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Some random thoughts after playing through the first few days. I backed the game, not having played the first iteration, because it looked so different from anything else out there and because my other Ice Pick Lodge experience, The Void, was fascinating, if impenetrable. I did not finish The Void. At a risk of getting too far up my own arse here, with any commercial game there's a tension between games as entertainment/games as art/games as product. Pathologic seems to be weighing heavily on "the game as an art piece" side of things - to provoke certain emotional responses in its audience. In the case of this game, it is feelings of oppression, persecution and despair. This can be entertaining for some, but it's not the common expectation when it comes to games. As a product, it's aiming at a specific niche, just like schlock horror films or avant-garde theatre, which is at odds with conventional wisdom for AAA or AA gaming. Pathalogic is walking a fine line between being true to authorial vision and being a viable product. I'm not sure yet whether it succeeds on either front.
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May 27, 2019 19:33
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I just chugged through my entire inventory of immunity pills in one short visit to the infected zone at day 3 despite never getting hit by the clouds and having every defensive item but the coat. Jesus. 
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May 27, 2019 22:35
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how long were you in there?
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May 27, 2019 22:37
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MiddleOne posted:I just chugged through my entire inventory of immunity pills in one short visit to the infected zone at day 3 despite never getting hit by the clouds and having every defensive item but the coat. Jesus. open a lot of drawers?
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May 27, 2019 22:38
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trying to decide if i want to spend my insane ring and pocket watch fortune on food or just coast off of what i have.. hmmOrikaeshigitae posted:open a lot of drawers? something that i didnt realize was that each piece of clothing does a very specific thing rather than just being generally useful in infected zones, and they're all intuitive
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May 27, 2019 23:20
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Star Guarded posted:smh at everyone restarting he should have posted that in the steam reviews instead
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May 28, 2019 00:11
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For me the food issue is huge and I get that it's intentional to stress the player out but I'm literally spending all my time looking for food and I'm still starving, it's not a lot of fun. So I resolved to just cheat my way out of the food issue 
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May 28, 2019 00:16
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What the gently caress does the game want with all this RAM, Jesus. Well, I guess I'll look forward to playing this at some point in the distant future.
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May 28, 2019 00:29
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  I love these little moments of humor
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May 28, 2019 00:38
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I can buy a ring for 10 dead item funbux, is that worth doing? e: Well I did yolo lol e: Wow the infected look hosed up now, one mugged me. Three stabs with my scalpel brought it from 2/3 durability to almost shattered, drat Two hits took a full durability scalpel to zero so welp never fight I guess, even if you're mugged and sparing them, you gently caress yourself RBA Starblade fucked around with this message at 01:15 on May 28, 2019 |
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May 28, 2019 01:08
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RBA Starblade posted:I can buy a ring for 10 dead item funbux, is that worth doing? Yeah I just got to the infection part and people got loving knives now, my strategy of walking backwards and uppercutting isn' working anymore. On the bright side fixing your knife takes very few resources if you keep it in top shape.
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May 28, 2019 01:15
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The Vosgian Beast posted:
I was coming here to post exactly that! P2 is a surprisingly funny game at times. Demiurge4 posted:For me the food issue is huge and I get that it's intentional to stress the player out but I'm literally spending all my time looking for food and I'm still starving, it's not a lot of fun. So I resolved to just cheat my way out of the food issue What day are you on? I found day 4 to somewhat ease the pressure on the food (between the Fund and Gravel giving you food) in comparison to previous days. Not sure if this will last, but it let me focus more on the doctoring part of the action.
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May 28, 2019 01:18
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Demiurge4 posted:Yeah I just got to the infection part and people got loving knives now, my strategy of walking backwards and uppercutting isn' working anymore. On the bright side fixing your knife takes very few resources if you keep it in top shape. Well, I did have them in shape  BTW, if you're on day 2 - day 3 and you get the dream about the Adherents talking about The Eighth, look behind you
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May 28, 2019 01:28
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I made it to the end of day 9. Most of my problems are solved and/or dead. Feel the need to give my bound a good spanking. Also free tip of the day. You know those waterbarrels that you love having picnics next to? Yeah those go empty from over use on your end.
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May 28, 2019 01:30
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Also since I thought of it who's playing with the language in Russian and who's playing with it in English? I went between the two and I feel like the Russian VAs fit things a bit betterWaterfall Watcher posted:I made it to the end of day 9. Most of my problems are solved and/or dead. i've doomed the town
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May 28, 2019 01:32
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Archenteron posted:Ice-Pick Lodge just made a really good/relevant post in this, the post-Sekiro world of accessibility in gaming discussions: I do feel like a snob for saying this but why don't they go the ZUN route? That is to make an easy mode but one that doesn't allow you to complete the game fully because lol you're playing easy mode. So in the Pathologic 2's case just force the player to take the devils deal with the fellow traveler and increase the seconds per minute from 4 to 5.
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May 28, 2019 02:17
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What devil's deal? Also just cutting off the last of the game is pretty much the very worst thing you could do for accessibility, because you've just locked anyone who needs that mode out of the rest of the game. There's more to accessibility than "it's too hard for me".
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May 28, 2019 02:23
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RBA Starblade posted:What devil's deal? Oh if you die seven times The fellow traveler offers to take your place for the rest of the story and you will no longer have any penalty from dying anymore. Though yeah your right in that Zun's approach works for short 30min-2hour game. I was thinking just have basically a practice run to prepare you for the well crafted run that the devs envisioned. It would be somewhat a win-win.
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May 28, 2019 02:31
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Oh gotcha, I know there's an easter egg if you a do a thing in the intro but I wasn't sure what. Not that apparently!Waterfall Watcher posted:Oh if you die seven times The fellow traveler offers to take your place for the rest of the story and you will no longer have any penalty from dying anymore. Yeah, the only game I've seen that work in is Jamestown which is also a bullet hell shooter - and it just adds levels as you raise the difficulty so you don't get owned instantly This is like a 40 hour game so
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May 28, 2019 02:35
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RBA Starblade posted:I can buy a ring for 10 dead item funbux, is that worth doing? extremely. bracelets, pocket watches and rings sell for a lot of cash
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May 28, 2019 03:24
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Pathologic is one of those games that I’ll never play but I’m eagerly waiting some LP to watch
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May 28, 2019 03:37
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The difficulty discourse is going to lead inevitably to Cargo 2, and we have only ourselves to blame
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May 28, 2019 03:44
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I'm flat broke except for this ring but I have nine pieces of meat and pemmican. Truly I'm living the high lifeNo Mods No Masters posted:The difficulty discourse is going to lead inevitably to Cargo 2, and we have only ourselves to blame Cargowns
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May 28, 2019 05:13
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Waterfall Watcher posted:I do feel like a snob for saying this but why don't they go the ZUN route? That is to make an easy mode but one that doesn't allow you to complete the game fully because lol you're playing easy mode. So in the Pathologic 2's case just force the player to take the devils deal with the fellow traveler and increase the seconds per minute from 4 to 5. I feel like the people who consider games being hard to be problematic characterize games with an easy mode that doesn't let you complete it as targeted abuse and harassment
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May 28, 2019 05:30
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What exactly does (day1/2) the Changeling's silence curse and denying your fate by dying to the three men dream do? I thought I'd see the impact of those right away but I haven't. Also, I was a doofus and forgot to activate the backer item, the "dragonfly eye" or whatever. What does that do?
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May 28, 2019 05:43
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he tells you what he is going to do. dream: he cripples you because you cant change your fate there are actually a lot of things in this game that are straightforward. day 4-5 spoiler: if you just trust bad grief when he says that he's hiding rubin and dont go find rubin, the kin don't find him either and you dont have to fight the shitheads Verviticus fucked around with this message at 06:24 on May 28, 2019 |
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May 28, 2019 06:22
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Verviticus posted:he tells you what he is going to do. dream: he cripples you because you cant change your fate Was that just a decrease in health or something more substantial? I can't remember what changed.
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May 28, 2019 06:24
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I haven’t bought the game due to money issues yet but the more I try to learn about this game, the less I understand what it’s about or what the goals are. I can’t wait for my next paycheck to try this.
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May 28, 2019 07:07
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I know most people itt already know this but the only real goal is to ultimately survive until day 12. You can gently caress up a thousand times and as long as you hobble over the finish line alive you've made it. That's why dying penalizes you so much. You are essentially the only npc that matters. Uh, with that said. Can you kill/mug children in this game and loot their corpse? Because I really need medications and the only npc I can find that has what I need is a kid and there is no way I'm finding enough to trade. In case it isn't obvious my playthrough is well and truly hosed. 
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May 28, 2019 07:29
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Pigbuster posted:Was that just a decrease in health or something more substantial? I can't remember what changed. it drops you to 10% or 5% or something. i was at like 15% so it wasnt a big deal
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May 28, 2019 07:43
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Pigbuster posted:Also, I was a doofus and forgot to activate the backer item, the "dragonfly eye" or whatever. What does that do? Nothing major. it's just a free one time item that acts like a mega-twyrine, shows three hidden spots on map youcallthatatwist fucked around with this message at 08:20 on May 28, 2019 |
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May 28, 2019 08:18
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I thought I'd try to deny fate by just punching and sparing them in the dream but turns out the surgeon is a heavyweight boxer
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May 28, 2019 13:10
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Red Mundus posted:I know most people itt already know this but the only real goal is to ultimately survive until day 12. You can gently caress up a thousand times and as long as you hobble over the finish line alive you've made it. That's why dying penalizes you so much. You are essentially the only npc that matters. I know there are adherents again but yeah, from what I can tell they don't seem to really matter that much? And water is now seriously limited, which just ruins my perfect hobonomics business cycle. Can I at least still kill murderers and bandits for money and rep? Oh, also, can I still rescue other protagonists' adherents? Or does that even matter in Pathologic 2: Hell Mode Engaged?
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May 28, 2019 15:16
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Quicksilver6 posted:I know there are adherents again but yeah, from what I can tell they don't seem to really matter that much? And water is now seriously limited, which just ruins my perfect hobonomics business cycle. Can I at least still kill murderers and bandits for money and rep? who were the adherents for the other healers in 1?
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May 28, 2019 15:38
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I feel like immunity drains too fast. I throw everything I have at stacking my immunity and the plague still tears through my clothes and drains my pills so fast it's all I can do to get THROUGH a plague district, let alone do anything there
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May 28, 2019 15:40
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Orikaeshigitae posted:open a lot of drawers? You get infection for looting?
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May 28, 2019 15:45
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Orikaeshigitae posted:who were the adherents for the other healers in 1? https://pathologic.gamepedia.com/The_Bound There's a lot of hauling rear end in the original
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May 28, 2019 15:49
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Orikaeshigitae posted:who were the adherents for the other healers in 1? I can't remember them all, much less be able to pull it off but supposedly it had additional positive consequences at day 12. From what I understand, it's a miracle if you the player survives even that long in this one. Also can someone explain the death penalty? That seems like it's kicking you when you're down which is... disheartening. E:f,b
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May 28, 2019 16:02
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What's the easiest way to get a new scalpel? I have zero money since I bought as much meat as possible and bumfights totally ruined the two I have and I have no repair tools I didn't even get a kidney out of it since they turned tail and fled
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May 28, 2019 16:08
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The point of the death penalty, at least on paper, is to make you avoid death at all costs. This includes savescumming before death if you need to. As far as the Bound are concerned, in Pathologic 2 you can't save everyone and are not expected to. The most you can do is keep the people on The List safe, and maybe some friends or people you care about if they strike your fancy.
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May 28, 2019 16:08
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