Pathologic

09.06.2005
Critic 60/100
Users 86/100
Pathologic is a Russian survival-horror/RPG about a remote steppe town collapsing under a plague, with the story told through three playable outsiders: the Bachelor, the Haruspex, and the Changeling. Each route covers the same 12-day catastrophe from a different worldview, but rather than offering a clean mystery to unravel, the game forces you to survive inside a collapsing social order where resources are scarce, motives are unclear, and every explanation of the town feels partial or suspect.
The game is about three characters who are mostly known by their nicknames: two men, Bachelor (Бакалавр) and Haruspex (Гаруспик), and a girl nicknamed Devotress (Самозванка). Each of them tries to uncover the source of a strange lethal sickness known as the "sand plague" that has befallen a small town. Although players can play as each of them, there is only one storyline, which is seen from different points of view depending upon the chosen character. The ability to uncover some secrets depend on which character is being played and the characters also interact with the other two unchosen characters and discuss their progress over the course of the game. The game takes place in a perpetual world over a time frame of 12 in-game days. Throughout each day, the player receives quests from NPCs, however, the game continues regardless of whether they are completed or not. At exactly midnight of each day, the incomplete quests are erased from the player's notebook. Quests are divided into main missions, (one per day) which decide if a major character will die, and side quests, which earn money and items. Completing main quests is essential to discovering the secrets of the town, as characters can die off early in the game who would otherwise reveal information later in the game. While trying to discover the secrets of the town, the player's other goal is simply to survive to the end of the 12 days by balancing various resources within the game's fluctuating economy, which represents the harsh "supply and demand" nature of a shut-off disease ridden town. On the edge of town, there is a great building named Polyhedron (Многогранник), a geometrically impossible structure used as a fortress by children. On the opposite side lies an ominous mountain called the Abattoir, with the Apiary, an insane asylum, next to it. All districts and major buildings of the town are named after body parts and biology.

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Part of collection:
Pathologic (last 3 games)

28.10.2019

The Marble Nest is a DLC for Pathologic 2, offering a self-contained story. Play for a single day as Dr. Daniil Dankovsky, a scientist from the Capital, a fighter of death, and another doctor trying to save the Town alongside the Haruspex, and uncover a different perspective on the events—and Death itself.

23.05.2019

Pathologic 2 is a reimagining of the original, focused on the Haruspex, Artemy Burakh. You return to your plague-stricken hometown as a surgeon-healer caught between local kinship traditions, colonial urban power, impossible medicine, hunger, exhaustion, and a clock that never stops. Compared with the 2005 game, it is more mechanically coherent and cinematic, but still intentionally punishing: you are meant to triage, fail, compromise, and live with irreversible consequences.

29.10.2015

In Pathologic players embark on a dark journey to explore a remote town built upon old tanneries and butcheries just as a mysterious and deadly disease breaks out. Pathologic Classic HD is an extensive remaster of the original game, featuring updated graphics and effects, while addressing the most prominent critiques of the original with a completely redone English script, brand new re-recorded voice-overs and reinstated text and dialogue.

Could be interesting

26.04.2019

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20.11.2024

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02.10.2009

The events of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat unfold shortly after the end of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. Having discovered about the open path to the Zone center, the government decides to hold a large-scale military "Fairway" operation aimed to take the CNPP under control. According to the operation's plan, the first military group is to conduct an air scouting of the territory to map out the detailed layouts of anomalous fields location. Thereafter, making use of the maps, the main military forces are to be dispatched. Despite thorough preparations, the operation fails. Most of the avant-garde helicopters crash. In order to collect information on reasons behind the operation failure, Ukraine's Security Service sends their agent into the Zone center. From now on, everything depends on you.

23.05.2019

Pathologic 2 is a reimagining of the original, focused on the Haruspex, Artemy Burakh. You return to your plague-stricken hometown as a surgeon-healer caught between local kinship traditions, colonial urban power, impossible medicine, hunger, exhaustion, and a clock that never stops. Compared with the 2005 game, it is more mechanically coherent and cinematic, but still intentionally punishing: you are meant to triage, fail, compromise, and live with irreversible consequences.

25.07.2024

Set in a brutally unforgiving post-apocalyptic world overrun by the undead, 7 Days to Die is an open-world game that is a unique combination of first person shooter, survival horror, tower defense, and role-playing games. It presents combat, crafting, looting, mining, exploration, and character growth, in a way that has seen a rapturous response from fans worldwide. Play the definitive zombie survival sandbox RPG that came first. Navezgane awaits!

25.02.2016

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15.02.2019

Metro Exodus is an epic, story-driven first person shooter from 4A Games that blends deadly combat and stealth with exploration and survival horror in one of the most immersive game worlds ever created. Explore the Russian wilderness across vast, non-linear levels and follow a thrilling story-line that spans an entire year through spring, summer and autumn to the depths of nuclear winter. Inspired by the novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky, Metro Exodus continues Artyom’s story in the greatest Metro adventure yet.

06.06.2023

Amnesia: The Bunker is a first-person horror game set in a desolate WW1 Bunker. Face the oppressing terrors stalking the dark corridors. Search for and use the tools and weapons at your disposal, while keeping the lights on at all costs. Overcome fear, persevere, and make your way out alive.

22.08.2008

Year 2011. Five years passed since the Second Disaster, which eclipsed the events of April 1986. The Zone is shaken by frequent and powerful blowouts, which move anomaly fields, opening new routes to previously inaccessible locations. Stalker factions fight for the new territories and key points. A lot of stalkers die, but newbies keep on arriving. The action takes place one year prior to the events of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, one year before Strelok's most successful trip to the center of the Zone – the third one. You will learn about Strelok and his squad from another character's vantage point. The Zone is waiting for you ahead, new locations and unknown threats, spatial holes and monsters hiding in the fog, pitch-black nights and saving rays of a rising sun. Try to avoid anomalies and hide from blowouts, discover the Zone and collect artifacts, cure radioactive irradiation and fight for any stalker faction you like! Only then you will uncover the truth about Strelok and how he happened to get inside the death truck and receive the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. tattoo on his arm.

09.12.2022

Navigate an island in an old train, upgrade it over time, and use it to fight an evil sentient train that terrorizes your home. Charles is hungry; don't be his next meal.