7 Video Games You Have To Play Twice To Understand

Pathalogic is.....god, how does one actually describe this?

Pathologic is, at once, one of the most immersive, fourth-wall-breaking, terrifying, philosophical, and bleak experiences I've ever played, but is also a raging trash fire of cruel difficulty spikes, arduous gameplay, and ugly as sin aesthetics. I've never played a game that I could simultaneously recommend you should try, but also at the same time insist you steer clear of, and that's to say nothing of its narrative.

To try and express what the actual fresh hell goes on in this game would take me an entire essay (and then some), but in short, the story here makes little sense, to begin with, following a plague that is spreading through a remote town and who's inhabitants are that sort of uncanny strange that means they would fit right into a Tim Burton film. Their dialogue is verbose and complex, characters lie to you constantly, and your daily tasks often seem to take you AWAY from your goal of curing the plague.

And that's to say nothing of the fact that the game has three playable characters, who all exist in the game world at the same time, have their own stories going on that overlap, intersect and sometimes cause issues with completing your own goals, AND when you're not playing as them, they make terrible decisions that make things infinitely more confusing and difficult.

Add on top of this multiple fourth wall shattering endings, which see you speak to not only the "Gods" of the world, but also the developers of the game itself, and it becomes clear that Pathologic is a game that is going to require multiple playthroughs and a BIG HEADACHE INDUCED SLEEP to properly digest. Good luck.