Many of you, I gather, are aware of a Russian videogame developing company, named Ice-Pick Lodge. They made Pathologic, The Void, Cargo, Knock-Knock - and are now kickstarting Pathologic remake (which they hope to finish by November 2016). Some of you may also remember that the game called The Void also has a couple of variations to its name. What I mean, is that in different places it gets called Turgor, Tension or, well, The Void.
Now this is where it gets tricky. In fact, there are not three titles, but
four (2*2): Тургор (Turgor), Тургор: Голос Цвета (Turgor: The Voice of Colour), Tension and The Void. There is a reason for that discrepancy in naming. The reason is that:
1) In Russian-speaking countries, the game was called differently than in Western ones.
2) There are two very different versions of the game itself.
Actually, about the titles of the game. Of these four:
1) Тургор (Turgor) and Tension correspond to the initial version of the game. Тургор (Turgor) is the title by which the game was known in Russian-speaking countries - and Tension is the title for the sort of "international release" that game saw (it only was published in Poland by Techland and, if mobygames is to be believed, was also published in Brazil - it was also translated to English in-house, although that translation was never officially released). This initial version was released on April 17, 2008, and was developed using the funding from a Russian publishing/distributing house, called "Noviy Disk" ("New Disc/CD").
2) Тургор: Голос Цвета (Turgor: The Voice of Colour) and The Void correspond to the heavily reworked/remixed version of the game. Again, Тургор: Голос Цвета (Turgor: The Voice of Colour) is the name, by which the game was known in Russian-speaking countries - and The Void is the title of the international release (now proper). Actually, the international release was the whole point for this version, as it was developed for Atari and using the funding from Atari, and this version is exactly why the first version of the game, Tension, has never seen its proper worldwide release. This version was released on May 28, 2009 (more than a year after the first version of the game!) in Russian-speaking countries, and in October, 2009 - internationally.
From what I know (I've only played the original version of the game, Tension) - these versions of the game differ
heavily. The engine got reworked, the gameplay got heavily reworked, the storyline was completely torn down, and a different, much less ambiguous and much more scripted and directed storyline, was made instead. The differences were apparently so fundamental that:
1) They facilitated the second release of the game in Russia,
as a new standalone title only a year after the release of the original one (which in itself created a sort of violent backlash from the audience towards IPL), as it was impossible to make a patch from Tension to The Void, and keep it under 2Gb (compared to the 4Gb data of the games themselves). The saves, naturally, were incompatible as well.
2) Almost nobody in the Russian fan community of the game considers "The Void" a purely incremental or even clearly superior (or inferior at that) version of the game. Overall, it is widely considered, that the original version of the game is more artistic, atmospheric and
, while The Void constitutes a better
game. Moreover, it is still customary for Russian-speaking fans of the game to direct newbs towards playing Tension first, since it is widely considered that IPL games were always kinda of 'eh' gameplay-wise (although not in the "interactive movie" or even "walking simulator" sorts of ways, since for their games interactivity and gameplay mechanics, however shit one might consider them, are absolutely crucial), so if you want to play one, you probably want to do that because of artistry and Teh Experience. Even Nikolay Dybowski (the guy who "invented" and wrote both Tension and The Void) got conflicting statements. As in first claiming that The Void was not
expanded, but actually
reduced version of the game content/script-wise, and that he wasn't happy with it at all (in contrast to the programming guys from IPL, who almost unanimously considered The Void a "Developer's Cut" version of the game, and were happy with it much more with the original one), and that he only did it because it was necessary for his company. On the other hand, while answering a question recently, as to why The Void has such a different and much more explicit storyline, he told that the themes from the original game continued to develop in his head even after the release of the the original game, and what we see in The Void is the result of that. Of course he also stated, that Turgor (he actually meant both version viewed together) is a bonkers and WTF game, about which nobody in the studio (including him) still fully understands just what exactly the fuck it even is. As well as that he considers
both versions his personal creative failure, as the game was supposed to be purely non-verbal (as a gameplay-centered interactive painting) - and that the Sisters shouldn't have been allowed to talk at all - but they just didn't manage to pull it off, at all (and no, he says that Turgor remake - as in Pathologic Remake - is out of the question, since he is sooo done with Turgor, and since two versions of the game are more than enough already).
Anyways, the point is, if you've played The Void only (which you probably did, considering where I'm writing this), you've only played a
redacted and gamified version of Turgor (as a concept with two different implementations, that is, Tension and The Void), which has a sizeable controversy concerning it in Russian-speaking countries. The original version, Tension, is very different, and is arguably closer to what Turgor (as, again, a concept) was originally meant to be.
