First post yay!
I was just wondering if anyone saw any similarities to Pathologic in terms of story, theme, character development, etc.
I think my favorite part about both games is that they don't hold your hand, and reassure you everything is going to be okay. They brutalize you to begin with, then when you make it through they give you ambiguous endings that could either be positive or negative. For example (I have only played Bachelor), in that ending he proposes to demolish the town and build a new one across the river, but they never follow up to tell you if the disease ever returned. For The Void ending, you only get a poem and a view of the empty place that is sinister in its normality. You don't know for sure if you sentenced that sister to an eternity of purgatory and torture, or set her free to be happy.
They are also (obviously) geared towards the Survival Horror genre, but with a few other things sprinkled in. I think what both do better than any games out there is create a psychological tension through atmosphere, instead of arming you with a machine gun and having you chase after zombies. I mean, a zombie may scare me momentarially, but my mental scars from The Void and Pathologic will last forever
Both of them use "experimental" game mechanics. The Void uses a resource gathering mechanic, and drawing glyphs in combat. I was really surprised by their choice to have drawn glyphs instead of hotkeys. It was fun to draw the glyphs, and just another thing to throw the player off from being comfortable (No button mashing
). Pathologic has the Adherent system, which isn't super unique in and of its self, but I think the regular follow up, and consequences for an Adherent dying are. Most games have you save someone and then tuck them somewhere in the plot and don't pay attention to them. And, in Pathologic it actively tries to freak you out by killing off Adherents, but then saying its cool because its not your fault.
Moral ambiguity is another favorite element of mine. I mean, in The Void when you want to progress you have to torture some sisters through the colors you give. Una, for example, only has the colors of agony and anger and when she releases her bonds she has to rip off her flesh. Yani is another sister I found fascinating, because her innocence made me want to save her, but her objections make you feel guilty about ascending her. Had she really seen the outside work, and had it really sucked that hard? Or had the Warden just brainwashed/tortured her by putting her in his creepy bone cage thingy. Pathologic has you trade razors and syringes to children for medicine to survive. 'Nuff said.
In Pathologic and The Void main characters are pushed into picking a faction, which become somewhat reminiscent of divisions from politics or society. Both question the importance of a soul/person, and their job is to question the demands of the society around them, and ultimately save it. They also must face the fact that they may be puppets in some grand scheme.
/Endrant...Lol. Thanks for sticking around for a crazy rant. I hope I didn't state too many obvious things. @__@
