Forums > MobyGames > Interesting game
Sciere (930490) on 8/27/2006 7:51 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
I just approved Pathologic and it really intrigues me. It's been out since 2005 in Russia where it appears to have won loads of prizes, but it only recently hit Europe. I've read quite a bit about it in the meantime, but I still can't get a clear image, it somehow reminds me of Ecstatica in its vagueness, but a lot darker.
Has anyone already played it? I couldn't resist ordering, but I'm kind of curious about the actual gameplay experience. It seems like I'm advertising the game, but I couldn't write a feature article yet, could I? :)
Depeche Mike (17455) on 8/28/2006 3:08 AM · Permalink · Report
Looks awesome, can't wait to read some reviews...
Dae (7182) on 8/28/2006 7:32 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
Okay, you got me interested so I'm currently downloading the demo. The premise seems to be very interesting. It's nice to see games with more interesting starting points even today, when almost all games are all graphics and no story.
EDIT: Wow, I tried the demo around, I'm definately going to purchase this game. It's rare to see as unique games as this today.
It plays a bit like the Thief games and Morrowind, has a nice atmosphere to it, especially the music helps to build it up. It also seems to have a lot of small innovative ideas, like having the other player characters to be NPCs in the game, instead of not using them at all.
Dae (7182) on 8/28/2006 5:44 PM · Permalink · Report
Oh, that's weird. The premise is pretty unique and the system seems to work out great. At least judging by the demo it looks promising and an interesting game.
Ah well, you can't please everyone with games like this, especially if the reviewer thought they were playing a basic FPS (I've actually seen it happen a couple of times).
Dae (7182) on 8/28/2006 8:02 PM · Permalink · Report
Well, I'd sign the two first parts. But I found the graphics to be great (as soon as someone approves the screenshots I added to MG, you'll see for yourself) and the story good.
I thought the city looks swell for a semi-victorian age city, or maybe they did mean the colors, which are there to support the overall melancholy of the game.
I don't really know, try out the demo if you can be bothered downloading 700MB :P
Sciere (930490) on 8/28/2006 8:25 PM · Permalink · Report
I'm all about the story and atmosphere, so even if the graphics are sub-par, I don't mind much. As for the screenshots... I'm afraid we can't accept shots for demos, because it is not guaranteed that it is part of the full game or that the full game hasn't been enhanced in the meantime. Thanks for the effort, though!
Depeche Mike (17455) on 8/29/2006 11:02 PM · Permalink · Report
Though it would be cool if lots of things have changed if there was a section for Demo Screenshots as well as Beta Screenshots. It'd be neat to see the evolution of the game, especially if the screenshot grabbers were able to get the same image in different states of the game's evolution. In fact I'd LOVE to see that!
Dae (7182) on 8/30/2006 11:59 AM · Permalink · Report
But in lot of games, the demo version is just a shortened version of the first published retail version, and doesn't differ too much, if at all, from the retail product. I don't see why there should be a section for demo screenshots.
But for beta screenshots, I'd love to see that!
Slug Camargo (583) on 9/3/2006 8:16 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
[Q --start BigDennis wrote--]
- boring dialogues
- too many dialogues
- ugly graphics
- confusing story
- ugly city
- too much running around the city
- interesting concept
[/Q --end BigDennis wrote--]
Except for the "ugly city" part, which might or might not be open to discussion, the rest sounds to me like a textbook example of a circle-strafing rocket-launching FPS-head 13-year-old's review. If those are the bad things he has to say, he might just succeed in convincing me that this is the best game to come out in a good while.
I mean, I don't give a flying f'k about the concept of "boring" and "confusing" that a person who complains about "too many dialogues" has. You know which game I immediately remembered when I read "too many dialogues"? Planescape: Torment. 'Nuff said.
Sciere (930490) on 9/3/2006 9:37 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
I can't help reading reviews. None of them is able to explain the game's essentials, referring to it as "Oblivion with cancer".
It's a Russian game from 2005, looking like it's from 2000 at the best. But I love how it looks. [...] The translation is often extremely poor, descending into unintelligible gibberish. But it contains some of the best writing I've ever seen in a game. Following the plot is often impossible. It's the most interesting and deeply clever plot in years. My poor little head. [...] It's not like a Babelfish travesty that can't even connect words properly, but the overall meaning can be incredibly obtuse. It's a bit like reading Faulkner or T.S. Eliot, which allow you to read through fluently, only to finish with a blank and increasingly pained look on your face that finally produces an audible, "Huh?"
Two figures, one seemingly a mime with a white mask, the other a large-beaked bird creature, looking as though it's made of wood, but for the breathing. And they talk to you. Not your character. You. And your character gets confused, but they ignore him. [...] Every night, after midnight, your quest log clears, and the Masks at the local theatre put on a play based on your day, and your internal turmoil.
The understanding of the theatrical works of Bertolt Brecht is so very clear. This is a game that wants to create critical self-reflection in its player. It's always a game, and you're not allowed to forget that. It wasn't a mysterious bird-figure blocking my exit at the train station. It was the Game, telling me no, this was an edge, a literal and metaphorical invisible wall past which I could not cross. This is a game of metaphor made literal, that hopes you'll listen and explore the metaphor in your own world. It's Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt. (Yes, twice in a week. Random events segregate non-randomly). And it does this not to try and look clever, but because it is clever. Explore the South West of the town and you'll find the Polyhedron - an impossibly contorted geometric building where the town's children live. (The children are another 1000 words' worth of intrigue). Look closely and you'll see this building is literally made out of its own blueprint designs. The walls are graph paper, the designs sketched across its stretching staircases and tilted walls. It's the construction of its own design - it represents the game itself.
Debating genre is to miss the point of the game entirely. It's new, it's unique, it's daring and surreal, and if that's not worthy of attention in this day of recycled formulas, I don't know what is.
I haven't been this excited since standing in line to get a copy of Command & Conquer: Red Alert.
