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.

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23.05.2019

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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.

28.05.2019

Outer Wilds is a critically-acclaimed and award-winning open world mystery about a solar system trapped in an endless time loop. The newest member of the space program in a small village on the planet Timber Hearth, the player navigates a space shuttle and travels across their solar system to get to the bottom of its mysteries by exploring the cosmos and gathering the knowledge hidden within each of the system's planets, left behind by another civilization in the distant past.

11.07.2017

Brigand: Oaxaca is a highly difficult post-apocalyptic RPG/FPS set in Mexico. The story will take you from a banana plantation to dark toxic caverns, to the sprawling city of Pochutla, to the flooded coastline, to deadly demon-infested jungles, and more. There are 14 unique skills to upgrade with skill points, ranging from agility to firearms, hacking, hardware, voodoo, and more. Unlock up to 80 special abilities that allow you to do things such as throw your weapon, upgrade your guns, and even control the weather. Dangers include rival tribes fighting for fertile land, mutated ghouls that emerge from their caverns at night, vicious demons that hunger for your flesh, a flooded and irradiated coastline that eats away at civilization, disease, insanity, hunger, and more. You will die often, and you will like it. #indiegame, #fps, #rpg, #survivial, #horror, #mexico

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a first-person shooter with role-playing and survival elements, and the first game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. It is set in an open, hazardous area known as the Zone, based on the Chernobyl exclusion zone, where players explore wilderness, settlements, and military sites in search of valuable artifacts. Beyond combat against human factions and mutated creatures, players must contend with pockets of altered physics called anomalies, radiation, hunger, and bleeding, managing supplies and equipment to survive. A non-linear storyline offers multiple endings, and limited trading and dialogue with other characters shape the experience.