Pathologic Classic HD - a Pathologic remaster (not the remake)

[hayst]

Pathologic Classic HD is on sale for dirt cheap on GOG atm. Is it worth playing at all when I own Pathologic 2?

 

[vitellus]

it's 90% off on gog until the beginning of november!

 

[Dadd]

Which one would be good to play first, the Void, Pathologic or Pathologic 2?

 

[Konjad]

Which one would be good to play first, the Void, Pathologic or Pathologic 2?

Pathologic 2 is a remake of Pathologic, but with only 1 character out of 3 (they were supposed to add the other two, but AFAIK they never did? I've never actually played P2).

The Void is a different game and it's very difficult and eccentric - some people love it, while other find it too weird to be playable.

They are both walking sim/management simulator/C&C mix, but perhaps in different proportions. Both games also have combat, but in Pathologic you're most often better off avoiding it, in The Void combat is more viable, but also many times better avoided.

I'm not sure which one would be better to start with. The Void is one of the best games I've ever played and pathologic is "only" decent, but at the same time Pathologic will feel more familiar and be much easier whereas The Void doesn't really play like any other game (being an unique mix of genres) and is difficult - I managed to finish it only after my fifth game restart (C&C in both games hit later, not instantly like in typical RPG games).

Perhaps try The Void first, then - regardless if you like it or not - Pathologic 2 second?

 

[Dadd]

Perhaps try The Void first, then - regardless if you like it or not - Pathologic 2 second?

I will do this. Thanks for the informative post.

 

[Perkel]

Which one would be good to play first, the Void, Pathologic or Pathologic 2?

Pathologic is very janky to play and you need certain attitude to "get" into that and you milage will get mostly from ending journey and playing it again.

The Void is masterpiece that is very easy to get in. It has boobs to quickly get you into story and then as you play force you to forget about boobs and rethink your role in that universe.

Easily The Void. As much as I love Pathologic for what it tries to do it is poor way to get into Ice Pick Lopic games.

I'm yet to play Pathologic 2 but from what I know this is just remaster/remake of Pathologic 1 that is way less janky and has cut down content as they run out of money for remaster/remake Pathologic 1 and simply release Early Access version as is and call it.... pathologic 2.

Imho The Void (or its alternate name Tension) is one of those rare games that transcend gaming itself much like Planescape did.

If there was a game to study what truth/trust/lies and falsehood is then this is the best study ever. Just don't expecting shooting people.

 

[Average Manatee]

Both games also have combat, but in Pathologic you're most often better off avoiding it

You should avoid it in Pathologic because if you get good at it you'll ruin the economy. Both the actual economy and the economy of reputation (everyone loves you killing robbers).

 

[RoSoDude]

I am here to announce my release of the first gameplay overhaul mod for this game:

Pathologic Classic -- Reputation, Survival, and Disease Overhaul v1.00

This is a mod that aims to rebalance the economy and survival gameplay of Pathologic Classic. While the game has a reputation for being brutally difficult, most of its challenge came from its failure to communicate some of its more obtuse mechanics and systems. Most players who get past Day 2 (or who have already played Pathologic 2) will quickly discover the many highly abusable strategies to exploit the game economy and get on top of the resource curve, turning what was supposed to be a stress simulator in which you must carefully weigh self-preservation against your duty as a healer into a walking simulator in which you tediously grind resources while walking between (admittedly very well-written) character dialogues.

Pathologic Classic RSD is the first mod of its kind to alter the underlying game systems and bring out the potential depth that was hinted at but never fully realized in the game.

Key Features:

• Survival meters accumulate faster. The twyre blooming in the air makes you tire more quickly and feel the pangs of hunger more often
• Killing bandits, arsonists, and looters is no longer an easy way to restore your reputation, and the scum of the town are also the most destitute, carrying little money or valuables for the taking
• Aside from a handful of quests which help your standing, the only way to regain reputation with the townsfolk is to perform your role as a healer, aiding them with cash donations to afford medicine, administering painkillers to those writhing in agony, or curing them with Clara's miraculous touch. These mechanics were always in the game, but now you'll actually have to use them
• Bad Grief is happy to see the police force diminished; he now purchases patrolmen badges at a significant markup to service players who are willing to put their reputation on the line
• Thought you could just hoard food on Day 1 to prepare for hyper inflation? Think again, as the supply is limited since the train stopped coming to deliver food. Initial prices are higher and go even higher than before. You can rest assured that each food item is now priced according to its hunger satiation, however
• With prices soaring and playing vigilante hero paying less than before, you may be forced to turn to theft. You can actually find reasonable sums of cash in houses now. However, stealing now comes at a cost to your reputation, and residents will lock the door behind you as you leave so you can no longer reset hostilities and barter inventories without expending another lockpick
• Abandoned houses in boarded-up districts are a free-for-all, but the lights are off and you'll have to sneak around in near total darkness to get the drop on other looters. The lamp burns through kerosene at 1/4th the rate to help you navigate the shadows
• Bartering was one of the strongest and most innovative parts of gameplay, and has seen only minor touch-ups to better reflect the relative value of items and is bolstered by the addition of a few more resource chains. Barter junk is priced higher in shops, though it's still more lucrative to buy and trade than to sell
• New intuitive clothing durability system: boots degrade as you walk and from rat bites, gloves and masks degrade from plague sources, cloaks degrade from combat and plague sources
• Repairing weapons and clothing is now more costly, and they decrease in sell value by up to 90% as their durability decreases. Disposable clothing items can no longer be repaired, as implied by their descriptions
• Vaccines now last for 24 hours and clothing is appropriately priced relative to its protective value, so maintaining immunity to the plague is more viable than before
• Haruspex's twyre brewing is much deeper, with expanded utility for bloody twyre and rewritten herbal recipe formulas to make them worth pursuing in quests, as well as rebalanced herb trading which makes various new combinations more cost effective. Herbs also appear in the "Drugs" tab, making inventory management more feasible
• Each character has a more diverse and lore-appropriate collection of starting items
• The Bachelor and Haruspex don't find as many free guns as before. On the other hand, the Haruspex's egregious 50 pill quest and 30 rifle round quest have had their requirements reduced
• The Changeling's healing/hurting hands have a shorter range, requiring her to put herself at greater risk during combat and healing
• Quest rewards are rebalanced to ensure that some choices are not strictly superior
• The story text and item descriptions are unchanged except where necessary to communicate changes to gameplay and quests (main.dat is not replaced, so this is compatible with other mods that do alter the script)

Frequently asked questions:

• What languages are supported?
  The installer and mod currently support English, Russian, and Polish translations. Please let me know if you would like to produce an Italian localization.
• What about the walking speed?
  Pathologic Classic RSD features an option to globally increases the game speed by 15%, complete with synced gun sounds and theater dialogues. Beyond just making the game less tedious to play, this also affects combat animations, survival meters, and the clock, which slightly increases the difficulty. There is also an optional clock speed increase of 14% as well, so you must weigh your decisions about routing, quest progression, and resource acquisition more carefully than before.
• Is this compatible with other mods?
  Pathologic Classic RSD is compatible with most other mods (as of 1.00 release, all previously released mods on the Nexus). You can easily check for incompatibility by looking for any duplicate files between mods; you can open the installer .exe as a file archive with 7zip to directly inspect.
• Will this fix the "jank"?
  No, but at least the bandit throwing knife attack no longer deletes 90% of your health bar, and guns no longer auto-reload on empty!
• Why don't I just play Pathologic 2?
  You should! This mod doesn't make the gameplay of Pathologic Classic as sophisticated as the sequel, but it should greatly improve its balance and difficulty, giving more weight to its unique narrative. Feel free to come back here if the setting and story gets its hooks in your brain and you want more.

 

[PrK]

I am here to announce my release of the first gameplay overhaul mod for this game:

Pathologic Classic -- Reputation, Survival, and Disease Overhaul v1.00

Great work - I have to ask though, how difficult would it be to make it compatible with the original?
I get triggered by the stupid unnecessary changes to the portraits and the worse voiceovers of the HD version.

 

[RoSoDude]

I am here to announce my release of the first gameplay overhaul mod for this game:

Pathologic Classic -- Reputation, Survival, and Disease Overhaul v1.00

Great work - I have to ask though, how difficult would it be to make it compatible with the original?
I get triggered by the stupid unnecessary changes to the portraits and the worse voiceovers of the HD version.

It would actually be easier to backport the text, voice, and texture assets you prefer from the original over the offending Pathologic Classic HD assets than to make a version of the mod that works with the original release. Everything in the mod is already compatible with 2005 except for the game scripts, which were recompiled and are all different for some reason. I would have to redo all of my numerous script edits (which are written directly as hexadecimal bytecode) to fit the original compiled format.

 

[PrK]

Got it. The mod's changes sound very good so I guess I could put up with it and as a bonus check out if the new translation is indeed an overall improvement instead of just diminishing the mood.

 

[Average Manatee]

Love the idea and effort, but Pathologic 1 is still among the least likely games for me to replay for reasons that should be obvious.

 

[RoSoDude]

Love the idea and effort, but Pathologic 1 is still among the least likely games for me to replay for reasons that should be obvious.

To be honest, I partly made it so that I would be able to play through the Haruspex and Changeling campaigns without being bored out of my own skull.

Actually though, from playing Pathologic 2 first I strongly felt the gameplay of the original could be salvageable with some numerical adjustments. With faster game speed the walking gameplay (routing, combat, plague avoidance) was even moderately enjoyable, it was all just let down by the lack of real scarcity or consequences for your actions such that the gameplay was mostly grinding instead of making tough survival choices.