How did you approach reloading earlier saves during your first playthrough

[u/Vivid-Aide-3868]

Hello folks!

(No idea why this is getting downvoted, I am simply trying to have a nice discussion)

I'm curious about the option to go back to earlier saves. What made you decide to use it during your playthrough? Did you discover it early on, perhaps by accident or curiosity, or only later when you found yourself stuck? Did you consider going back a failure of your run, or did having that possibility actually improve your experience?

I'd love to discuss this topic in general, but of course, I've also found myself in a rather rough situation that made me consider it.

I'm currently (or was?) at the night just before Day 4, or the early morning of it, having pretty thoroughly messed up my preparation and food management. I had things to trade, but couldn't find the right people to trade with, and kept running out of food while desperately trying to reach a grocery or somewhere to recover. So I ran into a loop, essentially.

What finally made me realize how badly I'd prepared was entering an infected district just as the plague spread, hoping to complete a quest there, only to discover that I'd apparently missed the opportunities to learn how to diagnose and treat people, or properly use herbs.

I tried to get out, took different routes, and even somewhat managed to escape, but my health bar was already cooked from starvation (pun intended). Dying, of course, did not fix that.

I eventually tried going back to an earlier save, but after dying again because I was already too weak to accomplish much of anything (4 deaths so far! One I think was not counted), I'm now wondering whether I should go back even further, perhaps to Day 2, and prepare myself better.

Would you recommend going that far back, or would you try to salvage the situation? I've already tried a couple of times, and I'm worried I'll keep accumulating death penalties without making meaningful progress. More importantly, how did you personally approach this possibility during your first playthrough?
I'm new to the series and started playing Pathologic 2 a few days ago, thanks to a recommendation from ChatGPT.

I'm surprisingly enjoying the torture quite a lot so far, despite how stressful it can get. I'm actually very glad I discovered this game. I'm working on a small game myself, and Pathologic 2 was recommended to me while I was looking for games that treat narrative and mechanics as parts of the same experience. So far, it has been fascinating to experience that firsthand.

I'd love to hear your experiences and perspectives, preferably without major spoilers (or you can hide them and I'll read them as I progress later)!
Thanks for reading!

[u/Wrong-Produce4593]

Sometimes, things can go so badly that continuing from your current save becomes almost impossible, and I think it's better to go back when you realize you've made a serious mistake rather than wait until things get even worse. Especially when you can end up having to replay an entire day of gameplay, which can take hours! Sometimes, you really don't have much of a choice.

Also, I'm laughing a little because the situation you're describing is almost EXACTLY what happened to me. I was completely unprepared too. For some reason, I thought taking 3 immunity boosters once was enough to protect me, so I barely paid attention to the plague and ended up getting myself trapped in an infected district. Even though the kids and Notkin got me out because my infection level was too high, I was already so infected that I just couldn't survive afterward. I didn't have the resources to keep myself alive, and I ended up stuck in a literal death loop.

Going back several saves was the only way I could get out of that situation. So, honestly, if you feel like you've reached a point where you're no longer able to make meaningful progress, I'd really recommend going back as far as you need to. Don't feel bad about it! The game is already brutal enough without forcing yourself to stick with a situation that has become nearly impossible to recover from.

I'd much rather rewind a few hours than spend the next several hours stuck in a death loop!

Good luck with the rest of your playthrough! And honestly, the fact that you're enjoying the torture already means you're in the right place haha.

[u/Vivid-Aide-3868 → u/Wrong-Produce4593]

Appreciate the comment! Haha, it’s both tragic and amusing to read "how I messed up" stories from the perspective of how other players experienced it. Luckily, I didn't catch the disease, but the cycle of starvation meant my health was never high enough to survive the search for more resources—even when I managed to trade for something or buy it at a shop. I realize that desperately trying to scrape together resources and dealing with your own mistakes is supposed to be part of the experience. That’s why I debated whether to go even further back in time; but dying from low health on top of starvation—just moments after coming back to life—made me curious about the whole thing and led me to, well, start a discussion about it.

And thank you! I am indeed quite pleased by the journey so far, which is surprising as I don't usually seek horror games or anything like that for the horror itself. But I work on a small game where I wish to achieve narrative through space and mechanics and this game gave me a lot of food for thought. Perhaps that's why I enjoy it more than expected? Either way, I hope I progress better and survive to see the end!

BTW, which day got you trapped?

[u/Wrong-Produce4593 → u/Vivid-Aide-3868]

I totally get wanting to experience the game as fully as possible, including the struggle and the consequences of your own mistakes. I think that's a big part of what makes Pathologic so interesting. But honestly, going back to an earlier save doesn't make the game easy. Not even remotely lmao. It's still going to be brutal, so I think it's better to go back a little than to get stuck in a death loop that makes it impossible to actually keep playing.

Also, I really hope things go well with your game! I wish you lots of inspiration, perseverance, and all the resources you need to bring your vision to life. I genuinely hope you'll be able to finish it and feel happy with the result. I'd love to see how it all comes together!

As for your question, I think I got trapped around Day 3 or 4, during the first couple of days of the plague. I can't remember exactly which day, but I was dying over and over again lmao. I couldn't even leave the infected district because I had absolutely nothing on me. Every time I came back to life, I was still in such a bad state that I couldn't get anywhere. I eventually had to go back several saves because I just couldn't break the cycle.

[u/CouldBeDreaming]

I would just do whatever you think will keep you alive longest. You’ll almost certainly end up caught in a death loop at some point, but when you start over, you’ll understand SO much more. Every single time. Have fun!

[u/Vivid-Aide-3868 → u/CouldBeDreaming]

Thank you! Appreciated :)

[u/zkylon]

I recoiled from chatgpt recommending you Pathologic but I guess something good can come out of AI sometimes.

It's afaik impossible to have a perfect run but getting stuck is a clear reason to load a prior save. The game gives you infinite saves because it expects you to experiment and make liberal use of savescumming as you choose (and they make death penalties permanent because they don't want you to abuse it too much). Don't feel guilty about using the tools the game's given you

[u/Vivid-Aide-3868 → u/zkylon]

Haha, yeah, I know it sounds crazy! But I actually appreciated the recommendation given the context. Honestly, if you use it right and with the right settings, AI can be surprisingly effective without feeling brain-dead sometimes. I asked it about games with a unique approach to narrative and mechanics—preferably ones that blend the two seamlessly or offer a fresh take on that aspect. I was actually given a link to an article with one of the narrative designers who talked about the development of the mind map, which intrigued me to look into the game more. In my opinion, the recommendation for this game was spot on :)

And yeah, I realized that, I also saw the devs made a post about it. I was curious what other people experienced and what point made them go back to previous save since the way to experience the game is pretty varied. I am now in the process of playing day 3 again, so far so good.

[u/zkylon → u/Vivid-Aide-3868]

I think there's a bit of an expectation that at one point you'll have to replay a portion of the game to get yourself out of a jam but I don't think the game really demands it much. I think I never got completely stuck but I definitely went back to make different choices and experiment with the outcomes.

The save system design is imo really smart in that it gives you infinite saves (which tells you to save often to have frequent restart points to go back to), but because save points are fairly far away it's never completely free, and also the way the quests and story are designed it sometimes takes hours for you to learn the consequences of your actions, which can be pretty discouraging to go back and replay. That being said, second time around it goes much faster because you know what to do, you skip all the dialogue and you're not falling into traps, so it's easier too, so it is also rewarding if you make that effort.

I would recommend not abusing it much but yeah just don't feel guilty about it. It's a game that doesn't pull its punches and as much as you try you will have to live with bad things happening and that's important to the story it's telling, so just enjoy it!