Pathologic 3

As a huge fan of the series, I was a bit hesitant at first. I wasn't sure if the new approach to the gameplay would benefit the unique structuren of these book-like games, but I was pleasantly surprised. The new mechanics are well developed and fleshed out, and most importantly, the pressure and difficulty is preserved without being too unforgiving. I have yet to finish the game, because IT'S LONG. The delightfully non-linear storytelling encourages the player to explore every nook and cranny it has to offer. The English translation seems to be a lot better than in the previous game. It's well localized without sacrificing meaning and cultural contexts. I re-translated Pathologic 2 from Russian into my native language in my own time for my own enjoyment, and I can already see this game would be a much higher mountain to scale with the sheer amount of excellent writing. The game is definitely accessible to people who aren't familiar with the setting, but of course that external knowledge helps. I would still encourage trying Pathologic 2 first, but it isn't necessary. If I could, I would travel back in time to experience this game with a clean slate ;). My only caveat - at least concerning the gameplay, spoiler free - is that this game isn't as immersive as the previous installment. The nature of the gameplay takes the player out of the story, the fourth wall is broken far more frequently, to the point where it becomes a bit tiring. I feel like I'm steering Dankovsky more than I feel like I am Dankovsky. I'm still very engaged and emotionally invested in all the characters, but it feels like a game and not a tale, unlike Pathologic 2. It isn't a big issue, but it is noticable. Overall, highly recommend. I missed this acursed Town, dammit.

In physics, the observer effect is the disturbance of a system by the act of observation. ------------ this is a game about perspective. daniil dankovsky's perspective, certainly, but also about what you see when you see through your eyes, and what others see when they see through their eyes. objects changed through observation from different points of view. artemy, in 2, saw the town as an object on the earth. he ran from one place to the other, desperately trying to span the length of the town to fulfill his duties and save those he loves. each moment was either caught in the hands, or it slipped through his fingers. daniil in 3, however, sees the town as a patchwork of moments that can be stepped across and through. your tickets to the past and future, once so abundant, narrow more and more, the more you try to save. rarely has time travel felt more like travel: days become characterized by what resources are in abundance, and using up amalgam recklessly can lead to situations where you are stranded and must scavenge what remains to escape. when it all comes together, especially towards the end, it requires you to think in wonderfully strange ways and embody an alien way of looking at the world in a way that truly honors the pathologic name. at the same time though, it's hard to shake the feeling that this has produced a more normal video game, overall. not so much that it feels compromised or beholden to popular interests - on the contrary, this is a game of shocking ambition pursued relentlessly. but in contrasting as much as it does with pathologic 2, it picks up the more traditional video gamey things that that game dispensed with. it is solipsistic, it is interested in empowering the player with Choice and Consequences, it is a game about finding narrow ways through to Golden Paths and True Ends. and i don't dislike that: i think a sympathy for this is almost a requirement for enjoyment of the medium. but for a pathologic game to maneuver itself so to offer the thrills of a traditional crpg or timeloop game feels...i don't know. it makes me sad. VERDICT: 4 STARS, EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD ------------ this is a game about perspective. daniil dankovsky's perspective, certainly, but also about what you see when you see through your eyes, and what others see when they see through their eyes. objects changed through observation from different points of view. but sometimes, a perspective feels more limited than you might like. and committing so completely to daniil's leads to some of the game's biggest shortcomings. the entire shabnak-adyr concept in this game is a total misfire from top to bottom, a bad idea executed badly. being chased around by a mystical vengeful ghost acting Mr. X in re2make (or, more rudely and accurately, the EMMI from Metroid Dread) just isn't compelling in this framework, let alone having to do this same song and dance 8 times over the course of the game with barely any variation. the repetition of the scientific method works for the excellent diagnosis sessions, which are also woven in with the narrative of the game so much better than the shabnak. but here, it renders a weak concept into a real blight on the game. also, i really don't think the rioting districts work in the manner they ended up. they are simultaneously too slow and annoying but too trivial, too nakedly mechanical. every guy there talks in the same voice and says the same things, and reacts the same way to having a gun pointed at them. very occasionally you need to fire a bullet in the air, but very rarely is it something that comes together into an additive element. it feels, more often than not, like a timewaster that keeps me from the parts of the game that are interesting. pathologic 3's sprawling ambition and complexity is deeply admirable. but where pathologic 2, in its brutal mechanical simplicity, approaches a kind of sublime perfection in my eyes, pathologic 3's uncountable clockwork machina grind to a halt often enough to notice. VERDICT: 7/10 ------------ this is a game about perspective. daniil dankovsky's perspective, certainly, but also about what you see when you see through your eyes, and what others see when they see through their eyes. objects changed through observation from different points of view. there's something deeply compelling about the first few hours of pathologic 3, the sensation of being pushed out onto the stage without your lines in the middle of the play and being asked to play your part regardless. starting in medias res, where everyone is already pissed off with you for reasons you don't know and you're being asked to keep promises you don't remember keeping, is fantastic. it adds an element of antagonism with daniil himself that was always part of his route in 1 and remains wonderful to play with. this guy can be *such* a ♥♥♥♥. sadly this leads into a midgame that feels repetitious, both in what you are doing and as compared to prior games. we're going over similar points and similar ideas, beats we've seen before and a little too many fanservicey callbacks to prior works. once you have your lines it's disheartening to see so many of them as mere extrapolations of prior words, and the thrill of improvisation is lost. thankfully, the game comes back into its own towards the end. it finds its own voice, in moments like the choice with Eva, the ruminations on perspective and observation, while the mechanics sharpen themselves to their finest point. i love so much of the writing, but not everything: the kin, in daniil's eyes, are stunted animals incapable of true growth, worthy only of being poked and prodded at, while he lusts over their herb brides and spares the occasional paternalistic remark at their achievements. this is undoubtedly a conscious reflection of his perspective that is meant to be a critique of the man but is so much less compelling than before. many of the rest of the town's inhabitants face similar fates, which is a shame. the love of 2 just doesn't feel present here. VERDICT: ONE HEART BEATING IN TIME OUT OF TWO ------------ this is a game about perspective. daniil dankovsky's perspective, certainly, but also about what you see when you see through your eyes, and what others see when they see through their eyes. objects changed through observation from different points of view. my own perspective undeniably taints how i view pathologic 3. pathologic 2 is basically my favorite game at this point, a stone-cold classic that can never be beaten. so it doesn't feel fair to dock pathologic 3 points for not being as good as that. but i can't help it. that's who i am, just as daniil is who daniil is, and simon is who simon is. maybe my feelings for pathologic 3 weren't so much inevitable as they were always already there. i come to an end of it and find that the words i reach for were the words i always had. i love artemy burakh. i love clara. i love this town and i love its people. but i'm sorry, daniil dankovsky. i don't think i love you like that. i enjoyed my time with you very much. by any resonable metric, pathologic 3 is a phenomenal game that will be more interesting, nuanced, and textured than any game that will come out this year. i think everyone should play it, though probably after 2 because it is a Sequel-Ass Sequel. i will be thinking about it for years to come, and the thought of IPL bringing this level of care to clara's perspective in a hypothetical Pathologic 4 is possibly the most exciting pitch for a video game i can imagine. but, daniil dankovsky, i think we've outstayed each other's welcome. i think it's about time we broke up. VERDICT: something very special.

Pathologic 3 is a weird and interesting title. On the one hand, it successfully distinguishes itself from the other Pathologic games, making the third story (or fifth depending on how you're counting) set in the same town fresh and intriguing. I've played the other patho games, and I was impressed how many parts of the story were changed, as well as how they fit into Dankovsky's worldview. On the other hand, while the gameplay has a lot of good ideas, it feels more like a disconnected set of mechanics than a cohesive whole. The Sherlock-esque floating words system is superfluous and feels out of place. Travelling the town feels awkward and somehow slower than the previous titles. I understand that Ice-Pick Lodge said the segmentation of the town is a reflection of Bachelor's mind, but frankly, I don't think that's the real reason behind it. I think it's likely that they couldn't get the Shabnak working with open-world traversal, or they wanted way better graphics, which required some loading screens. In any case, I don't think it really adds to the game, and makes playing it on a mid-tier pc a bit of a slog. Don't get me wrong, I really like this game. I even started a second playthrough to see what could be done differently. I think that making save-scumming an actual mechanic was genius, but it didn't reach its full potential. A time-travelling doctor/detective is a great set-up, but the gameplay needs to reinforce it - as it currently stands, some parts of it do, some pull in other directions. However, I can only commend the devs on their willingness to experiment. I've seen a lot of hate around this title for not being "Pathologic" enough, but would you really want Ice-Pick to make Pathologic 2 2? If you like Pathologic, or, better yet, you like the discussion around Pathologic, but never played the games yourself, try this game! It's substantially easier than the other titles, for better and worse, but it's a truly unique experience worth your time.

Enjoyed suffering through the second game several times because the gameplay loop and story were captivating. From the moment I started this game, I could go a full week without revisiting it because none of it was really captivating or enjoyable. The time travel aspect really ripped away the urgency in planning your day and making executive decisions. Finally, the emotional instability mechanic is barebones and annoying af at best. This is one of those times I would rather see the next entry to a game be a smidge improved from the last with new story points than an attempt at something very different. Super hard miss for me.

Ok so I'm scratching my head 5 hours into this thing... what is this? This seems like the makers of Pathologic got investors involved that ordered that the game "become more mainstreamed in an effort to appeal to everyone." In doing this, they have effectively castrated this game and left behind a Sesame Street game that doesn't achieve what Pathologic has done. Pathologic is a brilliant series that has created its own very unique section of the market. That section could be defined as: "a total redefining of survival horror to utterly and viscerally capture the idea of desperation." Total hopelessness and a bleak outlook on every aspect of the game giving you only a pinhole of hope is the hallmark of the Pathologic series. Its brutality has always been its greatest strength. In Pathologic 3, this has been loosened not just a tiny bit, but massively. It has been loosened to a point where it appears to do nothing to grip the player. The old games had immersion the likes of which games like Resident Evil couldn't hope to touch even with a long jump pole. The only game that has ever captured the dread available in Pathologic would be The Forest (which probably was based upon Pathologic). It's sad because I see this game as highly recommended with many reviews being on the edge and these "51% good" reviews create a false illusion that this game is highly recommended. Sadly, it is not and shouldn't be. If you are brand new to the Pathologic series, this review is entirely irrelevant. My review is relative only to the previous games. So if you are new to this series, it might be good to start with 3 before you play the previous games because you may actually enjoy it. But for anyone who is here specifically because of how much they loved the previous games, I would recommend you avoid this one. It's no longer what you are looking for. Hopefully they will return to what made them great in their next game.

TLDR: if you're a fan of the pathologic franchise and care more for the story and characters than gameplay, this game is probably fine for you. As with the all of the pathologic games this one is a painful experience like the rest of them, however the pain here is more from frustration and wasted time compared to the dread and anxiety of the last two games. The complete removal of survival mechanics was something I found unique at first, however the mania/apathy meter doesn't hold a candle to the management of health, exhaustion, thirst, hunger, and INFECTION. I found the last to be the most egregious, In a game where you're a doctor on the front line of an epidemic you can't get sick. Sure maybe contextually you could say "Daniil is telling the story so obviously he escaped without the plague." sure but that still removed a lot of the tension from moving through infected districts or doing hospital work, there's no real lasting consequences beside losing amalgam. Instead with this new meter you're just desperately trying to keep Daniil manic enough that you don't move at a snails pace. Besides the survival mechanics the characters and dialogue have their classic pathologic charm and literary flair, I found the writing to be full of more beating around the bush and overly verbose nonsense than usual. I know it's characteristic of the town on the Gorhkan for everyone to speak in poems, however when one of the main sidequests involves stopping in for philosophical debates with the town judge daily and routinely going back in time in order to even have that conversation it can get grating. The visual redesigns however I think are super appealing; the polyhedron, the cathedral, and the streets have never looked better. All in all I wish the deaths and characters had any weight however with the time travel mechanic, why care? You can always just farm amalgam and try again. Time travel and the diagnosing are the other two new major mechanics and they sadly do not mix. Sure you COULD spend an extra few house Dr. Housing your way to find a differential diagnosis, but you could also just make an educated guess between a couple and restart if you were wrong. With time travel, sure you COULD try and euthanize patients, wasting resources and risk losing more amalgam or you could just amalgam farm whenever you're low which is still unpatched this late into release. The risk of running out of amalgam is nonexistent with this exploit, if the consequences of running out of amalgam were less than your entire save file, most players wouldn't feel forced into exploits. Also the shabnak I found unthreatening at best, and a frustrating timewaster at worst. Even when you get to the harder version it's barely a challenge, more of a daily chore in which you play the chaser enemy minigame. The story is the same as pathologic 1 with a little more of the capital so it's good...? Just certainly nothing super new, towards the end some ideas of fate and chaos theory with regards to time travel are played with, but it never amounts to much beyond an interesting moment which I found disappointing.

Я прошу прощения конечно .... НО инди игра про диалоги и 1-2 механики на 70-80 часов, это слишком даже для такого скурпулезного червя как я. Я просто задушился и уже мечтаю, чтобы все это закончилось, я пробовал и делать перерывы и играть время от времени, но нет, черт возьми 70 часов геймплея в игре про ходьбу и диалоги - это АД!

I dont know why this is considered a game. Seeing so many positive steam reviews I can help asking if there's a dark office in a third-world where people are contracted to give reviews and let games idle on their pcs to simulate real players. P3 - There is no leveling, dialogues are meaningless, exploration is as linear as a line to get a driver's license, and characters are devoid of any real personality or likeability. I read the verbose character dialogues the first hour or so, right until I realized the conversations had no substance, offered no engagement, and affected no choices or play mechanics. The most interaction in the game I found was in kicking a trashcan- which seems to only improve the characters mood since youre playing as a snowflake that is stressed by everything around him, whether its pushing a seesaw alone or looking for a suitcase. NPCs speak in cryptic verses and most only seem to offer 1-off conversations. You speak 1x, make a series of dialogue choices that have no impact on the story, take whatever "mood" penalties that were scripted, then move on to the next shallow monologue. For me this culminated into frustrated button mashing just to skip ahead and see if there was something actually happening in the game SPOILER - there wasnt. The areas your traverse are openworld faux, having as much explorability as a RL small-town post office. There little to see and even less to engage with. Inflating that lack of purpose further, inside of two hours I was teleported from one area in time to another in the span of minutes at least 4 times, each time losing inventory or fully replenishing health, so exploration and resource gathering became meaningless. Behind all this shallowness is the attempt to pretend there's a deep, psychological element that comes from an unwarranted savior complex. There's no apparent underlying backstory for plagues or immortality, or what the world we're exploring is full of Quasi Mottos and cabaret girls. The overall impression is the people who made this game have skated through life avoiding literature in all forms so as to miss comprehension in basic literary elements, character development, and immersive worlds.