Is Pathologic 2 Too Hard For Its Own Good?

I really want to like Pathologic 2. It’s just about everything I love in a horror game. The imagery is disturbing, the writing deliciously cryptic; it’s one of those games that is so dark and withholding, you want to know everything about it, even as it fills you with dread. But due to the unique design of Pathologic 2, I’ll never be able to divine all of its secrets. It’s a game that is complicated and impenetrable on purpose. It’s a twisted story of suspicion, heritage and mob mentality, set in a strange small town during an outbreak of plague. Resources are scarce, villagers are violent and the threat of death lurks around every corner. The player, meanwhile, has only 12 days to manufacture a cure, clear his name and find his father’s killer, all while carefully balancing a schedule he’s never seen, of people he’s never met, in order to survive. It’s among the most emotionally and mechanically punishing survival games you’ll ever play, and also the most aloof and withholding.
But while the game is admirable in its willingness to be a stone cold bummer, it seems impeded by its own difficulty. The 12 day cycle it’s built on leaves little room for mistakes. There are hidden conversations to be had and people to meet, resources that can only be obtained under specific circumstances; it’s all that you would expect from a game that hinges on the immutable routines of its nonplayable characters (reminding me, somewhat, of a less-forgiving version of Majora’s Mask). But while I enjoy that the game has secrets, the mechanics of the game’s survival systems are so punishing that there’s little chance to actually enjoy them. I’m always looking for food, wasting time on chance encounters, trying to find a place to sleep before I expire. My panic and frustration outweigh my desire to really investigate the town and its limited opportunity encounters. It’s hard to focus on anything when you’re always about to drop dead.
It only gets worse with the penalties for the player’s death. Unlike any other game I’ve played, Pathologic 2 gets harder every time the player dies. And—this is the worst part—the change applies even if you go back to an earlier save file, you can’t escape it by hitting the refresh button. The only option is to not fail, but failure is an inevitability. Which has the backfire effect of making me feel like not even trying.