optimization160 negative mentions
  • Pathologic 2 offers a profoundly emotional experience, with a multilayered narrative that evokes deep introspection and moral dilemmas.
  • The game's atmosphere is hauntingly immersive, enhanced by exceptional sound design and a unique art style that captures the bleakness of its world.
  • Players appreciate the game's replayability, with multiple choices and storylines that encourage exploration and varied experiences in each playthrough.
  • The game suffers from significant performance issues, including frame rate drops, stuttering, and long loading times, which detract from the overall experience.
  • Gameplay mechanics can be frustrating and clunky, particularly in combat and resource management, leading to a tedious and stressful experience.
  • Character development feels constrained due to the abundance of characters and narratives, making it difficult for players to form strong connections with them.
  • story
    4,124 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story of *Pathologic 2* is widely praised for its depth, complexity, and emotional weight, often described as one of the best narratives in video games. Players are immersed in a surreal, plague-ridden town where their choices significantly impact the unfolding story, creating a sense of urgency and moral ambiguity. While the gameplay can be punishing and the narrative challenging to follow, many find the experience rewarding, with a rich tapestry of characters and themes that resonate long after the game is completed.

    • “This game has, arguably, the very best plot I've ever seen - better than Fallout: New Vegas, Planescape: Torment, and Disco Elysium in my opinion.”
    • “In all seriousness, Pathologic is a very fascinating story about death and persisting through your mistakes despite all the hardships.”
    • “The story is disturbing and you'll really feel the drive to survive while clinging to that small speck of hope to save your town.”
    • “The story (from what I witnessed) is clouded in tons of mystery, and yet it oozes emotion and artistic direction.”
    • “You will be frustrated, you will feel stressed, you will truly understand and ultimately forget what it truly means to have agency in the middle of a story falling apart around you.”
  • gameplay
    2,529 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of *Pathologic 2* is characterized by its intense and unforgiving survival mechanics, which are deeply intertwined with the narrative, creating a unique experience that emphasizes the themes of desperation and moral complexity. While many players appreciate the game's ability to evoke strong emotions through its mechanics, others find the gameplay frustrating and clunky, particularly in combat and resource management. Overall, the game is praised for its rich storytelling and atmosphere, but its challenging mechanics may not appeal to everyone, making it a polarizing experience.

    • “The gameplay retains the aspect of disempowerment and the game does not hand-hold you.”
    • “The survival mechanics might be a bit crude/heavy-handed, but they are also truly finely tuned such that the player must constantly make hard decisions every second of every day, which makes for very engaging and immersive gameplay.”
    • “The gameplay perfectly aligns with the narrative, making it incredibly immersive.”
    • “I haven't beaten it, and I might never beat it, but the time I spent playing it was some of the most stressful and suffocating gameplay I've ever played.”
    • “The gameplay is so stressing and frustrating, but the story and the lore is fucking huge.”
    • “The mechanics are unforgiving.”
  • atmosphere
    1,190 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The atmosphere of Pathologic 2 is widely praised as one of its strongest features, characterized by a unique blend of dread, tension, and surrealism that immerses players in a hauntingly oppressive world. Reviewers highlight the game's exceptional sound design, art style, and narrative depth, which together create a captivating experience that evokes feelings of hopelessness and existential reflection. Despite some criticisms regarding gameplay mechanics and pacing, the overall consensus is that the game's atmosphere is unparalleled, making it a standout title for those who appreciate rich storytelling and immersive environments.

    • “From the moment you step into its eerie, mist-laden rural town, you're enveloped in an atmosphere that's both vividly alive and tinged with an otherworldly fantasy feel.”
    • “The atmospheric sound design, haunting music, and environmental details enhance the sense of immersion, drawing players deeper into the game's haunting narrative and emotional landscape.”
    • “The atmosphere is so thick you can feel it, and I constantly feel on edge and anxious playing it.”
    • “Pathologic 2 is a deeply frustrating experience, with clunky combat, a crushing atmosphere, and survival mechanics which will leave you on the brink of total exhaustion and starvation for most of the game.”
    • “The atmosphere is so oppressive and hopeless that you'll be lucky to see it through, if you try hard enough.”
    • “The atmosphere of this game is thick, enough that it's been haunting my dreams since I've played it - and the writing and narrative is one that genuinely responds to player interaction and decision-making in a genuine manner that very, very few other games succeed in accomplishing.”
  • graphics
    638 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of "Pathologic 2" have received mixed reviews, with many praising its unique art style and atmospheric visuals that effectively convey the game's bleak themes. While some players find the graphics to be hauntingly beautiful and well-suited to the narrative, others criticize the game's optimization and performance issues, noting that it doesn't meet the standards of modern AAA titles. Overall, the game's aesthetic is often highlighted as a significant strength, contributing to an immersive experience despite technical shortcomings.

    • “Visually, 'Pathologic 2' is a hauntingly beautiful game, with a stark art style that captures the bleakness and decay of the town.”
    • “The graphics bring the town to life, the mechanics involving trade and the internal town economy are a very well-crafted and intricate system, the dialogue makes me want to read a book that doesn't exist, the characters all have so much presence and flavor in their interactions.”
    • “The visuals are stunning, and upon beginning this game for the first time my jaw dropped.”
    • “Graphics are below what you'd expect of a game from 2019.”
    • “The graphics are clearly dated and many of the models are recycled.”
    • “No matter how you futz about with the graphical settings, there is massive stuttering and frame rate drops, making the game essentially unplayable.”
  • music
    530 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising its atmospheric and haunting qualities that enhance immersion and emotional depth. However, some players feel that the soundtrack does not match the uniqueness and impact of the original game's music, describing it as less memorable and occasionally repetitive. Overall, while the soundtrack is generally considered good and fitting for the game's tone, it has not universally met the high expectations set by its predecessor.

    • “The atmospheric sound design, haunting music, and environmental details enhance the sense of immersion, drawing players deeper into the game's haunting narrative and emotional landscape.”
    • “The music, atmosphere, characters, setting, and visual design are all incredible on their own, but come together to create a story and world that is unlike anything I've ever experienced.”
    • “The soundtrack is excellent, and well worth buying on its own.”
    • “The music is tinny and weird, the way characters act and talk is bizarre, and I've realized that I become extremely nervous and greedy when playing it.”
    • “This game's music doesn't hold a candle to the soundtrack of the first one.”
    • “The soundtrack, while pretty atmospheric and eerie at first, plays over and over and over during all your hours just wandering around the map to the point of driving you nuts and wanting to turn the music volume all the way down.”
  • optimization
    462 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with many players reporting significant performance issues such as frame rate drops, stuttering, and long loading times, even on high-end systems. While some users have managed to improve performance through tweaks, the overall consensus is that the game is poorly optimized, detracting from the immersive experience it aims to provide. Many hope for future patches to address these technical shortcomings.

    • “Brilliant world concept, deep multi-layer lore, awesome design and nice optimization.”
    • “If you can stomach some of the performance problems (or have a really good PC) and seek a challenge that is not really based around dodging attacks at the exact millisecond then look no further.”
    • “Despite this, I still genuinely believe the only two downsides in my opinion are some performance issues, which I trust the developers to address as they have been very transparent with their patches and their future updates.”
    • “The performance of this game has to be one of the worst I've ever seen in recent years.”
    • “Pathologic 2's biggest issue is its godawful optimization.”
    • “Optimization is absolute garbage and load times / frame drops are insane but damn it if it isn't an amazing experience.”
  • emotional
    342 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The emotional impact of "Pathologic 2" is profound and multifaceted, with players reporting experiences ranging from deep despair and heartbreak to moments of genuine connection and introspection. Many describe the game as emotionally taxing, often leading to tears and a sense of moral weight as players navigate difficult choices that affect the fates of its characters. The game's unique narrative and atmospheric design create a haunting experience that resonates long after gameplay, making it a standout title for those seeking an emotionally rich gaming experience.

    • “A game so emotional, the simplest of acts had the power to elicit tears from me.”
    • “This game hit me in all the emotional sweet spots, from found family to well-written complex characters to hard moral choices and questions that really make you dig deep into your psyche to see what kind of hero you try to be and who you try to save, this game never let me down in terms of giving me a multilayered narrative that constantly made me think and question things, and for me that's the most important thing a game can give me.”
    • “Pathologic 2 is an emotionally draining experience.”
  • grinding
    145 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The grinding aspect of Pathologic 2 is widely criticized for being tedious and frustrating, with players often feeling overwhelmed by excessive walking, resource management, and time constraints. Many reviews highlight the game's design as intentionally cumbersome, making navigation and quest completion a slog rather than an engaging experience. While some players appreciate the atmosphere and narrative depth, the overall sentiment leans towards the grinding mechanics being a significant barrier to enjoyment.

    • “Survival elements can be off-putting initially but aren't tedious once you get the hang of it.”
    • “That's pure, enjoyable content with minimal reloads and next to no grinding.”
    • “The game is really nothing more than a tedious slog of a timewaster; it was designed to be like that.”
    • “The other problem is the stupid level design, which is very intentionally designed to make navigating the town as tedious and frustrating as possible, with knee-high walls blocking the most obvious and straight paths very often, and many streets are simply dead ends, just to waste your time some more navigating it.”
    • “Pathologic 2 is tedious, stressful, and often unrewarding by design.”
  • replayability
    111 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Pathologic 2 is praised for its high replayability, with many players noting the depth of its narrative and the multitude of choices that affect gameplay. The game encourages multiple playthroughs to uncover different storylines and endings, and its design allows for varied experiences with each run. However, some players find the game can feel tedious at times, which may impact their willingness to replay it extensively.

    • “Its replayability is a strong suit, offering so much that may have been missed in your first run.”
    • “The gameplay is very replayable as each day gives you multitudes of quests and objectives, and doing something for one makes it so you don't have time to do it all for another.”
    • “The story quite literally adapts to how you play, and it makes the replayability value go up, which I thoroughly appreciate.”
    • “There is a lot of replayability here, I think, but I couldn't bring myself to do more because the game sometimes feels like a chore.”
    • “However, once you finish your perfect playthrough, there is nothing else to do in this game, so replayability only exists as far as you care about achievements.”
    • “I'm surprised the publisher couldn't have the resources to make different playable characters as promised; there would be strong replayability if DLCs were introduced.”
  • stability
    97 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is widely criticized, with many users reporting frequent bugs, freezes, and crashes that significantly detract from the overall experience. While some players acknowledge that the game has potential and an intriguing story, the technical issues, including poor optimization and long loading times, make it difficult to recommend. Overall, the game is seen as unpolished and rushed, leaving players frustrated with its instability.

    • “It's also surprisingly not buggy for a Slavic indie game.”
    • “While the game shows some potential, it's buggy and unpolished, and seems to have been dumped onto the market in a rushed state.”
    • “It is hard to recommend a game that always freezes and crashes.”
    • “The game stability is pretty low; it freezes a lot, stutters, and experiences a general loss of frames, which can really pull you out of the experience.”
  • humor
    72 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is described as a blend of dark, surreal, and wry elements, often juxtaposed with serious themes, creating a tragicomic experience reminiscent of Russian literature. Players find themselves laughing at their own misfortunes and the absurdity of situations, with well-written dialogue and character interactions that evoke both laughter and introspection. Overall, the game successfully balances humor with its deeper, more poignant narrative, making it a unique and engaging experience.

    • “It's amazing how funny it can be at times (I'm not sure about the Russian version, but the English one, holy hell) while still being mostly mysterious, creepy, and worrisome in case of some characters.”
    • “Haha, it's funny 'cause you think it's about a plague, but really it's about being in a pathologic relationship with pain.”
    • “The developers are laughing at my decisions in the most figurative and literal sense possible.”
    • “And by 'schizophrenia,' I don't mean the horribly unfunny 'heckin schizo feds glowies in my walls' jokes you see on the internet.”
  • character development
    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development in the game is praised for its strong writing and engaging story, complemented by fantastic character designs and voice acting. However, some reviewers noted that the abundance of characters and narratives limits the depth of individual character development, making it difficult for players to form strong connections with them. Overall, while the aesthetic and storytelling elements are highly regarded, the character development may feel somewhat constrained.

    • “The story is really good, the character development is quite nice; a lot of things are really great, the graphics are sweet, the music is just perfect, and the gameplay is good.”
    • “Pathologic 2 theoretically had a lot to offer, a plague-themed RPG with a focus on the story and character development, featuring good writing and challenging gameplay, fitting for a real plague story.”
    • “Notice how incredible the character designs are, even amid their jankiness: whoever designed them, their faces, their attire, truly deserves a medal; and the same goes for their houses, mannerisms, and voices.”
    • “The only downside I found was that because there are so many characters and stories, there is not much time for character development, so you don't really connect with them.”
  • monetization
    12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The monetization aspect of the game is positively highlighted, with reviewers appreciating its lack of microtransactions and viewing it as a genuine labor of love rather than a cash grab. Players feel that the game requires effort and engagement, making it a refreshing contrast to the prevalent issues of mediocre storytelling and exploitative monetization practices in the industry. Overall, the game stands out for its unique gameplay and commitment to quality without the burden of additional costs.

    • “One good thing -- no microtransactions yet.”
    • “You have to earn Pathologic 2; it will make you work both in-game, in-between games (as you will probably lose sleep over it, thinking about the events taking place and planning your actions), and long after, as you attempt to comprehend all it tried to tell you and just how such a game could ever be pulled off in an industry filled with mediocre storytelling, filler open world gameplay, flashy graphics with no substance and microtransactions.”
    • “You have to earn Pathologic 2; it will make you work both in-game, in-between games (as you will probably lose sleep over it, thinking about the events taking place and planning your actions), and long after, as you attempt to comprehend all it tried to tell you and just how such a game could ever be pulled off in an industry filled with mediocre storytelling, filler open world gameplay, flashy graphics with no substance, and microtransactions.”
    • “The unique gameplay and style makes this game stand out among the crowd and one of the bright spots between all the drama with AAA publishers, loot boxes, and microtransactions.”
    • “This is not fake advertising and the devs disclosed it a while ago.”

65%Critics’ scoreBased on 18 critic reviews

Buy Pathologic 2

14h Median play time
33h Average play time
7-30h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 44 analyzed playthroughs

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