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Pathologic might be a tough game to recommend, but it’s one every single enthusiast needs to play. The metatextual survival RPG is the textbook definition of friction by design alongside Dark Souls. Pathologic wants you to suffer, it wants the mechanics to feel obtuse, it wants there to be extended downtime. You grow to appreciate the deliberate design decisions, and eventually admire them. If you’re yet to try this cult classic though, Pathologic 3 has just been announced, and you have plenty of time to catch up.
The goal of each game in the series, including the newly announced Pathologic 3, is pretty simple. You rock up to a town frail with disease and have 12 days to solve the problem. It’s a little bit immersive sim, RPG, horror, and incredibly odd but still one of the best PC games ever made. On the surface, Pathologic is slow, indifferent towards the player, and filled with grim tines. But as you chip away at the experience the metatextual layers start to show. It becomes clear that Pathologic wants you to feel a certain way, and it goes places I don’t even want to begin spoiling.
The biggest addition to Pathologic 3 is undoubtedly the time travel. You don’t need to rub your eyes in disbelief like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, because this is very real. Just like the first two games Pathologic 3 will take place over 12 grueling in-game days, but this time you have more control. It’s unclear exactly how the mechanic works at this point, but according to Ice-Pick Lodge it gives you “the freedom to explore and influence events in ways that reshape the unfolding narrative.”
“We can describe the concept of this mechanic as surrealist time management,” developer Nikolay Dybowski says. “Our goal is to give the player a sense that time is more complex than we typically perceive it—as a linear path. We want to show the player the possibility of existing in a world that is disassembled and functions in a way quite different from what we’re used to expecting.”
Unlike the first two games though, it sounds like Pathologic 3 will have only one playable character. You’ll squeeze into the shoes of The Bachelor, a city doctor known for fighting death and invited to the dying town in an effort to save it.
Not enough people have even tried Pathologic. It’s gained a cult status over the years, but the sheer pain it inflicts on you as a player has made it difficult to parse. Every mechanic hates you, and the simple act of exploring the disease-ridden town becomes exhausting. But that’s why I encourage you to try it. Pathologic builds in moments of introspection, and it’s between objectives that the game shines.
Pathologic 3 has also been dubbed “The second part of the reimagining of the original Pathologic story,” but you’ve got the time to catch up with the narrative.
Ice-Pick Lodge plans for Pathologic 3 to launch in 2025, with more to come as we get closer to launch.
If the news of Pathologic 3 has you aching for more, we’ve brought together all the best single-player games and upcoming PC games to watch out for.
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