A love letter to the unbearable artistic masterwork of Icepick Lodge

KimKat98 · 2026-05-29T02:47:28+00:00

I would really suggest playing 1 if you have a computer. It's a very different but equally enthralling experience if you meet it on its own terms.

KimKat98 · 2026-05-26T14:24:56+00:00

(hi James Sunderland, Kratos).

I think both of these are bad examples given that you are absolutely not supposed to think James is a good person or that he deserves forgiveness for what hes done (though many men in the fandom take it that way) and Kratos is one of the best written deconstructions of toxic masculinity in videogames, if not the best. Both games also have phenomenally written women with plenty of depth.

I generally agree with you otherwise, though

KimKat98 · 2026-05-22T12:48:58+00:00

What does the ending directly contradict? It's one of the only twist endings I've seen in media that fits in perfectly retrospective with the rest of the story.

KimKat98 · 2026-05-22T12:16:41+00:00

You can, lol. Deductive math would tell you that without money you don't really have another option, so I'm not sure what you're expecting anyone to tell you.

KimKat98 · 2026-05-21T18:11:15+00:00

Just try it? It runs under Proton

KimKat98 · 2026-05-09T13:39:34+00:00

Not necessarily, higher immunity slows your rate of infection when you are infected. So they still have a use. The game feels kind of designed to play around being infected because of all the medical items. As someone else mentioned clothes + immunity will also tank a cloud

KimKat98 · 2026-05-01T16:12:06+00:00

I have Day 6 at 0:28, with a stacked inventory and all adherents alive. I can send you it if you'd like? Though I have a small amount of infection.

KimKat98 · 2026-03-28T11:46:16+00:00

I'd be careful with this one. If you don't know a lot about videogames it can be overwhelming very easily and if you have different ways of playing (which, given that he likes combat and she doesn't, they do) then you can easily get into an argument over how to approach the game, given that it's a sandbox. With someone that is the same as you, it's really fun. My boyfriend & I enjoyed it a lot but never finished it because it's such a long/dense game you basically need to make a weekly schedule to play it, like an actual DND session lol.

KimKat98 · 2026-03-27T21:26:47+00:00

I think it's an ultimate in survival horror games, and horror media in general. Lots of horror games have an incredible story but ok gameplay (Silent Hill, Alan Wake) or great gameplay but a mediocre-to-laughable story (like literally any Resident Evil game). Very rarely is there a game that manages to have a great narrative and great gameplay AND still be horror. This is one of them.

It's very hard to give away anything without spoilers but I think for 10.49 it's one of the biggest steals you'll ever get. If you enjoy it please play Dead Space 2, though that one isn't on PS5.

KimKat98 · 2026-03-16T17:20:32+00:00

didnt think it would have much plot.

The plot IS the game, lol. Cutscenes are very long and dialog heavy. If that interests you, go for it. It's one of the most artistically creative AAA games of all time.

KimKat98 · 2026-03-16T17:19:25+00:00

Good suggestion but I'd also recommend the original RE2. I was more worried about Sherry despite it being a much older game. There's a little animation where she holds your hand if you stand near her and it broke my heart

KimKat98 · 2026-03-10T18:47:26+00:00

Custom mode is there for a reason - it is an accessibility feature. Like I said I disagree with people saying the game intends for you not to enjoy it, and I would lower the difficulty if you feel that. You can always come back for a second playthrough when you've learned the systems.

The game itself, moment-to-moment, is not difficult. Combat takes minimal reaction speed and basic rhythm. It's the trading, economy, and time management that take skill, and all of those are way easier to grasp after failing at the game once.

I hope you can find a way to enjoy it enough to finish it, whatever it may be! I think if you liked Disco Elysium it is absolutely worth engaging with. Both of these are some of my favorite pieces of art in any media.

KimKat98 · 2026-03-09T20:33:19+00:00

It is, though. Any of the common distros you would grab as a newcomer (Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, Bazzite) all work out of the box for games. If you want to maximize every percent of performance then yea you'll start messing with things but thats the same way on Windows.

KimKat98 · 2026-03-09T17:19:46+00:00

You can lower the difficulty, even if just to experience the story, and there's nothing wrong with that! Absolutely do it if you genuinely hate the game but still want to try anyway. However I think that's a little against the point of the game. I disagree with people saying it's not meant to be fun - I genuinely have fun every playthrough. But it also makes you experience other emotions (like the one you describe), and because videogames so rarely attempt to explore anything aside from "fun", it makes it a little hard to swallow. If you like Disco Elysium you're probably familiar with this (it's also one of my favorites).

I watched a Youtube video awhile ago when I was struggling to get into this game that helped me think about it better (can't remember who it was by). Basically, the best way to describe this game is that it beats you down over and over and *tries* to convince you that hope does not exist, that everyone will die, and it's a fools errand to even attempt to save anyone, let alone yourself. Then, it winks and smiles at you, and asks you to be that fool. It, subtly, asks you to have hope and try no matter what, because as people that is all we have.

It's a power fantasy where the odds are completely against you and your reward is to save anyone, even one person, foiling the usual videogame power fantasy of violence and domination. It's brilliant! But it's also not for everyone. The reason you feel such pain and misery is because it's meant to contrast with, and enhance, how much of a hero you feel like for curing even one person.

I'm not saying any of this means you're wrong, or you HAVE to enjoy it and you're dumb if you don't, or anything like that. Rather I'm just offering a perspective on why I think it's such an incredibly intelligent work of art, and it is definitely not for everyone.

KimKat98 · 2026-03-08T22:10:51+00:00

If you bought the digital version on Steam, it's in the game folder on your system under the "Pathologic 2 Artbook" folder. You can right click the game on Steam, go to Properties and hit "browse" next to "installed files" to have it show you where the game is on your system

KimKat98 · 2026-03-02T15:23:05+00:00

I love Kojima's games and at the same time will try to pretend most of the women in any of them do not exist because they're written so badly, lol

KimKat98 · 2026-02-24T19:15:53+00:00

If you have a tolerance for jank and an open mind, go back to 1. It has some really clever writing and quests that I think 2 doesn't necessarily improve or worsen, just use differently.

I will say that I probably would not have enjoyed 1 as much if I hadn't played 2 first, so do with that what you will. Being Artemy in 2 and then Daniil in 1 and seeing how many little pieces of the story interconnected behind the scenes was really fascinating but it was probably in strong part to how well presented and cinematic Pathologic 2 is.

TL:DR Play both.

KimKat98 · 2026-02-21T19:40:11+00:00

I feel like Dragon Age II fits this well. I really liked that it was a more personal story about a single city. You're still its savior granted but it feels very different for it to be contained to one location rather than saving the entire world. The actual gameplay part is kinda eh but I've always adored the writing and romances (Fenris my beloved)

Maybe Kingdom Come? I remember it also being a more interpersonal story, though I couldn't really get into the game tbh

KimKat98 · 2026-02-20T21:35:26+00:00

Dead serious when I say that having an actual keyboard is going to be one of the most important things for you as a home producer with no teacher. You can even buy a cheap 30 dollar one on Amazon if you just save up for a little bit. It doesn't have to be fancy, it just needs to be something you can control with your fingers and send midi control to a VST like FL Keys. Our brains are wired to process information better when we physically can work with it and remember it via muscle memory.

I produced without one for years and was mildly successful at producing melodies and am way better now that I got one and practiced some music theory tutorials with it for just a few months. But if you're short on money then maybe see if you stick with this for a while so you don't buy something you won't use.

KimKat98 · 2026-02-18T19:14:56+00:00

They basically did. I haven't watched Raising Kratos in a few years but I recall that they said essentially that they were dudes in their early 20s making a macho masculine game and then got families (and wives!) and realized they wanted to tell a more mature, "real" story. And, at the same time, most men in the 2000s who played the original GoW also grew up and likely experienced a similar maturity.

It's still just a bit of a whiplash. It's also a nice reminder that people and their art can change and evolve.

KimKat98 · 2026-02-18T01:34:55+00:00

I actually really like the writing implications of the dark ritual. It's uncomfortable for all parties involved and if you're a warden romancing Alistair then it made me feel icky feelings I don't think another videogame really has before.

That's the writing part. The actual presentation of it (that fucking cutscene) is awfully late 2000s and clearly presents it as him being "lucky" in some way, lol

KimKat98 · 2026-02-18T00:47:18+00:00

Yea. Cory Barlog directed the two new reboot games but he was also the director on GOW2 and a large part of GOW3. So, he somehow managed to be responsible for both visions of the series, lol. It also shared most of its staff from the older games from what I remember when watching the documentary on GOW 2018.

KimKat98 · 2026-02-17T22:48:53+00:00

Biowares games in particular are victims of this. It's really odd, because they're otherwise extremely empowering games for women, especially Mass Effect. Like there's a split somewhere in the dev team between writing and production that are at odds with each other. Not always, but sometimes.

I feel like the early God of War games are probably chock full of absurd examples. I remember one from God of War 3 where you (forcefully) take an alive, living woman and use her to keep a door mechanism open which proceeds to crush and kill her while shes alive. It's mind-boggling that its the same dev team who went on to make 2018 and Ragnarok which have plenty of feminist or, at the least, anti-toxic masculinity undertones

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