Pathologic 3

I am sorry, but this game is just too boring to me. There are these special peaople to whome this game is a gem and I'm not the group developers are targeting.

Давно хочу написать обзор, но всё лень было, потому что двумя строчками я обойтись не могу, в прочем, как и всегда. Я являюсь поклонником творчества данной студии как минимум с 2018 года, когда впервые поиграл в Мор (Утопия), которая плотно меня затянула. В 2019 году первый Мор решили ремейкнуть, в последствие оставив только рут Гаруспика. Его я купил ещё предзаказом, но руки дотянулись нормально поиграть только недавно. Если отбросить технические недостатки, игра получилась хорошей, интересной, но очень сложной, так как разработчики ставили целью сделать реалистичный симулятор выживания в условиях эпидемии. Последнее, вероятно могло оттолкнуть многих игроков, в результате чего пришлось добавить возможность эту самую сложность понизить. Большой популярности, кажется, первый ремейк не завоевал, и из новостей в своё время, я, к своему большому разочарованию, читал, что у студии были некоторые финансовые трудности после выхода. Но вот спустя почти шесть лет я вижу очень качественную маркетинговую кампанию новой части (в результате которой игра какое-то время подержалась в топе по продажам Стима и вошла в золотой лист новинок начала этого года). Особенно мне понравилось, как разработчики оформили описание на странице игры с табличкой, где описано, почему эта игра может понравиться любителям разных жанров. Собственно, меня очень радует успех данной игры, я очень надеюсь, что господа ледорубы будут процветать и дальше радовать нас прекрасными и концептуальными играми. Но, перейдём, собственно, к игре. В этой игре вместо Гаруспика мы играем за Бакалавра, с которым имели возможность взаимодействовать в предыдущей части. Как и в оригинальном Море, новый рут позволяет нам взглянуть на события игры с совершенно другой стороны, с полным переосмыслением. Если мы говорим о геймплее, то из жёсткого и сурового симулятора бомжа, где мы вынуждены были всю игру лазать по помойкам в поисках пустых бутылок и собирать по степи какие-то батины травы, здесь мы получаем симулятор торча, где нам всю игру приходится балансировать между двумя крайностями, закидываясь разными препаратами и пиная мусорные баки. Элемент выживания в этой игре сведён к минимуму, что делает игру менее тяжёлой и позволяет спокойно наслаждаться сюжетом, однако, игра может быть из-за этого менее интересной любителям хардкора. Элемент симулятора ходьбы здесь постарались свести к минимуму, поделив карту на локации, и добавив возможность быстрого перемещения между ними. Сперва меня это удивило, я решил что это выглядит как шаг назад после песочниц, но свои удобства в этом подходе определённо есть. Собственно, о сюжете. Он здесь максимально нелинейный, строится на причинно-следственных связях, затягивает о-го-го. В целом, из-за особенностей геймплея, разработчики получили возможность запихать в эту игру много-много-много сюжетных веток, сделав игру в этом отношении максимально насыщенной. Ну и игра получилась по моим ощущениям раза в 2-3 более объёмной, чем часть предыдущая. Теперь о технической составляющей. Игра смотрится очень красиво, достаточно хорошо для нашего времени. Есть, конечно, некоторое количество графических багов, но, имхо, они несущественные. Собственно, в основном о багах я и хотел здесь поговорить. Потому что, при всём великолепии, багов очень много, и, разработчики вот уже полтора месяца после выхода пытаются их дочинивать. Сам я отправил уже 20 баг-репортов (это только те, которые мне было не лень), и отрадно видеть, что баги регулярно продолжают фикситься. Но, имхо, стоило всё же более серьёзно заниматься тестированием перед выходом. Ибо, я могу понять, что из-за особенностей геймплея может быть трудно с ходу отыскать логические баги. Однако, много багов чисто технических, на стороне движка. Не сказал бы, что это всё как-то лишает удовольствия от прохождения, но вот что есть, то есть. В общем и целом, игрой я остался очень доволен. Она подарила мне аж больше сотни часов замечательного игрового опыта. 12 отхераченных мусорных баков из 10. Всем рекомендую данный очередной шедевр от этих ребят. Буду ждать следующей части (наверное, это будет симулятор шизухи, я хз)

Oh, he's like, NUTS nuts.

Спасибо, что вернули мне жизнь, где вас нет, придуманные Власти

They've done it once again. SOMEHOW, the most interesting, most artful game ever, gets a second sequel, just as interesting. Pathologic 3 completely shifts the usual formula on its head. The gameplay is completely different, weird and new, to reflect Dankovsky's strange relationship with the town. He's a stranger, and he hates the city, so walking through it is now this strange fast-forward zoom through the map. He's a doctor and in charge of the city, he's not suffering from hunger or thirst, instead Dankovsky is fighting his own demons, constantly trying to balance is shifting, dramatic mood swings. This game captures so much of what made Pathologic great, but offers a brand new experience. Wonderful game.

Amazing, truly there is no other game like this one

[h3]Goes without saying but this *will* contain some spoilers and discussion about the gameplay.[/h3] If you want a quick answer for if you should play it or not, I would say the answer to that is a resounding [b]yes[/b]. Play it if you couldn't get into the game-play of the previous games. Heck, play it even if you did! Pathologic 3 is such a bizarre game for me. I do genuinely like this game a lot, but I have a lot of "I wish it was executed differently" issues with it. The story is still fantastic, as well as the setting, but the gameplay is where I find myself faltering, and it comes down to how everything works in practice. No, it's moreso the fact the final game shown here almost feels... confused? It's a feeling I've come to find after playing it for a while, I feel like the game struggles with trying to keep aspects of itself in the gameplay from previous entries while doing some of those mechanics arguably less deep and interesting. Bachelor's personal health? All put down to what amounts to a "Short Term" Health Bar, and a "Long Term" Health Bar known as Amalgam. And quite frankly I question it as it's done in-game because taking care of it and the Apathy/Mania System feel so arbitrary and lacking in a complexity to me. The gameplay just doesn't uphold the same loop of (Find Item - Decide what to do with it - Take care of yourself or use it to trade) that Patho. 2 did so well (I'm simplifying this a bit but the point here is that most items in Pathologic 2 had multiple purposes, something that I don't think Patho. 3 handles nearly as well with it's basic inventory of items.) The existence of these things and the Mental bar feel like they were added to just give you something else to do while wandering the world akin to Haruspex and Pathologic 1 in general, surrounding a character where the idea is that should not even *remotely* be something he cares about in the least. I like Bachelor having to take care of himself mentally, but I wonder why not have it affect more things like dialogue in terms of what he says and does rather than kicking a bunch of garbage cans or spinning playground equipment in order to not drain either of your health-bars? In Pathologic 1 it felt like a battle to make sure the Bachelor doesn't screw everything up for himself in NPC Dialogue, why not have that be internalized in the Mental Mechanic itself? My problem isn't that I wish it was more like Pathologic 2, it's that if these personal survival mechanics are meant to be not a problem for the Bachelor, I wonder why not cut a lot of this out entirely than keep it in this compromised form that simply doesn't fit him? I feel like the Decree System, while fascinating, acts as primarily flavor ultimately. There's not much in the way of ways to really "mess up" with this system (other than Quarantine I guess but even so it as a decree has its usages) because really it exists to control the amount of dangerous districts during a day, and to push the game just a little further to Day 12. With that in mind... For a game about time travel the presence of Amalgam confuses me. Primarily because of how the other mechanics interact with it and what the "point" of the storyline is, which is to push the Town's Survival to Day 12 in order to get an ending (Or alternatively to push it to Day 10 to escape.) Time Travel being limited means you have far less reasoning to *experiment with your choices* something that is paramount I think to a device like this, and instead the game uses it primarily as just a way to explain the process of reloading after a save, and the permadeath mechanic, really... It just feels strange how it's implemented. It's ideal to just replay the same day over and over again and do everything before moving on, and doing the days in sequential order, too. I expected more of a logic puzzle that crossed over from days to days and days and the game just didn't deliver on that for me. Now, if Amalgam was a very limiting and punishing resource, I maybe would like it a little more, but instead we have a mechanic that *seems* limiting on the outset but is actually extremely abusable *anyway*. Stealing time from giving infected a peaceful rest, completing quests, breaking mirrors and reloading the game, and worst of all the game gives you a ton of it after every ending to go back and experiment! Something that you can abuse time and time again after reaching Day 12! Hence my point: I don't personally find the idea of it being limited at all to even really work in it's current form. Ideally? Wish that it got more specific and crazy with Time Travel, like being able to talk to people or see certain things only at certain times on a specific day rather than just certain time limits for certain quests. Leaned into it being a massive puzzle for the player to solve! Finally, I want to talk about the presence of the Sand Pest in the game and how much I felt it also disappointed me in the form it has primarily taken here: The Shab-nak. I absolutely adore the story reveal of the reasoning behind it, but as a gameplay mechanic again it feels rather shallow and less interesting than what existed in Pathologic 2 for the Sand Pest. Perhaps intentionally so, it doesn't really fit for Bachelor at all, and I sort of wish that the game had taken a much more scientific approach to it that it does in other parts I tend to like more in the game... "Shab-nak Hunting" as it were, feels greatly out of place to me for this game and something that gets rather boring after doing it two or three times. Get flower, use prototype, shoot Shab-nak, repeat. Despite what the game claims she does *not* get stronger or smarter the more you do this, only gets a fake clone to waste your time if done enough. No further evolutions on this throughout the game's 9 Days you will need to be dealing with the Plague. Rioting districts are even worse, shoot in the air three times, get absurd amount of loot from bandits. Repeat for as many bullets as you have. I know I've been quite negative, but I want to take a moment to mention that I think the Hospital Mechanic and everything in relation to that is certainly spectacular and easily the best part of the entire game. Every patient is a puzzle you have to solve, and I only wish there was a little bit more interaction with other mechanics with this. There were opportunities there that I feel were not taken, but I still love it regardless. I actually like the fact the open world is segmented as it does display well how Bachelor sees the town, just wish there were different ways to interact with it instead of how the game chose to do so for a majority of the experience. I have no notes with... anything really in relation to how the story or the mystery of Simon Kain was executed in this game because it's absolutely splendid. The story as well has some really, really good bits in it with certain characters being at some of their best for me. If there is any takeaway one should have I would say this game should be played even for just the plot and characters alone because I think that is absolutely worth it. Bachelor's assistants he gains over the course of the game are a highlight. Yakov Little is probably my favorite character in the game, and got me shockingly emotional. Multiple mysteries in the game that quests do tackle are very nice and some quests legitimately had me at a loss for words, they're *that* good. The Mind Map is even more brilliant than Pathologic 2, even if it was a bit buggy at launch. More games need a journal system like this. tl;dr I urge people to play this game, seriously, it's great, I just think the gameplay has some sore spots I wish had been done different. Regardless I appreciate the game for what it is. If Pathologic 2 was simply too much for you, try this out! I have... so many more thoughts I couldn't fit here that I wish I could. Still excited for Changeling in Pathologic 4!