Pathologic 2 is originally a Russian game created by Ice-Pick Lodge and published by tinyBuild, who is popularly known for the title Hello Neighbor. It revolves around the story of the protagonist Artemy Burakh, who is learning medicine in a town near his village where his family resides. His father, who is living in the city, is also practicing medicine. The town where the scenes are occurring is named Town-on-Gorkhon.
Artemy receives a letter from his father asking for him to come back at times are going to get difficult. Artemy leaves the city and starts his journey to his village when on the way he gets a vision of a scary crow-like creature. On reaching his village, three men try to kill him. This game revolves around this story where Artemy fights with many humanoid monsters.
This game was originally supposed to be the sequel of a 2005 game named Pathologic, but as observed by many it has been completely re-imaged. The game duration has been increased to 70 hours with updated graphics and game mechanics. The playable demo titled ‘The Marble Nest’ was made available to everyone in December 2016 and another one in April 2019.
The game has gathered much of attention and popularity with its thrilling narrative storyline and vibrant graphics. The Ice-Pick Lodge wanted this game to be unbearable by putting extreme conditions of an outbreak, mob justice, paranormal activities and looting houses for scrapes which all you have to survive for 12 days. Meanwhile, you are also experiencing blood loss, hunger, exhaustion, and paranoia.
The game has overall received a neutral response from the audiences. Some call it thrilling, eccentric storyline and fun enough to keep one, but on the other hand, some call it mundane and more like a thriller story than an actual game. In a nutshell, the game is frustrating, haunting and captivating all at once and undoubtedly one of the best atmospheric game ever made.