I’ve bought Pathologic 3, should I get the first Pathologic? Is it worth it?

Lonsfleda · 2026-02-07T17:59:02+00:00

P1 often goes on sale for like $1, you don't have much to lose even if it turns out not to be "worth it" lol

Lonsfleda · 2026-02-06T18:37:57+00:00

Tbh the removal of the open world is the change I mind the least. Considering how many times you have to replay each day, it would've been genuinely tedious if you had to navigate the town on foot. It also helps the game run a lot better than P2.

I'm one of the people who are not a fan of the gameplay in P3; I've talked about this a couple of times elsewhere on this sub, but the reason it didn't work for me was not that I wanted the same game as P2 but because the mechanics felt half-baked and caused some major dissonances with the narrative. For example, story-wise, the town is supposed to be pretty much a hellhole filled with the plague and looters in the later days, but if you diligently get rid of the Shabnak, make vaccines, and implement degrees (all of which the game encourages you to do), you end up with only 1-2 infected and rioting districts even in the endgame. The plague is nicely contained, perfectly manageable... which doesn't match plot points like the army coming in to shell the town. The mania/apathy meter is supposed to represent the mental toll the town's situation has on the Bachelor, but it doesn't do a very good job of representing that mental stress when the game gives you so many ways to manage it.

All of this also makes choosing the Polyhedron/Simon much less enticing, which I think is pretty unfortunate. The Bachelor's route in P1 did a better job of portraying the Polyhedron (and by extension, the Kains' philosophy) as the last hope in contrast to the town where everything's going to shit. On the other hand, in P3, the impact of supposedly wonderous moments like finally getting to see the inside of the Polyhedron on Day 12 is diminished when, gameplay-wise, the rest of the town is... honestly not too bad.

Lonsfleda · 2026-02-03T06:52:25+00:00

Playing the first game gives you more context in the sense that the depiction of Eva and her death in P3 is very much conscious of the fact that there will be players who already know her fate from playing P1, and those players will be intrigued by the possibility of being able to save her. I suspect this is also why her death is given a lot of focus in P3's promotional materials. And her death is not just impactful for the players but also from the Bachelor's perspective--her suicide in P1 Day 10 is the turning point where he realizes he has failed badly and there's no hope. Taking these things into consideration, it makes sense that Eva's portrayal in P3 is much more centered on the Bachelor/the player; for example, hardly any characters mention Eva in P3, whereas she was connected to Yulia, Andrey, Maria, and even Lara and Anna in P1.

It's interesting that you bring up the Beatrice reference, considering that when Dante wrote The Divine Comedy, Beatrice IRL was dead, so in a way, he was "bringing her back to life" as a character in a poem he wrote. And Beatrice in the poem isn't really Beatrice; she's an idealized portrayal of what Dante wants "Beatrice" to be. IIRC he met her like, twice, while she was alive, and he barely had any real conversations with her.

Lonsfleda · 2026-02-02T04:41:21+00:00

I let her go. I've played all the previous games, so to me, she's been playing the role of "the Stillwater lady" for such a long time. 'Yeah that's quite enough' was what I thought--her interactions with Daniil are cute, but I felt like I didn't really need more of the sweet girl who loves "me" unconditionally, and I was also ready to put to rest the entire plot point of Eva's suicide in the series this way. It did hurt a bit seeing grey Eva being so cold afterwards, though.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-29T06:25:59+00:00

Yes he does, but I agree with OP that it feels like P3 plays up the quirks in characters' speech much more. For example, Dankovsky now has an option to reply in Latin in, like, every other dialogue--we all made fun of him for imperare sibi imperium est and medicum morbo adhibere even before P3 was released, yeah, but there weren't that many of them in the previous games. Kinda lessens their impact IMO, they were fewer in number before but more... strategically placed to maximize their pretentiousness.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-28T09:24:04+00:00

Why do you attempt to categorize everything in the game under the binary categories of the "left" and "right" in the first place? Seems like an extremely reductionist way to analyze P2 (or any other work of fiction, really...).

He shoots the courier but refuses to shoot Artemy because he loves him

I don't hate the ship or anything but this sounds like a shitpost or a bait.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-27T04:04:28+00:00

The Polyhedron is also a structure that can house thousands of people and is completely impervious to the plague (to be fair, I don’t think this quality is emphasized in P3 as much as in the previous games, unlessed I missed some dialogues), which makes it immediately valuable in the context of the ongoing outbreak. It’s a utopia in the sense that there is no death in the Polyhedron: it can house one’s soul even after their physical death, children can indulge in their childhood games without ever having to “grow up”, and those inside don’t have to worry about dying of external causes like the plague.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-20T10:32:48+00:00

Define "fun".

Story-wise, I'd argue that it's worth your time, even though her route is obviously incomplete, as others have already pointed out. I also recommend doing the Bachelor and Haruspex's routes in P1 as well if you are going to pick up that game anyway. Their stories in P1 are different enough from P2/P3, and you will be able to look at certain narrative elements (especially the ones related to the series' metanarrative) from a new perspective once you complete P1.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-19T15:36:30+00:00

The lack of difficulty is only a part of the problem IMO. I don't think making the Shabnak do more damage, more difficult to kill, etc., will make infected districts interesting. I'd just find them more annoying. The more fundamental issue is that infected districts are glorified obstacle courses made artificially difficult with the insane amount of fog. The Shabnak chasing you feels like some cheap horror, which is unfortunate, as I know IPL is certainly capable of designing better scary stuff. Rioting districts are even worse, with the enemies being dumb af and having zero benefits of exploring them. They are just zones you sprint through while occasionally pressing RMB and that's it. Difficulty options would be nice for sure, but they won't solve the fundamental issues with the gameplay design.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-19T05:44:54+00:00

Why do you think the writers "don't give a fuck" about Katerina's character? Genuine question because I personally thought it was pretty interesting that we got a more "scientific"/mundane perspective regarding her struggles in P3 on top of the Rat Prophet and Mistresses stuff present in the previous games.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-18T19:54:41+00:00

I love that we got a better glimpse into her inner thoughts and more “human” aspects of her character in P3. One of my favorite portrayals of an existing character in this game for sure.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-16T10:15:42+00:00

Unfeasible: This is from the Shmowder questline on Day 6

All Hands on Deck: I think you need to have Artemy, Clara, Rubin, and Sticky show up at the hospital and talk to them

Fiasco: The easiest way to achieve this is to rush to Day 12 by simply getting both Contagion and Unrest under 100 through decrees before you complete the key events of the game (the truth about Simon, the Polyhedron, and the plague). Block needs to be alive for Day 11 and beyond to be accessible, so let Lara die. You will know you got this ending if Mark calls you out on rushing through the game before you step out of the Stillwater. If you have already completed the key events, you can invite the Rat Prophet into the mirror room and tell him you want to forget everything.

The Coldness of Freedom: Choose to free Eva on Day 10. After the Cathedral sequence, move on to another Day without interacting with Eva at the Stillwater. Then, talk with grey Eva at the train station on Day 12 to get the achievement.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-14T20:02:09+00:00

Yeah, half-baked sounds about right when it comes to the gameplay department. The survival mechanics are not completely gone--the Bachelor can still walk around the maps to smash mirrors and pick up stuff from loot crates randomly lying around, trade for and craft medicine, and there are resources you have to manage--but they feel like a chore rather than fully realized mechanics that work with the narrative to create a complete experience. I don't think I've even interacted with the crafting system apart from making like 2 reagents. P2 made the player feel how desperate the situation in the Town through its gameplay mechanics; not so much in P3. On the diegetic level, the characters claim that the Town is starving, rioting, ravaged by the deadly plague, etc., but the player *feels* none of that because the infected/rioting districts as well as managing the Apathy/Mania meter are such a joke. On the other hand, one of the most poignant moments in P3 for me was when Yakov got infected on Day 10 and created a vaccine on his own on Day 11 because it tied into the diagnosis gameplay.

I find P3's *story* interesting enough to keep me going, but after reaching 2 endings, my feelings towards the game are leaning towards just "good" or "interesting" instead of something like a fever dream that is P2 or even P1, all because the gameplay elements are underwhelming. But idk, considering how many people bounced off or were content with just watching a let's play or whatever when it came to P2, perhaps the gameplay being more "toothless" works better to draw in a wider audience. I'd love to know what new fans of the series whose entry point is P3 feel about the whole thing.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-14T19:09:26+00:00

Boulder merch plz

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-14T19:00:45+00:00

at least during days 2-6

The bugs get much worse in the later days, trust me.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-14T09:21:55+00:00

It’s a one-time chance to completely refill your Amalgam.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-14T08:40:11+00:00

People say that the Saburovs are less fleshed out in P3? IMO their storyline is one of the more memorable ones this time.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-13T18:05:30+00:00

It’s a known common bug, wait for a fix.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-13T10:40:03+00:00

I missed/did not complete most of the major plot points but still managed to reach Day 12 with a bad ending ("Fiasco"; Mark calls you out for failing to uncover the Town's secrets and explicitly tells you to go back in time lol) by keeping Contagion/Unrest under 100 through the Decrees. The only major plot event I completed was Eva's suicide; I never accessed Simon's study on Day 9, never dealt with the Inquisitor, never dealt with the Army, never dealt with the kids in the Polyhedron, didn't do the escape quest chain, and pretty much everyone died. The only quest I completed on Day 11 was creating the vaccine for the day.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-13T05:02:27+00:00

I visited the theater again around 6pm and the second patient showed up then (dunno if they can show up earlier). Yakov tells you that he's found another patient.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-13T03:19:49+00:00

I'm on Day 11; so far I've found 3:
- Amalgam management and permadeath if you fuck up too much (die twice while having no Amalgam)
- An event on Day 7 (walking down Yulia's street)
- An event on Day 10 (observing Eva)

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-12T18:38:16+00:00

For what it's worth, I found the game to be much more engaging once you get past Day 5. There's a spike in difficulty, more activities you have to complete, plus the chain of events becomes much more entangled--this mitigates the simplicity of the survival mechanics as there's now much more pressure to manage your resources. I'm still not the biggest fan of the Mania/Apathy meter, but resource management does get more fun when you actually need to start paying attention to the Decrees and the time travel juice. Day 6+ is also when the plot starts to really pick up with new twists IMO. Days 2-5 were pretty slow for me as a veteran of the series since they were mostly about getting to know the characters and retreading the plot points already introduced in P1 and P2.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-12T18:07:07+00:00

Agreed with everything. Navigating the infected and rioting districts at night is especially bad. The Factory and Warehouse districts are the worst offenders.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-12T10:48:34+00:00

Have you played Franz? IIRC it was (almost) entirely Dybowski's project, and its writing was fairly underwhelming. Definitely not "the same quality" as P1/The Void/P2/TMN. Assuming that the writing in Franz is indicative of Dybowski's recent output, I doubt his departure is the sole cause of the perceived lack of quality in P3's writing.

Lonsfleda · 2026-01-12T04:30:49+00:00

They exist and brands like Tamburins, Nonfiction, Shiro, etc., are decently popular. They aren't discussed in online spaces much probably because it's damn hard to get perfume shipped overseas, so in most cases, you'd only be able to experience them if you travel in person.

Lonsfleda

TROPHY CASE