Pathologic

aka: Mor: Utopia, Wen Yi
Moby ID: 23724
Windows Specs
Conversion (official)

Description official descriptions

A Russian town, isolated for years from the surrounding influences of technology, finds itself subject to a terrible plague. The player controls one of three potential saviors, a government agent sent to the village (The Bachelor), an undertaker's son who has come to take over the business from his father (The Haruspex), and a young woman with mystical healing powers (The Devotress); the latter can only be played after having completed the game using one of the other characters. The three scenarios feature completely different missions, though their storylines are connected to each other.

Pathologic is a hybrid adventure game that incorporates elements of the role-playing and survival horror genres. The game world is viewed from a first-person perspective at all times. Much of the gameplay is dedicated to the exploration of the large town and conversations with its eccentric inhabitants, who will give the protagonist missions. Taking a cue from RPG quest design, some of these missions are entirely optional, while others serve the main storyline and trigger other quests.

The survival horror angle is emphasized by the various statistics the player should pay attention to. The protagonists get hungry and tired, so acquiring food and resting from time to time is essential. The protagonists can also become infected by the mysterious disease, which is demonstrated by a corresponding status bar; medications of various kinds must be applied to lessen or cure the infection. The game has a precise internal clock, and its characters might change their locations regardless of the player's input, which makes some of the quests time-based. Completing the main quests, however, is only one of the requirements for reaching the best ending; the game's time will advance and events will occur even if the player character sleeps through the whole game (provided he/she has enough food for that time). The town must be saved in 12 days (game time); failure to do so will trigger one of the "bad" endings". The player is able to make moral decisions concerning saving characters or following one of the several leading groups in the game.

Combat in the game is action-based, following the FPS format. However, to emphasize the survival angle, all the three protagonists are rather clumsy and not particularly efficient in combat, and ammunition is scarce. Knives and other melee weapons can be used, as well as various guns. Weapons and clothes will become damaged and deteriorate; however, certain types of characters in the game will be able to fix them. Obligatory combat is rare in the game, though the player can kill any of the town's inhabitants, break into their houses, or fight criminals at night.

Economy and trading systems occupy an important portion of the gameplay. Prices in the shops will rise or fall depending on the current situation in the town. It is possible to sell any items the player finds in the game; however, another option is to trade them with the characters that roam the town. Depending on the character type, various trade possibilities are available, such as for example trading beads or needles that can be sometimes found in trash bins for valuable ammunition.

Spellings

  • Мор: Утопия - Russian spelling
  • 瘟疫 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Credits (Windows version)

115 People (81 developers, 34 thanks) · View all

PR-coordinator
Lead Programmer
Composer, Sound Producer
3D-modeler
Lead Artist
Head of Laboratory
Technical Director
Art Director
Artist
3D-designer
3D-animator
Also in the development of the simulator took part
Special thanks to
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 64% (based on 24 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 40 ratings with 3 reviews)

Don't get scared if you see the Executor in front of your house

The Good
Pathologic (or Mor: Utopia, as it is called in its homeland Russia) is a hybrid game that defies categorization. It has elements of adventure, RPG, first-person shooter, and in a certain sense survival horror.

From the moment you start playing the game, you are enveloped in its unique atmosphere. The bizarre setting is different from anything else you've seen in a game before; it's very hard to describe it with words. Imagine a quiet Russian town with a certain early 20th century feel (though some elements indicate present time, the setting doesn't really strike you as "modern"). A desolate train station and a grim factory cast their shadows over the town. Not far from the house you start in there is a staircase leading into the heavens. You leave the beautifully decorated apartment (the words "decadent" and "gothic" come to mind for some reason) and venture outside.

It looks like eternal autumn. Lonely leaves are carried by the wind. You can't ever see sun or clear sky. The dominant color is grey, with brown-red old-style buildings. In front of you, you see two masked characters. Or maybe one of them isn't masked - he just looks like a bird with a human body? In a highly stylized, theatrical language, the Executor and the Tragedian tell you what has happened to the city. There is a terrible disease. Nobody knows what it is. Nobody knows who, or what, had caused it. Nobody knows how to cure it. It's up to the hero to find the cure... or maybe just to survive.

Scary, weird sounds accompany the experience. The chilling sound effects and the occasional dissonant music add so much to the atmosphere that the horror begins to creep into the player's soul. The designers knew how to craft masterful psychological horror - without throwing at the player hordes of zombies or revisiting the nightmares of mental patients.

There are no experience points or anything like that, and the game is absolutely not combat-oriented. Only a few quests involve violent confrontations, and even then we are talking about a handful of enemies at most. However, the player is free to attack anybody (except quest-giving characters and shop owners) at any time. It is possible simply to go on a killing spree, enter any apartment and attack its innocent owners, or hunt down criminals at night. If the player kills an innocent, a blood-chilling sound of a weeping child will remind him of what he is doing.

The game has an internal clock and is basically played completely in real time. The necessity to regulate hunger and sleep adds to the survival aspect of the game, which is so strong that the game can also be labeled as "survival horror". The combat is deliberately hard and uncomfortable; neither of the protagonists (yes, you can play the game as three different characters, each with his/her own scenario and quests) is a professional combatant, and it shows. However, the satisfaction you feel after having successfully eliminated two robbers with two precise shots from an old pistol is at least as rewarding as clearing out a whole room of monsters in a "normal" FPS.

Speaking of rewards: the game is a veritable "collector's paradise". You will constantly need items - food, healing, medicine, weapons, and especially ammunition, which is extremely scarce. There is a very interesting and rather complex trading system in the game. Certain types of people you see on the streets can trade different items to you. For example, little kids can give you valuable bullets or pills in exchange for some cheap jewelry you thought was useless. You can collect a lot of items by simply roaming the town and trading with people. Often you can even find valuable items in dumpsters!

An alternative to that is robbing; to satisfy your instincts of a virtual kleptomaniac, you can obtain lockpicks and break into any house you see. Houses usually contain a lot of items, including food you'll need so much; but of course, you can get caught and attacked; you can kill the attackers, but then your reputation will quickly plummet...



The Bad
Alas, it appears that, while the developers poured a lot of love into setting and details, they forgot the most important thing: core gameplay mechanics.

To put it simply, there is so such thing in the game. Since combat, collecting, and all the other interesting things are optional, the role of the "meat and potatoes" of the game has been delegated to... walking. That's right: the bulk of the game is occupied by annoyingly slow crawling through the same locations, over and over again.

The quests are for the most part very simple; it's just the ever-present time limit that makes them harder than they are supposed to be. Basically, almost every quest involves you going to some part of the town, talking to characters there, then visiting another house, then going back to the original quest-giving character, etc. Sometimes you can make decisions and say different things, but most of the time, it's just direct walking and talking. It's puzzling to encounter such terribly uninspired quest design in a game so rich on detail and interesting gameplay ideas.

I have to admit that the interminable walks - coupled with the lack of any exciting, adrenaline-releasing activity - ruined the game for me. The city is very big, and you'll have to visit many people to complete a day. You'll be going back and forth through the same streets. Sure, you can (and should) explore, search, and trade with people on the way, but it quickly becomes extremely monotonous. There is very little sense of progression, of advancement, in the game; each new day is just like the one before, and the differences are way too subtle. While playing Pathologic I constantly wanted to slap it on the back to speed things up. It's a game that lures you in with the details, but then leaves you at the mercy of emptiness.

The Bottom Line
Pathologic deserves attention and respect, and it has some very interesting ideas. However, I can only recommend it as an exotic curiosity. In the end, the lack of a satisfying gameplay concept, the terrible quest design, and the lethargic pace become a needless challenge to your patience.

Windows · by Unicorn Lynx (181780) · 2017

A unique game, the first of its kind, with all the good and bad points that can bring.

The Good
Pathologic is an adventure with a distinctly novel premise. It places you in the role of one of three characters, recently arrived in a mysterious, isolated town that is about to play host to a deadly plague. Over the course of the next twelve days, you will attempt to discover the source of the infection and, if possible, a cure.

The game is a fusion of elements that refuses to be pigeonholed into any one genre. Okay, so I called it an 'adventure' just now, and it is, but equally it's an RPG. It also has strong survival elements (though it's not a 'survival horror') and you will probably shoot a few things from a first-person perspective (though it's definitely not a 'shooter').

Story

Most of your time will be spent walking around the large gray town and talking with a cast of more than twenty main characters. Conversation uses a familiar multiple-choice system and it is through these interactions that you will be given your daily tasks and will start to learn more about the strange place you find yourself in.

There is an immense amount of dialogue and whether you love or hate the game will most likely depend on your opinion of this text. Personally, despite its problems (which I'll go into later), I loved it.

Pathologic has the best story I have ever encountered in a videogame. I can say that without a doubt. And it's not just a brilliant story; it's also expertly told and intricately developed, built up with layer upon layer of history and character detail. It gave me a wonderful feeling of being a stranger in a strange land, coming into a place with its own definite history and long-established set of traditions, customs and beliefs, most of which seemed totally alien to me but made perfect sense to its inhabitants. Everywhere I went, I heard references to past events, pieces of gossip and rumors about other characters. The citizens have relationships, rivalries and history with each other that isn't there just to serve the plot. It feels natural; organic; a fleshed-out world with depths and secrets I, in twelve days, could never hope to fully uncover. There is so much intrigue in the dialogue (an offhand mention of this... a biting remark about that person) that I found myself doing something I've never done before for a game: I took out a notebook and began writing notes on everything that piqued my interest. I didn't need to do this (as the in-game automated note system does a great job of keeping track of everything important) but there was so much more I felt compelled to write down. My visit to the town was a voyage of discovery. I wanted to learn everything I could about the place, its inhabitants and their way of life. Every little detail was fascinating, whether it helped me with the main quest or not. Sometimes, knowledge (or rumors) could totally change the way I looked at something. For example (without giving anything away), there was a person who seemed normal at first... a little eccentric... a little tragic, from what she told me of her past... then someone else made a comment about her which totally changed my view on her. Had everything she said been a total lie? Suddenly, I found myself looking at her with new eyes. From that point on, I started to actually hate her. Now, this isn't a major plot point I'm talking about; it's not the big reveal you get in plenty of games/movies where suddenly your friend turns out to secretly be the Grand Evil One in disguise... No, it's just a piece of personal history relating to a relatively minor character. It has nothing to do with the main plot, but it was one of many things that got me emotionally involved and thinking of these digital puppets as real, in some way. Someone in a forum post said that the main part of Pathologic takes place 'in the player's mind' and I couldn't agree more. I filled page after page of my notebook with thoughts, conjecture and observations. Unlike any other game I've played, when I turned off the PC, Pathologic stayed resident in my mind. My brain was turning over, working on all the unanswered questions I had. For two weeks, try as I might, I couldn't get it out of my head. It kept creeping into my thoughts all day and invaded my dreams at night.

One of the things that appealed to me so much about the story was that it fits right into a category that I love. That is: The 'Small Town With A Dark Secret' story. Or 'dark secrets,' because Pathologic is full of them. I'm also an H.P. Lovecraft fan, and though this isn't really a 'horror' game and there's nothing obviously Lovecraftian about it, there is a similar kind of thick, creepy Gothic atmosphere.

Survival

While you're wandering back and forth across town and talking to interesting people about interesting things, you'll also have to cope with the game's 'survival' aspect. Your character has various stats that are affected over time like health, hunger, fatigue and infection and you can't leave them unattended.

Dealing with these needs can be a delicate balancing act, but it's an engaging challenge and the developers have provided enough different ways to solve these problems. If you have enough money, you can buy food and medicine in shops, but most of the time you'll have to scrounge around. Rooting through bins can yield items which can be traded with passersby. You can complete side-quests for extra money. Stalk the streets at night and get into fights with robbers, then take whatever you find on their still-warm corpses. You can even break into houses and loot them; it won't be good for your reputation if you invade a normal family home, but no-one is likely to complain if you take a few things from an evacuated building in an 'infected' district of town. Looting is morally dubious, but it can be pretty satisfying. There's nothing better than finding a nice fresh steak on someone's dining table when it might cost 3000 coins in the shop next door.

Taking care of yourself is probably the biggest challenge in the game. But it adds to the realism and connection with your character. At the end of a long day of navigating my way round town, avoiding plague clouds, bandits and rats, eating dried meat and munching on coffee beans to stay awake, the prospect of a few hours' sleep on a polygonal bed seemed like an incredible, rare luxury. I could actually feel my character's exhaustion. Then I was up and out in the small hours of the morning, on a desperate search to scrape together enough money and buy some food before my hunger became too much to bear. The raw egg was fantastic.

Graphics

The graphics in Pathologic are exquisite. The town is bleak but oddly beautiful. The ground is thick with wild plants. Yellow leaves continually whirl through the air. The game's visuals, though less detailed, have a similar appeal to the beautiful desolation of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and at the same time, this is a very different setting to anything I've played before. Pathologic is a fully-realised artistic vision, set in an indefinable time, in a place that has grown up in total isolation from the outside world, technologically bereft, with its own styles of architecture and clothing. Buildings range from the stern grey houses of the main town to the rusted splendor of the factory district, to the ominous, looming domes of the Abattoir. Then there are the buildings which seem fantastically surreal; The gravity-defying crystal Polyhedron and the ruined stairways which stretch up into the sky, leading nowhere. House interiors have fascinating paintings hung on the walls that offer insights into their owner's character. Costumes look as though they have been created by a professional designer. Everything fits together; Everything makes sense. Even when it seems to go against normal logic, it somehow fits into this society's own scheme. BioShock has been praised extensively for its art direction and the way that every object had to be designed from scratch to fit into an entirely new world. Pathologic, with a much smaller team and less resources, deserves similar praise, as it has achieved the same goal.

Sound

The game's atmosphere owes a lot to its soundtrack, which is one of the best I've heard in years and fits the somber visuals like a glove. It is an inspired blend of clean, organic sounding instruments, choral parts and percussive elements that cut in when needed and really increase the tension. There are different pieces for every building you enter, as well as themes for night, day, infected or uninfected zones and so on. Every time I entered a place that was crawling with disease, the score really helped me feel the decay.

The sound effects are similarly good, as well as useful. Revolting bubbling sounds alert you to disease spots around you. Cries and moans of the dying come faintly from inside infected homes. You'll hear sounds of fights going on in nearby streets, between soldiers and vandals. There are also the ambient environmental sounds of trees creaking in the wind and leaves blowing past. The game always has the ability to throw up surprises: After hearing dogs barking on several occasions, I assumed the noise was just part of this soundscape. Then I almost jumped out of my skin when I was walking towards a dark alleyway and a large dog suddenly ran out of it, straight towards me and then right on past, ignoring me totally.

Some of the sound choices are odd, but make sense in a game that works hard to unnerve the player at every turn. I remember the first time I killed a normal law-abiding citizen (by accident, actually): I was shocked to hear the sound of a little girl crying. In a similar way, it's a little creepy to hear a child clapping and laughing when you kill a criminal.

The Bad
Unfortunately, there are some pretty major flaws in Pathologic. In my case, I liked the game so much that I was able to put up with them. Your experience may vary.

Translation

It's ironic that a game with the best story I've ever come across also suffers from a terrible English translation. I've got a Russian friend who played Pathologic in its native version and told me the writing was truly excellent; as good as a fine work of literature. Therefore, if you can play this game in Russian, do so (and skip this section of the review).
It's a testament to just how good the writing is that it manages to shine through a translation that dips in quality throughout the game from sometimes being 'okay' to sometimes looking like it's been copy/pasted straight out of AltaVista's Babelfish software. It's pretty obvious that different people worked on the translation without properly paying attention to each others' notes. The quality sometimes changes from day to day. For instance, playing as 'The Bachelor,' the first two days of the game were generally alright, then the quality dipped noticeably on days three and four, before improving somewhat on day five. Characters are sometimes referred to by more than one name, which can lead to confusion. But after playing through twice (once with Dankovsky; once with Burakh), I can say that there wasn't much that totally failed to make sense - sure, the odd bit of dialogue here and there - but if you're patient and read everything carefully, you should understand most of what's being said. After a while, the broken style actually became normal to me and I didn't have many problems with it. But that doesn't change the fact that it shouldn't be like this, and it's a crying shame that it is. A lot of people (especially the reviewers, most of whom slated this game mercilessly) will not have the patience to put up with this translation, and they shouldn't have to.

Similarly, the voice acting isn't too good (though it did kind of 'grow on me,' the more I played) and the actors dutifully read out lines that incorporate blatant typos (e.g. "I'd be ruler if I wasn't for this plague!") or try to put false emotion into lines they obviously don't understand. There's some sloppy editing, too: One time I was stunned to hear an actor stumble over his line, stop, then give it another shot! I'm told the voice acting is better in the German version (though I'm not sure whether the translation is any better).

Time and tedium

The game has a ticking clock that means (I think) that one hour of game time will pass in about 10 minutes of real-time. Each day has a main task to accomplish. Fail to do this, and it's game over. There are also optional side-quests. which you can complete if you feel like it. These do not carry over to the next day, meaning there is a time limit on them, too. Completing them is advisable, as you can often gain extra money or items, as well as a deeper understanding of the story.

Now, while this real-time system makes sense as day naturally turns to night, meetings can be arranged for specific times, etc., it does put unnecessary pressure on the player. And the frustration and (unwanted) tension is increased by the unbelievably slow speed your character walks at! Actually, s/he doesn't walk; s/he almost crawls along. There is no option to run or change your speed in any way.

Add to this the fact that the town is pretty large and your average quest for the day will typically involve talking to Character A (who lives at one end of the town), who tells you to talk to Character B (who lives at the opposite end of the town), who tells you to talk to Character C, who then tells you to go back to Character A again... and the frustration factor increases a lot. Simple tasks take hours, due to the constant back-tracking and slooow walking speed. This is a long game (about 50 hours per character, with three characters to play) and the number of times you will amble slowly backwards and forwards across town is incredible.

At times, the game is honestly not fun at all... Yet, the feelings of frustration didn't last. Even when the game had been annoying the hell out of me, I'd come back to it the next day, still wanting to play on.

(Note: I should mention, though, that the clock is paused when you are in conversation, or checking your map/diary/etc. This is an excellent design decision, as it means you never feel rushed when talking to people.)

Other issues

The 'adventure' part of the gameplay does not require much brain-power. You generally talk to a person, who points you in the direction of another person and so on. If you have to locate a missing item, you will usually (but not always) be told roughly where it is. There are a few more varied tasks, but not many.

Combat is not a big part of the game, but it's pretty basic. Also, AI doesn't really exist. People do react in certain, specific, pre-programmed ways, but there is no intelligence. For instance, a soldier will raise his rifle and shoot at an approaching plague sufferer, but he will then be 'locked in' to this behavior and won't react if you come up and start attacking him with a knife. Also, if you kill him, none of his soldier buddies who are standing 2ft. away will pay any attention.
Criminals and rats will chase you on sight, without ever giving up, getting tired or taking an alternate route. They exhibit exactly as much intelligence as the swarming drones in Smash T.V.

The Bottom Line
So what can you make of this review? Pathologic has a lot going for it, but it also has some pretty big problems. Personally, I found it grabbed me right away and pulled me in totally. I could put up with the bad translation and frustrating moments because I was so interested in the story, the characters and the environment. But it's not an easy game to like. It's not a big dose of non-stop fun and it will only reward patient players. The story, and the atmosphere of the dying town, really are everything here. Creepy, deep, full of mystery and weirdness... Pathologic is a unique game and you're either going to love or hate it.

Windows · by xroox (3895) · 2009

If there are reasons why adventure games are dying, then Pathologic is one of those reasons...

The Good
It took me awhile to figure out that this "is" an adventure game. Well, I usually don't come across adventure games (as the main genre) where you can "fight" in 1st-person perspective. Especially since for the first couple of minutes, I realized that I had a scalpel and was slashing the living daylights out of my starting room. I must say this must be the first game that uses a scalpel as a weapon...

The good part....er, I must have missed it. Shall we move along?

(Yes, though I must admit, the music is darn bloody good. But that's it I swear!).

<hr />

Hmm, just checked my review. The "good part" seems to a little short. Might as well tell about the game here...or else I'll get threatening e-mails again from pissed fanboys/girls (threatening e-mails about games? Have you people no life whatsoever?). Er...never mind.

So, in Pathologic you play the role of either a [1] Bachelor of Medicine [2] Haruspex suddenly injured and covered in blood [3] Imposter which is only accessible when you finish the game (of which I have no intention of doing).

Each of the characters appears to have a different storyline. The Bachelor is obviously the easy one. The Haruspex is in a bit of a fix, being injured, low reputation and all. Might be interesting to actually play the Haruspex, since the Bachelor can be a tad if not more...boring.

Anyways, the game is in 1st-person perspective. You can also fight similar to first-person perspective shooter games. You have access to melee weapons (scalpel, knives, etc.) and ranged weapons (guns, rifles, etc.).

The game time frame uses a "day-by-day" method. Similar to Gabriel Knight 1. Each day you can finish as many possible missions you can find. Not quite sure why you should finish them all in the first place, but if you want, you can. Sometimes you get money, sometimes you get nothing but an unimportant sub-quest plot. More than often, you're not quite sure why you bother running from end-map to end-map. Plus there's a catch. Missions unfinished each day cannot be continued the following day. Kinda irritating.

The game also has a "reputation" setting. A high reputation means that you are in good standing with the people thus may trade or buy/sell items from shopkeepers. This reputation thingy is a bit of a problem in the early stages of the game, since its easy to lower the reputation (kill 'em all), but hard to raise it (via killing thugs - only at night, or healing plague victims - when the plague starts). I stumbled into a bit of a problem where I had to buy goods but my reputation was below my belt. Also forgot to save, so that kinda screwed up my day.

Oh, did I mention the game doesn't have "autosave?". It has 2 quick-save features (which is brilliant, I might add), but no autosave features.

The Bad
Hey, people have different tastes. And from where I'm coming from right now, Pathologic is unfortunately "tasteless" for me. Why? Let me see...

Graphics
Hmm, I liked the intro-cutscene, regardless that it seemed like something from a PlayStation game in mid-90's. The overall color is somewhat disturbing to me, though I must say that it does fit the overall atmosphere of a virus-infected town. But I must complain that all this brownish color with a tad of "Silent Hill" isn't very becoming.

Have you ever heard of the concept "recycled graphics?", neither have I since I just made it up. Well, if there is such a term than the graphics in this game should obviously be categorized as "recycled graphics". What year was this game released? Oh, 2005. That's pretty recent for a game with PlayStation 1 graphics.

Dialogs
Ever seen those cheap movies that have to do with dreams or similar venues, where the script-writer tries to sound intelligent, but the only thing you can think about the movie is "what the !#@! are you talking about?

This game is the exact adaptation of those cheap movies. I don't know what the original dialog was in what language, but the English version...ayayayaya. Shakespeare meets Einstein, after they get hit by a truck. It actually took me a while to notice that they were actually talking in English, since I've never heard so much bullsheeeeeit coming out of person's mouth since I met a couple of idiots trying to sound like philosophers.

The Bottom Line
Well, that's about it. There isn't much to say about the game. The game does get pretty tiring after several (in-game) days later, when you realize that the basic game play is finishing missions comprised of walking here-to-there. It does get a tad irritating when the plague becomes real. But for me, the game became boring real fast: the dialogs, the atmosphere, the lot-of-walking-around.

As an adventure game, the essence is the story. Especially when what we're playing is a mystery-type adventure game. And what is a good mystery-type adventure? A mystery! That's what. The game didn't have any mystery in the story. How to cure a plague isn't a mystery! This unfortunately is the main plot of the game (instead of maybe, how it got here in the first place, and that someone aka Mr. X. has a possible cure?).

Nope. We don't have a mystery because our heroes (and heroine) have this stuffed idea that they are the chosen one and will fight and cure death themselves. Doh.

In the end, I've read Donald Duck comics that had more mystery and were more addictive than this game. Boring and lame are the two words that summarize this game for me. Yawn.

Windows · by Indra was here (20756) · 2007

Discussion

Subject By Date
Pathologic remake on Kickstarter GTramp (81965) Sep 8, 2014
Pathologic Translation Project back online xroox (3895) Feb 14, 2010
Can I finish it?.. Unicorn Lynx (181780) Feb 2, 2009
Random crashes Shazbut (163) Sep 6, 2008
This is... interesting Unicorn Lynx (181780) Jun 9, 2007

Trivia

Graphics

Some members of the development team lent their faces to the game's characters. Artemiy Burakh is portrayed by Ice-Pick Lodge studio head Nikolay Dybowski.

German voice actors

In the German release, the three main characters are voiced by the actors who dub Jude Law, Uma Thurman, and Andy Garcia in German versions of many American films.

Pistol

The pistol in the game is the Webley-Fosbery Self-Cocking Automatic Revolver, a British weapon produced from 1901 to 1915. It is easily recognizable thanks to the distinctive zig-zag grooves on the cylinder.

Russian to English translations

  • The game's original Russian title is Mor: Utopia; while the second part is self-explanatory, the first word means Plague. A couple of things remain untranslated in the English version of Pathologic.
  • In the graveyard, just behind Laska's place, there is a prominent gravestone with an inscription in Russian. It reads:

*"Here Farhad lies,

the most stubborn one of the architects.

We built this tombstone on the perfect foundation.

From inconsolable guild brothers,

P. & A. Stamatin."* * If you fail to achieve your objective by the end of the first day, you will see a 'death' video with Russian voiceover. The voice is saying:

"We placed our hopes on him, but he failed to get ready for the meeting. The Hair Eater, the Bone Spirit, Shabnak stole up to him, touched him and turned his blood into poisoned tar. Having eaten the body, it got into the heart of the steppe, reached the intearior waters, and the plague swallowed these lands up."

Version differences

  • In the original Russian release, the teenage children you meet in the streets can be killed and will fight back if threatened. In the European release, they are invulnerable and will run away, instead of attacking.
  • Changes have also been made to some of the game's missions. For instance, the midget you meet (and can kill) on Day 1 of Burakh's story was a teenage boy in the Russian version. These changes are due to the European rating system. Other games it has affected include Fallout and Silent Hill, both of which had children removed from the Euro versions.
  • The original Russian version featured over 1.200 pages of text, while the English one has only around 720.

Information also contributed by Aleksey Luchin, hydra9, and Alessa, from the game's official forum,

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Game added by Wurg Iamnotjim.

OnLive added by firefang9212.

Additional contributors: xroox, Unicorn Lynx, Sciere, Alaka.

Game added August 27, 2006. Last modified March 12, 2024.