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Like a plague doctor delicately administering another handful of leeches, Ice Pick Lodge have shared a bit more about the recently announced Pathologic 3, explaining how their plans for the cult epidemic-battling series have progressed since the release of Pathologic 2.
As Brendy recalled in our announcement post, Pathologic 2 was in fact a remake of the original Pathologic. Like the 2005 game, it was supposed to have three, very different playable characters – the Haruspex, the Bachelor, and the Changeling, each tasked with saving a mucky town of slaughterhouse workers from a vicious infection.
The Haruspex arrived at launch in 2019, and the other two characters were to follow as DLC expansions, but as Ice Pick explain in the Steam page, this proved impractical, with development of the Haruspex route taking longer than expected. As such, the Bachelor will form the diseased heart of his own game. Will the same be true of the Changeling, who is capable of healing or killing with a touch? It’s still a bit unclear, but that’s the hope, yes.
“The game simply grew beyond our concept of DLC,” Ice Pick write on Steam. “It will have different gameplay and entirely new features. Instead of one game with three playthroughs using the same gameplay but different storylines (as in the original 2005 release and the Classic HD remaster), we’re creating three fully developed games with distinct gameplay and significant differences in narrative.
“Now, these are truly three separate protagonists with unique worldviews, perceptions of reality, and distinct tools,” they continue. “From a gameplay perspective, this means three different approaches and a complete rethinking of the original scripts.”
As for the Changeling route, the seeming expectation is that she’ll be the heroine of Pathologic 4, but the developers don’t want to jump the gun. “We understand that premature promises about the previous Pathologic led to unfulfilled expectations,” they write. “We apologize for that and don’t want to mislead you in the future. The developer should not be an unreliable narrator – unlike his characters.”
The post also covers a few of the differences between the Bachelor and the Haruspex, which may be familiar to those who played the 2005 game. “The Haruspex needed to survive, fight, scavenge, rummage through garbage for scraps of bread, and try to save those he held dear along the way,” the devs write. “The Bachelor is a man of intellect. Survival is not his primary concern; his goals go beyond what one lifetime could contain. He needs to think, formulate theories, and gather evidence. Ultimately, he must issue commands and observe the results. This distinction will be emphasized through gameplay, mechanics, objectives, soundtrack, and so on.”
As you’d hope, people who helped fund Pathologic 2’s development according to the original vision of a three-protagonist game will receive keys for Pathologic 3. To be specific, they’ll send free keys to “Kickstarter backers and other platforms where support for the game was available during the fundraising stage” together with “Backers from 2014 and 2015”. People entitled to two copies will receive two keys.
The game will “likely” be available on all the same platforms as its predecessor, with console launches coming after the PC version. Expect more details closer to release in 2025.