Pathologic is the poster boy for “best games that you should not play.”
When pointing out the capacity for games as a medium to be art it’s an easy example. Even with its limitation Pathologic invokes an incredible atmosphere with some truly inspired storytelling. But that’s the exact problem, you need to buy into those limitations going in.
Because of how well it accomplishes what it sets out to be I’m happy to give Pathologic a 4.5/5, because I can’t think of what I’d change without taking something away from the experience of his game. However the game itself is so incredibly hard to go into without going in aware of its limitations and the frustrations it will present you with and buying into them completely that I couldn’t justifiably give it a perfect rating.
When pointing out the capacity for games as a medium to be art it’s an easy example. Even with its limitation Pathologic invokes an incredible atmosphere with some truly inspired storytelling. But that’s the exact problem, you need to buy into those limitations going in.
Because of how well it accomplishes what it sets out to be I’m happy to give Pathologic a 4.5/5, because I can’t think of what I’d change without taking something away from the experience of his game. However the game itself is so incredibly hard to go into without going in aware of its limitations and the frustrations it will present you with and buying into them completely that I couldn’t justifiably give it a perfect rating.