pathologic is a game about friendship and having fun.
WELCOME ALL TO MY LIKES PAGE. first and formost i need to discuss my FAVORITE game of all time. pathologic. for the hard sell, picture this: youre a doctor. one of these doctors.
isnt it just beautiful. they hired actors for exactly like. one photo. for each character. its great.
annyyyyways you have to choose to be one of these 3 doctors. from left to right they are the bachelor, the haruspex, and the changeling.
the bachelor has a bachelor's degree in something kind of related to medicine. he is trying to end death. as a concept.
the haruspex is a menkhu, which is like. related to the religion of some of the townsfolk (will go into later.) but basically means hes a pretty competent doctor.
the changeling. she crawled out of a grave 3 hours ago and does miracles.
ok where are we. well. this game is set in a town (called the town on ghorken) in the russian steppe! so basically theres like a group of people called the kin (portrayed in a rlly racist way that. doesnt get better in the modern remakes in case you were curious) who are like native to the steppe and used to manage the cattle trade in the area. they also have a lot of religious practices related to bulls and butchering. in the kin its really taboo to cut into things because of the whole butchering situation unless youre in the appropriate caste. the menkhu (remember the haruspex!!!) is a title in the kin meaning that someone is allowed to cut people up. for doctor reasons! anyways the town isnt exclusively populated by the kin. most of the townsfolk players interact with migrated from the capital.
why??? well ok basically a generation or two before the game takes place, this family called the oglimskys came in and decided they also wanted to benefit from the cattle trade. so they build this massive structure called the termitary where they essentially lock in all the members of the kin to make them slaughter bulls for them. the fact that this is really messed up comes up like. twice. in the original game. i hope this gives you a good idea of pathologic's setting and the developers.
setting continued: WHEN are we??
pathologic is set ambiguously in the first half of the 20th century. there is a war vaugely mentioned. that like. seems like ww1 but a lot of the technology and other details are just completely out of wack with that. its something.
BACK TO THE PLOT
remember when i told you to imagine yourself as one of those doctors? i hope you chose the bachelor, because his route is the easiest to explain without context!
the bachelor's actual name is daniil dankovsky, but people in-game call him the bachelor because they are very impressed by his bachelor's degree. he came to the town because he recieved a letter from a really old guy. like. INSANELY OLD. this really old guy, simon kain , said that he would explain to daniil the reason he was able to live like 200 years. daniil is really interested in this because back in The Capital, he runs a lab called Thanatica that - POP QUIZ!
if you chose death, you're correct! the bachelor's lab thanatica is meant to find a cure for death, and daniil believes he can cure death for all using simon (old man)'s method. so he shows up in the town on ghorken, and HOLY SHIT SIMON IS DEAD!!! the kains, simon's (influential wealthy eccentric) family ARE IN AN UPROAR. they say IT WAS MURDER. who do they accuse first? none other than YOUR FELLOW PLAYER CHARACTER, THE HARUSPEX. his name is actually artemy burakh, and you as the bachelor dont know much about him. everyone calls him theee ripperrr, though. so that cant be good. aaaanyways later that day you receive a letter. aaaaaand HOLY SHIT THE HARUSPEX'S DAD, isidor burakh IS DEAD!!!! so artemy probably didnt do it. thats good! but. something much more sinister must be happening in the town on ghorken. the bachelor goes to isidor's house to inspect his and BAM. THE HOUSE IS ALL FREAKED OUT.
thats not what a house should look like! WHATS HAPPENING!?!? daniil dankovsky takes a sample of the weird mold at the house back to his lab and discovers something. quite sinister.
ITS THE PLAUGE!!!!
this plague hit the town on ghorken once a couple of years ago. it's called the sand plauge, and its BRUTAL. its almost guarenteed to kill you, unless you take a strange mixture of drugs the kids came up with called shmowder. taking this. powder of various substances. kills the sand plague but also might take you out. ANYWAYS. the only reason the town survived the initial sand plague outbreak is because simon and isidor were able to lock up the infected parts of the town and prevent the spread to other parts. messed up? yeah. but at least everyone lived. unfortunately, they both died. of the sand plague..(?) so its daniils responibility to try and help the town survive THIS outbreak, because he's the only one with a bachelor's degree in the whole town.
ok so whats the gameplay like
pathologic is a game about walking around and being alone with your thoughts. walking around and being alone w/ your thoughts...
to an epic soundtrack. listen to this rq:
if any of you reading this far have seen that hbomberguy video about pathologic. i would say his assesment of the gameplay was pretty accurate. also if youve seen that video you can prolly skim this section. ANYWAYS in pathologic you need to manage your stats :
as seen in the picture. you need to manage those stats while completing daily main quests. in these quests you usually are doing an errand for one of the ruling families of the town in order to stop the spread of the disease. each protagonist has one ruling family they are loosely linked to through their bound. what are the bound? glad you asked! the bound are people that each healer needs to keep alive in order to get a specific ending. ill talk more about the endings... at the end of my summary, but for now, basically just remember that the bound are people who are important to each healer's story. the bachelor's bound are called utopians.
on the themes + ideas covered in the bachelors route
the kains are the ruling family most linked to daniil, and all of the members are the bachelor's bound. the kains are freaky as hell.
these are the living kains. also the guy on the far right is meant to be simons younger brother. but like. simon was like 200 or something. so idk what his deal is . anyways
their whole thing aside from. simon being "immortal" is that they want to use the towns prosperity to come up with crazy innovations. to do this, they got together the oneirotects. who are. architects who wanted to build some crazy stuff for the town. THEEEE most important thing the oneirotects made is the polyhedron. THIS. is the polyhedron.
(note: this is a ss from the third game. i will get into my opinions on later games... later.)
OOOOKAY so that thing is freaked out and is basically a physical manifestation of the utopian mindset : innovation, growth, and knowledge are king. okay so the bachelor and the haruspex (who will be discussed later)'s main beef is about the polyhedron. you see. the polyhedron is held up by a big spike going under the ground.
you see that thing. the haruspex sees the earth as a living creature (boddho) because he was raised (kinda) in the kin, seeing as his dad was the menkhu. the idea of the polyhedron stabbing (bad!!!!) the earth (really bad!) is super messed up to the haruspex. the haruspex believes that the plauge is the earth retaliating for the utopians building the polyhedron and generally disrespecting the earth. the bachelor, with his bachelor's degree, thinks that this is illogical. he thinks that the polyhedron is BADASS and thinks it's the only good thing the town has produced.
the changeling's whole thing is way unrelated. ill get to her.
what do i think of these boys and their drama
honestly i am a haruspex (in the first game) defender through and through. his ending is the best by far.
the haruspex
this is my goat. artemy burakh is working in the military as an army doctor (he doesnt have a bachelors degree but he did get like. some formal education b4 the military) when he gets a letter from his dad asking him to come home. honestly i dont remember this letter that well. but it was ominous! so artemy rushes home and is like. a little freaked out. he arrives in town. steps off the train. AND BAM. TWO GUYS ARE TRYING TO KNIFE THE CRAP OUT OF HIM. so artemy, being a normal guy, kills them with his bare hands. or. you as the player do. this is not optional. also on the first day artemy has a sidequest where you can murder a kid because... i forgot to mention.
the kids in the town are lowkey wild.
if you dont remember from before. ill remind you. the kids were able to come up with a cure for the insanely bad plague a couple of years ago by crushing up a combination of random pills and snorting it. on top of their drug use, these kids are basically involved in an all out war. there are two factions - the dogheads and the soul-and-a-halves.
the dogheads wear dogheads. the soul-and-a-halves just look like normal kids. ANYWAYS the dogheads are followers of khan kain, because. OH YEAH. theres a secret forgettable kain.
revised kain family portrait
sorry khan! anyways khans "arch-nemisis" and the leader of the soul-and-a-halves is notkin.
i like notkin. hes pretty chill. anyways these kids are all lowkey murderous and wild. andd.... guess whos bound is all children!
the haruspex's bound
the haruspex's bound are basically all the kids in the town. in the second game, they say artemy's bound are these kids because his dad (menkhu, remember) was trying to teach them his doctorly/generally wise ways. AAANYWAYS aside from in world explainations, the haruspex's bound being the kids in the town is basically meant to reflect.... his ownnn ideology.... while the utopians were all about progress, the haruspex's bound, the termites, are all about slower change and respecting tradition. well. okay. let me elaborate.
the oglimskys are the ruling family linked with the haruspex. the haruspex DOES NOT fuck with the oglimskys (not like. explicitly in the plot but hes got some snappyyy dialogue options) because. they did that messed up stuff to the kin as i mentioned earlier, and artemy's dad was in the kin (tho its important to note he married a woman outside of the kin [dead] and went with a lot of the townsfolks ideas/traditions but generally he linked the kin and other townsfolk together for better or worse) so he really isnt a fan of the oglimskys. however he has to deal with them a decent amount when trying to get in the termitary (bull processing place) to talk to the kin. ANYYYYWAYS the oglimskys are a rlly good example of this whole tradition vs change thing because there are two men running the operation. big vlad, or the böos, and his son vlad the younger.
big vlad and little vlad. are quite similar.
so big vlad and little vlad have the same general way of running the bull enterprise , but they differ slightly. little vlad wants to slightly change the bull enterprise - everyone is lowkey rioting in there under big vlad, so little vlad is like. we should stop that. and he also is trying to convince the townspeople that the water is okay to drink. or something. basically little vlad is like slightly woker big vlad. BACK TO THE HARUSPEX. remember when i was talking about him. well i think that the relationship between the vlads shows the haruspex's ideology really well! little vlad. is slightly improving the bull enterprise. but is still a vlad and is going to have a lot of messed up stuff going on. IMPORTANTLY. little vlad isnt trying to completely overhaul the bull enterprise. he believes that the bull enterprise, at its core, is "good" and effective. artemy applies a similar belief to the whole town. he accepts gradual change in the town through generations, because he thinks the town and its ideals are good.
what about the changeling!?!? i hear you ask.
well. the changelings route is basically. like. completely unrelated to all of that. to unlock her route, you need to complete the bachelor or the haruspex's route first. why??? youll see. first. we need to talk about
the endings
if you remember from earlier. keeping one player character's bound alive unlocks an ending that aligns with the ideology of their bound. you can get any ending regardless of what character you are playing as long as you kept that character's bound alive. so. what are the endings? i hope youve been paying attention because this is where it all comes together.
ok this is where the REAL REAL REAL REAL REAL spoilers begin. TURN BACK NOW IF YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO PLAY THE GAME!!!!!!!!! i hope i convinced you bc i swear this game is so freaking peak its . its. its awesome.
okay so theres more.
you can theoretically keep everyone's bound alive. right. (you use shmowder or, in the haruspex's route, panacea to sure each bound and shmowder is like. you get it by trading. basically its not finite.) if, at the end of the game, everyone's bound are alive, you get this ominous ass letter from the powers that be. the powers that be are basically..... they... they send letters to daniil throughout the game telling him about like reprocussions for his crimes against humanity (the whole ending death wasnt so ethical) but to the other characters. theyre pretty absent. anyways. this final letter from the powers that be (to artemy b/c his route is the only one i finished on my laptop....) says :
uhhhhh. okay. weird. okay. so you pull up to the polyhedron. and its like. hey guys. whats up.
and it looks like that and youre like. okay. cool. whatever. you get to the bottom and. im. just watch this youtube video.
if it isnt working look up like. pathologic meeting the powers that be. or something
ummmm hey. so. the powers that be.
why are they just some little kids???
sooooooooooooooooooooooo basically in this scene it is revealed that the whole game was just the kids playing with the healers in a sandbox. and nothing matters and everything and everyone is made out of stuffing. and stuff. huh. thats no good. okay! honestly in the bachelor and haruspex's route. you hear this and its like. okay. thats dumb asl. that doesnt affect anything. so you go about ur business as usual and pick an ending, finish the gameee and BAM clara's route is unlocked. okay. cool!
okay so clara's route
okay so to be 100% honest im on like day. 8 or something of her route. i just never got around to finishing it b/c. clara (THE CHANGELING!). was done dirty. and her route is like. not very fleshed out imo. it kind of just exists in the cracks left by the bachelor/haruspex's routes and its rlly sad. but basically clara climbs out of a grave and gets adopted by the saburovs, and theyre like. katerina saburov her adoptive mom is this lady who has visions and stuff. and shes on morphine a lot of the game so overall the saburovs are the least down to earth family in the town. and like. do the actual governing but dont possess a loottt of power like the oglimskys. anyways clara has this evil twin i think.. and like... um... everyone thinks shes evil because she does magic. its a whole thing. so i think. the saburovs like kick her out at a point... and theres. a rat prophet?? i dont know. like i said. didnt finish the route. this is from like. osmosis through seeing people talk about the parts of her route i didnt get to. sorry. anyways long story short her whole thing is breaking the 4th wall but not in a like. I KNOW THIS IS A VIDEOGAME WAY but the in-universe explaination is that. theyre dolls. but also that its all one big play. theres a theatre in the town and the plays are like. meant to show they arent in control/playing their parts. basically. and clara goes around being like "whoooo makes up these rules anyways! nothing matters" kind of. because she knows they arent real.
oh also i forgot to mention when talking abt the haruspex
this isnt like. essential to understanding clara's route but i think it gives some rlly good insight into how clara and the other healer's routes interact. during the haruspex's route when hes like. theres this whole thing w/ inheriting his fathers position as a menkhu and fighting w/ the foreman of the abbatoir. (where bulls were/are slaughtered by the kin for a rlly long time. and thats how the blood below the town built up.) anyways while he and the foreman are beefing. the foreman like. "tricks" the haruspex into jumping into a really really really deep hole. to kill him. and it will kill him unless the haruspex makes a deal w/ clara . and if you do that she pulls up like in the pit and talks to the haruspex's ghost and is like. okay man. ill let you live. but you need to trade your life for the life of one of my bound. and then artemy chooses someone to kill in exchange for his life. crazy ass scene. anyways ill talk about this scene later probably but i just think its neat.
okay what do i think about all of this!
i really like this game.
can you tell. i think this game is so awesome and interesting and i really like the fact that daniil dankovsky and artemy burakh and clara (saburova) were concieved and created and now i get to think about pathologic and all of its wonders. also i really like how, being a videogame, pathologic kind of lets you what conclusion to draw from that whole plot. like. in my opinion i think the conclusion of clara's route is pretty tierd. like. its a videogame. i know that. but maybe it was groundbreaking in 2005. BUTTT the way that the other routes work and like compliment eachother is just like chef's kiss. its so peak. i really like how pathologic asks the viewer to kind of confront like. the idea of change. and also asks. why do we try to advance as a society!? because the bachelor's route has a more. not obvious but i think like. excepted answer to that question. that being "because we want to improve the quality/length of people's lives". which is like. yeah okay. fair 100%. but then you play the game and its like. some things really are out of our control. like. remember thanatica. dankovsky's lab. about killing death. like. thats stupid daniil. you cant kill death. its inevitable. but allsoooo the whole idea of the utopians and progress in general is to make things like that. possible. which is cool. still i am a haruspex defender. the haruspex. remember. dgaf about all that. he says. if it aint broke whyyy fix it. and thats like fair. the last outbreak of the plague? dear old dad was able to cut it short without using any new medical ideas. he didnt get a bachelor's degree he just did what a menkhu does. and thats based.
oh in case this wasnt clear. part of the reason the outbreak got so bad is because the kains (utopian fam) thought that simon was murdered instead of there being an outbreak. so they were really slow to start quarantining and stuff. so the kains with their like. "leeetss look at this from another angleeee" sort of vibe kind of caused more problems than just doing what had been done before. still. daniil was able to help a lot w/ the plague and he diddd make a vaccine. he isnt like the worst. but i personally am the haruspex's biggest fan b/c.
go read the machine stops by em forester then come back.
okay so now that youve done the required reading for my neocities website. what im trying to say is that i think progress and all that really doesnt benefit people past a certain point. and although the town is like. its pretty bad. in terms of plumbing. and disease prevention. and other technologies that we take for granted today. its still a life and know what. people there are happy! honestly i feel like the whole game being. a game played by kids kind of. like. reinforces this point to me. b/c like the kids in the "we are actually the powers that be" cutscene are dressed exactly like the kids in the town. implying that they are at least of the same era as these kids. or something like that. so although these kids r playing some crazy fucked up game. they still r pretty happy. like theyve got it good! like. in real life. i feel like medicine is one of the few fields that like. actually matters. buuuut i think that pathologic used a plague for the main conflict becaaauseee its one of the few things that provides an actually good argument for the bachelor's route. like. yeah. even w/ old burakh's methods. a lot of people died. (he sectioned off infected districts and waited for everyone to get the plague and die). like it would be really awesome if we could make a real cure or a 100% effective vaccine against this effed up disease! like i cant argue with that. but also in like everyyyy otherrr situation its like. developing further is dumb asl. like i think we rlly dont need most tech made after like. 1999. like. we got email. we got phone. i dont even want to watch instagram reels like that. i want more time to think. not like. having some strange magenetic drawww to my mobile device. but heeeey. thats just me!
on the whole meta-narrative clara changeling thing
okay i am currently WOOOORKING on clara's route but imo the whole like. and it was just a playyy (or a kids gameeee) thing was waaay underdeveloped. i think it couldve been good commentary on like. something. maybe like. idk how little power the doctors actually have and how the narrative of the game was actually determined by like. the government and people in power on a more like. countrywide scale (not the ruling families but the like real actual goverment Powers That Be). like that wouldve been cool. and like. i think they couldve done something interesting with that. but clara's whole thing being miracles. like. bro. i dont think it adds much to the game and honestly was kind of random. i enjoy the magical aspects of pathologic but its like. okay. i dont think this helps the game that much
society
we live in a society and so did russian people in 2005. i felt like this fit best down here because it wouldnt make a lot of sense without getting a general sense of the game but like. the main guy behind the game (nikolai dybowski) is evil and i think that thats pretty obvious when actually playing the game. like the kin is actually like. depicted as "savage" or like. literally not human. or a half naked lady. its genuinely insane. and the other women arent done quite as dirty but like. bruh. anyways i feel like i enjoyed the like. vaguer human-centric themes of the game. like the change thing as seen earlier. but dear god like. dybowski. bro. insane. insane things in this game. like the racism in the game is hardly adresssed and even the maaaain character who is from the kin is never like. guys we should unionize or something like youre all getting mistreated crazy style. instead he's more like. i am your leader now. yes i know ive been gone for like 5 years or whatever. yeah. i am only 26. but i get the townspeople and i can control you all to benefit them. like thats lowkey what the narrative w/ the haruspex and the kin is, especially in
THE GODFORSAKEN SECONDand thirdGAMEs
okay so they made sequels. in the modern era (second game in 2019, third was 2026!) and the second game was the haruspex's route and the third game was the bachelor's route. clara is in the distant future. and GOOD FREAKING GOLLY the second game was something. first of all. to quote my dear friend. the second game "looks like a steam porn game". and. its.. okay i personally have only played like. till day 5 in this one b/c its mid. so admittedly idk how the middle of the game handles all of this. but the endings r like INSANE in this game. basically there's an ending called the "diurnal" ending where. OKAY in this game they decided that the kin doesnt want artemy to take the polyhedron's spike out of the ground. because its preventing the earth from bleeding and dying. so they like. do not want the plague to be stopped (the blood still can cure the plague in this one.) so in the diurnal ending the haruspex is like. hey guys. youre wrong. and gets the blood. and its shown kind of as him like. allowing the kin to die off because he's saving the rest of the town from the plague. and like in this ending like. the earth starts dying and herbs stop growing so the kin is unable to practice their traditions and they like. dissapear. and go further into the steppe or assimilate w/ the town. okay. what the hell. thats stupid. OOOKay. so in the nocturnal ending. artemy is like "yeah guys like my dad wanted me to make sure all of the kin. all like. 1000+ of you. are okay. in his absence. me. so im going to leave the spike in the ground." anddd a ton of people get the plague and die. and its depicted as the town + kin returning to a like. more traditional way of life. and like the earth is happy but the town is dead. like. BRO. BOTH OF THOSE OPTIONS ARE BAD. haruspex p1 you were too powerful. but also like. idk i get why they'd want a self-contained conflict within p2 between endings. but like. obviously you should save the town. like the diurnal ending keeps everyone alive. but why did the studio even like make the kin think that in the first place??????? why make the earth magic so fucking dumb????? like in the case of the second game. i am like. the powers that be. ice pick lodge. yall are so fucking dumb. of course god is a fucking baby and we should rewrite the narrative so artemy can both respect his culture and like keep the kin's traditions alive while also. not fucking killing everyone. lkie. holyyyy shitt. hoooooolyyyy shit. hoooooooooooly mother of fucking god. so yeah. second game. stupid.
okay i actually played the third game all the way through
first of all look at daniil's hair.
from left to right: patho 1, patho 2, patho 3 demo, patho 3 final. whaaat the fuck is going on. in the demo. dead wife. in patho 2. hes on deaths door (canonically like 28). patho 3 final. thats justin beiber. what the hell happened. like patho 1. thats daniil dankovsky. thats #mydaniil dankovsky. sigh. ANYWAYS. i thought the third game. plotwise. was actually. okay. i liked it. i mean. patho 3 was terrible to women. like lara ravel. she got effed over. eva yan. girl. dankovsky is not worth dead wifing over. BUT you get a pet bull. and i think that the time travel mechanic lended itself nicely to the like. contained narrative they were going for w/ daniil. also the ending sequence. no spoilers. but the ending i got was really cool. ADMITTEDLY. did not get all like 7 endings. did not care. my take on that? some games should just be linear. patho 3. its like. okay. i guess multiple endings makes sense given time travel. but patho 2 like. what the fuck was happening there. you just needed one good ending. in fact. WHY NOT JUST USE THE ENDING FROM THE FIRST GAME??? WHYYYY NOT JUST PRESENT ALL 3 ENDINGS FROM THAT GAME SO AS YOU PLAY EVERYONES ROUTE AND UNDERSTAND THEIR PERSPECTIVE. YOURE LIKE. OOHHHHH I SEE. AND THE PLAYER GETS TO THINK. INSTEAD OF JUST BEING LIKE. HERES AN OPPROTUNITY TO BE A COMPLETIONIST AND THERES A COUPLE ACTUALLY FLESHED OUT ENDINGS AND SOME THAT ARE JUST BULLSHIT. ugh. anyways. i liked patho 3 overall. i thought it was actually fun. but like. man. i wish these new games got patho 1 like i get patho 1.
anyways
to finish my pathologic rant. i would like to say. that despite all my complaints i really love this game and hope you check it out. like. really hope you check it out! thats all from me!
WELCOME ALL TO MY LIKES PAGE. first and formost i need to discuss my FAVORITE game of all time. pathologic. for the hard sell, picture this: youre a doctor. one of these doctors.
isnt it just beautiful. they hired actors for exactly like. one photo. for each character. its great. annyyyyways you have to choose to be one of these 3 doctors. from left to right they are the bachelor, the haruspex, and the changeling.
the bachelor has a bachelor's degree in something kind of related to medicine. he is trying to end death. as a concept.
the haruspex is a menkhu, which is like. related to the religion of some of the townsfolk (will go into later.) but basically means hes a pretty competent doctor.
the changeling. she crawled out of a grave 3 hours ago and does miracles.
ok where are we. well. this game is set in a town (called the town on ghorken) in the russian steppe! so basically theres like a group of people called the kin (portrayed in a rlly racist way that. doesnt get better in the modern remakes in case you were curious) who are like native to the steppe and used to manage the cattle trade in the area. they also have a lot of religious practices related to bulls and butchering. in the kin its really taboo to cut into things because of the whole butchering situation unless youre in the appropriate caste. the menkhu (remember the haruspex!!!) is a title in the kin meaning that someone is allowed to cut people up. for doctor reasons! anyways the town isnt exclusively populated by the kin. most of the townsfolk players interact with migrated from the capital.
why??? well ok basically a generation or two before the game takes place, this family called the oglimskys came in and decided they also wanted to benefit from the cattle trade. so they build this massive structure called the termitary where they essentially lock in all the members of the kin to make them slaughter bulls for them. the fact that this is really messed up comes up like. twice. in the original game. i hope this gives you a good idea of pathologic's setting and the developers.
setting continued: WHEN are we??
pathologic is set ambiguously in the first half of the 20th century. there is a war vaugely mentioned. that like. seems like ww1 but a lot of the technology and other details are just completely out of wack with that. its something.
BACK TO THE PLOT
remember when i told you to imagine yourself as one of those doctors? i hope you chose the bachelor, because his route is the easiest to explain without context!
the bachelor's actual name is daniil dankovsky, but people in-game call him the bachelor because they are very impressed by his bachelor's degree. he came to the town because he recieved a letter from a really old guy. like. INSANELY OLD. this really old guy, simon kain , said that he would explain to daniil the reason he was able to live like 200 years. daniil is really interested in this because back in The Capital, he runs a lab called Thanatica that - POP QUIZ!
if you chose death, you're correct! the bachelor's lab thanatica is meant to find a cure for death, and daniil believes he can cure death for all using simon (old man)'s method. so he shows up in the town on ghorken, and HOLY SHIT SIMON IS DEAD!!! the kains, simon's (influential wealthy eccentric) family ARE IN AN UPROAR. they say IT WAS MURDER. who do they accuse first? none other than YOUR FELLOW PLAYER CHARACTER, THE HARUSPEX. his name is actually artemy burakh, and you as the bachelor dont know much about him. everyone calls him theee ripperrr, though. so that cant be good. aaaanyways later that day you receive a letter. aaaaaand HOLY SHIT THE HARUSPEX'S DAD, isidor burakh IS DEAD!!!! so artemy probably didnt do it. thats good! but. something much more sinister must be happening in the town on ghorken. the bachelor goes to isidor's house to inspect his and BAM. THE HOUSE IS ALL FREAKED OUT.
thats not what a house should look like! WHATS HAPPENING!?!? daniil dankovsky takes a sample of the weird mold at the house back to his lab and discovers something. quite sinister.
ITS THE PLAUGE!!!!
this plague hit the town on ghorken once a couple of years ago. it's called the sand plauge, and its BRUTAL. its almost guarenteed to kill you, unless you take a strange mixture of drugs the kids came up with called shmowder. taking this. powder of various substances. kills the sand plague but also might take you out. ANYWAYS. the only reason the town survived the initial sand plague outbreak is because simon and isidor were able to lock up the infected parts of the town and prevent the spread to other parts. messed up? yeah. but at least everyone lived. unfortunately, they both died. of the sand plague..(?) so its daniils responibility to try and help the town survive THIS outbreak, because he's the only one with a bachelor's degree in the whole town.
ok so whats the gameplay like
pathologic is a game about walking around and being alone with your thoughts. walking around and being alone w/ your thoughts...
to an epic soundtrack. listen to this rq:
if any of you reading this far have seen that hbomberguy video about pathologic. i would say his assesment of the gameplay was pretty accurate. also if youve seen that video you can prolly skim this section. ANYWAYS in pathologic you need to manage your stats :
as seen in the picture. you need to manage those stats while completing daily main quests. in these quests you usually are doing an errand for one of the ruling families of the town in order to stop the spread of the disease. each protagonist has one ruling family they are loosely linked to through their bound. what are the bound? glad you asked! the bound are people that each healer needs to keep alive in order to get a specific ending. ill talk more about the endings... at the end of my summary, but for now, basically just remember that the bound are people who are important to each healer's story. the bachelor's bound are called utopians.
on the themes + ideas covered in the bachelors route
the kains are the ruling family most linked to daniil, and all of the members are the bachelor's bound. the kains are freaky as hell.
these are the living kains. also the guy on the far right is meant to be simons younger brother. but like. simon was like 200 or something. so idk what his deal is . anyways
their whole thing aside from. simon being "immortal" is that they want to use the towns prosperity to come up with crazy innovations. to do this, they got together the oneirotects. who are. architects who wanted to build some crazy stuff for the town. THEEEE most important thing the oneirotects made is the polyhedron. THIS. is the polyhedron.
(note: this is a ss from the third game. i will get into my opinions on later games... later.)
OOOOKAY so that thing is freaked out and is basically a physical manifestation of the utopian mindset : innovation, growth, and knowledge are king. okay so the bachelor and the haruspex (who will be discussed later)'s main beef is about the polyhedron. you see. the polyhedron is held up by a big spike going under the ground.
you see that thing. the haruspex sees the earth as a living creature (boddho) because he was raised (kinda) in the kin, seeing as his dad was the menkhu. the idea of the polyhedron stabbing (bad!!!!) the earth (really bad!) is super messed up to the haruspex. the haruspex believes that the plauge is the earth retaliating for the utopians building the polyhedron and generally disrespecting the earth. the bachelor, with his bachelor's degree, thinks that this is illogical. he thinks that the polyhedron is BADASS and thinks it's the only good thing the town has produced.
the changeling's whole thing is way unrelated. ill get to her.
what do i think of these boys and their drama
honestly i am a haruspex (in the first game) defender through and through. his ending is the best by far.
the haruspex
this is my goat. artemy burakh is working in the military as an army doctor (he doesnt have a bachelors degree but he did get like. some formal education b4 the military) when he gets a letter from his dad asking him to come home. honestly i dont remember this letter that well. but it was ominous! so artemy rushes home and is like. a little freaked out. he arrives in town. steps off the train. AND BAM. TWO GUYS ARE TRYING TO KNIFE THE CRAP OUT OF HIM. so artemy, being a normal guy, kills them with his bare hands. or. you as the player do. this is not optional. also on the first day artemy has a sidequest where you can murder a kid because... i forgot to mention.
the kids in the town are lowkey wild.
if you dont remember from before. ill remind you. the kids were able to come up with a cure for the insanely bad plague a couple of years ago by crushing up a combination of random pills and snorting it. on top of their drug use, these kids are basically involved in an all out war. there are two factions - the dogheads and the soul-and-a-halves.
the dogheads wear dogheads. the soul-and-a-halves just look like normal kids. ANYWAYS the dogheads are followers of khan kain, because. OH YEAH. theres a secret forgettable kain.
revised kain family portrait
sorry khan! anyways khans "arch-nemisis" and the leader of the soul-and-a-halves is notkin.
i like notkin. hes pretty chill. anyways these kids are all lowkey murderous and wild. andd.... guess whos bound is all children!
the haruspex's bound
the haruspex's bound are basically all the kids in the town. in the second game, they say artemy's bound are these kids because his dad (menkhu, remember) was trying to teach them his doctorly/generally wise ways. AAANYWAYS aside from in world explainations, the haruspex's bound being the kids in the town is basically meant to reflect.... his ownnn ideology.... while the utopians were all about progress, the haruspex's bound, the termites, are all about slower change and respecting tradition. well. okay. let me elaborate.
the oglimskys are the ruling family linked with the haruspex. the haruspex DOES NOT fuck with the oglimskys (not like. explicitly in the plot but hes got some snappyyy dialogue options) because. they did that messed up stuff to the kin as i mentioned earlier, and artemy's dad was in the kin (tho its important to note he married a woman outside of the kin [dead] and went with a lot of the townsfolks ideas/traditions but generally he linked the kin and other townsfolk together for better or worse) so he really isnt a fan of the oglimskys. however he has to deal with them a decent amount when trying to get in the termitary (bull processing place) to talk to the kin. ANYYYYWAYS the oglimskys are a rlly good example of this whole tradition vs change thing because there are two men running the operation. big vlad, or the böos, and his son vlad the younger.
big vlad and little vlad. are quite similar.
- they both are named vlad
- they both are evil.
during the plague, when they learn of the outbreak, big vlad doesnt believe it and little vlad suggests they lock everyone in the termitary up. where they will 100% get infected and die. big vlad just doesnt think the plague is real he dgaf abt killing people and in the end they go with little vlads idea. which kills like. all of the kin. - they both... no. thats it. theyre both the worst.
so big vlad and little vlad have the same general way of running the bull enterprise , but they differ slightly. little vlad wants to slightly change the bull enterprise - everyone is lowkey rioting in there under big vlad, so little vlad is like. we should stop that. and he also is trying to convince the townspeople that the water is okay to drink. or something. basically little vlad is like slightly woker big vlad. BACK TO THE HARUSPEX. remember when i was talking about him. well i think that the relationship between the vlads shows the haruspex's ideology really well! little vlad. is slightly improving the bull enterprise. but is still a vlad and is going to have a lot of messed up stuff going on. IMPORTANTLY. little vlad isnt trying to completely overhaul the bull enterprise. he believes that the bull enterprise, at its core, is "good" and effective. artemy applies a similar belief to the whole town. he accepts gradual change in the town through generations, because he thinks the town and its ideals are good.
what about the changeling!?!? i hear you ask.
well. the changelings route is basically. like. completely unrelated to all of that. to unlock her route, you need to complete the bachelor or the haruspex's route first. why??? youll see. first. we need to talk about
the endings
if you remember from earlier. keeping one player character's bound alive unlocks an ending that aligns with the ideology of their bound. you can get any ending regardless of what character you are playing as long as you kept that character's bound alive. so. what are the endings? i hope youve been paying attention because this is where it all comes together.
ok this is where the REAL REAL REAL REAL REAL spoilers begin. TURN BACK NOW IF YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO PLAY THE GAME!!!!!!!!! i hope i convinced you bc i swear this game is so freaking peak its . its. its awesome.
the bachelor's ending
i dont have time to go into allll the events of the game. but basically as daniil works to try and save the town he becomes sort of dissillusioned b/c people in the town often are unwilling to actually like. use current medical technology to stop the spread. and overall the town is just really hard to stop an outbreak in. so dankovsky is concerned about the plague spreading to the rest of the country and is like. lets burn the whole town down aside from the polyhedron because its the only good thing that came of the town and all the people are damned anyways because of the plague (well like presumably people who arent infected were allowed to leave before their houses were bombed but tbh idk). also he develops a vaccine to make sure the sand plague doesnt spread further.
i dont have time to go into allll the events of the game. but basically as daniil works to try and save the town he becomes sort of dissillusioned b/c people in the town often are unwilling to actually like. use current medical technology to stop the spread. and overall the town is just really hard to stop an outbreak in. so dankovsky is concerned about the plague spreading to the rest of the country and is like. lets burn the whole town down aside from the polyhedron because its the only good thing that came of the town and all the people are damned anyways because of the plague (well like presumably people who arent infected were allowed to leave before their houses were bombed but tbh idk). also he develops a vaccine to make sure the sand plague doesnt spread further.
the haruspex's ending
the haruspex is so based. basically. he goes through all these trials with the kin's foreman (this guy who manages the kin inside the termitary who has a deal w the oglimskys to use his like religious/cultural sway to keep kin in line. also hes the one who killed artemy's dad but thats neither here nor there) and the foreman is eventually like. hey. (pulls vial out of pocket.) btw this ancient bull's blood can actually cure the sand pest. and artemy is like WTHHH those bulls are all extinct where'd you get this from!!!!! and the foreman is like. hey man. i got it. from the earth. (they used to slaugher a lot of bulls in the town and the blood is like in the soil and stuff.) yeah. the polyhedron is stabbing the earth. and shes bleeding. and we need to pull the polyhedron out in order to release the blood and allow her to begin healing. which is not what youre supposed to do when stabbed. but artemy. as a cracked doctor surgeon guy is like. sounds good to me! so in his ending he uses the blood from under the ground to make an actual working cure for the plague, his panacea and it actually like. its good. imo.
the haruspex is so based. basically. he goes through all these trials with the kin's foreman (this guy who manages the kin inside the termitary who has a deal w the oglimskys to use his like religious/cultural sway to keep kin in line. also hes the one who killed artemy's dad but thats neither here nor there) and the foreman is eventually like. hey. (pulls vial out of pocket.) btw this ancient bull's blood can actually cure the sand pest. and artemy is like WTHHH those bulls are all extinct where'd you get this from!!!!! and the foreman is like. hey man. i got it. from the earth. (they used to slaugher a lot of bulls in the town and the blood is like in the soil and stuff.) yeah. the polyhedron is stabbing the earth. and shes bleeding. and we need to pull the polyhedron out in order to release the blood and allow her to begin healing. which is not what youre supposed to do when stabbed. but artemy. as a cracked doctor surgeon guy is like. sounds good to me! so in his ending he uses the blood from under the ground to make an actual working cure for the plague, his panacea and it actually like. its good. imo.
the changeling's ending
okay so basically. clara the changeling (idk if i ever mentioned her name. shes clara.) is like. hey guys. i can do miracles. but i need to sacrifice like 5 people in the town to get enough power for MY BIGGEST MIRACLE YET. and then she kills a couple of her bound and the plague ends miraculously. um.. itll make sense soon
okay so basically. clara the changeling (idk if i ever mentioned her name. shes clara.) is like. hey guys. i can do miracles. but i need to sacrifice like 5 people in the town to get enough power for MY BIGGEST MIRACLE YET. and then she kills a couple of her bound and the plague ends miraculously. um.. itll make sense soon
okay so theres more.
you can theoretically keep everyone's bound alive. right. (you use shmowder or, in the haruspex's route, panacea to sure each bound and shmowder is like. you get it by trading. basically its not finite.) if, at the end of the game, everyone's bound are alive, you get this ominous ass letter from the powers that be. the powers that be are basically..... they... they send letters to daniil throughout the game telling him about like reprocussions for his crimes against humanity (the whole ending death wasnt so ethical) but to the other characters. theyre pretty absent. anyways. this final letter from the powers that be (to artemy b/c his route is the only one i finished on my laptop....) says :
uhhhhh. okay. weird. okay. so you pull up to the polyhedron. and its like. hey guys. whats up.
and it looks like that and youre like. okay. cool. whatever. you get to the bottom and. im. just watch this youtube video.
if it isnt working look up like. pathologic meeting the powers that be. or something
ummmm hey. so. the powers that be.
why are they just some little kids???
sooooooooooooooooooooooo basically in this scene it is revealed that the whole game was just the kids playing with the healers in a sandbox. and nothing matters and everything and everyone is made out of stuffing. and stuff. huh. thats no good. okay! honestly in the bachelor and haruspex's route. you hear this and its like. okay. thats dumb asl. that doesnt affect anything. so you go about ur business as usual and pick an ending, finish the gameee and BAM clara's route is unlocked. okay. cool!
okay so clara's route
okay so to be 100% honest im on like day. 8 or something of her route. i just never got around to finishing it b/c. clara (THE CHANGELING!). was done dirty. and her route is like. not very fleshed out imo. it kind of just exists in the cracks left by the bachelor/haruspex's routes and its rlly sad. but basically clara climbs out of a grave and gets adopted by the saburovs, and theyre like. katerina saburov her adoptive mom is this lady who has visions and stuff. and shes on morphine a lot of the game so overall the saburovs are the least down to earth family in the town. and like. do the actual governing but dont possess a loottt of power like the oglimskys. anyways clara has this evil twin i think.. and like... um... everyone thinks shes evil because she does magic. its a whole thing. so i think. the saburovs like kick her out at a point... and theres. a rat prophet?? i dont know. like i said. didnt finish the route. this is from like. osmosis through seeing people talk about the parts of her route i didnt get to. sorry. anyways long story short her whole thing is breaking the 4th wall but not in a like. I KNOW THIS IS A VIDEOGAME WAY but the in-universe explaination is that. theyre dolls. but also that its all one big play. theres a theatre in the town and the plays are like. meant to show they arent in control/playing their parts. basically. and clara goes around being like "whoooo makes up these rules anyways! nothing matters" kind of. because she knows they arent real.
oh also i forgot to mention when talking abt the haruspex
this isnt like. essential to understanding clara's route but i think it gives some rlly good insight into how clara and the other healer's routes interact. during the haruspex's route when hes like. theres this whole thing w/ inheriting his fathers position as a menkhu and fighting w/ the foreman of the abbatoir. (where bulls were/are slaughtered by the kin for a rlly long time. and thats how the blood below the town built up.) anyways while he and the foreman are beefing. the foreman like. "tricks" the haruspex into jumping into a really really really deep hole. to kill him. and it will kill him unless the haruspex makes a deal w/ clara . and if you do that she pulls up like in the pit and talks to the haruspex's ghost and is like. okay man. ill let you live. but you need to trade your life for the life of one of my bound. and then artemy chooses someone to kill in exchange for his life. crazy ass scene. anyways ill talk about this scene later probably but i just think its neat.
okay what do i think about all of this!
i really like this game.
can you tell. i think this game is so awesome and interesting and i really like the fact that daniil dankovsky and artemy burakh and clara (saburova) were concieved and created and now i get to think about pathologic and all of its wonders. also i really like how, being a videogame, pathologic kind of lets you what conclusion to draw from that whole plot. like. in my opinion i think the conclusion of clara's route is pretty tierd. like. its a videogame. i know that. but maybe it was groundbreaking in 2005. BUTTT the way that the other routes work and like compliment eachother is just like chef's kiss. its so peak. i really like how pathologic asks the viewer to kind of confront like. the idea of change. and also asks. why do we try to advance as a society!? because the bachelor's route has a more. not obvious but i think like. excepted answer to that question. that being "because we want to improve the quality/length of people's lives". which is like. yeah okay. fair 100%. but then you play the game and its like. some things really are out of our control. like. remember thanatica. dankovsky's lab. about killing death. like. thats stupid daniil. you cant kill death. its inevitable. but allsoooo the whole idea of the utopians and progress in general is to make things like that. possible. which is cool. still i am a haruspex defender. the haruspex. remember. dgaf about all that. he says. if it aint broke whyyy fix it. and thats like fair. the last outbreak of the plague? dear old dad was able to cut it short without using any new medical ideas. he didnt get a bachelor's degree he just did what a menkhu does. and thats based.
oh in case this wasnt clear. part of the reason the outbreak got so bad is because the kains (utopian fam) thought that simon was murdered instead of there being an outbreak. so they were really slow to start quarantining and stuff. so the kains with their like. "leeetss look at this from another angleeee" sort of vibe kind of caused more problems than just doing what had been done before. still. daniil was able to help a lot w/ the plague and he diddd make a vaccine. he isnt like the worst. but i personally am the haruspex's biggest fan b/c.
go read the machine stops by em forester then come back.
okay so now that youve done the required reading for my neocities website. what im trying to say is that i think progress and all that really doesnt benefit people past a certain point. and although the town is like. its pretty bad. in terms of plumbing. and disease prevention. and other technologies that we take for granted today. its still a life and know what. people there are happy! honestly i feel like the whole game being. a game played by kids kind of. like. reinforces this point to me. b/c like the kids in the "we are actually the powers that be" cutscene are dressed exactly like the kids in the town. implying that they are at least of the same era as these kids. or something like that. so although these kids r playing some crazy fucked up game. they still r pretty happy. like theyve got it good! like. in real life. i feel like medicine is one of the few fields that like. actually matters. buuuut i think that pathologic used a plague for the main conflict becaaauseee its one of the few things that provides an actually good argument for the bachelor's route. like. yeah. even w/ old burakh's methods. a lot of people died. (he sectioned off infected districts and waited for everyone to get the plague and die). like it would be really awesome if we could make a real cure or a 100% effective vaccine against this effed up disease! like i cant argue with that. but also in like everyyyy otherrr situation its like. developing further is dumb asl. like i think we rlly dont need most tech made after like. 1999. like. we got email. we got phone. i dont even want to watch instagram reels like that. i want more time to think. not like. having some strange magenetic drawww to my mobile device. but heeeey. thats just me!
on the whole meta-narrative clara changeling thing
okay i am currently WOOOORKING on clara's route but imo the whole like. and it was just a playyy (or a kids gameeee) thing was waaay underdeveloped. i think it couldve been good commentary on like. something. maybe like. idk how little power the doctors actually have and how the narrative of the game was actually determined by like. the government and people in power on a more like. countrywide scale (not the ruling families but the like real actual goverment Powers That Be). like that wouldve been cool. and like. i think they couldve done something interesting with that. but clara's whole thing being miracles. like. bro. i dont think it adds much to the game and honestly was kind of random. i enjoy the magical aspects of pathologic but its like. okay. i dont think this helps the game that much
society
we live in a society and so did russian people in 2005. i felt like this fit best down here because it wouldnt make a lot of sense without getting a general sense of the game but like. the main guy behind the game (nikolai dybowski) is evil and i think that thats pretty obvious when actually playing the game. like the kin is actually like. depicted as "savage" or like. literally not human. or a half naked lady. its genuinely insane. and the other women arent done quite as dirty but like. bruh. anyways i feel like i enjoyed the like. vaguer human-centric themes of the game. like the change thing as seen earlier. but dear god like. dybowski. bro. insane. insane things in this game. like the racism in the game is hardly adresssed and even the maaaain character who is from the kin is never like. guys we should unionize or something like youre all getting mistreated crazy style. instead he's more like. i am your leader now. yes i know ive been gone for like 5 years or whatever. yeah. i am only 26. but i get the townspeople and i can control you all to benefit them. like thats lowkey what the narrative w/ the haruspex and the kin is, especially in
THE GODFORSAKEN SECONDand thirdGAMEs
okay so they made sequels. in the modern era (second game in 2019, third was 2026!) and the second game was the haruspex's route and the third game was the bachelor's route. clara is in the distant future. and GOOD FREAKING GOLLY the second game was something. first of all. to quote my dear friend. the second game "looks like a steam porn game". and. its.. okay i personally have only played like. till day 5 in this one b/c its mid. so admittedly idk how the middle of the game handles all of this. but the endings r like INSANE in this game. basically there's an ending called the "diurnal" ending where. OKAY in this game they decided that the kin doesnt want artemy to take the polyhedron's spike out of the ground. because its preventing the earth from bleeding and dying. so they like. do not want the plague to be stopped (the blood still can cure the plague in this one.) so in the diurnal ending the haruspex is like. hey guys. youre wrong. and gets the blood. and its shown kind of as him like. allowing the kin to die off because he's saving the rest of the town from the plague. and like in this ending like. the earth starts dying and herbs stop growing so the kin is unable to practice their traditions and they like. dissapear. and go further into the steppe or assimilate w/ the town. okay. what the hell. thats stupid. OOOKay. so in the nocturnal ending. artemy is like "yeah guys like my dad wanted me to make sure all of the kin. all like. 1000+ of you. are okay. in his absence. me. so im going to leave the spike in the ground." anddd a ton of people get the plague and die. and its depicted as the town + kin returning to a like. more traditional way of life. and like the earth is happy but the town is dead. like. BRO. BOTH OF THOSE OPTIONS ARE BAD. haruspex p1 you were too powerful. but also like. idk i get why they'd want a self-contained conflict within p2 between endings. but like. obviously you should save the town. like the diurnal ending keeps everyone alive. but why did the studio even like make the kin think that in the first place??????? why make the earth magic so fucking dumb????? like in the case of the second game. i am like. the powers that be. ice pick lodge. yall are so fucking dumb. of course god is a fucking baby and we should rewrite the narrative so artemy can both respect his culture and like keep the kin's traditions alive while also. not fucking killing everyone. lkie. holyyyy shitt. hoooooolyyyy shit. hoooooooooooly mother of fucking god. so yeah. second game. stupid.
okay i actually played the third game all the way through
first of all look at daniil's hair.
from left to right: patho 1, patho 2, patho 3 demo, patho 3 final. whaaat the fuck is going on. in the demo. dead wife. in patho 2. hes on deaths door (canonically like 28). patho 3 final. thats justin beiber. what the hell happened. like patho 1. thats daniil dankovsky. thats #mydaniil dankovsky. sigh. ANYWAYS. i thought the third game. plotwise. was actually. okay. i liked it. i mean. patho 3 was terrible to women. like lara ravel. she got effed over. eva yan. girl. dankovsky is not worth dead wifing over. BUT you get a pet bull. and i think that the time travel mechanic lended itself nicely to the like. contained narrative they were going for w/ daniil. also the ending sequence. no spoilers. but the ending i got was really cool. ADMITTEDLY. did not get all like 7 endings. did not care. my take on that? some games should just be linear. patho 3. its like. okay. i guess multiple endings makes sense given time travel. but patho 2 like. what the fuck was happening there. you just needed one good ending. in fact. WHY NOT JUST USE THE ENDING FROM THE FIRST GAME??? WHYYYY NOT JUST PRESENT ALL 3 ENDINGS FROM THAT GAME SO AS YOU PLAY EVERYONES ROUTE AND UNDERSTAND THEIR PERSPECTIVE. YOURE LIKE. OOHHHHH I SEE. AND THE PLAYER GETS TO THINK. INSTEAD OF JUST BEING LIKE. HERES AN OPPROTUNITY TO BE A COMPLETIONIST AND THERES A COUPLE ACTUALLY FLESHED OUT ENDINGS AND SOME THAT ARE JUST BULLSHIT. ugh. anyways. i liked patho 3 overall. i thought it was actually fun. but like. man. i wish these new games got patho 1 like i get patho 1.
anyways
to finish my pathologic rant. i would like to say. that despite all my complaints i really love this game and hope you check it out. like. really hope you check it out! thats all from me!
