For the longest time, I've always had an interest in Russian game developers. For some reason, they always seem to make some of the most unique but also some of the weirdest games I've ever seen. However, there's a Russian game in particular that has not only captivated me in a way I've never felt before, but has had a big impact on how I see video games today; Pathologic 2.

Pathologic 2 is an open world survival psychological horror RPG and is both a sequel and a remake to the game Pathologic. You take the role of a surgeon named Artemy Burakh, somebody coming back to his childhood town after he left for his studies years ago. He returns to his town due to a disturbed message from his father, Isidor Burakh. But when he returns to his town, it's later revealed to him that Isidor was murdered on the same day he arrived. After Isidor's funeral and two long days of mourning, a deadly outbreak caused by an extremely deadly plague, the Sand Pest, occurs. Artemy must survive this outbreak the best he can as he desperately tries to find a cure to the Sand Pest, as well as save as many people as he possibly can. He only has 12 days.

The reason why I bring up Pathologic 2's premise is because the premise ties directly into Pathologic 2's gameplay and its difficulty. Pathologic 2 is not a game you play. This is a game you go to war with. Fighting will usually get you killed. Weapons are extremely scarce and expensive. Food is ridiculously expensive because of everybody stockpiling it. Water eventually becomes much more rare due to faucets and water barrels becoming infected and broken due to the plague. Managing your bodily functions seem bearable at first. But as the days go by, it will become harder and harder as the town slowly gets driven into madness. And to top all of this off, you get punished for dying. When you first die, you lose some of your maximum health. As you die more, you lose some of your maximum hunger. And then, some of your maximum exhaustion.

Pathologic 2 is not an enjoyable experience. It isn't suppose to be. All of what I mentioned previously adds to the experience in a very meaningful way. Artemy is only a person and his power is painfully human-like. There's only so much Artemy can do, so he's forced to watch his home town and everybody in it succumb to the Sand Pest more and more as the days go by. Because no matter what he does and no matter how many anti-biotics he gives to his patients, everyone who gets infected can and will die. The stress of all of the weight put against the player gets worse as the days go by and it feels horrible to see the terrible state of the town, but a "good" kind of horrible.

You may be asking yourself: "Isn't the point of a game to have fun?" However, contrary to that popular belief, I disagree. Games are and have been much more than moving pixels on a screen you control. They can use experiences, positive or negative, to really say something. As much as I understand why most people don't like this style of game design and I can see why more developers wouldn't even think about making this approach, I wish more developers were brave enough to do so.

"Good" and "fun" are two different words with different meanings. But I don't think any of these words fit how I feel about Pathologic 2. Pathologic 2 is not just my favorite game of all time, but also one of the most meaningful experiences I have ever had.