Briefing: A first-person, survival horror role-playing game with visual novel elements. You play as one of three characters and go around trying to cure a sudden plague outbreak. The game is built around its narrative, so the main draw is getting to know this insane town and all its strange inhabitants while also avoiding dying and catching the plague.

You knew it, I knew it, we ALL KNEW that this was coming at some point. If you know anything about me, you know that Pathologic is one of my favorite games of all time. I became deeply obsessed with it between 2019-2021, drew an unbelievable amount of fanart for it, and even made a fansite dedicated to it. I have even 100%'d this game, which is the only game I think I've ever bothered to play through multiple times and get all the achievements for. I had/have a serious case of the brainrot when it comes to this game. I genuinely believe it is a masterpiece and one of the greatest games ever created.

And yet…

Pathologic is a Russian survival horror role-playing game that was originally released in 2005. We'll particularly be focusing on Pathologic Classic HD, the 2015 rerelease with an updated translation, voice acting, restored cut content, and other light graphical tweaks/fixes. In Pathologic, you play as one of three Healers (the Bachelor, the Haruspex, or the Changeling) being dropped into a remote town located in the Russian Steppe, all for different reasons. After your arrival, it's discovered that a disease called the Sand Plague has broken out within the town and it's up to you to figure out what is causing it and find a cure/solution within 12 days. This comes with a lot of resistance and trickery from the Town's leadership as well as its many peculiar inhabitants. Each character faces unique challenges and has a different relationship with the Town and the people who live in it, as well as a different approach to curing the plague.

Now, you might be thinking… this might be an awkward game to play during the pandemic and all. After all, a game about a mysterious plague ravaging a small town while the town leaders squabble and pretend like it isn't even real? MAYBE a bit too pertinent for today's times!! Why would you want to subject yourself to something that's almost like a reflection of what's happening in real life right now?? If you ask me, I think Pathologic is an extremely worthwhile experience for the current times we live in. You'll definitely be drowning yourself in anxiety, but I find it gives me a sense of calm playing through (especially since the Town's leaders seemingly act more responsibly than our leaders in the real world).

I digress, however. Let's talk about gameplay. The main way to progress in this game is through completing your main quest of the day and some optional side quests. Pathologic is kind of a mix between a walking simulator, a visual novel, and a survival game. I'd say about 70% of what you do in this game is walk from Point A to Point B, with 20% being reading dialogue and the other 10% trying not to die.

Uhh, so the first thing to note is that the layout of the Town is a little bit insane. There are three main sections of the map: The Stone Yard, Knots, and Earth districts, each with their own quirks and large weird buildings. While each district is distinct enough with it's own theme and everything, the buildings and streets of each area really blend together where you can get lost pretty easily if you don't check the map every two seconds. This alone will keep you a bit "engaged" while wandering, but there's another fun element of confusion that gets added as things ramp up. Often, you'll be busy jumping from location to location while trying to complete multiple quests at once before the day ends. This requires you to really carefully plan out your routes, which adds another layer of constant map-checking and stress. Personally, I enjoy the long walks… The town's ambience is captivating, and so much information is thrown at you throughout each conversation that you really need that time to just decompress it all and reflect on what you've learned so far.

That leads me to the dialogue… the dialogue, too, is pretty insane. Pathologic is a famously esoteric game, even with the updated translation. There are a ton of theatrical elements throughout the game that prominently come out through the dialogue. Nobody in real life talks like these characers do. Everything is doused in metaphors and symbolism, not to mention the Steppe mythology and terms getting mixed into many aspects of the town's culture. People will also be dishonest with you - not necessarily lie, but they will often try to work you. So much information is shielded from you despite your best efforts to understand, especially on your first playthrough.

Enough about the language though, the game lets you choose your responses in different conversations just like a visual novel. In this game, your choices have palpable effects. It is SHOCKING the kind of detail and choice you're allowed to make in this game. Often, some quests will have multiple different solutions and outcomes. One quest early on has you collecting money from the ruling families to purchase food for Lara Ravel's shelter, but food has become a hot commodity. If you complete the questline, you find out the shelter was already infected and are only compensated with a couple nuts. Or… you could take the money and run. You'll even get a letter from Lara the next day expressing her frustration and disappointment with you. There are… a LOT of things that can happen. Sometimes if you're just a bit of a jackass or choose the wrong dialogue option, you can completely lock yourself out of a questline, INCLUDING the main quests (which you do NOT want to fail). Coupling this with the interesting story, you end up getting very invested in these dialogue trees and have to consider your decisions carefully.

As for the survival elements, you are given a few status bars you need to manage do your character doesn't die: Health, Hunger, Exhaustion, and Infection. You take antibiotics and use bandages to raise your health; you eat food to lower your hunger; you sleep to lower your exhaustion, and you should never catch the plague. No matter what bar you choose to affect, you're probably going to be affecting another one negatively. Immunity is there too, but I find it kind of useless. You also have a Reputation bar: the higher it is the better, otherwise if it gets too low, the townsfolk will begin attacking you on sight. Due to the local herb twyre being in bloom, everyone feels dizzy and sick which requires you to eat VERY OFTEN throughout the day and get a LOT of sleep, usually in short bursts of little naps. You've got a lot of stuff to get done, after all…

I should mention very quickly though: the fighting in this game sucks. There is no question about that. Your attack range and enemy hitboxes barely make sense, to where you can swing at an enemy and somehow not hit them at all. If you get too close, they'll beat the piss out of you, so you have to find this weird floaty balance of charging in, swinging, and backing up before you get hit. You have a block, which seemingly does nothing. You also have a backstab sort of attack, but you have to crouch and aim at a pixel perfect spot on your target's back, which is super easy to mess up. Don't even get me started on guns- they are super rare/expensive, bullets are sometimes hard to come by, and your gun will lose durability and therefore, accuracy. Even at 100%, sometimes you will aim directly at someone's head and not hit them, even though the game has critical damage for headshots!! You are honestly better off avoiding fights whenever possible, unless you manage to get a good grasp on how the combat system works. Definitely do not waste your bullets either, because that's a massive money/resource sink when you need to repair them..

Honestly, there's a lot more I could go over here. How the graphics are "bad" but still draw you in and create a really oppresive atmosphere. The weird atmospheric techno tracks with tribal chants and singing interspersed. The fact that you have to play each character to fully understand the story…. and even then, replaying the same routes can also unlock tons more information. This game is incredibly dense, but also an incredibly long experience depending on your save scumming skills and the frequency of your deaths. Sometimes you'll straight up just need to load a save from the beginning of an in-game day if you mess up too bad. There's just too much here to really properly condense in a review.

I highly recommend you check this game out. Others might disagree, calling the game boring and unfun and unfair, but I honestly had a blast once I adapted to the game's wonky mechanics and world. It goes on sale all the time for around $1.29, so if you are unsure if you'll like it, there's really no harm in picking it up when its that cheap. You should definitely get the GOG version, since it comes with some extra goodies...

If you decide you want to try the game out, I also recommend you check out my Beginner Tips guide on my other website. I actually don't mean to promote it so much, but I think I've played this game enough times to give newbies some decent advice. This game is super esoteric after all and just won't tell you everything you need to have a (somewhat) manageable playthrough. Seriously, you should check it out, especially if you're going in blind.

Briefing: An RPGMaker game about the last remaining thoughts in a dying mind doing their best to keep their body alive. The art direction is crazy cool with collage-based graphics.

I don't super duper like playing RPG Maker games... My bias comes from growing up with games like Ib, Mad Father, and Mogeko Castle. That's not to say that these games suck, but that I can pretty much SMELL when a game is made using this engine and I have simply been overexposed. And yet, since a trusted friend of mine recommended it about a year ago, I decided to push my way through it despite leaving the other RPG Maker games in my library go by the wayside.

I could not be happier that I pushed past these biases to play The Endless Empty.

The first thing that drew me into this game were the visuals. The visuals generally change every chapter as you move from realm to realm, but it keeps going with the collage aspect with a general color filter on photographed objects. Everything in this game is so well crafted and I am SURE there is a lot of symbolism behind certain designs but I was just so captivated by the creativity put behind them. This goes for characters, enemies, environments and cutscenes.

I also should probably mention the story... you can skip this next paragraph if you would like to avoid LIGHT SPOILERS.

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I went into this game with no expectations, since I had only been drawn in by screenshots my friend had sent me. I was surprised by both how dark the premise of the game was yet how sweet it was handled. In games like this, you would expect a lot of pessimism, but it takes a sort of... Osmosis Jones type thing where you're following parts of the body (in this case, thoughts in the brain) around and seeing how they react to what's happening. And they are all so positive about their goal that it's shocking seeing how, even when you see the body's perspective on their suicide, that they all want to work together so hard to fight against death. It's very wholesome, you'd have to see it to really understand what I mean by this.

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I don't have much to say about the gameplay, since once you've played one of these RPG Maker games you generally have played them all, mechanically speaking anyway. I will say though, it's not a particularly difficult game which I really appreciated. The battles are easy but fun and the visual effects when your party attacks make the fights feel much more fun. There are some pretty basic puzzles, and I really gotta stress that they are BASIC. I'm a bit of a big dumb fool idiot so puzzles elude me quite easily and they can really ruin my immersion when I get stuck for hours and then have to open a walkthrough. The game sort of holds your hand and keeps you reminded of what you need to do in a way that I find appropriate and not patronizing. Love that!

The Endless Empty is a treat of a game and you can get it for ~$5 on Steam and at a name-your-own-price level on Itch. I really highly recommend you check it out, especially if you are intrigued by the visuals on any level. It took me about 5 hours to beat, but it's probably got an even shorter playtime (I'm just slow)

Briefing:The infamous open world action RPG gacha game by Hoyoverse. You play as a Traveler taken to the world of Teyvat and are in search of your missing sister. The combat is fast paced with equipment customization, elemental skills/reactions, and quick character-switching so you can stack up combos. Most of the game is exploration based on a LARGE every-expanding map. Tons is being added to the game daily and there is a lot for you to do at any given moment.

YEAH, SO I LIKE GENSHIN IMPACT. SUE ME.

I'm going to preface this review by saying that I'm aware of the criticism of the game, ranging from aspects of the story to gameplay elements to the gacha in general. There is nothing I can say there that hasn't been said by someone who cares about it way more than I do. I don't want to convince you to jump in and play this game necessarily, but rather give you a little insight into why people enjoy playing the game. I, for one, went in expecting "shitty anime gacha" but ended up putting a lot of time (and a little bit of money; more on that later) into this game.

I've been playing Genshin a lot lately since I got sick, and when I am sick, I enjoy doing things that require little mental energy but make me feel busy. Genshin really scratches this itch for me, and I imagine it will for any new players as well. It always feels like you have a LOT to get done, whether it be main story quests, commissions (daily repeating quests), random events, grinding for items, or... whatever else there is! There really is so much to do. For my fellow ADHDers, you will indeed be overwhelmed, but with it being a single-player game you can just sit back and take things at your own pace. You also need not worry about understanding some of the deeper game mechanics right away (i.e. which artifacts to use with which characters) and can generally make do with whatever you end up choosing. This is a godsend, as a guy who doesn't like learning new things.

What the game does give you to do is pretty fun by the way. The main thing you'll be doing is running around, exploring the open world of Teyvat, climbing mountains, cooking, and fighting. People have compared to Breath of the Wild, although I haven't played it. What I do know is that I LOVE climbing mountains and gliding around. The world is really a blast to just walk around and look at so it really easily gets you into a very childlike "I wanna explore!" mindset. The combat is actually pretty enjoyable, with there being 5 main styles of combat (Sword, Claymore, Polearm, Mage, Bow) and different Elements that each character is proficient in. I find that each character can play really differently even if they share the same combat style. Playing Rosaria and Xiangling feels very different to me even though they're both Polearm characters. You have your basic attack, charged attack, and aimed attack for Bow characters. You also have an Elemental Skill (special attack) and Elemental Burst (ultimate attack) with cooldowns, which you can mix with different elements to deal more damage in elemental reactions. For example, using an Electro skill right after a Hydro skill will cause the Electro-Charged reaction to occur, which does damage to an enemy over time. The game lets you pretty quickly switch between characters which can let you stack up some pretty crazy effects and really whittle down an enemy's health. I don't always enjoy games where you have real-time combat, but it's so fast-paced and exciting that I cant help but love starting fights in Genshin impact.

A big thing I need to mention, however, is that the game really kinda slowly drip-feeds you new content and sections of the game over your time playing it. I can't remember exactly when things begin to ramp up, but you unlock tons of new content as you progress throughout the story. Some time after completing the Mondstadt storyline, you gain access to the Reputation mechanic, which lets you unlock new gadgets to make your life easier and gives you discounts on items in local in-game stores. After completing the Liyue storyline, you unlock the Serenitea Pot which allows you to design your own Realm... and you also unlock FISHING!!!! Nobody told me there was fishing in this game so this was a pleasant surprise for me. Some events are also locked off depending on how far into the game you are, which may lead to a bit of FOMO for new players, but I didn't really care much up until recently.

Speaking of events, I really enjoy the ones they present in Genshin Impact. I don't often play online games that have these, so I can't speak to how many other games do this, but I enjoy how many events seem to just have these little minigames you get to participate in. As of writing this, the ones I mainly remember are the Windblume Festival, where you got to play a harp in a little rhythm game section. There was also the recently ended event where you play as a bartender at the Angel's Share and mix drinks for customers which I found VERY enjoyable. The events that the developers come up with are surprisingly unique and I always find myself looking forward to what they come up with next.

Alright, now we need to come back to the "shitty anime" part of my original assumption, which I think I'll try to break down into Characters, Designs, and Lore/Story.

Let's start with characters. I kind of have a lot to say here. The first thing you'll probably notice are the designs and how they fall into that typical overdesigned anime fantasy style, but as someone who really hates that kind of character design, I feel like they really grow on you. I also feel like there is enough variation between characters that everyone will have a character, or at least pick out a few with a certain style, that they are fond of. Personally, I gravitate towards characters from Liyue and particularly like Xinyan, Hu Tao, and Yanfei.

As for character personalities/lore, I don't think I'm being particularly controversial when I say that the characters in this game are not exactly the most compelling. I don't necessarily think they're bad though, and they serve their purpose within the game/story well enough. Many characters have a specific "gimmick" that defines them... For example, Jean is hard-working and serious almost to a fault, and Lisa is very flirty and violent if you anger her. I wouldn't say they suffer from Fire Emblem syndrome (i.e. only having one personality trait) though, in that if you really get to know them, either through regular gameplay or Story Quests, they can have a decent amount of depth. This isn't necessarily anything to write home about, but there is more than you'd expect here. I didn't particularly get attached to Venti, for instance, until I played through his story quest, which was a fair bit after I had already started doing the Liyue storyline. Either way, you get the vibe that the writers really do respect the characters in this world, even the side characters, which is a nice change of pace from other anime-inspired games.

And now... the story. I'll be honest, I found the story to be excessively boring up until I got to Liyue. Mondstadt, while I enjoyed exploring its landscapes, felt like a generic fantasy Europe area and did not really do much to hook me in. It probably helps that Hoyoverse is a Chinese developer, as you can feel a lot more love put into both the landscapes of Liyue and the story it presents. Even the characters populating the different cities in Liyue are more interesting and I enjoyed a lot more of the side quests I was given. Anyways, I digress. I have to stress that none of what is presented here is award-winning storytelling, but it does draw you in a bit more and get you a bit more invested into the world by this point in the game. If you weren't already, you'll probably stop skipping through dialogue and begin paying a bit more attention, piecing together the details of the world. Overall, I think there is a lot more love put into this than an outsider might expect.

The last thing I want to mention for now is the gacha and paid aspect of the game. This is the first gacha game that I actually bothered to spend money on, and I used to be a rabid Granblue Fantasy enjoyer only a little while ago. Personally, I don't find the gacha to be nearly as predatory as it might be in other games, and can get along just fine making wishes without necessarily needing to put in a disgusting amount of cash. Primogems, the game's currency for making wishes, can be obtained pretty easily through a variety of in-game methods and I can easily make enough for a 10-pull within a day. The only things I have bought were the game's battle pass and the Blessing of the Welkin Moon, the latter of which gives you 90 Primogems every time you log in for 30 days. These are all SUPER optional and you can still get a decent amount of rewards from the battle pass without having to buy it, which is pretty cool if you ask me. I dunno, I don't like microtransactions as much as the next guy, but I don't mind shelling out $5 for a free-to-play game when I decide I'd like a little extra help.

I could go on and on, and I might go on some more later in an update to this article, but I can safely say that Genshin Impact is a really fun game that people are needlessly harsh on. Collectively, we all need to come together and agree that it's a pretty fun game with a lot of substance, although it's also not like... game of the year territory. Overall... good game!

Briefing: A run 'n gun/beat-em-up type game with fast-paced combat. There's a Story mode and Arena mode where you can customize your own character. Based on the Madness Combat webseries and the sequel to the original Project Nexus, a Flash game hosted on Newgrounds. Great for people who love violence and pain and hurting and killing and murder.

Even though I wasn't actively keeping up with this game's development, I am amazed about how well this turned out. You can really feel the passion oozing out of this game with every little detail, and I am positive any Madness Combat fan would love this. This game is super fun, and adds alot of personality and new context to the characters I've come to love from the webseries. The combat itself gives you alot of different tactics to use, perfectly recreating the fast-paced action of the cartoons, having to use pretty much everything around you to fight your way through hordes of enemies. My only complaint about the progression is that it is sometimes hard to figure out what you're supposed to do in an area. There have been times where I had to destroy something to progress and stop enemies from endlessly spawning in, but I had no indication to do that until I ran all the way to the right side of the room I was in. There are other instances of similar things happening, but you can always figure out a solution given enough time (although by the time you figure it out, sometimes it's already too late).

Also, I was pleasantly surprised by how much there is to do in Arena mode, since I thought it would just be a little sandbox area to play in. The fact that it is almost like a separate story mode with DEEP character customization was a shock and I've been having a great time playing around with it. This really gives the game alot of replay value to me, although I would even consider replaying through Story mode because of how fun the combat in general is, and I almost NEVER go back and replay games.

Anyways, I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes fast-paced action games... it's like a beat-'em-up with a crazy amount of melee AND ranged weapons. Even if you aren't into the Madness Combat series I think anyone would have a great time with this game.