(Photo : Ice-Pick Lodge / Screenshot taken from Steam)
Developer Ice-Pick Lodge announced that Pathologic 3 will be arriving sometime in 2025 and will include time-traveling mechanics.
The third installment in the acclaimed plague-themed horror series will bring back its grueling and emotionally draining theatrics. Pathologic 3's announcement comes as a bit of weird news as it seems to be a sort of part 2 for Pathologic 2.
'Pathologic 3'
The latter was, in itself, a half sequel and half remake of the original 2005 cult classic game. The first game in the franchise charts the sudden decline of a strange, small town found on the edge of the Russian Steppe.
The town is slowly succumbing to a mysterious plague that the original title had three playable characters. It also featured three distinct routes through its 12 days of increasing misery. These are Artemy Burakj, Daniil Dankovsky, and Clara, according to Eurogamer.
However, because of financial concerns, only the Haruspex path was able to be included in Pathologic 2. Dankovsky did appear as the protagonist in a short standalone episode, known as The Marble Nest. Now, Pathologic 3 will focus on his path and significantly expand on it.
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The character is a young doctor who is an expert in thanatology and travels to the mysterious town at the start of the outbreak. His primary objective is to advance his research on death. Similar to the original, Dankovsky's path will have 12 days and tasks players with stopping the plague.
The new time-traveling mechanic will supposedly let players go back and see how their decisions change the lives of the people living in the mysterious town. As Dankovsky, players will be able to order quarantines and request patrols of entire areas of the town, Rock Paper Shotgun said.
New Time-Traveling Mechanics
In Pathologic 3, players will use a microscope and various lab equipment to "research pathogens." Based on the currently shared screenshots and the official description, it seems like there is also some sort of management system in the game.
The game's developers said that players will have to fight the epidemic by implementing quarantines and deploying patrols to lock down the spread of the disease. They added that the ability to go back in time to "explore and influence events" will come in handy one way or another.
Pathologic 3 features a dark and surreal world that focuses on a decaying town where players' every choice matters and trust is not a luxury that you can afford, according to Gematsu.
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