Pathologic

Story

The game is about three characters, mostly known by their nicknames: two men, Bachelor (Бакалавр) and Haruspex (Гаруспик), and a girl nicknamed Devotress (Самозванка). Each of them is trying to uncover the source of a strange, deadly disease called the "sand plague" that has affected a small town. Although players can take on the role of any of them, there is only one storyline, which is viewed from different angles depending on the character chosen. The ability to uncover some secrets depends on which character is played, and the characters also interact with the other two unchosen characters and discuss their progress throughout the game. The game takes place in a perpetual world and spans a period of 12 game days. On each day, the player receives quests from NPCs, but the game continues whether they are completed or not. At exactly midnight of each day, the incomplete quests are deleted from the player's notebook. Quests are divided into main quests (one per day), which decide whether a main character dies, and side quests, which earn money and items. Completing main quests is important for discovering the city's secrets, as characters can die early in the game that would otherwise reveal information later in the game. While trying to uncover the city's secrets, the player's other objective is to survive until the end of the 12 days by balancing various resources in the game's fluctuating economy, which represents the harsh "supply and demand" of a disease-ridden city. On the outskirts of the city is a large building called the Polyhedron (Многогранник), a geometrically impossible structure used by children as a fortress. On the opposite side is an ominous mountain called the Slaughterhouse, and next to it is the Beehive, an insane asylum. All neighborhoods and important buildings of the city are named after body parts and biology.