Resurrection: Pathologic

Resurrection is a regular feature in which Resolution gets all nostalgic and basks in the glory of a videogame of yesteryear. This time, editor Lewis Denby returns to a broken yet captivating Russian oddity…

I’m not allowed to do the autopsy. I don’t think so, anyway. There’s a terrible plague sweeping this isolated Russian village, the death toll is stacking up, and there’s a fresh corpse at my disposal to study. But according to a strange man in a dilapidated hut on the edge of town, “just the same cause, which they gave, when didn’t recommend you dissect bodies.”

Ah, Pathologic. How I’ve missed you.

Pathologic is an astounding game. It’s an unthinkably brave attempt to combine a whole plethora of genres into a single, otherworldly experience. It’s an adventure game without any puzzles, an RPG without stats and levels, a first-person shooter with only a handful of shootings. It’s warped, weird and wonderful. And just a little bit rough around the edges.

Rewind to the very start of the game – before the main menu, even. A funeral procession shuffles through the rain. The camera focuses on the group, every one of the mourners a young child, a tattered doll where the coffin should be. The kids bury the doll in the mud, and turn to walk away. Later, you learn that these children were orphans, trapped in their own world of suffering, long before the outbreak started. Taking some time off to pay last respects to their innocence is the only thing they have left.

Every time you kill someone in Pathologic, a child cries. It’s a haunting reminder of the horrible situation that’s unfolding around you. Not that it’s easy to forget. The disease that’s infected this previously sleepy farming town is so powerful, so all-encompassing, that even the buildings are succumbing to its grip. With each day that goes by, more and more become covered in blisters and sores, spreading out across the surface of the stone.

It’s retribution, some say, for the ills of humanity. Others suspect there may actually be a silent murderer walking the streets. Yet you push onwards, your medical knowledge barely enough to scratch the surface, desperately waiting for a breakthrough. Then a potential one arrives, you need a corpse to inspect, and the town’s rigid ethical standards forbid it.

UPHILL STRUGGLE
There’s a reason Pathologic failed to score highly back in 2006, when this bizarre game found its way to UK shores. It’s not just the apocalyptic translation – although any game whose script is often literally incomprehensible has a pretty severe issue. Pathologic’s also a slow, arduous game, where much of your time is spent walking at a snail’s pace between two distant points on a poorly conceived map. Occasionally, your quest log forgets to update for a few hours, which is kind of a problem when you’re playing against a constant time limit. The animation is wonky and wooden, the AI in combat patently artificial and not even slightly intelligent. Its engine would have looked somewhat dated in the late 90s, let alone well into the new millennium. And it’s really, brutally unforgiving, to the point where the smallest mistake can bring your whole journey to a crippling halt several in-game days later.

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