That was the best review I've seen of the game. Just keep going. Maybe. I don't know. This is one game in particular where it's OK to not finish it, but keep trying. Don't give up. I hate it. I love it. Meh. Cancer. Cures cancer. Nameless dread. It feels like I'm drowning. Fuck off. Pleb filter. Fuck off! 1 was better. It's frustrating and awful to no end and beautiful. Maybe if video games are to become an artform, these are its first baby steps, but maybe I drank the IPL Flavor-Aid hard like a total gullible rube. I don't know. Maybe this is mediocre, unoptimized crap with game design stuck in two decades ago or maybe it's one of the best games ever made. The intentionally stressful gameplay loop of The Hobo Economy is performance art and you're the artist or maybe it has some interesting ideas bogged down and ruined with poorly designed gameplay. Maybe the Hunger in this game is the dumbest thing ever or maybe just maybe it's not a literal Hunger and maybe it's not literal food but something MORE. One thing I'm sure of is that every positive and negative and lukewarm review you've seen is 100% valid and I'm glad. Not many games have given me complex feelings like this and that's... something? Idk. Don't give up even though the game wants you to give up or maybe just demand a refund. These are my first impressions. It'll be a long long time until I can make a proper final call, but for now, have this forums post.

Although I haven't played the Pathologic games, I've looked into it enough to realize that the game appears to be in the same 'strangeness' category as Eye: Divine Cybermancy. Completely and utterly incohent and too abstract for it's own good. When Death Stranding releases on PS4, I predict it will take the crown away from these two games.

Incomprehensible story lines or the idea that the player must make sense of the senseless, never has sat well with me. If developers have a story to tell, then tell it, don't bog the player down with 'deep philosophizing' at the expense of gameplay and story.

Just my two cents (which is not even worth a penny I suppose).

The game is as concrete and coherent as games get.

You're a son of a surgeon in a rural, fairly isolated town. You went away to get a formal medical degree. When you come back because of your father's letter, there is an outbreak of a contagious disease. You have to survive for 12 days doing whatever seems necessary. Given who you are, however, townspeople have certain expectations of you.

All of its core themes and questions are extremely down-to-earth. Much more so than your average action or RPG games.

For example:
- The uneasy co-existence of modern culture flowing from the country's core and traditional culture of the steppe people.
- Attempts to deal with the changes the town and its people underwent since you last been there in your youth.
- Reaction to extreme circumstances. Both from the common people and from the three families that are governing the town.

Part of the reputation for incomprehensibility is due to the fact that Pahologic 1 was horribly mistranslated to English. But another part is due to the fact that a lot of professional game reviewers are unable to see past a few unusual (but rather tame and generally logical) stylistic choices.

If you feel this game is not for you even though you haven't played it, that is indeed a valid opinion, and I'm glad you put the thought into this game to arrive at that conclusion. The original translation of Pathologic 1 is indeed bad. The game journalist reviews are indeed the worst reviews out there I've read, and I try to read as many of the reviews of this game as possible.