![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Unlike its more ornery predecessor Sunless Sea, the controls are fairly accessible, things are hidden but not wildly obtuse, and it can be quite pleasant to drift from station to station, figuring out tasks to complete and avoiding the occasional monster encounter. Upon dumping you into the cockpit of your very own star-faring locomotive engine, you’re given a couple of beginner tasks and let loose into a New Weird wonderland with an objective to seek fame, fortune, or kill the sun. Of the two Sunless games, Skies is deceptively friendly and accessible. Even with the clock running, you’re still allowed to explore, and while you might not see everything in one playthrough just based on choices and the element of timing, you will get to know the bleak beauty of the Town on the Steppe, and that odd serenity, combined with the strange atmosphere that permeates everything, can make Pathologic 2 seem relaxing even at its most unnerving and cynical. But within that disturbing environment, there’s an odd serenity to things (at least in the early game). From the opening that shows what happens if you should fail in your quest to your frequent cordial dialogues with someone who’s either a horrifying plague or Satan or both to an image seen very early on involving a woman being burnt at the stake by an angry and hysterical crowd in some sort of ritual, the game is full-on disturbing, tasking you with fighting a plague and investigating a murder in an unnamed town on a Russian steppe full of strange customs and rituals that’d make the cast of The Wicker Man blush (one of the game’s mechanics has you water herbs with blood, another involves trading sharp objects to children for useful items). There are plenty of terrifying things in Pathologic 2. You might not be scared, but there’s more than enough weirdness to make someone nervous. The secret passages, odd guests, mysterious disappearance of the hotel’s namesake, and the sinister final Norwood composition, as well as the dark secret hidden within the walls of the hotel, all lend themselves to classic gothic-horror tropes, but the esoteric and impressionistic nature of the game makes it a lot more unique. The Norwood Suite perhaps has a bit more horror flavor than the other two, with your mysterious handler dropping you at a hotel formerly owned by eccentric composer Peter Norwood to do… something. It’s only when you start talking to the people populating those environments and uncover the secrets of that surrealist landscape that suddenly the stories unravel into tales of sinister corporations, ominous groups of people in dark suits and sunglasses, and bizarre science experiments. ![]() They’re brightly colored with smooth, weird soundtracks and a kind of offbeat sensibility that makes them feel like you’re wandering around a surrealist painting. Cosmo D ( Tales From Off-Peak City, Off-Peak)’s adventure games don’t look like horror games at first glance. ![]()
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February 2023
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