What the fuck is Pathologic?
Written by known Pathologic shill EyesEyesBaby
DISCLAIMER
Pathologic is a game you should go into with as little foreknowledge as possible. This guide will contain spoilers to the games, both minor and major. What you should bear in mind is that you're not required to play Pathologic Classic HD (which will be referred to as Classic in this guide) in order to play Pathologic 2.Pathologic 2 is essentially a remake and a sequel to Classic, a game for new players, or players who felt that Classic was too hard to understand, too clunky, or just didn't grab them in general. Pathologic 2 is the recommended gaming experience for new players. Need help getting into the basics of the game? Here's a Newbie Guide from SulMatul.For those who wish to learn the plot of Classic without having to play it, links will be provided to reviews, let's plays and explanation videos.Classic can be bought either on GOG or Steam.
Pathologic 2 can be bought on Steam.
What the hell is Pathologic?
Pathologic is a 'psychological horror adventure survival role-playing' game, created by Ice-Pick Lodge. Set during the 1910s-1930s, you find yourself out on the Russian steppes, in a town on the verge of a plague outbreak.Play as one of three doctors (Classic) or the Haruspex (Pathologic 2) as you explore the town, the people, trying to keep them and you alive as the plague lurks right around the corner. Time's ticking, because you have 12 days to figure out what the root of the plague is, and how you should deal with the outbreak-- while juggling your health, hunger, thirst, tiredness and reputation.
Who is this game for?
▸ Dishonored left a gaping void in your heart yearning to be filled.▸ If you wished your Survival games had some more plot in them.▸ If you wished your Psychological Horror games left a longer-lasting impact on your life.▸ You want your Visual Novels to have some more action in them.▸ If you want a game that makes you uncomfortable-- not with the themes themselves, per se, but this game is based on the Theatre of Cruelty; The Play (the game itself) will effect you, and your reactions towards it be part of the play itself.▸ Did you like Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines? Then Classic's for you. (Heck, if you liked playing Malkavian, then Pathologic's for you.)▸ If you're a pretentious prick looking for something that'll make the symptoms worse.▸ If you're a pretentious prick who is also a clown, and you know it.▸ You're a misguided theatre person, or a literature nerd.▸ You're into cult classics.▸ If you don't feel that 'winning' is necessary to the gaming experience (because you'll die often, and you'll fail quests-- and that's ok. That's part of the narrative. Failing a quest doesn't warrant a reload.)
Theatre as a theme
Pathologic plays with theatrics by design; all from giving us Tragedians and Executors (both existing in the universe, but also outside-- they explain the game, and they sometimes explain the characters whom you speak to, while also being the ones helping the doctors. Stagehands, you see?), to a character called The Director (whom speak of the characters as if they're just that-- characters, being played by you, the actor. To whom the town is being shown a play, but the town, too, is the play).In 1938, Antonin Artaud published his major work on the Theatre of Cruelty, The Theatre and Its Double. He described it as 'communion between actor and audience in a magic exorcism; gestures, sounds, unusual scenery, and lighting combine to form a language, superior to words, that can be used to subvert thought and logic and to shock the spectator into seeing the baseness of his world.'This is largely what Pathologic is based on, and why it plays with the fourth wall, yet still not breaking it, not in the traditional way; you, and your experience with the game and the story, is part of the play itself. What you feel, how you react, what you think, that is all part of the story being told. It is not a game to be played at ones own leisure, it is a story to be told, and the story involves you, personally.See here how the difficulty settings work ingame, and how each part is described; 'Influences how you feel upon seeing a loaf of bread' is funny, absolutely. But once you've reached that part of the game, how do you feel upon seeing a loaf of bread? Desperate joy? Or maybe you feel an odd indifference, and you feel like the pain should be deeper. This game, in its entirety, wishes for one thing; to make you feel and think.
Pathologic Classic HD
[Removes my pretentious little hat, revealing a smaller, yet pretentiousler hat. ]Pathologic was the first game Ice-Pick lodge made, released in 2005 in Russia, the English translation being released in 2006. Original translation was... interesting, to say the least; borderline incomprehensible at times. It is part why Pathologic remained a cult game for such a long time-- as well as the rather janky gameplay, slow walking speed, and the game feeling near hostile towards the player at times.When Ice-Pick lodge announced on Kickstarter that they were going to make a remake of the game, they also created a remaster, giving us Pathologic Classic HD, with upgraded visuals, fixed bugs, re-recorded dialog, and a re-translated English script. This game was released in 2015.
The Healers
In Classic, you get to choose to play as three characters:The Bachelor, Daniil Dankovsky, a scientist from The Capital, who seeks to destroy death itself. He's been summoned to the town through a contact, to meet an 'immortal' man.
Dankovsky is a man who is both horribly brilliant and terribly determined-- for better and for worse. So strongly adherent to logic and reason, he doesn't believe in the traditions and superstitions that seem to run the town. He is not a cruel man (rather the opposite, he cares immensely), but a man who believes in the greater good-- at the price of the individual.
He's the best character to start with, as he's a stranger in a strange town.The Haruspex, Artemy Burakh, is a surgeon from the Town itself, who was sent away 10 years ago to become a surgeon at the Capital. Called back home by his father-- the Town's only doctor-- the first thing that happens to Artemy is that he gets shanked, and kills three men.
Burakh is just as determined as Dankovsky, but in another direction-- severe, sarcastic, but horribly honest and straightforward. He is deeply rooted in the traditions and the folklore of the Kin, his people, but also trying to find his place in it after having been away for so long. Burakh is more cruel than Dankovsky, absolutely, but he's cruel when he sees it as the only way forward to save someone, for he believes in the greater good-- at the price of the whole picture.The Changeling, Clara, is only selectable once you've finished either The Haruspex's or The Bachelor's story. She quite literally appears out of nowhere, waking up in a freshly dug grave. Clara is a miracle-worker, and either a saint or a killer, depending on who you ask.
More about her down below, in the Heavy Spoiler territory.
Pathologic 2
Released in 2019, Pathologic 2 is, in the words of the Creators, a reimagining of Classic. In this one, you play as The Haruspex, Artemy Burakh, who has been called back home by his father. On arrival, he's attacked by three men, whom he kills, learns that his father has been murdered, and Artemy? He's the main suspect.Clear your name, inherit the role your father had, find the source of the plague and the resources to fight it, all while trying to find a space where you fit in, in a town that has forgotten you, denounced you, loves you and abhors you.The actors of the old game has joined you, but their characters have received new outfits, new personalities to better fit this new story, and some whose roles have been rewritten all-together. It is not Classic with a newer, fancier hat-- it's still a hat, but a completely different model, yet, viewed from afar, they seem rather alike.[Bachelor Route and Changeling Route to be released... Eventually.]
Where do I consume content of it?
SulMatul is spearheading the Pathologic Video content, with several videos and Let's Plays.
Pathologic Analysis; Themes of a Dying Classic - A Video Essay
Dissecting Pathologic 2; Why It's The Best Game of 2019
Let's Play Pathologic; The Bachelor
Let's Play Pathologic; The Haruspex
Let's Play Pathologic; The Changeling
Let's Play Pathologic 2Many fall into the Pathologic hole by watching Hbomberguy's Pathologic is Genius, And Here's Why.Here's a Classic review from MandaloreGaming, which is shorter.
Here's the Pathologic 2 review.Pathologic 2 is an Underrated Masterpiece by RagnarRoxFrom CodexEntry, we have the Pathologic, For Those Who Will Never Play It. Act 1. (Bachelor's Route - Summary & Analysis), which ends with the grand finale right here, and boy, is it a big one.Wow, this is a lot of Western people talking about Pathologic-- what does a Russian have to say about it? Here's one from Shmowder Productions, How does Pathologic 2 compare to its predecessor? And here's one from thesummitofmark, Pathologic 2 Review | Russian FargoFor ease of viewing, someone has made a Pathologic Video essay in a good viewing order.Do you want an interview from a Swedish journalist, who headed to Russia before the Classic HD release, when Pathologic had not much more than a cult following, and interviewed the creators while living with them? Because we have that, translated into English.Do you want the RockPaperShotgun article, who can explain the game so much better than I ever will?Do you want art? Welcome to my Art Archive on Tumblr.Here's the Classic OST (which is a banger, if you loved the music in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines), and here's the Pathologic 2 OST (which may awaken a liking for Industrial Droning and NeoFolk).
I FUCKING LOVE MY HUSBAND Y'ALL.