Moscow-based developer Ice-Pick Lodge has provided players with an in-depth glimpse at its upcoming RPG, Pathologic 3, via a new trailer. Pathologic 3 is the latest chapter of the reimagined version of Ice-Pick Lodge’s 2005 classic, Pathologic.
The trailer follows protagonist Daniil Dankovsky (often referred to in-game as The Bachelor), a well-educated doctor who travels from his home in the city to a remote village with a horrifying secret. Set in the steppes of Western Russia in the late 1800s, Pathologic 3 will follow Dankovsky’s desperate attempts to find the cure for a plague that seems to be supernatural in origin.
One major departure from Pathologic 2 is Pathologic 3’s focus on time. Just like previous iterations of the game, players only have 12 days to cure the plague and save (or not save) the town. But Pathologic 3 also includes a new feature: time-jumping.
“Time jumps and temporal experimentation are the game’s core mechanic and the defining twist of Pathologic 3,” Ice-Pick Lodge said in a recent press release. “They chart the journey from a hostage of circumstance to someone trying to assemble the perfect puzzle of events — piecing the world into a single riddle and becoming something greater.”
When players encounter an unexpected problem (or simply make a mistake), they can rewind time and try again. But time travel comes at a cost. To get a “do-over,” players must spend a rare resource known as Amalgam, which can be obtained by completing critical quests, putting irrevocably sick townspeople out of their misery, and — rather oddly — shattering mirrors.
Dankovsky must work against the clock to diagnose and treat patients, all while navigating interpersonal issues amongst the town’s inhabitants, who range from distrustful and shy to downright rude and dishonest. Ultimately, his goal is to keep as many NPCs alive as possible and find (or create) a panacea that will end the plague for good.
Dankovsky can also make town-wide decrees. Image: Ice-Pick Lodge via Polygon
Pathologic 3 serves as an updated version of Ice-Pick Lodge’s obscure 2005 cult classic, Pathologic. Despite the game’s title designating it the third entry in the series, Pathologic 3 is actually the second chapter of the story. The original Pathologic — which gained popularity in both the West and its home country of Russia — told the story of three characters: The Bachelor, The Haruspex, and The Changeling. After releasing a bug-free, well-translated version of the original game (Pathologic Classic HD), the studio partnered with TinyBuild and began work on Pathologic 2.
Launching in May 2019, Pathologic 2 was meant to be an updated version of the original game that would be more accessible to Western audiences. It launched with just one protagonist’s storyline available (The Haruspex), but Ice-Pick Lodge confirmed that The Bachelor and The Changeling’s campaigns would be added at a later date via a game update. Just like the original Pathologic, the sequel was initially meant to include all three protagonists’ storylines, but the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the sanctions that followed it eventually caused a major disruption in the Russian-based studio’s development of Pathologic 2.
After partnering with a new publisher (Hypetrain Digital), work on The Bachelor’s campaign began, but because the studio had a new publisher, his campaign couldn’t be added to Pathologic 2 via a patch or game update — hence why the upcoming second chapter in Pathologic’s revival is called Pathologic 3. Ice-Pick Lodge has yet to announce a release date for Pathologic 3, but the studio has suggested that the game will launch on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X sometime in 2025. It’s currently available to wishlist on Steam.
