Oh god you have to play this

[sqeecoo]

Pathologic. Play this game. NOW.

A great review:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04 ... -the-body/

A very good LP thread:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... id=3033830

The game is not a full-blooded RPG, but the C&C are much better than any modern "RPG", and there is quite a bit of nice item and stats management. It's more of a horror/survival/adventure game, though, but I put it here for more exposure.
I can't believe I've just heard of this game. It's absolutely awesome. By far the best simulation of a living, breathing (and dying) world I've seen. You also get a great story with absolutely brilliant narrative structure, incredible atmosphere, awesome art direction, and by far the best survival mechanics I have seen yet (food/infection/exhaustion). As a bonus, you also get to laugh at the ridiculous translation from russian.

But don't take my word for it, read the RPS article, which is completely true except that the game is neither hard nor semi-boring for a competent player with more then a 5 sec attention span, and have a look at the LP.

From the review:

On my first runthrough of the game I was impossibly relieved when I got given a revolver and six bullets, because it was the solution to my impending starvation. I took it straight to the nearest corner store and swapped it for a bottle of milk and a can of vegetables. The next day food doubled in price.

I don’t want to dwell on the survival, but the brilliance of this cannot be overstated. If there’s another FPS this decade that has you eagerly swapping your only gun for milk, I’ll gladly disappear up my own asshole.

...

In a single word, Pathologic is dark. And not “we’re going to make our sequel a darker, more adult experience” dark. Not ‘teen angst’ dark. Pathologic is an endlessly bleak game with an atmosphere that smothers all hope. It’s ‘pensioner breaking a leg in his bedsit and no one finding out until the smell starts to get unbearable’ dark.

...

The point is that Pathologic fearlessly wields desperation, brutality, hopelessness, exhaustion, cruelty, even ignorance and pain, and, if you can stomach it, the result is phenomenal.

 

[Erzherzog]

I rememberseeing the codex mention this one before. I told myself I'd buy it when I had excess cash. Now I do, I should buy it but I don't know if I actually will.

 

[Micmu]

HERE WE GO, FUCKIN RUSSIANS AGAIN

NO
NO NO NO AND NO. NO PLAY.

Translate it to English first. Still have my copy, cannot play it. CANNOT UNDERSTAND IT. It's the worst translation of all times ever.

 

[Dele]

I Refuse.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Overrated.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

The Eastern Euro's seem to have some good ideas, I just wish they could nail down the execution. The Witcher was probably the best executed to my mind. So far that is.

The ideas behind the games are much more refreshing than the mainstream game developers in the West. This makes it hurt even more when the game is released and...many, many flaws apparent.

 

[mondblut]

The game is not a full-blooded RPG

and the rest, as far as I am concerned, is irrelevant.

 

[sqeecoo]

It's the worst translation of all times ever.

Definitely. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, really. I strongly doubt we'll ever see another translation this bad again. But for me, this didn't make the game unplayable or incomprehensible at all, just occasionally hilarious. Maybe because I'm also a dirty Slav, so I could make more sense of the expressions the bungled English translation was trying to represent.

Of course, I wouldn't expect any other reaction other than "overrated" on the codex. But the game is still great :D

The game is not a full-blooded RPG

and the rest, as far as I am concerned, is irrelevant.

The game is not a pure RPG, but it's more of a RPG than most RPGs, really. Also, in this age of stale game concepts, it's a genuine breakthrough in game design (that will likely be completely ignored).

Also, from the review:

This is what Pathologic does. It creates an interesting, desperate situation and brooks no compromise in letting you experience it. And in unflinchingly making you suffer, you identify with these characters you control to the point of becoming them.

So, Pathologic is a grand experiment in characterisation.

...

This is not a game. There isn’t a word for it really, which is probably why the developers, Ice-pick Lodge, call Pathologic “an exercise in decision making” on their translated English website.

The word for it is RPG

Actually, the execution of the game is great really, except the translation. No bugs, no performance issues. At all. I actually found the complete absence of any bugs quite surprising. The translation might be a deal-breaker for you, but have a look at the LP and judge for yourself. I didn't find that it detracts from the game. In fact, it even gave it a unique flavor in a way.

Also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMJFwXt5jSc

 

[circ]

Art direction looks like ass. I'm not sold on the RPG part either. Looks and seems like an ADVENTURE.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

It's closer to survival horror. Survival mindscrewer is probably the best description. Against all odds, it's good, very good.

 

[mondblut]

The game is not a pure RPG, but it's more of a RPG than most RPGs, really.

It has more stats, loot, better stat-driven combat and explorative adventuring than most RPGs, really?

 

[Pliskin]

Maybe because I'm also a dirty Slav

 

[Zomg]

I heard something about a fan-translation that keeps the original audio with de-shitted subtitles. Anyone know about it?

 

[Balor]

sqeecoo:

|||| -> |/\/\/\| -> ||||


You missed my like million threads that are so similar that I half suspect that you copypasted like 90%? :D

Anyway, the game is very good (even if not pure RPG, indeed), however I have an advantage of being even dirtier Russki.

However, unless you are really into this sort of thing, I can perfectly see how an 'average player' will throw up in disgust trying to play this game... mostly because he will attempt to play it for FUN, and the game is ultimately NOT about fun at all... while still managing to be brilliant.

 

[sirfink]

In before someone makes the obligatory "In Soviet Russia..." joke.

 

[RK47]

Don't play it. But been following a LP of it. Quite intense.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... genumber=1

 

[Rosh]

It's closer to survival horror. Survival mindscrewer is probably the best description. Against all odds, it's good, very good.

Honestly, for a setting that works off of detail, I'd say that good translation is required. I'd like to play it, but bad Engrussian is possibly the only thing worse than bad Engrish. Therefore folks might consider it to be crap without realizing that the game has far more depth than just confusing them. Lost in translation may quite well be an understatement with this title, so if someone could find the fan subtitled translation, it might help to give this a bit more sense to those who can't follow the official translation.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I heard something about a fan-translation that keeps the original audio with de-shitted subtitles. Anyone know about it?

Curious about this as well.

 

[MetalCraze]

So adventures = RPG now? Just how much more decline do you need?

 

[aries202]

I've played the demo of this game. I really liked the setting and the great atmosphere in it; it was totally unclear what you needed to do to get ahead in the game. And the fog closes in on you...and the fog is poisenous...

The story seemed way too strange, too - even for my taste in strange weird stories...

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

So adventures = RPG now?

As much as shooters and action games being labelled as such, I suppose. Quite a few games are tagged as Action/RPGs, as well, when they are, in fact, Action/Adventures.
Then again, yeah, "RPG" has become something of a misnomer, hasn't it? More of a marketing term meant to create an illusion of substance and sophistication, to a degree. So here we are, wishfully trying to associate a game with depth with a [video-game] genre that hasn't had both in a long, long time. No blame, I know how bad things are.
But one thing has to be said, once in a while: C&C != RP

 

[Haba]

Soo... No effort to actually fix the translation?

Well, I heard that their next game actually has an international publisher. So at least there is that.

 

[Thrasher]

Another Russian made frustration? Fun? NO. I hate games with time limits especially if they are buggy and clunky.

I have some needles for your eyes that are a lot cheaper.

 

[Imbecile]

I'm not sure if its nationalistic pride, but eastern-Europeans seem fairly fervent about eastern European games, in much the same way that Germans always seem to be enthusiastic about Gothic, and the French are mad about...uh...gobliiins?

 

[ghostdog]

The only english translation project, that I know of, is here , but it doesn't seem like it could be finished anytime soon, if ever.