I reward games on how they make me feel. Contrary to popular(?) opinion Pathologic did not have any pacing issues. More on that later.

Pathologic, a somewhere between PS1-PS2 graphical fidelity PC game that has only a few tracks looped at different environments of the game built more atmosphere and engaged me far more than Mass Effect, Skyrim and Deus Ex: Human Revolution all lumped together.

Here's how my first play through of Pathologic pans out

You are not introduced to the game, none of this PRESS X TO WALK FORWARD. LOOK AT SOMETHING USING THE MOUSE- No. It drops you in the middle of the world and demands you follow suit.
I walk around the town for a while, I notice a standee with a rotted cloth and dead rats on it. When I move past it a strange colouration appears over my screen, weird unnerving music loops and I stumble around and unfamiliar neighbourhood. Some... thing wrapped in bandages slowly walks up and touches me in a blind, feeble fashion. The screen reels and a small smear in the top corner of the screen grows larger INFECTION: >>>

I punch the thing in the face to get it away from me. It slumps over and cries it's last and I run out of the district, I try to buy medicine (That would take half of my entire cash on hand) to help me fight the infecton, however the shop attendant refuses to deal with me because I am a murder.

Everyone acts like I'm a big jerk, I try to find my way to the person I was supposed to speak to, problem is I walk so slowly (Sort of like real life) that the infection grows within me. I eat up all the pills I had on my person, too bad for me the overdose effect eats away at your health, it manages to quell my infection but it reduces me to half the life I had. I try to speak to the next character I was supposed to meet, she calls me a monster and says that if she was to ever help me I must first help others, her instructions? Go to the infected areas and give pain relief to plague victims with various medicines.

Before I leave I sleep in a bed for a few hours. My hunger becomes apparent but I ignore it in the time being, I trudge back to the infected area and attempt to find someone sick, I swallow nervously and approach an infected house in the middle of the district. I hold my breath in front of my computer and enter the house.

The place is putrid, everything is decaying- suddenly a miasma of illness floats towards me, before I can do anything I am enveloped INFECTION: >>>>>>

I quickly run into the living room and find a woman doubled over on the floor, I hand her my last bottle of tonic and flee the house.

As I leave the house I walk back to the woman who asked me to do such a thing. A strange man with a wild grin appears out of no where and attacks me with a knife. I barely manage to protect myself, I am furious about being attacked so I fight him to the bitter end and eventually kill him. I now realize that I am starving, I eat a stale loaf of bread and drink a bottle of milk INFECTION: >>>>>>>>>>>

What?! Why!!

Turns out that some food, especially animal products can have the virus in them.

My vision begins to fail me, the game causes me to have a 'fish eye' effect for a while. When I look to the side 'ghost' images of my surroundings stay in place over my vision, all my vital conditions are dropping.

I run into a store and sell my gun and knife to pay for more medication. I scoff it down but it wasn't enough to remove the infection, it only buys me more time.

I move as fast as I can back to the woman. She commends me for my bravery and tells me to rendezvous with another man who is trying to find a cure.

I fall asleep in a bed for an hour to recover some stamina, but the infection grows stronger while I sleep.

I begin to follow the rail road tracks, it's almost midnight. I didn't think I had wasted much time.

I am 3/4 of the way to the character researching the cure before midnight occurs. Across my screen flashes the message

YOU CAN NO LONGER SAVE THIS TOWN
AREAS INFECTED: 5
PEOPLE INFECTED: 142
PEOPLE PERISHED: 49
PEOPLE KILLED: 23


I didn't fully understand what was happening. I opened my map and the marker telling me how to get to my next destination was gone like as if the person I was going to meet was dead or something, the areas that were infected had spread even wider. Some were black instead of the usual red colour.





I had been playing the game for about two hours, I didn't want to stop, the game didn't stop either.

I wandered off the tracks to explore what was outside the town... my infection was now at the brink of 90%

I found a river. The music was no longer playing. My vision was terribly poor and my breathing deep and struggling.

I walked by the river, my health bar faded away to nothing. Everything became black and the game faded to a scene that was portrayed at the start of the game, a play. In a theater. A black faceless character was slumped over a table with a two strange bird-like figures standing over it. The game drops you back to the main menu

NEW GAME?





This is an amazing game.
No other game has made me want to play after failing and then allowed me to do so.
I was alone, scared, weak, helpless. Not because the game made me, but because I failed to look after myself, and failed to care about other people around me. I wasted time, using long winded routes and sifting through the various garbage cans for useless trinkets I thought I could make use of throughout the game. I frivolously placed myself in dangerous situations instead of taking precautions and avoiding confrontation.

No other game has ever imparted these feelings. I bet every 'gamer' who played this game was disgusted with it. Not only did it fail to give them some sort of sense of power fantasy like 50 billion other games but it constantly puts them under various stresses and never really cues you into whether you've lost until it's far too late.

You can play the game again, sober up, sharpen up, focus really hard and only just manage to scrape through attempting to find a cure while looking after your own person. It's like...

A human body management adventure fetch quest action game.

I love it.