Well, after playing through the Bachelor scenario, I finally completed the game a few days ago. It took me a long time... I'm generally a slow player, as I like to take everything in and make sure I've seen all that I can. I'd estimate it took me about 50 hours to complete this scenario
What can I say? Where do I begin? Pathologic has affected me more strongly than most games I've ever played. It has also invaded my thoughts during the day and dominated my dreams every night. This is because of the *story* ... It's so well told (despite the problems of the English translation) and it has so much depth. There is a huge amount of history to the town and all the main characters. I was constantly intrigued by scraps of information about characters' relationships, references to past events and possible theories on what was really going on in the town.
Normally, even if a game story is good, it doesn't make you think too much. And quite often, game stories are simply average or predictable; Not worth bothering about.
So basically Pathologic took over my brain during the last couple of weeks, to an almost unhealthy degree. You could even say the game infected me
I know there has been criticism of the graphics. I'm not a 'graphics whore' and I don't play the latest games (My PC can't handle 'em, for one thing
). I personally thought the graphics were great. Very individual, artistic, inspired (I love the beak-faced Executors!) and nearly all of the textures were very high-resolution. Sure, it's not perfect: The character models are well done, and the faces convey emotion quite well, but they still look a little too much like puppets. The town itself feels somewhat static, as you can't really do anything with the environment. And it would have been nice to have a different 'look' to the houses in different parts of the town, as the six(?) different designs do get rather repetitive.I quite enjoyed the combat, though it does get annoying when you're being chased by rats and muggers everywhere you go. Also, the AI is pretty much nonexistant: Muggers will chase you with unending passion. And soldiers will usually stand still and not move as you pick off all their buddies with your rifle.
The music is really good, though once again, it does get a little repetitive. Particularly when it's 5am, I've finally stopped playing the game for the night, I climb into bed, but I can't get to sleep because the menu music is stuck in my head, and I'm also wondering what exactly Anna Angel did in the past, or just what is going on in Julia's mind. Finally I fall asleep, and dream about the game all night!
I can't stress it enough: The real thing that makes this game so good and so compelling is the story. I was intrigued by every detail, I kept wondering about everything, I always wanted to know more, and it's the reason I couldn't stop thinking about this game for all the time I was playing it. In fact, I'm still thinking about it right now, because I'm typing an over-long review right here on the official forums!
The game has three main problems, in my opinion:
1. The slow walking speed. The constant wandering backwards and forwards across town. It gets *very* annoying. It's obviously less annoying when you're excited about the place you're going to (Like for instance, you're finally going to be allowed access to the Apiary!)
2. The translation. Obviously! However, I read everything carefully, and I was able to understand pretty much everything in the game. The quality of the translation varies from day to day.
Sometimes it's pretty decent (Say about 70% of the time) - Other times it's not much better than Babelfish quality (about 25% of the time). Occassionally, it is almost incomprehensible (5%). But I was so interested in the information, and the story, that the translation didn't seem like that much of a problem. And I got used to things, like the fact that every time someone says 'I have a lot to make,' they really mean 'I have a lot to do' 3. The ending. I don't want to post spoilers in this topic, so I'll start another one for discussion of the ending. But let me say that I felt cheated, infuriated, pissed off, angry! I know - There are four different endings. I watched them all. But they all have one thing in common - One revelation - which I found very hard to swallow, particularly after playing the game for 50 hours. I still like the game, but the ending *really* annoyed me! I'll say more on this later...
So there you are. I really liked Pathologic, and I'm amazed that I've still only completed 1/3 of it! I still probably have another 100 hours of gameplay, if I play through with Burakh and Klara (Which I definitely will do. Though I think I'll wait a while). This game is an amazing achievement, because of the depth of its story, its totally unique concept and environment, and the fact that you guys at Ice-Pick Lodge could've just let us play with *one* character. But instead you gave us *three*! The amount of text in this game is immense.
Other people have found the English version of the game unplayable, or have said "How can they release a game in this state?" ... Well, I agree that it would have been nice to have a better translation, but I'm just glad that the game was translated at all, and that I got to play it!
Thanks Ice-Pick Lodge. You've screwed up my mind, frustrated me, intrigued me, but overall, it was well worth the effort
I really hope your next game will make it to England/America, too!
