Pathologic 3

Pathologic 2 is my favorite game. This is up there for me, too. I don't understand everyone who says this one doesn't hold up. I feel like they missed the point of it or something. They're trying to make you feel a certain way. They try to recreate each character's experience and perspective. It makes complete sense that the gameplay isn't the same as Pathologic 2, The Bachelor didn't experience the outbreak the same as the Haruspex. I love this game and I'm glad they made it. I hope to one day see the Changeling's story. There are so many things I want to know.

I haven't beaten the game yet, so I may edit when I do finish it, but I wanted to go on the record and say this is the best of the series thus far. I was never driven to play much of Pathologic, and I always kinda got through Pathologic 2 about 2/3rds of the way before I screwed everything up and either had to savescum waaaaay back or just ragequit. I know a lot of people liked that about the game- but I really didn't. This rendition of the game, which is the same story told a little differently than the other two, runs more like Majora's Mask in that there is a time travel element where you can go back to quest chains and retry them if you messed up. There is a resource limiter to it, though, so it isn't a free-for-all. But the difficulty is far lower than in 1 or 2. I actually appreciate that. I don't really play Pathologic for its unforgiving difficulty- mechanically, I don't think it benefits from it. Because the story is quite good and I don't really like grinding out a game when the story, not the mechanics, is the selling point. This game franchise isn't dark souls- I'm not having fun having to restart because I messed up Day 6 because I didn't do something on Day 2. Etc. That all being said, I really like the mechanics- for the first time in a Pathologic game. I think it's really creative and fun to play with. I actually understand what's going on and you really get to know the characters and subplots because of that. And you're driven to complete quest chains and figure out the puzzle of them because the story is interesting. But the reason I really wanted to write a review right now before I finished is because the devs have now gone through 3 major updates in less than a month. They are rearranging quest chains and NPCs to make things make sense and to fix major bugs that people experienced. Ice-Pick Lodge has always been a dedicated studio, but in the world of -cough- Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon -cough-, it's just great to see a company that actually gives a damn about their game and is playtesting, tweaking, and fixing it as rapidly as IPL is. They really care about this IP and it's refreshing to have a company so dedicated to turning out a complete and polished product. I am really enjoying this game and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the series- do not bother with 1 and 2 if you haven't played/finished them, I think you'll really enjoy this. And for the diehard fans who hate this one because it's not hard enough- IDK. I suppose I don't share their same preferences. And I do like difficult games.