Episode 100: Pathologic 2

The original Pathologic has long been regarded as a cult classic. Obtuse, frustrating, boring and unfriendly, it nonetheless captured people’s imaginations with its densely woven storytelling and mystical dialogue. It was a game that came at the art form from a completely different direction from what everyone else was doing, but was ultimately limited by its fairly simple gameplay.

Pathologic 2 aimed to solve the gameplay problem. Ice Pick Lodge, with a wagon full of kickstarter money, wanted to refine the spirit of the first game and realise their dream of death and suffering. Combat, looting, infection, trading, potion making, the UI and much much more have all been expanded upon dramatically to give the player too much to do, and not enough time to do it.

But did all these radical changes to the gameplay come at the cost of the story? Is only having the Haruspex playthrough instead of all 3 characters still a meaningful experience? Has Pathologic 2 achieved everything that the first game was striving for?

Join us on our special 100th episode of Retro Spectives Podcast as we discuss a game that refused to bend to progress, and instead carved its own path through the gaming landscape

On this episode, we discuss:

• Story.
  How has the story of Pathologic 2 changed, and is it for the better?
  The dialogue is more grounded and the politics de-emphasised in favour of more intimate character moments.
  Does this make the game more immersive, or has something ephemeral been lost along the way?
• Gameplay.
  How does the gameplay of Pathologic 2 actually work?
  We dig deep to wrap our minds around every part of this game's complex web of systems.
• Suffering.
  Is there meaning to be found in humanity's struggles for survival?
  Or does this game's portrayal of suffering pale in comparison to the agony of looting those same park bins once again?

We answer these questions and many more on th1 100th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Pathologic 2 OST: Vasily Kashnikov, Theodor Bastard

A big thank you to everyone who has stuck with us through 100 episodes of reviewing and discussing classic games. The whole reason doing this podcast is fun is because you’re there listening, and both Pat and James deeply appreciate you for it. If you haven’t done so already, we’d love it if you'd swing by and say hi on our community discord server.