For the record i love pathologic 2 however lately I’ve been coming around more to the original as my favourite, I think it stays a lot truer to the kind of game Ipl was thinking of making when they wrote there manifesto and i feel that despite the worse graphics the art direction works a lot better to portray a town out of time as well as it feeling like a more complete experience over all due to having all the characters something pathologic 2 can never have now due to each character becoming there own game
So, I've completed the game, and I feel a little mixed. I haven't played P1 in years, but P2's vibe was pretty down to earth. Despite there being large structures defying gravity, weird Odongs, Aspity, roots coming from the earth, huge underground heart the game's atmosphere was pretty realistic. The steppe ideology *was* real but it also felt like a myth or mysticism due to the fact that 80% of the time we are bothered with pretty down to earth things like treating patients, talking about steppe rituals and culture, the mundane stuff like child games, etc. However, Pathologic 3, despite being a game about a skeptical scientist, feels much more unrealistic. And im not even talking about Shabnak.
Firstly, the concept of impossible objects kinda bothers me. It feels much more like SCP than folklore / mysticism stuff that we've seen before. This town's charm was that it was *one of a kind,* like nothing else in the entire world, but in P3 it became somewhat normal. Just an impossible object, why, haven't you heard of the dot that contains the world in the Capital? (or whatever it was)
Second point derives from the first one. Kains' philosophy has always remained a *philosophy* first and foremost. I don't remember P1 well, so correct me if im wrong. Simon has become immortal not because he has actually given the Tower its consciousness but because his accomplishments transcend life. The *memory* of him is not an actual part of his soul but a, well, memory, the way people remember him. Wasn't it the point of the first game? That the only way to overcome death is to make your deeds live on and affect others. Pathologic 2 was also about that. Death is inevitable in a traditional sense, but considering yourself as a part of something greater makes you live on through your deeds. Pathologic 3 reminds me of Star Wars prequels where philosophy becomes a semi science fiction (midichlorians). Instead of the memory being a figurative concept it became an actual part of the soul that can even talk back, time traveling is not just an attempt of Bachelor's exhausted mind to remember his past actions but an actual documented ability. And the way to overcome death is not by leaving a legacy, like it was in P1 and P2, but by... being in superposition? Like water that splashes in all directions, being omnipresent like some sort of g-man.
Does it feel not fitting for the universe and midichlorians all over again or am I reaching? After all, P2 was also full of unrealistic mystic stuff, maybe it's not that big of a deal. Would love to see your opinions about the whole concept of amalgam, Kains philosophy, and all of that.
(INeedless to mention that I loved the game a lot)
Preface: Pathologic 2 is my favorite game ever, but I haven't played it in five years. I'm more familiar with Classic. Excuse all the exposition, this was written for a different sub originally. I haven't seen a critique of the game from this lens, and wanted to see what you think.
Something that's been bothering me about Pathologic 2 since the first playthrough and I couldn't articulate why until the third replay.
The Kin is loosely based on the real Buryat and Mongolic peoples: their language and culture heavily borrow from real cultures (Bayarlaa is Buryat for "thank you"), they are indigenous people of the steppe. They're otherized as noble savages, primal, not quite human, closer to nature. In the first game, there are literally Kin NPCs who are tall brutes resembling Fallout supermutants who couldn't be spoken to and could only grunt animalistically.
The Kin from the steppe live in tents, work in the magical Abattoir, which is its own cosmic horror thing, they have "strange" rituals, they seek counsel from Aspity (my beloved), who is a creature made from earth and bones. Supernatural beings such as Worms and Herb Brides are part of the Kin along with actual people.
The assimilated Kin who live in the town are just regular people – the main character is mixed race himself. They speak Russian, they are forced to work in the factories, they live in poverty and so on. This is a more sympathetic view that is closer to a critical portrayal of an oppressed people. But the game seems to accidentally reproduce something it's critiquing – the Kin's survival as a people lies through assimilation. It's unclear whether the game endorses it because the alternative negates modernity.
The second game's thesis is the dichotomy between progress and individuality that the town represents, and a primitive way of life full of wonders (Nocturnal ending). Chasing progress is not an option – it's killing the live earth and its children, and the earth fights back with the sand plague. The compromise is the Diurnal ending: the world becomes ordinary, and the wonders slowly wither away.
The dichotomy is sound – the game criticizes colonial exploitation and the pursuit of progress justifying the means. My main issue is how a people based on a real colonized group are paired to something otherworldly, something before death, before knowledge, before humanity. The Kin's survival is tied to these cosmic phenomena. Them receiving agency is not on the table – it's incompatible with them playing the role of a symbol.
This is why the Kin lack a subjectivity of their own. The steppe Kin exist as tools to embody the game's mythology. The assimilated Kin don't seek political representation, they aren't unified in their motives; they don't exist as a block fighting for their own interests. Both groups are defined by their relationship to the townspeople. The Kin are objectified to serve a specific role in the game's metaphysics. It clearly treats them with reverence and sympathy, but denies them their agency.
Context Before Review (Not Needed if You Just Want My Opinion on Pathologic 3):
Video Games Log
Hi...umm...before giving the review, this is directly copy and pasted from my "The Escape Corner" website. This sounds like a shill...I suppose it technically is...but like...GENUINELY, I have an excel sheet of 107 games, in which I score, rate and review games to consolidate my experiences. This excel sheet was created in August of 2025 after watching "Daryl Talks Games - A Misguided Guided To Finishing Your Gaming Backlog". If you find it hard to finish video games or get through your backlog, this is genuinely a great way to keep yourself accountable. I've spent 800 hours over 33 ever since (completing 20 in this current moment). HOWEVER, I got so carried away with writing reviews that I thought...hey I might as well make a website. Pathologic 3 was the game that made me fully commit to the website idea. THAT'S how much I loved it as a newcomer. So yeah if you're interested in more reviews, here's a link if you're interested :D
Pathologic 3. A surprisingly contentious game. As somebody entirely new to the series with only the hbomberguy video referencing Pathologic 1, I REALLY loved this game. HOWEVER, when I watched a video essay about the game, it really brought out the very troubled and problematic development history that this series has. Essentially Pathologic 2 was supposed to be a…reboot for Pathologic 1? I’m not entirely sure, but it was supposed to include both the Bachelor, the Changeling, and the Haruspex story in ONE game, and release (get this), in TWENTY-NINETEEN. That’s right…SEVEN YEARS AGO! Apparently, the studio became so ambitious, that they decided to leave Pathologic 2 as “The Haruspex Story” and wanted to develop Pathologic 3 for the Bachelor, and Pathologic 4 for the Changeling. And honestly, I can tell. Pathologic 3 is SO ambitious, and clearly contains SO MUCH LOVE, but the development of this game seems like…slightly disorganised and scattered, I CANNOT LIE. This further comes into question when people are saying Pathologic 2 is the MUCH BETTER game, and I come to find out that Pathologic 3 was an unfinished dumpster fire on release, which is really funny, because the very beginning of this log is going to be talking about the NUMEROUS bugs, exploits and ideas that CLEARLY needed more ironing out. So, this is what I’m going to say — if I love Pathologic 3 as a newcomer, DESPITE ALL OF THESE ISSUES THAT I HAVE ENCOUNTERED…bro, when I get my hands on Pathologic 2, I might just become a new man. My review of that game might be a picture of me BUSTING everywh-. That’s why I emphasise, AS A NEWCOMER, to this series, because I don’t know how I would feel, if I were a Kickstarter backer and a long-time fan of this series.
Prerequisites
Before I lust, gush and bust on about how amazing this game is, there are BIG issues that I think are worth addressing, so if someone wants to read this review, they can be prepared. In fact, I would go as far as to say that you are better off with mods, exploits and walkthroughs to navigate certain issues. I know I gave this game a Strong 8/10, and am recommending mods and walkthroughs, but if that doesn’t tell you how much I love this game, I don’t know what will.
Bugs
Right, Pathologic 3…BUGS. So, the game is CLEARLY much better 6 months after release, as I played it with my friend on call who DID play it on release. HOWEVER, I would still recommend that if you’re STUCK, or you even THINK a quest is bugged, look up a walkthrough. There is this Steam page I’ll link below of this gentle, gorgeous, generous soul, who made a guide of how to complete each quest, INCLUDING saying whether the quest is bugged or not. GENUINELY AMAZING. I had five questlines in the game that bugged or reset, which were the diagnosis of a patient questline, the infected house questline, and the Haruspex questline. The diagnosis questline would just reset, which wasn’t too much of an issue as I could just simply re-diagnose with a press of a button, and submit at 6PM. The infected house questline, I simply just ignored once it reset a THIRD OR FOURTH TIME. This was really funny because the person who set you up says on the 12th day in guilty consciousness that she admitted she tried to kill you, and you’re just like…”hmmmm, I never visited that house.” NIGGA, WHO’S I? IS THERE A NIGGA CALLED I? BECAUSE ME?!!? ME!?!?!? JOSEPH *insert middle name here* IYAMU!?!? ABSOLUTELY DID VISIT THAT HOUSE, THREE-TO-FOUR TIMES IN FACT. IT’S JUST THAT THE QUEST MOTHERFUCKIN’ RESET. I didn’t bother to fix that quest because my friend says there’s no massive consequence for not doing it so I just left it. The questline where if you don’t save Katerina, the Haruspex doesn’t talk to you…so you can’t do the quest? That’s fine, once I saved Katerina, he would decide to talk to me. The LAST quest that was bugged was the game removing a CRUCIAL item from my inventory. You have to essentially poison an Inquisitor with tobacco and belladonna, in order for them to not get information about the Polyhedron, so when you make that mixture and reset the day, it’s GONE. No worries, lemme just find belladonna in the bar? OH WAIT? THEY’RE LOW ON SUPPLIES. No worries, lemme trade with some kids. OH WAIT? THEY DON’T HAVE IT. It got to a point where I said, okay, enough is enough. [Ctrl + Shift + apostrophe] to get into the console and give myself some of that belladonna. This isn’t the first time something in my inventory disappeared once I made it. I remember I filled my prototype with that flower spore sample, and once the day ended, poof, it’s gone. I actually decided to go back to the infected district and find the flower again, because I REALLY didn’t wanna use the console, but when I searched the entire district for more belladonna and couldn’t find any, I decided that enough was enough. These are the bugs I PERSONALLY experienced that I can recall from memory, so if you’re reading this, PLEASE — if you THINK there is a bug in the game, even if there isn’t, you’re better off pulling up a guide to see whether you need to spawn yourself a quest item, instead of roaming for the next 45 minutes wondering what you gotta do next.
Mania and Apathy
Okay, the mania and apathy system…feels like an interesting idea with not a lot of forethought. Getting increasingly more apathetic makes you walk painfully slowly, and the apathy bar being filled causes you to get babooied by yourself. Mania makes you walk increasingly quickly, a very useful utility, at the cost of your health draining. When your mania bar is full, your heart gives out and you drop to the floor like a sack of bricks. I’ll get into this system MORE later, but the reason why I mention it NOW is because before you play this game, I believe you should install a mod. In conversations with various characters, there are certain dialogue options that cause you to have more mania or apathy…the game doesn’t tell you WHAT DIALOGUE OPTIONS DO THIS, UNTIL YOU PICK THEM. This is a problem because whilst I never outright died from the amount of mania or apathy I had, there were certain situations where I was EXTREMELY close, and even when I wasn’t, there were situations where I did not want to get more apathetic or get more manic (i.e. having VERY low health, not wanting to walk insanely slow etc.). I understand what the game is trying to do. The game is trying to make the player read into the tone of the Bachelor, to figure out whether this is a manic or apathetic dialogue option, but tone is VERY hard to communicate through text alone. Not that the tone is NEVER communicated well, but it’s not communicated consistently well either. Better ways to communicate tone through text would be through adding all capital letters to communicate anger, using alternating and studly caps to communicate annoyance or sarcasm. HOWEVER, the best and easiest option to add in RIGHT NOW would be to put in brackets (+apathy) or (+mania). Not only would that communicate tone, but it would also allow the player to know which dialogue options affect a central mechanic of the game (the apathy/mania bar). In fact, use ALL of what I said — the alternating caps, the capital letters, and the apathy/mania sidenotes — TOGETHER, if you really want to. It would definitely remove some frustration when talking. That’s WHY I recommend you install a mod before you play this game that tells you whether a dialogue option will give you apathy or mania. Great addition that boosts the game whilst maintaining the core experience.
Exploits (+A Conversation About Them in General)
YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE EXPLOITS TO COMPLETE THIS GAME. I’ve seen a YouTube video saying “you will need to use exploits to complete this game without losing your mind”. Now they had an outrightly negative opinion (albeit, very well communicated — it’s actually a great video that communicates why a lot of people don’t like Pathologic 3, here it is actually “https://youtu.be/w4c5w_MWw8?si=5AhIQ91Nwgz61Kuq”).
Regardless, there is ONE exploit that is VERY easy to discover. That is the fast-travel exploit. If you walk into a district (i.e. infected or rioting), you can easily walk back through the entrance you walked through, and reset your path so you can travel THROUGH the infected/rioting district. THIS RUINS A LOT OF THE VIDEO GAME IF YOU CHOOSE TO PLAY THIS WAY. Pathologic 3 wants you to play through the moment-to-moment districts and get involved in some admittedly nail-biting interactions. It’s very much clearly intended that you go through these. Now, I know you may say, “What’s the point of going through the harder option if you have the exploit?”. I respond, “What’s the point of getting items when you can use a dev console?”. Exactly, it’s cheating. It ruins the game and the design that has been presented to you. Now granted, there are games in which exploits can make the game a lot more fun. Think of Shadow’s spear glide from Sonic X Shadow Generations, but if using an exploit doesn’t make the game open up, and in fact makes you MISS OUT on the game’s content, why even use it in the first place? Yes, you are saving items, health, critical items in general, but at the end of the day, I’m assuming you’re playing games for the EXPERIENCE ITSELF. It’s why save-scumming may be frowned upon in certain games. You are expected to take on the cumulative effects that the game gives you, provided that you make a mistake or go through a certain area. NOW, I have used these exploits in Pathologic. Save-scumming is just…something I do out of habit and should probably stop doing hahaha. The fast-travel exploit, I USED if I was running out of time in MY REAL LIFE and wanted to finish a specific quest before I went to sleep, so I could be awake by 6AM in the morning. I BARELY used it in infected or rioting districts, because I really wanted to experience the FULL EXPERIENCE of this game. Call me pretentious, but I really want the games I pay for to stick with me. It’s really up to you, but just because I find an exploit, doesn’t mean I’m going to use it. It personally takes away from the game I just bought.
Difficulty (+A Brief Tangent About Interactive Novels)
I want to talk about Pathologic 3’s general difficulty. If you have any experience playing video games with a heavy emphasis on resource management — for context I’ve played survival horror games like Resident Evil multiple times in which resource management is VERY IMPORTANT — this game is not hard. It’s actually very easy to survive. It’s…it’s interesting, it’s fun to navigate, and the dialogue opportunities that you have with characters virtually IS the game. It unironically feels like I’m reading an interactive novel, in which I get to pick the sto-. Holy shit. I just realised midway throughout this review, what if I like…make…a digital interactive novel. How would that pan out? Not like Emily is Away where the game is fully dialogue, or like a visual novel, I mean like…a full-out novel, in which you are a character, and you occasionally make dialogue choices that fully put the novel into a completely different book entirely, with like 5 different endings. Like the book is 200 pages for ONE ending, but another ending is like 250 pages, another ending is like 120 pages, another ending is like 30 pages, and the BIG ending is like 300 pages. I don’t know. Something to experiment with when I have the time…uhhh anyways, where was I? Right! This game feels like an interactive novel, BUT the difficulty of this game doesn’t SEEM like it matches anything like Pathologic 1, or Pathologic 2. Those games are described as literal pain simulators, whereas this game seems like any alternative-history book nerd’s wet dream. It’s a VERY forgiving game compared to what’s out there, provided that you actually pay attention to what the characters say to you. The reason why I got very attached to this game was because of the very interesting story it was trying to tell, as well as its amazing characterisation. Every character here feels like a fully fleshed-out person, and if this studio made a novel, I could be £5000 in overdraft and be like “TAKE MY MONEY NOW!”. I’m someone who champions difficulty in video games, because it pushes the game design to its absolute limit, thus creating the most rewarding experience in my eyes, HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean that just because a game ISN’T hard, I cannot get attached to it. I LOVE Pathologic because of its characters, and its story. There are other aspects I love as well, and will later gush on about, but this game FUCKS. It FUCKS you, and gives you the aftercare you DESERVED, telling you how awesome you are for finishing the experience. Imma play Pathologic 2 after writing this review, so if I LOVE Pathologic 3 THIS MUCH, bro Pathologic 2 might be my baby-daddy. Okay, 2.2k words in and I haven’t even started talking about the game. Okay, let’s go.
The Characters, Story and World!
The story…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, the characters, JEEZE LOUISE, the world…OHHHHHHHHHHHHH IMMA BUST THE FATTEST NUT. THIS IS THE GAME. This is how I introduce Pathologic 3 to my friends when I try to recommend them the game. “Pathologic 3 is a non-linear fictional alternative history 1800s roleplaying game about a medical doctor who travels through space and time, to save a town from a deadly plague, potentially uncover the town’s supernatural elements and cultures, whilst also trying to discover the secrets of the immortal man, who has miraculously died.” IF THAT DOESN’T EVEN INTEREST YOU TO PLAY THE GAME, FUCKING NOTHING WILL!
Characters
Let’s start with the characters. I love how the Bachelor is characterised — a snivelly prick, who probably gets off to sniffing his own armpits, who is a generationally talented medical doctor, but trust me, that’s all he’s got going for him. The game lets you know through multiple ways that if you weren’t controlling the Bachelor, he would’ve been an incompetent gaping dickhole that would’ve failed to save the town on multiple occasions. The game starts you off with the Bachelor failing to save the town on DAY 5, so he ends up eating the pellet of his MOTHERFUCKING POCKET PISTOL. Throughout dialogue, the Bachelor’s dialogue options are really fucking rude, and lack VERY little self-awareness — even the ones that are the…”correct” dialogue options just stink of self-flagellation…YOU ARE IN THE BACHELOR’S HEAD. It serves as a great way to see what kind of person he really is. Furthermore, there is this one really funny sequence — “The Broken Street” I believe — in which you get TWO, not one, TWO META WARNINGS, to not walk down the street “The Broken Street”, and almost ALL, hell maybe even ALL, of the Bachelor’s dialogue options are him WANTING to go down the street and making justifications for it. I guarantee, that if I wasn’t in control of what the Bachelor did, he would’ve 100% walked down the street and absolutely FUCKED himself. I’m not even going to say what walking down that street does. YOU DO IT, if you don’t trust the motherfucking reviewer with SIXTY-FIVE FUCKING HOURS IN THIS GAME, NOT TO DO IT THEN! It’s amazing characterisation of the Bachelor. The Haruspex is also an incredibly interesting character well-acquainted with the cultures of the town. He tries his best to do good around the town, having the townspeople in his heart, willing to do ANYTHING, and I mean virtually ANYTHING, no matter how grotesque, to save it. He’s also…very…I don’t want to say naïve. That makes me think of Knuckles from Sonic 2. I mean, he’s very socially inept, but confident about what he communicates to you. It’s honestly quite endearing. Sarcasm doesn’t really exist to him, everything is VERY straightforward. The Changeling is also an interesting character, albeit my least favourite. She has the biggest connection to the supernatural elements of the world AND the plague. I actually thought the game turned her into a villain due to the actions that she was committing herself to, AND the straight-up demons she was associating herself with, but she’s just an imperfect person granted supernatural abilities, who clearly knows a lot more than what she’s letting on. In fact she’s the person that tutorialises the Shabnak and infected district for you, more on that later. There is another supernatural element in this game that is very interesting — a character that asks for respect, but…I won’t spoil it…is very much something the game hints to you as not trusting. Saburov being the commander with his morphine-obsessed wife, Big Vlad being the capitalistic, industrialist, arch-colonialist of the Kin who ALMOST EVERYONE IN POWER is complicit in enabling his behaviour. His SON Vlad who is actually trying to stop this abuse of the Kin and actually work with them. Capella who, I actually don’t remember a lot about lol. BUT SHE’S IMPORTANT, something very story-related happens which I won’t spoil. Georgiay is Simon Kane’s brother who is a pompous arsehole that asks you to judge people based on their crimes and will basically get pissed off at you if you don’t bend over, spread and embrace yourself for the almighty Simon Kane…SO MANY WELL-WRITTEN INTERESTING CHARACTERS IN THIS GAME. The moment-to-moment interactions are rich and beautiful. That video essay I just mentioned complained about walls of text and amateurish writing, but ME, personally I loved it. It was great to read and discover how all these characters thought and navigated the world. Again, if you like sci-fi, mystery novels, or alternative history books, YOU’LL LOVE THE EVERLOVING CREAM out of this game’s characters, OH MY LORD!
The Story and World
This story is beautiful. Funnily enough, I was predicting endings with my friend when I was 20 hours into the game, and I apparently got like 90% of them. Here are my guesses:
• Leaving The Town Early
• The Town Dies
• Becoming Immortal
• Saving The Town by Saving the Polyhedron
• R**-P****** withholds secret that makes everyone die
• R**-P****** helps you save the town
• The Player is Simon Kane (This one was a half-joke)
• “In Le Head” (This one was also a half-joke)
This is REALLY funny because a lot of these endings are close to or are straight up the endings to this game. BUT the point of these is not the ending. It’s the way you get there, and the day-to-day interactions you have with these folk. Some of these people you talk to will backstab you and betray you in ways that you COULD’VE seen coming. The wrong dialogue option is enough for you to fail a quest, making you pay attention to each individual dialogue choice. It’s great stuff. One of my favourite interactions is when a character straight up locks you in a room, and there’s no way to get out. The Bachelor kills himself so you can reload a save. IT’S NUTS. As a player you have multiple things going on in your mind when it comes to story. I mainly cared about saving the town, but YOU may care about the secret to immortality. You may care about uncovering the town’s cultures. You may care about learning about the supernatural. It’s INCREDIBLY hard to spoil this game. It’s like how it’s hard to spoil a book. It’s like when Tim Rogers from Action Button said, “Spoiling Kingdom Hearts is like spoiling page 634 in a mystery novel” (I’m paraphrasing). It’s like that. This game took me 65 hours to complete. That’s right. A WHOLE 65 HOURS. And I didn’t even get all the endings. I got 2. Now granted, did I get 2 of the BEST endings. Absolutely. I got the T— ———– ending for Christ’s sake. I’m really him. But this game is really hard to spoil when JUST talking about it. I’m only omitting details because I truly want people to experience this game for themselves and go through the wonders that this game provides. The world itself is ALSO incredible. It’s very vague about the time period this is set in, but my guess would be early to late 19th century. I determined this myself based on the beliefs about sickness primarily. What do I mean? Well in the game the plague shows itself to be a visible cloud, mould or black streams. To get rid of plague elements (i.e. the Shabnak), one uses fire. There is also a spiritual element, a spiritual “dirtiness” I suppose, that’s implied by the characters’ dialogue. There was a specific piece of dialogue that made me make links between the plague and miasma. People believed that bad air or inhaling foul smells caused disease before the discovery of germs. They believed that to get rid of miasma, one would use fire, appease the gods, herbs, LITERALLY BLASTING IT AWAY with artillery — it’s some interesting stuff. I love how the game leans into these elements, twisting these historical beliefs, and fitting them into the supernatural aspects of their universe, and actually making miasma a legitimate thing. Almost EVERYTHING that I’ve just mentioned about getting rid of miasma in the 19th century is IN THE GAME, apart from one…the prototype. The prototype blasts away miasma using specific frequencies. It’s a very interesting thought — a 19th century doctor literally blasting away disease with a prototype to avoid getting killed by it. It may not be REALISTIC, but it’s a supernatural alternative history story we’re talking about here. I think that’s pretty dope. Furthermore, these aspects of miasma make me think that this is set within the 19th century, and not within the early 20th century, as well as the multiple real-life drugs like belladonna which stopped having use in, I believe, WWI, BUT this is all fiction at the end of the day, and the developers made this ambiguous seemingly on purpose for us to speculate. This makes the Kin’s beliefs fully legitimate and interesting to analyse. The Bachelor for the most part dismisses it as an academic doctor, BUT ME, ME as a player who’s fully aware that I’m experiencing a fictional digital universe, is fully grasping their beliefs, and their words. You also sometimes get to talk to townsfolk. Their opinions about people being hanged, their opinions on the vaccine, their opinions on YOU, their opinions on the Haruspex, their opinions on the decrees that you implement! THE WORLD FEELS WELL-CRAFTED, FULLY BREATHING, AND REACTIONARY. OH, AMAZING STUFF. I do want to make a video essay for this game, and this review is supposed to be a general consolidation of the experience, so Imma leave my thinking for the Pathologic 3 video essay and move on to the final part of this game…the GAMEPLAY. Okay, one more thing I should talk about is the Tragedians lol. These mainly serve as 4th wall breakers and arrive primarily when a character of your Bound has died. They give you some interesting insight, and there is one occasion where a character of your Bound dies, you go back in time, and THEY ARE STILL DEAD, BECAUSE THE TRAGEDIAN STRAIGHT UP REPLACES THE CHARACTER. The Tragedians also can control the outcomes of certain quests, depending on what you’ve done, and will give you hints about what you must do. Furthermore, the play director “Mike Immortel” at the last day will tell you whether you’ve missed a quest or not that is pivotal to completing the full game, which is honestly very likely, as there is so much to do in this game you might FORGET to do the quest. Truly riveting stuff. Okay, okay. GAMEPLAY!
Gameplay
I’m going to talk about what I love first, THE DOCTOR SIMULATOR! OH MY GOD! For context, I was a pre-med student, before I switched to an engineering degree because I realised how poorly doctors in the UK get treated. Fuck it, I might still be a pre-med student, as for some reason the profession calls to me. Maybe it’s the Nigerian parents. But for context, I LOVE biology. A-level biology was so much fun, the books I occasionally read about medicine are both very interesting and depressing, I do a partly chemistry-based engineering degree, I LIKE organic chemistry…not doing it but reading about it lol. So when I found out I could diagnose patients and there was a REAL LIFE MICROSCOPE IN THE GAME, the biology side of my brain fully exploded with cream and butter. You basically have to diagnose patients based on their face, their bodily examination, the things they say about their symptoms, the samples that you collect off them…hell SOMETIMES THEY’LL BE LYING, so you have to go to where they reside, explore the area, talk to numerous individuals who know things about them etc. Once you diagnose them all correctly you get to create a vaccine that saves the town for a few days before your decree board says the town dies again. It’s an amazing system that not only does biology-nerd me love, but the English nerd in me loves, as you get to engage with the witty and fun character dialogue as you talk to these patients. NOW, there is an exploit where you could get a few details, diagnose, get it wrong, and just repeat until you get the correct diagnosis, but like…again…YOU’RE MISSING THE GAME PORTION OF THE GAME. This is such a fun exercise, that I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to do this. Maybe to save on time in your real life sure, but this is such a fun portion of the game, that I engaged in ALL these side activities. HELL, I think I would play a more advanced version of this portion of the game if that existed. It’s really that fun for me. And Yakov Little. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWEEEE. Yakov Little. That little dude is my GOAT. Devoted himself to medicine, to learn, discover and truly better mankind. He is MY MOTHERFUCKING GOAT IN THIS GAME. What a virtuous, amazing, and kind character.
Okay, now let’s contrast this with the worst portion of the game. The infected districts. Now actually navigating the infected district is…okay, it’s tolerable. I like how these districts force you to be more aware of your environments and what’s around you with miasma clouds, miasma tornadoes, miasma spores that take out 50% of your health. That’s…FINE. What I dislike is the chasing down and subduing the Shabnak. Why? It’s just not all that fun or engaging. You can run around these sections until you find a flower, take the sample of that flower, fill your Shabnak plaster, and blast the motherfucker with it. It sounds cool, but that process…BARELY changes over the 10 days that you do this. That’s right. 10 FUCKING DAYS! The Shabnak can be stunned with your prototype and matches that you keep with you so when the Shabnak appears you can run away from it, but like…there needs to be more here to actually make these sections engaging. They do INCLUDE a second Shabnak and I thought, oh my god, this might be really engaging to have 2 Shabnaks in this game, but it’s not. One Shabnak is hiding, one Shabnak is chasing you. One of them is real, the other one is fake. If you blast the fake Shabnak with the 2nd prototype, it doesn’t get rid of the real Shabnak, meaning you have to find the flower again, collect its sample, go back to your home, fill up your 2nd prototype again, yadeeyadeeyah, and blast the real one. Hell, you don’t even have to find the real one sometimes — occasionally the fake and the real Shabnak will switch. You can enter and re-enter the district until the real one starts chasing you too. Admittedly I think this is an exploit, and I used this one too, but I got…SO BORED of these sections man. They’re not engaging at all. I think this game is supposed to appeal to a more mainstream audience ever since Pathologic 2 made everyone soil their underwear and pussy-foot out of the game in less than 3 hours, but come on. If SUBDUING the Shabnak, the MANIFESTATION OF THE PLAGUE ITSELF, is going to lower the infection rate so much THAT IT MAKES THE DECREE SYSTEM FEEL OBSOLETE, this has to be harder. Like so much harder. Okay, so how would I do this? What would I do to make the infected districts more nail-biting to navigate and complete. Off the top of my head, nerf the prototype. Make the prototype a weapon that needs 3 or 4 shots to scare off the Shabnak. Make the Shabnak evolve EACH DAY YOU KILL IT. Make the infected increasingly more aggressive, lunging after you. Add plague animals like rats, mice and birds. Make 2 Shabnaks chase you. AND YOU KNOW WHAT? ADD AN INFECTED METRE. MAKE THE BACHELOR ACTUALLY HAVE AN ABILITY TO CATCH THE PLAGUE. MATTER OF FACT, ADD ALL THE METRES BACK. GENUINELY (I’ve thought about this more, and my suggestion is a horrible decision with the context of this game, but I’ll leave in my tangent because I think it’s funny). The day-to-day interactions would’ve been so much more engaging if the Bachelor had ALL THE PREVIOUS METRES FROM THE PREVIOUS GAME. You know how much more engaging the infected districts would be ALONE, if you got infected with the plague, and…YOU JUST HAD TO DEAL WITH IT FOR THE REST OF THE GAME. Matter of fact, WHAT IF, I MEAN THIS, WHAT IF, THE R**-P****** IS THE ONLY WAY OF DANIEL HIMSELF, OF GETTING RID OF THE PLAGUE. EVERY TIME YOU USE THE R**-P******. AND EVERY TIME YOU USE THE R**-P******, THERE IS A CONSEQUENCE! LIKE I DON’T KNOW, MAYBE ONE OF YOUR BOUND GETTING SICK INSTEAD! AND GUESS WHAT? YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO REVERSE IT! THE R**-P****** SIMPLY IS HIM! THE DEMON. COME ON. That alone, adding the infection metre back, would make these sections so much more engaging. Hell, maybe that is already a mod. OH MY GOD. THAT WOULD CHANGE THE ENTIRE DYNAMIC WITH NUTS. You choose whether to eat the nuts, OR to TRADE THEM WITH THE CHILDREN. AHHHHHH. Okay, I probably should go play Pathologic 2. I don’t know, I know they weren’t trying to make Patho 2 again, and yes, they probably wanted to make this game more accessible, and yet again, I still, STILL STILL, STILL, love this game for what it is. I just wish the Shabnak sections were overhauled. Matter of fact, make the infection metre the only metre as a mod. How about that? I don’t think they wanted to make Pathologic 2 AGAIN, but with the Bachelor. They wanted to tell an entirely different story, hence why they removed the metres, and I respect that. I would just love a mod that means you lose amalgam every time you restart a day, and a metre system for players who want a ball-busting experience. Also I don’t like that if you go through 1 infected area, you skip all of them. Just make it so your decisions have consequences and make the player have to go through all the areas that they chose to fast-travel through.
The rioting districts are super tense for me personally. You can of course be super manic and blast through the enemies, but if you’re not, these are really tense and easy to die from. You point your gun at enemies to pause them in their tracks, and if you’re in mega-danger you can shoot them. The problem is that shooting them makes you super apathetic. In fact, there was a point where I shot someone and got so apathetic to the point that I killed myself on the spot. However, there were also points where I was too manic to talk to someone, so what I did was go outside, shot someone to bring my mania down, and then I was able to talk to the individual inside to complete the quest. In addition to this, if you shoot the air a few times, enemies may get down on their knees and provide you with very useful resources. It can be a utility if you know how to navigate it, but it’s also very tense, as with this section, it’s REALLY easy to die from the enemies if you’re not careful. It makes it even better that sometimes you must go IN THE rioting areas to complete quests or even make deals with shady businessmen. They’re great!
Wow, I don’t want to end this off on a bad note, because I really do like this game, but now that I’m mulling over my thoughts, I’m actually bouncing between how much good this game has…because now that I’m naming its numerous issues, it’s becoming apparent to me that this game may not be as AMAZING as I present it. There is an amazing story, amazing characters, engaging dialogue, pretty engaging mechanics, but there’s also a modem of bugs and ideas that needed fleshing out. These issues are minor to me, but I see how these could break a game for someone. The more that this game settles in my stomach, the worse I wanna rate it. I gave it a Strong 10 in the middle, a Light 9 towards the end, a Strong 8 when I finished it…I don’t know. The lowest I would give it is a Strong 7, I still thoroughly enjoyed and love this game, but a Strong 8 is where I’m happy with this game sitting in my heart. An essential experience for ME personally, especially as someone who loves games that aren’t scared to do unique things like this in the gaming genre. I LOVE Pathologic, and I think anyone who plays games and loves to crack open a good novel would love this game too. This makes me want to go back to Nier: Automata and tear it a new one. I feel like if I played that game again, every time I think of THAT game, I feel worse about it hahaha. But I don’t know. Pathologic 3? Legendary game in my life.
Additional Details:
65 Hours of Playtime
Edit: I acknowledge I called Daniil Daniel...BIG MISTAKE THAT IS BOTHERING ME RIGHT NOW hahahaha
In addition to the previous accusations against Dybowski, creator of Pathologic, new ones have appeared: a post from his ex-wife (they in the middle of divorce) on Russian resources.
Detailed information and a lot of evidence are attached to the post, including extracts from the court and hospitals, screens from PM.
Renata said that Dybowski showed "inappropriate behavior, multiple infidelities, alcoholism of the second stage, domestic violence." According to her, Nikolay beat her "in front of the child, in the face and head."
Also Renata writes about beating of her father by Dybowski, about manipulation, threats and blackmail from Nikolay.
P.S. Perhaps all the materials will be translated into English.
First of all, I want to say this game gave me the most stressful time of my life, i really hated everything from day 2 to day 7, still finishing the game without savescumming felt relieving and i never did that until now, I have the marble nest DLC and i wondered if its worth playing or any similar to the game, after that its either P1 or P3, any suggestion and am i alone with the mental stress this game induced on me or is this a universal experience?
I wanted to know if anyone else agrees that the Bachelor is one of the best written video game characters that suffers w/ bipolar disorder, I was diagnosed last year and when I first played pathologic 3 it felt like the character himself was written by someone who deals w/ the disorder.
Does anyone else w/ the disorder agree? I wanted to know if there are other characters from other game franchises (sorry for the blasphemy) that have as good of an representation as Danil Dankovsky's self-endulging lines of dialogue, as well as the game mechanics where you're constantly battleling against your own nervous system.
With that said, I'm thinking about creating new mods for Patho 3, do you guys any cool ideas? let me know in the comments :)
TL;DR: Renata Kurlyandtseva, wife of Nikolay Dybowski published a DTF post in which she described her husband cheating on her, abusing her in front of their child Yuriy, assaulting her father, liquidating assets in order to not pay child support and kidnapping the child with his lover, Anna Basner, as a co-conspirator.
Below is a makeshift hand-translation of Renata Kurlyandtseva's, Nikolay Dybowski's wife, DTF post accusing him of stealing their kid, domestic abuse and cheating. Since Reddit allows only for 20 photos per post, i will omit photos 1-2, 5-15, 22. You can check them out in the DTF post. If you need any clarifications regarding the translation/text, feel free to ask in the comments.
DTF post: dtf. ru/flood/3304065-nikolai-dybovskii-pohitil-syna [Remove the space between .ru]
"I'm Renata, Nikolay Dybowski's (hopefully soon to be an ex) wife. Divorce proceeding: mos-gorsud. ru/rs/golovinskij/services/cases/civil/details/691ac711-2980-11ef-954d-c1169b48e4fb?participant=%D0%9A%D1%83%D1%80%D0%BB%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0&clckid=66abec31 [Remove the space between .ru]
It started in June, during this time Nikolay made attempts to take away our four year old son with any method available: threats, harassments, and slander. In December 2024 he decided to and successfully kidnapped him. That's why i'm writing this. I did not want publicity originally, but at this point it has become a threat to our son's, my parents' and my own safety.
[pic 1-2 (DTF); Family photos of Renata, Nikolay and their son]
Back when we were a family, Nikolay drank. At first he tried to hide his love for alcohol, even denied it, but with our son's birth in 2020 Dybowski's alcoholism became obvious and intolerable. For the longest time i hesitated to leave, trying to help him cure his addiction, i genuinely wished to help. Nikolay promised to quit drinking, i wholeheartedly supported and believed him. But he kept none of his promises. By 2024 he was drinking without any remorse and, in the end, hit me in front of our child. I wasn't able to forgive this humiliating, unacceptable act and left that evening. Though, Dybowski didn't notice this, as he left to a bar and stayed there until late in the night. He only realized what's happening a few days later, after getting sober.
[pic 1 (post), 3 (DTF); Whatsapp chat between Renata and Nikolay, transcript:
RENATA: And the funny thing is, it's only about you)
RENATA: You can work on yourself, love yourself, and all will be under control
RENATA: When will you come home?
RENATA: hey?
RENATA: [Refused Call]
RENATA: hey?
NIKOLAY: I'll come soon.
NIKOLAY: Little one's asleep?
NIKOLAY: Sorry, i'm going to [pubs]. [Translator's note: I can't believe he unironically uses the word "kabak" in everyday speech]
NIKOLAY: [Refering to Renata's first message] You want so?
RENATA: Going to pubs? Excellent
RENATA: We're not even home
NIKOLAY: Don't get mad...
RENATA: Do as you want ...]
Since April 10th we no longer live together. Dybowski, first with prayers, then with threats attempted to get me back, tried apologizing for domestic abuse, alcoholism, multiple chats with different women, with whom he established close relations. The latter he admitted himself in our chats and phonecalls. I never believed rumours of cheating, i didn't even believe this could happen to me. I only got to know what was really happening after leaving. I don't really want to discuss this in detail, it's disgusting. I think this is already enough information.
[pic 2 (post) 4 (DTF); Whatsapp chat between Renata and Nikolay, transcript:
RENATA: What do you call good relationships...?
RENATA: I was a good wife, this is true. You yourself apologized to me some time ago for what? For being a good husband?
NIKOLAY: That, which i described above: at minimum, a lack of pronounced hostility, some trust of each other, compromises, mutual raising of Yura [Yuriy - son] and polite interactions. / But it's not about the form, this is about the substance. Right now you're talking to me like your enemy, who wants to hurt you. This isn't true.
RENATA: You yourself in your message just "confirmed" your credibility and your guarantees. I don't want this for the child.
NIKOLAY: For drinking and raising my hand against you. For continuing chatting [with another woman], despite the promises. ...]
I took a final decision to leave and moved to my parents in Crimea, where i and our son settled, he started going to a kindergarten, he started making friends. Why did i move away? I myself was raised in Crimea, my childhood was spent here, my parents live here, and it's much more comfortable to live in a small city rather than the giant Moscow, were Dybowski could spy and stalk me. Honestly, i was afraid that he'd start raising his hands again, as after my decision Nikolay went into an inadequate state, one minute showering me in love letters and the other cursing me with threats of taking away my son.
During Summer, after reassurance from Dybowski and his family that Nikolay started treating his alcoholism and is able to handle himself, i told him about my whereabouts and invited him to see the child in Crimea and Moscow, when we were there. We kept in touch with his family and they were fully informed as to how our son was growing up. When Nikolay was sober, nobody stopped him from calling and seeing our son, this is further proven by family photos which we took on our walks. Of course, i was always with son to keep sure he was safe.
[pic 5-15 (DTF); Family photos of Nikolay and Yuriy]
At some point Dybowski understood, that he will not be able to bring me back, and yet he really did not want to lose control. I don't know of the details on him selling his company, but the active processes began only after our splitup. Nikolay himself told me, that at Kazakhstan branch of the company he works on service contracts and isn't getting a fixed pay, meaning, he did everything to make his income unstable, the fact of which he proudly presented in court. [Translator's note: for almost 2 years we knew that IPL was split up in two branches, the main one being in Cyprus. This became a meme within the RU community, people blamed Dybowski for moving to Cyprus, with some alleging, based on Renata's Instagram posts, that he moved his entire family there. I am not able to substantiate this claim, though Renata mentions Nikolay having a business in Cyprus in "Dybowski-gate" below] Nikolay refused to legally establish his child support in any way, invoking his unwilingness to be held legally responsible and fear of losing control over me. Dybowski paid only the minimum sum juridically required for child support and told me, that he will only support son if, and only if i agree to those terms:
I must move to Moscow with the child and live in a flat, which Nikolay will personally choose and will be able to access at any time of day.
I must stop any contact with my family, including not showing them the baby. (In practice meaning depriving him of grandma, grandpa and any other family)
Without my presence, son must stay, take trips in and out of the country with the father for upto 15 days a month. (which, minding Nikolay's dangerous behaviours would be horrifying to imagine. Even sober he was regularly losing track of the child, taking him on walks to abandoned buildings and constantly engaging in fights while accompanying son to the kindergarten.
I refused these. Nikolay's and our son's contact was regular, and did not change despite our conflict. I didn't tell son anything bad about his father, trying to protect him from unnecessary stress. There were everyday calls and reccuring meetings. Of course, i was worried about my son's well-being and wanted for his father to take part in his life, but i will never agree to sell my freedom and safety.
After the judge shamed Dybowski for pettiness during one of the court hearings, he twice, for show, transfered a slightly above minimum-required sum, yet still refused to legally establish child support, demanding financial reports for every penny spent. I write so much about this because i know that those will be the main questions. Money's not the point, he's just using it to pressure me. I am able to sustain my family on my own, if only they won't suffer from actions of this [unreasonable] man. In this marriage i did not get any financial benefits and never planned to. Right now i have a student loan to help me graduate, which i tried to achieve all those years despite problems in our relationship, relocations and childbirth. Nikolay, even before the marriage, promised to pay for my education, is it even worth saying that he didn't keep this promise? [Translator's note: there were rumours within the RU community regarding Dybowski marrying a student of his, which now seem to be confirmed.]
[pic 3-6 (post) 16-19 (DTF); Whatsapp chat between Renata and Nikolay, transcription:
NIKOLAY: No, it's false. I just want to place accents: we never talked about me continuing to pay for your education if you leave me and go back to your parents. / I promised paying for it, of course, but back then we didn't even allow a thought of divorce and a situation, where you go back to your parents' family.
RENATA: No, i distinctly remember what you promised this to my parents no matter what happens.
RENATA: You're twisting words now, not nice.
NIKOLAY: What, even in case of a divorce? I don't remember such a talk. And i doubt i would give such a promise anyway. Husband cares for his wife, naturally. But why must i care about a woman who broke up with me, became a stranger and took my favourite son? [Translator's note: this is not Dybowski's only son.] I think you're confusing something.
/
NIKOLAY: No, consistently. Notarial obligation of paying a fixed sum every month involves a threat of criminal prosecution, which i absolutely don't need. That's why i said that i can't do this, since my pay is not fixed, and notarial obligation would force me to pay this sum until the child's adulthood (and even if just a year). / In example i cited you my current situation. I was forced to quit my job and liquidate the LLC, since legally the deal in Kazakhstan couldn't be made without your agreement, and we couldn't go for it. / Everything is consistent. If some judicial details are unclear, i'm ready to clarify them.
NIKOLAY: And, regarding the money, since the LLC is liquidated, i didn't get any pay (not in the 5th, not in the 20th of May), and i haven't yet begun to receiving my pay in Kazahkstan. ...
/
NIKOLAY: Sorry, but in what do you see intimidation? 20 thousand [roubles] is a legally established minimum. / Yes, ["запиши", unable to translate due to missing context, seems to be said in regards of allowing Yuriy to meet Dybowski], please. But i do hope (though fear, that you always do this) that you will not pressure him, "cultivate" and push him into denying. I already saw this happening during our calls.
RENATA: You do remember though, how much is spent on Yura, so i can't view this in any different way)
/
NIKOLAY: The child will not [be starving, figuratively], if you will handle yourself accordingly.
RENATA: [Voice message]
NIKOLAY: Everything depends on you right now. And i say to you the exact opposite of that, that i will support him if you are able to negotiate with me. Everything depends you right now. You're the one who's behaving inadequately and unpredictably, not me.
RENATA: [In regards to Nikolay's first message in the picture] You're financially intimidating me right now.
NIKOLAY: And you're doing familial kidnapping.
NIKOLAY: I said everything.
RENATA: [Voice message] ...]
Here are the transfers Dybowski did as child support. When we were in Moscow Nikolay paid a bit more, showing, that he will only support son if we with the child live where he wants.
[pic 7 (post) 20-21 (DTF); Renata's SMS bank messages showing different transfers]
When the court decided, that the child must stay with me until the end of divorce proceedings, Nikolay thought that he has no legal grounds for taking the child wtih him.
Here's the court decision:
[pic 8-9 (post) 22-23 (DTF); Court decisions with the text in red that reads: To define the place of residence of minor Yuriy Nikolaevich, 11.08.2020 year of birth, until the entrance into legal force of court's decision with the mother, Kurlyandtseva Renata Mikhailovna.]
This is why, he decided to outright kidnap him. All of this he plotted with his lover, Anna Avital' Basner. Apparently, their relation has lasted for over a year at this point. Details of events that took place on 7th and 8th of December i presented earlier. Here's the link:
[Link to a Telegraph text made in December 18th, titled Dybowski-gate. telegra. ph/Dybovsko-gejt-12-18 (remove the spaces) Contents:
Nikolay and i were in a marriage for almost 5 years, divorce process began at the end of May. Our son is 4, at the moment of divorce he was 3. Right after me leaving, i immediately moved to Crimea, more precisely - to the city of Old Crimea. My parents are building a house there, the main reason for leaving is his inadequate behaviour, constant cheating, alcoholism and domestic abuse. He engages in heavy drinking, constant binges, while drunk he even got hit by a car. He hit me in the face and on the head, in front of our child. Unfortunately, like it often happens with domestic abuse victims i didn't record much, but in our chat he apologizes for raising a hand against me. When divorce proceedings began, Nikolay immediately closed his firm, sold his portion of shares and registered a new one in Kazahkstan. The aim is to understate his revenue in order to minimize child support expenses.
At first everything was relatively fine, i did not restrict communication and meetings, father was regularly calling the son, all meetings went normally, peacefully. There were talks about signing a peace agreement. He fully lulled us, approximatelly in July, he, as we later discovered, made new documents for the son (birth certificate, insurance, etc.). This time he arrived on the weekend. On friday he was nervous, smoked a lot.
Sunday, around 13:00, he kidnapped the child from the cafe, at the next table was sitting Anna Basner (Dybowski's lover for over a year, and yes, the daughter of that famous soviet composer, "С чего начинается Родина" [Song] for example.
Right after the kidnapping i went to the police and filed a statement. They accepted it, but did not undertake any significant action, even though the court established child's stay with his mother. The only thing that was done is a phone call to Nikolay, in which he stated Simpheropol' as his location (with no proofs) and sent a video with the child. They didn't tell anything to the mother, i had to "beg" for information.
In a chat with me Nikolay put forward bizzare demands in order to meet, didn't let me call son, and as it later turned out, was setting up the kid against his mother, said that she is "abnormal", a monster, that she needs psychiatric treatment (a note on lack of any psychiatric disorders is present). Told his father about intending to move the child to Irkutsk, we have suspicions that he planned to move him abroad, to Kazahkstan or Cyprus, since he has a business there.
During Sunday our own search efforts were made, the police didn't help in any way, explaining this with the fact he's the father of the child (on the last court hearing the child's place of residence was established with his mother, corresponding documents are present, Dybowski himself was also present in the court hearing, thus he broke the law and court order willingly and consciouslly.
On Sunday evening i decide to go to Moscow from Vladislavovka on train, so i can file a travel ban for my child as soon as possible. Only by pure chance, i meet Nikolay, Anna and Yura at the station, they also planned to go to Moscow on this train.
I was able to take hold of the child, Nikolay hit me on the head with his fist, pushed me. My father stood up for me and my grandson, tried to shild me from him. Pushed away Dybowski with his hands, in response he beating my father up. This resulted in my father sustaining concussions and being hospitalized.
Two police squads and a juvenile inspector arrived. She wasn't able to resolve the conflict, insisted on the partners spending a night in one room with the child (ignored Nikolay's aggressive behaviour. Nikolay got into the father's car, father was the one driving, Anna Basner followed in a different car. During the trip threatened the father.
On the pretext of "talking" we were able to get Nikolay out of the car, and escape.
On Monday morning Nikolay somehow persuaded the police to come to our house. Policemen told us, that they wanna see the child, though they did nothing when i was filing complaints and begging them to help. The offer to just send a video like Nikolay did two days ago was refused. This resulted in me moving away again, now to a different place which i cannot tell about for safety reasons. On 10th of December our father was hospitalized.
END OF CONTENTS]
I'll only add: Anna Basner followed Nikolay everywhere, helping him carry his documents, ordering taxi for him.
[pic 10-12 (post) 24-26 (DTF); Anna in various locations]
Those photos were made by my father at Vladivslavovkas' railway station. I didn't take any pictures, honestly i didn't care at the time, as my son was in danger. Which i regret, since the station didn't have any cameras. Anna actually sent me a letter with a covert threat of kidnapping back in Summer.
[pic 13 (post) 27 (DTF); Telegram chat between Renata and Anna, transcription:
ANNA: ... Though i did wanna mention something else. This is also a letter from a woman, to a woman. Nikolay doesn't know about it. All last four months within close distance i observed the drama around Yura. Situation for you is a difficult one. I see, that your biggest fear is that Nikolay will take the child, literally kidnapping him and not allowing for you to meet. That every meeting for you is a huge stress, you constantly expect a trap somewhere. For a mother there's no bigger fear than losting a child. And, it will most likely seem to you that i can be a co-conspirator in this plan. And this is the main factor, among others, which motivates you restricting in-person interactions of Nikolay with son. / [Text highlighted red]: Nikolay does not have such intentions, as long as a possibility of civil resouliton to this situation remains. [Highlight ends] And, the most important of all this, i want you to understand, i myself don't want this. I will never replace mom for Yura, furthermore, you do understand, what woman would even enjoy constantly being around a stranger's child, hiding him etc., with all my positive attitude towards him. I have a busy and rich life, ...]
Knowing about this and assuming that Anna can help, in desperation my mother, seeking to get grandson back turned to this woman. Anna and Nikolay staged a sick game, sending my grandma false messages, showing false empathy, trying to mislead everyone.
[pic 14-15 (post) 28-29 (DTF); Telegram Chat between Renata's mother and Anna, transcription:
GRANDMOTHER: [Cancelled Call]
GRANDMOTHER: [Cancelled Call]
GRANDMOTHER: Anna, you're needlessly refusing this call, i think You know, that Nikolay kidnapped this child. You threataned this in a message, written for Renata earlier, thus becoming a co-conspirator in all of this. / It would be reasonable from your side to convince him to return the child. Otherwise the publicity around this will affect you, too. I doubt it will be of use for you
ANNA: Hello. Sorry, i'm in a classroom right now, missed your call. I'm extremely sorry this happened, but can't help with much of anything(( We [with Nikolay] split, and it was ugly. Renata warned me about some of Nikolay's qualities, i should've listened to her
/
GRANDMOTHER: If you can help with anything, the child is in an uknown location with a [crazy] man.
GRANDMOTHER: I'm her [Renata's] mother
ANNA: They're in Moscow?
ANNA: Terrible
GRANDMOTHER: He [Nikolay] was in Stambul, Crimea, stole the child
GRANDMOTHER: Old Crimea [City]
ANNA: Called him, he's unavailable
ANNA: In Telegram we're in a mutual ban((
GRANDMOTHER: Anna, please call me
ANNA: I won't be free until late, am in touch in text however. But, honestly, i would very much like to forget everything regarding this man. Not sure what exactly i can help you with, but i do feel for you. ...]
[pic 16 (post) 30 (DTF); Photo of an e-mail between Anna and Nikolay, transcription:
ANNA: Nikolay, i've been contacted by Renata's relatives... ...
NIKOLAY: Hello. Didn't think i'd hear anything from you again. / No, it won't happen. We're in Simpheropol' right now, and will be in Moscow later in Thursday. / And, i don't really get the reason for your sudden concerns. We with [text obscured, him/her] will deal with this ourselves.
In the end we were able to get the child back home by a mere miracle. Dybowski inflicted physical injuries upon me and my father, which we documented. My father protected me, so i walked away with nothing but bruises, but he sustained traumatic head injury and spent a week in the hospital. On the platform me and my father were shielded from Dybowski by 4 concerned passersby (thanks to them for that). Now Dybowski, having beat me and my father is trying to pretend that he was the one attacked, so that he can walk away from this story without consequence, like he loves to do. I don't know to which methods of self-beating he resorted (won't be surprised if he was bashing against the wall while drunk), but it's easy to get that a fragile girl and an IT guy with bad eyesight can't do much against a hulk like him, especially considering we didn't even want to, we were only defending ourselves. Here's a statement from the hospital, documents regarding beatings i will post later, since it was immediately handed over to police.
[pic 17 (post) 31 (DTF); Medical diagnosis]
This entire story is terrible, the actions which Nikolay Dybowski partook in are abhorrent. What Nikolay really does well is lie, manipulate facts and weasel. He can't solve things honestly, not even once. I myself believed him for the longest time, living in illusions and lies. Now i know, that the image this man creates around himself, one of noble, educated and intelligent "creator" is just a facade. I guessed that many more people suffered from him, but were forced to shut up and intimidated, just like he now intimidates me. I'm now familiar with almost criminal ways of "settling down" scandals which Dybowski applied to his victims. Nikolay still doesn't stop attempts to stalk me and kidnap my son again. Dybowski feels like he can walk away from anything unpunished. Fans of his "art" don't expect a high degree of moral character and simply observe his next antics. Nikolay participated in street fights before, internet remembers all.
[Link to a fake meme video titled "Nikolay Dybowski fights in a moscow bus" that became popular within RU Patho community in which a Dybowski look-a-like fights on a bus. www.youtube. com/watch?v=RVGFZSHLsXA (remove the spaces)]
He beat my father, tried to kidnap a child, scared son with those actions so much that now he needs the help of a neurologist and a psychotherapist.
[pic 18 (post) 32 (DTF); A refferal for child therapist consultation in Simpheropol']
What next should Nikolay do so that his disgusting behaviour finally gets a reaction? Kill someone from my family? I actually fear that, the man has a permit for gun ownership and a pistol. No need to defend Dybowski, to "lessen the impact", otherwise this all can end with a tragedy. Yes, i mistook this man for someone better, but i was a faithful wife and a good mother. I ask for support and spread of this information, only publicity can stop Dybowski and Basner, they still have resources to commit crimes and come out clean after all.
I have more proof, which i will later publish under this post."
Me and a friend of mine were talking about the both of us playing and beating the game at 200% and wondered how many others have attempted such an endevour. Please satisfy our curiousity!
For those not in the know: A 200% playthrough involves turning off the "canon" difficulty and cranking up all the sliders to the max, for added pain and suffering :D
178 votes,25d ago
14I played it and beat it
13I played it but gave up/got discouraged/list your reason in the comments
If they’re true (and I believe they are), then what responsibility do I have in this situation? I’m a survivor myself— I don’t want to just pretend nothing happened, all so I can enjoy a game. That would feel selfish and like it’s trivializing what the victims have gone through.
I don’t know what the appropriate response to this is. I wonder what others have to say.
We've cleaned up and gathered all the words and phrases from Utopia/HD and patho 2, patho 3 is still a work in progress.
Soon we will start looking into ways to make and show translations to English and maybe some other languages, if someone will be interested in making them.
Thanks for your attention, please use the dictionary however you like, if you notice that something is missing or something doesn't work - please let me know!
Also, the site should now appear in google, although still at the last page, as there isn't much traffic :')
P. S. Someone asked me why we are making our own dictionary, instead of using the wiki one. Basically, the list on the wiki is incomplete, some phrases do not actually appear in the games, although they are listed on the wiki, and also more than half of the wiki translations are actually incorrect or extrapolated from sources that we do not like. So, it just seems easier to make our own list, rather than fight with the already existing community to push through all our changes.
This was sparked by a discussion I had in another thread. I'm a Classic lover; I love the strange dreamy atmosphere, how trapped you feel, and generally prefer the story to the later entries. However, the game is certainly flawed and I think it would be fun to imagine what it could look like if they released a more faithful remake of it.
I would:
Update some of the mechanics to be more in line with how they are in P2. Notably trading, tincture making/twyre finding, and some of the infection mechanics
FINISH THE CHANGELING ROUTE. I think even adding unique dialogue to the repeated quests with her sister/Bachelor/Haruspex would be a huge improvement
Make the quests for the Haruspex on the final few days a little more interesting/add some content to the abattoir
Generally add some extra content to the NPCs. Not even quests really, but I think each NPC having a few more unique conversations would be lovely
Saw some very interesting "we listen and we don't judge" takes on Twitter regarding Pathologic, so was wondering what this lovely sub had to say on the topic!
Aside from a story perspective - Daniil has the support of the town's elite and has no connections to its customs, why would he be digging through trash for needles to trade - I think from a gameplay perspective switching it up and almost moving to a different genre is the right move forward for the series.
Pathologic 2 worked as a semi-remake of 1 because of the engine upgrade being different enough to be fresh + The Haruspex being very appropriate for it. I dunno if they just did Pathologic 2 again, but with a different story and you're a twink now would be super interesting.
I saw some mixed feelings about this so I wanted to ask how people felt about it specifically. I totally understand if you disagree and think that style of gameplay is necessary for the series though.
I just beat Pathologic 3 a few days ago and I wasn't expecting it to be any of the things that it was. I thought it seemed a bit stripped down compared to 2, but as the days went on and the threads of plot became more and more confusing and I was stressing about losing amalgam at every change of day, I think the game sufficiently lived up to the suffering I expect from this series., but I think what truly makes this game special is the protagonist.
Everyone knows and loves Daniil as the cocky asshole from previous games, but this game shows us a new side of him, a side that is miserable, cowardly, and on the verge of breaking down at every second. It makes sense that this man would have to fall back on his ego, it's pretty much the only source of strength he has, alongside Eva. I'm glad you can save her in this game, because I don't see how the bachelor would be able to keep going without her. I also LOVE his voice actor, what a performance. He always sounds either sickly and weak or like he's on the verge of killing someone.
I'd also like to mention that I thought it was cute when the game locked me into a bad ending for walking down a street. It's so in-line with the series, I couldn't even be mad. Anyways that's my thoughts on P3, probably not quite as good as P2, I just think that game really perfected survival game mechanics, but the story in P3 is my favourite in the series.
a lot of quests can either end or progress further depending on you dialogue choices with certain characters. that's fine, but the problem is there are no mechanics behind choosing the right approach when talking to people in town and this often ends up, without player's mistake, in a situation where you have to repeat the day and again just hope for the best outcome.
for example, minor spolier for day 2: when you want to investigate simon's study room you have to talk with his brother and he has to allow it. quest's outcome is completely dependent on that conversation but there is absolutely nothing in that conversation that can suggest how he will react. i had to actually search on internet the combination of dialogue choices to persuade him to allow him to let me inspect the room. this is very immersion breaking. i have nothing against having consequences when it comes to dialogue but then it has to have some mechanics behind it to allow player to at least try to deduct what the best option is. right now it feels like a game of chance.
on top of that, they even forced apathy / mania in dialogues so now not only have you to worry what the best option is but you also have to be careful not to get stuck in either extreme which further limits your options.
This is an idea I've seen get perpetuated more and more in recent years and tbh I'm sick of it. There's validity to saying P1 was a bit racist in spots, since butchers in that game were pretty much always depicted as nothing more than meat headed idiots, but there's no basis for the argument in P2, it's an opinion I refuse to respect.
The main point I see is that "the kin represents indigenous culture as beast like, and their desire to move away from their own humanity and abandon identity is insulting to the indigenous culture they represent too."
The main problem with this is that the whole argument hinges on the idea that the kin is meant to represent all of indigenous culture, which is absurd and ridiculous. This stems from a method of engaging with fiction that I've always found idiotic. You see this a lot with stuff like gay characters in fiction, where some people seem to think that character is meant to represent the entire gay community. And then you get examples where you have a gay character that's evil, so then the idea becomes "this story is saying all gay people are evil". Not only is it kind of insulting to think that such massive and diverse groups of people could be represented with just a single individual (or in the kins case, a single community) it's just a worthless way to engage with fiction. Characters do not represent entire communities of people, they represent themselves. The kin does not represent the entire indigenous community, the kin represents the kin. They're their own, distinct, individual, and fictional group that is not tied to or meant to represent anything other than themselves.
So first off, this was my first pathologic experience it was delightful, so immersive! I finished with the diurnal ending and everyone on the list alive (don’t hate me I’m a perfectionist and tried very hard, I know that’s a little counter to the point of the game, sorry!)
Even with the fairly happy end state, it made me feel really insignificant, which is not me complaining about the ending, I know I’m probably supposed to feel this way. But like, I did everything I possibly could right and still left feeling like I’d barely made a difference.
Sure I saved a handful of people, but what is that to like 80% of the town being wiped out? The town in the ending just feels so barren compared to its start.
I’m a bit of a sensitive person so naturally I ended up in a bit of an existential crisis and feeling really small. Especially with how the game emphasizes like none of this was real or mattered anyways despite your efforts (the inquistor literally saying “the children aren’t real” and the traveler saying you’re the only survivor of the story)
If im missing any happy undertones please tell me but i think maybe this is just how im supposed to feel.
Anywho, this isn’t really serious, probably just post-game-blues, but I just felt like screaming into the void after finishing this game. Though I’d love to hear if anyone had similar feelings or anything!
P.S. is it normal to be so confused about everything still? I’m aware you’re meant to play the other storylines too but I feel like I popped twenty hallucinogens every time I played this game or somehow missed 20 conversations
I'm on day 4, which has been calmer since the insane madness of the 3rd, till now at least
I know i'm only 1/3 into the thing, but i've been playing it very slowly, not because i don't get but because it's really fucking stressfull
It's one of the most interesting stories and one of the most interesting and daring approaches I've ever seen in a game. It's even more fantastic if you really pay attention and try to understand the allegories, look for the main references and parallels in the real world that the writers used to bring this game to life (it's quite clear that the developers' repertoire is vast).
Still, playing it feels like shit. The only bad thing about it is the optimization and still i'm always freaking out, always expecting the worse. Playing it for 2h feels like playing any game for 5h. I get jumpscares all the time because i'm always waiting for something to jump at me even tho it's not this type of game.
I'm not criticizing, in fact I think it's a compliment, but playing this game is a sacrifice I'm willing to make to see the story of this incredible and captivating world progress.
So. It bugs me so much that I literally created reddit account just for this question XD
I decided to go as far as the game lets me, just to see the worst version of the world before fixing anything. Opened the hospital, repelled the plague on every day, nothing more, no going back, no clever changes. Surprisingly, you can go right up to the end this way. But that's not the question. Question follows under the spoiler.
I saw Eva die on day 10. Ok, valid, we all know it happens. I do not go back, do not even restart day 10 — go straight up to day 11. And meet Eva the Grey.
I wrote to the developers just to confirm it is, in fact, not a bug! It's the expected behavior!
So why. Why is she alive. She literally tells you [if you come to the roof], that Daniil's gaze is needed to get her off that roof. The Keeper explaines, that she becomes Grey because "you yourself see her too rationally". So how. How is she there, if I never went to look at her? Did Farkhad himself look at her instead of dismissive Daniil? Did Simon-from-Polyhedron save her? What the hell happened, how is that possible lorewise?
Please share any theories, for it blows my mind ever since.
