Many people raved about Fallout because it’s gritty, bleak, and realistic to how many people would react in a post apocalyptic world; whether it be a reaction or way of living within a community or as a loner; drifting from town to town or settled somewhere distant from the rest of civilization. A lot of companies would like to make a game similar to that and Ice-Pick Lodge is no different; except with the added bit of playing it three ways.
Ice-Pick Lodge is a Russian independent developer who made a game back in 2005 called Pathologic. It wasn’t received well back then. Perhaps it was ahead of its time, so now they’ve tinkered with it and have been backed by Chris Avellone, the Creative Director and Co Owner of Obsidian Entertainment as well as Brian Fargo, CEO of InXile Entertainment and the game has been revamped (thanks to the power of technology catching up with their vision of this game).
The game can be found on Kickstarter by clicking here and it has exceeded its goal of $250,000. It’s currently standing on $265,000 and they are trying to stretch it to $300,000 to have the “Town Extended” where the town will include additional quest lines, locations, hidden areas, and NPCs. However, they also want to extend it to more.
The Steppe Extended ($350,000). The Steppe is rather poor in terms of content right now, and that makes sense, since the plot of Pathologic takes place mostly in a single location, the characters being unable to leave The Town. While we don’t intend to change that, we can sneak in some loopholes, inviting the characters to explore new and fresh locations in the steppe (close to The Town, of course). It can even lead to them having new activities there. That also obviously means more quests, more steppe NPCs, more weird creatures, and generally more steppiness.
Lucid Dreaming ($400,000). Thoughts and ideas are an important part of Pathologic, and it’s known that the Plague “speaks to its victims, scrutinizing them”. We would like that to become an even more prevalent motif, adding dreams in form of interactive experiences. Got infected? Go see the Plague in person. Found out new crucial information that completely changes everything? Same here. All those hints and omens dropped and mentioned everywhere will now appear in the flesh. Also more weird and creepy imagery. And these are not random events—they will depend on how you play and how the plot you create unfolds.
Termitary and Abattoir ($450,000). The original Pathologic only showed you a chart of these behemoth constructions rather than their real innards. The poor interiors did nothing to reflect their grandeur. We’ll change that in the remake anyway, sure, but reaching this stretch goal would allow us to make a full-fledged ethnographic expedition into The Termitary and The Abattoir. You’ll be able to see the daily life, the traditions, and the culture of a very peculiar working community of steppe butchers that live inside and retain multiple traits of a primitive society. It’s “a town inside The Town”, and it’ll contain loads of new content, quests, and experiences.
A Small Prequel ($550,000). Pathologic is plot-heavy, and a lot of important stuff happens right before the start of the game. As a player, you’ll uncover the partial truth behind the events that have shaped the current state of The Town, but you’ll never be able to see the perfect and complete picture. You’ll never be able to see them at all—only speculate. Simply showing these events would be a spoiler, but we’re keen on making an additional day-long story with unique content. It won’t be Kickstarter-exclusive. Please keep in mind that it won’t feature the same playable characters. The whole point of the prequel is to show you the things that the main trio would never be able to see and learn. But you will.
What is Pathologic about?
Pathologic is about a plague torn town that needs a cure. The player has a choice to play either as a scientist; trying to find patient zero to synthesize a cure, a son of a shaman, and a not so sane girl. There’s also a military commander there who is there to decide whether or not the town the player is in can be saved and if not, then it will be incinerated with a bomb.
Taking on the role of one of these three characters, the player will try to find a cure for the plague known as the “Sand Plague”. The player must try and survive in this town that is plagued by this disease. Every day that goes on, the player has to battle this plague within themselves as well as within the setting of the game.
The game itself has 12 chapters in it, to reflect the 12 days that the player has to spend within this plague torn town.
Try to find patient zero, use magic, or pray for the cure to show itself and get rid of the plague or else time will ensure its final outcome and it may not be the end that the player has been working hard towards.
Pathologic comes out November 2016 on PC, Linux, Mac, PS4, and Xbox One.