You should try this game, you will probably not like it, you probably won't have fun in the traditional sense and you may be incredibly frustrated and likely stressed. It may however just be one of the best things you ever experience, I implore you to try it without a guide.

You're a doctor dropped into this town as an outsider with little idea of how things work, what the customs are and with few friends to guide you. You'll need to intuit and understand the rules of this place to survive. It'll often feel like you're digging yourself deeper and deeper into a hole that you're unlikely to be able to get out of.

Pathologic is not particularly skilful game, there's no reflex based gameplay or immensely difficult button presses, If you know what to do it's fairly easy. The experience at its core is simple decisions, do I go to this quest or that? Do I go into this district or do I go around? Do I make this trade or not? All of it framed by the passage of time which builds pressure into every moment, there's never enough time and you need to prioritise. It is novel and obtuse to the extreme.

The game is incredibly cruel and frustrating, there are many jokes played on blind players. For the majority of quests you don't know if what you're doing is optimal or if it'll even get you closer to your ultimate goal of finding a cure, decisions have consequences and will come back to bite you. It's best to accept the situation and move on, it will test your resolve like few other games can.

The presentation is very unique, many parts are weird to say the least, the opening is probably the best narrative tutorial I've ever seen.

On your first playthrough you'll be getting through by the skin of your teeth, many will die because you're too busy trying to survive. Tough decisions are everywhere, you can't save everyone, there simply isn't the time.

Games are not necessarily only pixels on a monitor. For me the game on screen is just an aid, the real game is what's happening in your head, thinking about the events, plotting the next move. I don't think any other game really captures this quite as well as pathologic, I certainly have spent more time thinking about this game than actually playing it.

If you're unsure about committing to such an intimidatingly long game then try the marble nest first. I found it's condensed nature much less daunting and the tight narrative experience is very well done. Don't worry if the setting and characters are unfamiliar and confusing to start with, it'll all make sense in an hour or so.

I loved this game but yeah whoever I recommended it to ended up cursing me for recommending them such a 'boring game'

I recommend playing it on the easiest difficulty to get through it once, then using all that knowledge to play again on the intended difficulty and see the threads of the story you missed.

It's actually very easy to recommend since it's one of the best games I've ever played, and it would be foolish not to recommend it.

Failure is built into the game's systems. You're going to die. You're going to miss a lot of events. This is by design. But if you play smart and always plan ahead, you'll get through just fine even on the intended difficulty.

I think its design works fine in theory but playing the game at the default difficulty is brutal. Playing it on easy or with a guide defeats the whole purpose of actually engaging with it.

There are a lot of early game decisions you have to make (buying the cow, unlocking your workshop, buying a gun while it is still kinda cheap, maybe others I forgot) that you realise their significance maybe 10 hours later when you have basically reached a failstate. That is not including the time you've spent replaying whole days because at the end of some you've realised you did something sub-optimally, got hit by a random bandit or even walked through a plague cloud by accident.

I guess if the game was (alot) shorter I wouldn't be so hung up about those incoveniences and replaying it could be kind of thematic too, but IIRC the first 10 or so days are basically a tutorial before things really shit the fan and you play the real game.

A game i absolutely loved, I hate it.

Game made me want to kill myself 10/10

This is all very true and is something I struggled with initially. I found the best way to progress was just to focus on what I could and not get hung up on having an optimal run where I save everyone. So I didn't replay sections unless I died and I pressed forward and did my best to survive. This wasn't actually too bad on intended difficulty although incredibly unpleasant.

I caught the plague at least 3 times, failed most of the daily jobs at the hospital, half my wards died and I took the travellers deal!I think this is probably the intended experience for a first time player.

Oh I love it but it's difficult to convince others that it's worth a go. I spent so much time thinking about my next move, even when I took a 6 month long break I would often be planning what to do next.

I completely disagree with you. accept that failure is part of the game, play on normal, live with the consequences of your actions, you can't save everyone.

I'd recommend easy for a second playthrough to see all the bits you missed, you only get that first experience once!

It's not frenetic or particularly flashy but boy does it get under your skin

I put a dozen hours into it and respected the hell out of it, but it was too tedious for me to push through and finish when I only get a few hours a week to play games. A memorable experience, though.

Playing on easy was the only way I managed to finish the game the first time, like 3 attempts in.