PSA: I played this game while stoned for a whole day without any meals, and now I talk to bulls, attend local shows, and stare at crows in the middle of the road while I barter with homeless folk... Don't do drugs kids.

this game makes me wanna kill myself

i'm going to share a personal story on why I'm recommending Pathologic 2.

Back in 2016, I read the RPS review of Pathologic 1, right before I went on a trip to Wales for a week away from my PC. I'd also just updated my playlist with a few tracks meant to freshen up the long car journey there and back, one of which was titled "Ghosts", the other "Way Back Home". Neither is anything like the music in either game, but they still conjured up images of what I'd read in the RPS review, and what ensued was a full week of daydreaming about this mythical game, building up an almost impossible expectation in my head for it. I came home at the end of the week, bought the game, and immediately began playing it. What I was met with was a jankfest that wasn't very fun to play, and not for the "right" reasons. I persevered anyway, but when I got the worst possible ending, I concluded that I'd built up a game in my head that didn't exist, and gave up.

Then I played Pathologic 2. Pathologic 2 is that game I daydreamed about for a full week. Pathologic 2 is that blend of survival and bleakness with solid art direction and execution. Pathologic 2 is challenging to play for the RIGHT reasons. The singular thing the original has over Pathologic 2 is that all three character storylines are done and playable, and with this game's apparent failure commercially, the sequel may never have the same. But just the Haruspex storyline is so compelling in this game, so tightly executed, that I would still, unflinchingly, recommend it.