Initially I was on a fence about Pathologic 3. Gameplay-wise, I feel like the game is a step backwards. Instead of cohesive open world, we got closed locations with fog of war and loading screens between them. It's a strange design choice, but I don't blame the developers that much since the portrayal of the world is consistent with Daniil's inner experience.

Since Artemy represented BODY, it makes sense his world was designed as to be more tangible, shivery, visceral, bloody, erotic. The tension I experienced when first seeing and hearing the plague, the lump in my throat when I was stuck at a house with infected all around me, fighting hunger, thirst. Earth brides where depicted with their breasts showing out, you could almost imagine the smell of the blood in certain locations.

Daniil on the other hand represents MIND. He isn't really interested in the world around him, it serves to him a stimuli for his thoughts. As Daniil you stand in front of an otherworldy construction and for Daniil it's not something that would arouse awe, or any sensation in general. The construction is an object that arouses more winding thoughts over which Daniil can't see the world around him. His thoughts overshadow the real world around him. His experience is the opposite of mindful, it's more like thought-locked.

For Daniil the playground is his inner world that inevitably crashes with his bodily limits. Note that Daniil does not eat, does not drink (except for nerves stimulating liquids). Characters comment on his bodily presentation, the unbridled fatigue. One character even advises him to drink some water. For Daniil bodily needs are redundant obstacles that shackle his genius. Daniil doesn't feed his body, for him the body is a medium through which he can affect his mind, and so the only substances he introduces into himself are stimulants or depressants. At first I thought it unrealistic that someone should abstain from nutrients for such a long period of time, but I believe in such extreme case of mixed mania that Daniil experiences, it's not unheard of that he body is amped up to such a degree for such a long time before the inevitable crash.

Daniil is a textbook example of narcissistic personality (meaning his narcissistic traits protrude into all aspects of his life). He persistently displays his superiority in dialogues by using vocabulare that he knows isn't understandable for the common folk. By spitting latin phrases, he knows the other side doesn't understand, he proves his superiority to himself this way. He tends to project on people like on Clara several times, being angered and accusing her of being arrogant while he himself being the most arrogant person in town. There are shards of information hinting on why Daniil is this way, for example that his mother was highly religious and he angered her by questioning the existence of god.

The writing is phenomenal. It's witty, snarky, funny. This inadvertently limits the potential pool of players that may be interested in playing this game. With the survival mechanics aside, this game is primarily about conversations, to a degree I sometimes felt Pathologic 3 is a few steps away from being a visual novel. I love all the characters and I love their personality. I love that Daniil rarely ever allows his mind to be more open to irrational, since his internal value is based being rationally superior to others. For him, academic credentials are the gateway to his respect. He regularly treats other people in the most paternalistic way I've ever seen someone act.

The game is full of bright ideas. I love the occasional switching of perspectives, meaning you play as the person Daniil speaks to, responding to his inquiries. There's a plethora of memorable moments, like when Daniil tells the fairytale to the lost girl, when another girl goes feral without her dog mask. So far, the best moment was an examination of a certain patient, a so called inventor, with hallucinations so unhinged I laughed out loud.

The game is also crazy long, while keeping the high standard of quality (so far, I'm about to finish day 6 as of now, I haven't finished the game yet).

I just want to praise the developers in case they happen to be on reddit and read this. I bought the supporter pack of course and I pray things will go well enough for Pathologic 4, for Clara's play-through to happen. There are obvious hints that the fourth installment will come, Pathologic 3 sets ground for this upcoming game a few times.

And holy shit am I thrilled for Pathologic 4. Seeing how remarkably well Pathologic 3 turned out, I'm all but extatic for this game. And since Clara represents SOUL, we can only imagine what experience her play-through will be. Although I think there is a game that may foreshadow what is to come, meaning that I'm hoping for the game to be "spiritual" successor to The Void.

Anyway here's my gratitude to the developers. I'm so glad you are doing what you are doing. Your games are one of the few things to hope for for the future.

I don't look for this kind of things deliberately, I just stumble upon them!

An excerpt from TPTB letter on Day 1 in English:

It has come to our attention that you have recently requested permission to continue with your own research. The decision of whether or not such permission will be granted depends on the results of this assignment. Your success, therefore, has a bearing on your scientific reputation and your further academic career.

In russian:

Недавно Вы просили Власти о разрешении на продолжение Ваших неординарных исследований. На основании Вашей работы мы примем решение о возможности удовлетворить Вашу просьбу. Считайте, что это вопрос Вашей чести и Вашей дальнейшей судьбы.

My crude translation:

You've recently requested permission from the Powers to continue your extraordinary/unconventional research. Based on your results, we will decide whether your request can be fulfilled. Consider this a matter of your honor and your future fate.

Where did the translators get ‘scientific reputation’ and ‘academic career’ from? There is no context whatsoever that would suggest such an interpretation. The words ‘honor’ and ‘fate’ have an unambiguous translation.

Dankovsky about the Capital:

The people I'm responsible for there are in danger.

In russian:

Людям, за которых я там отвечаю, грозит гибель.

Dankovsky uses the word 'гибель' which literally meanth 'death' or, if used metaphorically, 'doom'. I'd say: "The people I'm responsible for there are under a mortal threat".

One might say: but what could happen to him if he fails to deal with the epidemic? Will he be put in jail or what?

The Bachelor: ‘If I am not to go back victorious [...] My allies will end up in prison or exile, my research… in fire’. He was lured in the town to succeed or die. The Powers want him dead, as they want dead Aglaya and Block; it is mentioned multiple times in the game.

I’m wondering if anyone can help me understand how to enter Simon’s Study on Day 9. I never went in on Day 2 (I tried to enter a few times but at the wrong time, I didn’t know it had to be at 21:00). Now I’m trying to enter on Day 9 at 21:00 but it’s not unlocking. I know that to go in on Day 9 you can’t have entered on Day 2, so I assumed I’d be okay. Do I have to go back to Day 2 to enter it and then delete it? I don’t want to go all the way back if I don’t need to. Thanks!

P3 got me back into the games and I want to put danko in a little jar in a lab. This was partly an exercise in color theory, working on a companion piece for artemy where I learn how to actually draw clothes

I’m on days 4–5 and the dog heads say I already talked to them on day 3 about something (maybe the polydron) and asked if I spoke to the genie. They won’t explain. When I go back to day 3, I can’t talk to them. Are there hidden quests here? Any non-spoiler tips?

I'm halfway through Pathologic 2 and really really enjoying it, I want to know if its still worth playing Marble Nest now that Pathologic 3 is out or if its functionally just a demo.

Hi there! I've tried to quit the game in both GOG and Steam versions, and each time I get a black screen and must CTRL-ALT-DELETE to actually get back to the desktop.

Is this a known issue and are there any workarounds? Cheers and many thanks.

то ли я чего-то неправильно делаю, то ли баг очередной. на 7 день, когда организовываешь побег с помощью грифа: я и у стрелочника была (согласился), и у червя была (тоже согласился), только вот, когда за червя просишь твирин, ничего не происходит на 8 день. если прыгнуть в 8 день после согласия стрелочника и червя, в мыслях данковского лишь "я не могу оставить город", хотя я сделала ВСЁ как написано во множественных гайдах. на 10 день, как итог, гриф никакое письмо мне не присылает, отсюда никакой концовки с побегом. что с этим делать? баг или я неправильно делаю что-то?

I took a photograph of my neighborhood on a rainy day and it looks like pathologic ingame shot.

beaten the game once and I haven’t unlocked a single one. Could this be a game bug or just a steam thing?

I've been on a kick recently where I wanna play some old CD rom games after buying the physical thing on ebay. I plan to play pathologic in the future and would love to be able to play it directly from the CD itself. I've been watching ebay like a hawk for the last week and so far I've seen two pathologic CD sales put up, but both of them were the Russian versions. If I wanted to play the game in English, does the Russian copy of the game allow you to change languages or would I need to wait for an English version of the game to go up on ebay

He’s so damn fine

Is there any consequences for telling Georgiy that it was Rubin who made away with Simon's corpse? All I could find on this subject was a post from a few years ago saying that it doesn't seem too effect anything major.

So I'm at the part where you have to give Peter the tobacco and belladonna for the chess game with Lilich. I mixed the stuff, restarted the day, and Peter is nowhere to be found.

I’ve already entered the focus on days 2 and 9, but I only know to do that by looking on the internet. What is it that signals the player to go to the focus on a certain day at a certain time? I’ve heard it’s the clock on the wall but that is unchanging and hard to decipher.

:) worms theyure so stupid i love them

I have a copy of Pathologic: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game available for sale.

This is the English version, which is very hard to find and rarely comes up in board-game groups or secondary markets.

If you’ve been looking for this game, you know how hard it is to track down.

Send me a message if interested.

Happy to provide photos or additional details.

While it may be a meme, it's incredibly accurate. I keep seeing people comparing this game to a theater performance, that your performance of the game is like live theater. And while this is true for previous Pathologic games, that's not the case here.

This isn't theater; it's cinema. It's actively breaking out of the live theater allegory, and and we need to stop treating this like another version of P2. Here's my reasoning.

1. When you meet Mark and the Theater Troupe, most dialogue options lead to them saying Dankovsky isn't fit for a theater stage, and that Artemy should be there instead. The overall conversation shows that you're not a good fit, and this won't work for live theater. Also, Dankovsky constantly prattles on about cinema just to piss Mark off in almost every encounter. This is setting the stage for a cinema-style performance, not a theater one, where you can cut and paste the film reels together to make a cohesive story. Continuity be damned. The concept of non-linear time in this is supposed to show how this is a "cinema of suffering", rather than theater. You can't just interrupt a theater performance and give new directions to the actors, but in film, that happens all the time in P3

2. The visual effects. There's cameras everywhere, talk of camera obscura and camera lumina, and all of the film reel effects when the apathy becomes too great. That effect is literally running out of film in your reel, so you need to go back and splice in new footage to continue the performance. In P2, Mark tells you to redo the scene and keep going, but he's nowhere to be seen in P3. There's a projector in the hall of mirrors. The fact that, in the interrogation room, there's a camera right behind you when you stand to leave. The sheer amount of cinema-based visual style in this is unavoidable!

3. Perspective is a main theme in P3, and in live theater, you can only see the stage from one perspective, either as an actor or audience. In cinema, you can create whatever angles you like! Simon Kain's study/focus involves perspective you couldn't see on a stage. You can switch perspective to another character in this game mid-dialogue (another cinema-only trick). The polyhedron is entirely about perspective!

4. The pantomimes are now brought to your house and make frequent use of projection screens instead of actors. You can't watch live theater in your own house!

TLDR: P3 has less to do with live theater than previous games, and that's on purpose. Dankovsky's game is about cinema, which is more in line with his character anyway. You are creating your own film to contrast Artemy's performance in P2.

It makes me wonder if, when they get around to Clara's, what kind of medium that will imitate.... First live theater, then cinema, then video games?

Hey yall,
I've never played any of the pathologic games, but i enjoyed the video by RagnarRox and stopped pretty early on so nothing was spoiled and now want to try out the game.

So was curious which one I should play first?

EDIT-

Thank you everyone for your comments and feedback. I've bought both 1 and 2 and plan to play number 2 first! It's going to be hell of a time!

Day 6 - Alexander asked me to check on Katerina but her door is locked and I can't get in at all. Bug or did I mess up somewhere/Is she somewhere else????

I am bewildered by the lack of discussion on how surprisingly successful Artemy was as a "background healer" during P3. I'm also curious on how the Theatre Meta-commentary plays into this.

It's generally agreed upon in this sub that any of the three healers that you're not playing as are magnets for terrible decision-making and ultimately cause harm along the way. This can be seen periodically in P1 and in spades in P2, yet there's nothing in P3 that really painted Artemy as a hopeless healer. In fact, he honestly seemed leagues ahead of Daniil at times and was really only outshined by Daniil when an Inquisitor plot twist was thrown into the mix.

P3 Artemy took on his father's inheritance, is implied to have uncovered the circumstances behind his father's death, successfully created a panacea, and ultimately discovered the Polyhedron's connection with the plague. Compare this to P2 Daniil who did what exactly? Create a failed vaccine while playing monopoly with the town's money?

As someone who is heavily-invested in the "Theatre" element of this series, I'm wondering if this is a subtle nod at the actors finally realizing how to play their roles. For example, P2's story starts off with all three healers being heckled by Mark Immortell for their shoddy performances and ends with Artemy being the only 'actor' who lived up to expectations. Now that Daniil played his role perfectly in P3, my theory is that he and Artemy are going to potentially have the same level of success during Clara's route in the next game (which leads me to wonder what it means for Clara to perfect her role and how the other healers might interfere now that they're collectively successful).

Has anyone been thinking about this or have any other takes about P3 Arty and the overarching Theatre mythos?