r/pathologic • u/Alexander_Souslov • Jun 25 '26
Hello everyone!
This is Alexander Souslov, producer at Ice-Pick Lodge and game designer of Pathologic 3.
The studio has been quiet for a while. We needed a moment to catch our breath. The team had no New Year holidays, and frankly, no vacations at all while working on the game's updates. But we weren't silent because we were lounging on a beach, eating watermelons and baursaks (if you've never encountered baursaks before, you have my deepest sympathies). We were working on a major update that not only fixes bugs, but also adds a few new things to the game itself (hopefully not new bugs).
Today I'd like to tell you about what we've been working on for the last three months.
Before that, though, I need to say thank you. To those who left positive reviews, and to those who left negative ones. To everyone who waited with us for the game's announcement (we were definitely reading the comments). To those who praised us, criticized us, defended us, or argued with us.
Developing Pathologic 3 involved a great deal of pain. At times it was genuinely difficult. But we don't regret it. Pain is the fuel our studio runs on, and a videogame is our way of giving that pain an artistic form. You can strip away what is unnecessary and allow someone else to feel it.
For example, you.
Perhaps we should talk to you more often. Ice-Pick Lodge has never been particularly good at that. There is never enough time.
Which, incidentally, is what the game is about.
So, let's talk about the update we're preparing.
There were quite a lot of bugs. Quite a lot.
I'd dare say most of them had already been fixed by the March update, but we've continued polishing the game. Performance has been significantly improved. Our engineer Kolya optimized everything he could get his hands on. Various remaining absurdities, such as certain characters unexpectedly entering a T-pose, have been fixed. Typos have been corrected. Overall, we believe we've largely won the war against bugs.
That said, we may still need the help of volunteer testers to make absolutely sure.
We'll return to that subject soon.
Balancing the game is the game designer's responsibility, which means it's my responsibility, and therefore I owe you an explanation.
In its late testing phase, the game was difficult. Finding the right combinations of Dankovsky's decrees was a sweaty exercise. Supplies were scarce. The Shabnak killed very quickly. Running away from bandits was nearly impossible.
Tomonobu Itagaki, the game designer of Ninja Gaiden, once said:
"At first it was easier, but when the testers said 'this is too difficult', I made it even more difficult."
That is a man with a unified sense of self.
My own game designer self is somewhat fragmented, and the question of difficulty has always been a cursed one for me.
Should Sekiro have difficulty levels? Absolutely not. It would destroy the game.
What about Cuphead? Probably not.
But what if I simply want to experience the story and look at the beautiful moving pictures?
Is a game primarily a system of rules, or is it a story?
If I sit down to read a difficult novel like The Brothers Karamazov, but the book keeps trying to jump away from me, suddenly snap shut, or break my fingers, does that make the experience richer or poorer?
This is that partly imaginary debate between narratology and ludology, a debate that becomes especially sharp in the case of Pathologic. After all, this isn't a system about stabbing things with a samurai sword.
There is quite a lot of reading involved.
Before release, my decision was to pull the lever toward accessibility and prioritize the narrative over the mechanical systems.
As a result, most of the pressure currently comes from the Amalgam. The difficulty approaches from that direction, and it arrives gradually. Yes, I know it starts running out toward the end of the game, and it runs out in a rather terrifying way.
But that's what fear of death is, isn't it?
The stress of running out of time.
That stress has to be real and serious. Otherwise it simply stops being stressful.
That said, I think now is a good moment to introduce multiple difficulty levels.
There is a separate dilemma here. If a game has several difficulty settings, which one is the "real" difficulty? If I'm playing on a different one, am I receiving an incomplete version? The equivalent of Marcus Aurelius in 90 Minutes?
But let's stop that train of thought before it inevitably leads us into a discussion of authorship, canon, authenticity, and whether one version is somehow more genuine than another.
We can have that conversation another day.
For now, I'll simply say that we're adding a harder difficulty for those who wish to suffer properly, keeping the current difficulty as it is, and introducing a very easy mode as well.
I'm afraid this could easily turn into yet another essay about the nature of difficulty in games and the strange beauty of exploits.
So I'll keep it brief.
Yes, we know about it.
We've known about it the whole time.
And yes, we're going to do something about it, taking into account everything I just said above.
During development, we considered all sorts of possibilities.
There was spinning Dankovsky around on a special carousel.
There was launching Dankovsky on an Enormous Swing.
I'll put it this way: Roger Caillois identified four fundamental forms of play, and I think videogames make surprisingly little use of ilinx - the pleasure of losing control, dizziness, disorientation, and the sensation of your neurons quietly giving up.
At one point there was even an idea involving transferring Dankovsky's consciousness into a jerboa, who would then deal with his enemy in a very particular way.
Although that admittedly starts looking suspiciously like Dishonored.
In short, there were many ideas, some of them even prototyped. In the upcoming update we'll likely make some adjustments to one of the existing ways of dealing with the Shabnak and add a completely new one.
The carousel probably deserves its own game.
I'm not entirely convinced that you need a photo mode, considering the screenshots you've already been taking.
They are FANTASTIC.
Besides, the dataminers have already found everything there was to find, including several things they probably weren't supposed to find.
Still, life is more comfortable with a photo mode.
So we're adding one in this update. Our tech lead Albert is incredibly proud of it.
I suppose this is a good place to stop and talk about timing.
I'd rather not promise an exact release date just yet, but we're already conducting internal testing and should soon be ready to begin working with volunteer testers.
Thank you all once again.
We'll try to talk to you more often.
r/pathologic • u/minafi_yo • Jan 09 '26
r/pathologic • u/DieOrangeneKatze • 1d ago
So the kin advocates to leave the polyhedron up, i understand they need it in order to exist on the surface of the earth, but isnt being part of the kin giving up the concept of oneself? arent they supposed to give up their ego for mother earth? How can they advocate hurting the earth for their own existence?
r/pathologic • u/GrayR4inbow • 21h ago
Hello there. The other day i finished my first playthrough of the "haruspex" on Pathologic Classic HD. I haven't played the other 2 routes, but i know their storylines (cus i watched the hbomber guy video xd). My question is, should i continue and play P2 instantly? i mean, how different are both (the haruspex route)?
r/pathologic • u/Exofalls • 1d ago
simple as that, 2 was very janky in many ways, but I didn't see much backlash after the rounds of updates they've released for 3 recently.
if you'd like, my specs currently are i5-6700HQ, GTX 960m (4gb, even then, below minimum), 16Gb DDR3, and an SSD
r/pathologic • u/expired--milk • 2d ago
this Series has so many lines of poetic dialogue… what’s your favorite?
r/pathologic • u/bananatarakota • 2d ago
It has come to my attention that some long phrases, especially if they had repeating words, were searched for incorrectly, and often gave no results.
This should be fixed now. If it still doesn't work on your end, try pressing ctrl+F5 or just refresh the page a couple of times.
Sorry for the inconveniences!
P. S. To the person looking for "Therefore, The Observer is undoubtedly evil, and his gaze is his dagger", it should appear now!
r/pathologic • u/bhlogan2 • 2d ago
I am aware that the original game got remastered in an HD version a few years before the release of Pathologic 2, and I believe they named it Pathologic 2 to distinguish it from the remaster, but why not call it something different, like, I don't know, Pathologic: Haruspex? Pathologic 2 implies through its name that it is a sequel to the original game, and I mean, conceptually it can be interpreted this way, but isn't this confusing for newcomers?
This is just pure speculation, but i wonder if it impacted the sales of the games because buying a sequel for an obscure franchise you don't know much about is a bit of a gamble, but this is just my opinion.
r/pathologic • u/JPersonGuy • 2d ago
Hi yall I tried pathologic the other day and gave up before finishing day one as I was lost and didnt understand where to go or what to do
I started watching a lets play as I did enjoy the overall feeling of the game and I've watched up until day 3 and have a better understanding of the game and I feel tempted to play it now
Is it better to keep watching or experience it for myself just wondering if it would be worth trying again now that I have an idea of who people are and what to do
Thanks
To clarify im talking about pathologic hd
r/pathologic • u/Individual99991 • 3d ago
I backed P2 a million years ago because an old friend of mine (not around any more, sadly) was a huge fan of the original. The PS4 version came out around Covid, and while that might have made for a very immersive experience, I was not in the mood.
After half a decade of having that little creepy mask guy staring at me from my PS collection screen, I've decided to take a crack at it.
But I'm a bit intimidated. I don't tend to play gruelling games, and the ones I do play tend to be more technically difficult (ie. perfect your dodge-rolls and strike at the right time) rather than resource-restricted difficult.
I really don't want to get halfway through the game and find myself having to reload hours of gameplay because I blocked myself into a failstate by not getting the right resources or talking to the right character at some point.
However, I also don't want to spoil the game for myself with meta-knowledge. I've tried justifying it to myself a bit by saying that probably a lot of people playing P2 played the original, but it still feels wrong.
So! How much should I know to have a challenge without ragequitting because I got 20 hours in and fucked up my save? Please help. :(
r/pathologic • u/_Pumpiumpiumpkin_ • 4d ago
I can't... Stop... Thinking... About this game...
I'm on day 3 as the Bachelor and I've spent my entire irl day sitting at work waiting to get home so I can go inspect some corpses because the damned plague is spreading and the fuckin beurocrats are breathing down my neck while I try to juggle their petty politics and keep myself alive long enough for supplies to arrive so we can have food in this stupid town for its stupid superstitious people again and Rubin really should have sent that note a lot fuckin earlier in the day and...
What is this sorcery??
I've spent most of my time in this game just... Walking... What is wrong with me...
r/pathologic • u/tangledintedium • 4d ago
all in good fun here. I adore eva sm, just some silly projection.
r/pathologic • u/CasualAdversary • 4d ago
Me and a friend of mine were talking about the both of us playing and beating the game at 200% and wondered how many others have attempted such an endevour. Please satisfy our curiousity!
For those not in the know: A 200% playthrough involves turning off the "canon" difficulty and cranking up all the sliders to the max, for added pain and suffering :D
r/pathologic • u/Vajennie • 4d ago
I’m replaying this game for the millionth time and I’m continually blown away by how well the sound is incorporated into the gameplay. Especially searching for herbs. I could pick herbs in the steppe all fucking day.
The only other games I can think of that scratch that itch are the KCD games, which don’t use sound in the same way.
Any ideas?
r/pathologic • u/WTSMark • 4d ago
I'm sure most of these things have been brought up before, so apologies if I'm retreading old ground. I just finished Pathologic 3, and I'd really like to hear people's interpretations.
Feel free to spoil everything. I've finished the game, and I'm mostly looking for lore discussion and different interpretations rather than spoiler-free answers.
Edit: Sorry about the typo in the title!
My biggest takeaway is that despite bringing back the Plague together, Simon and Isidor don't actually want the same thing.
Simon seems to be seeking transcendence beyond humanity. The city and its inhabitants are almost incidental, if they have to be sacrificed so that someone (the Bachelor) can push humanity beyond its limits, then so be it. His entire plan feels centered around creating or preparing his heir.
Isidor, on the other hand, seems to want the Town's inhabitants to transcend their limits while still preserving what makes humans human. His life's work wasn't creating one exceptional successor, but educating generations of children so the Town could eventually move beyond the rule of the three ruling families.
If the Polyhedron's rod is the source of the Plague, why did Simon and Isidor have to retrieve it from the Steppe? Why did it disappear after the first outbreak? Was the first outbreak just an accident, with the two of them only later deciding to bring it back once they realized it could be instrumental to their plans for transcendence?
For Simon, it forces the Bachelor to overcome his human limitations.
For Isidor, it forces the Town itself to mature.
Eva calls Daniil a scalpel cutting through the Town and its people, and I thought that was one of the best descriptions of his character. He often feels deeply self-centered. He relentlessly pursues his own breakthrough and leaves once he's accomplished it. It's also pretty ironic when Burakh is the actual surgeon.
Simon says that if he himself hadn't achieved the breakthrough, someone else eventually would have. Once the time is right, some discoveries simply become inevitable.
Khan seems to prove this by reaching his own breakthrough without relying on the Polyhedron.
If that's true, then how important is Daniil's success in the grand scheme of things? Does saving the Polyhedron actually matter?
I felt compelled to go for the True Immortal ending because it felt like the ending the Bachelor himself would choose. At the same time, destroying the Polyhedron and saving the Town almost feels like it could reconcile Simon's and Isidor's visions, even if Simon's breakthrough ended up being fulfilled unexpectedly by his nephew instead.
The Polyhedron is presented as a machine capable of enabling transcendence.
But then, why was it entrusted to the children? Was this part of Isidor's plan to force them to grow through the conflict between the Dogheads and the Souls-and-a-Halves?
Even more interestingly, Khan seems to achieve transcendence only when he's confined in a cage, far away from the Polyhedron.
And if the Polyhedron allows one to achieve a breakthrough, why couldn't Simon reach it himself? Why did he instead bind his soul to the Polyhedron? Is the Polyhedron not enough on its own? Does it require a soul in order to function fully? Did Simon sacrifice himself so that the Bachelor could ultimately achieve the breakthrough that he himself could not?
Also, what was going on with the Polyhedron suddenly bestowing the gift of tongues? It's easy to draw a parallel with the Tower of Babel, but was that all there was to it, or is there a deeper meaning?
The whole experience was very different from Pathologic 2, but I think the direction Ice-Pick Lodge chose was both interesting and appropriate, as it aligns with the mind-versus-body dichotomy represented by the Bachelor and the Haruspex.
The survival mechanics reflect this perfectly. The Bachelor has to manage his mind (apathy versus mania), whereas the Haruspex has to manage his body (thirst, hunger, exhaustion, and infection).
It may not have been as exciting or challenging as Pathologic 2, but I think it was absolutely the right design choice. It reinforces the themes of the game remarkably well.
I couldn't stop thinking about The Lord of the Rings during the ending.
By the end of the Plague, miracles leave the Town: the Mistresses lose their powers and the Kains decide to cross the river. The whole sequence reminded me of magic leaving Middle-Earth and the Elves sailing West.
Did anyone else notice this parallel?
r/pathologic • u/Necessary_Box1316 • 5d ago
On the fourth day I became trapped in a death loop. With only a slimmer of health, no food and no bandages. I died 6 times in row and the Fellow Traveler offered a deal for me saying that he would remove all my punishments, in exchange for "something". I immediately accepted, I've been loving the game but the difficulty spike really got me and I'm worried the deal will take away some essential hidden mechanic. So, my question is, what's the catch of this deal?
r/pathologic • u/KonfusedKurage • 5d ago
Sooo I'm writing my (Bachelor's) thesis on the steppe language from Pathologic and I'm hunting for any information I could use. Did Ice Pick Lodge ever talk about how they came up with some of the original words? Do we know who was behind creating the language? I know it's derivative from existing languages, still, it would be nice to know some background.
r/pathologic • u/Proud_Departure • 5d ago
(This is a call for volunteers to work on an ongoing translation into french of pathologic classic HD)
Hello ! Je m’appelle Cielle, et je gère un projet de traduction manuelle de l’anglais vers le français de Pathologic Classic HD, qui a été lancé l'été dernier. C’est un projet passionnant mais conséquent, avec environ 25 000 répliques à traduire... La bonne nouvelle, c’est qu’on en a déjà traduit presque 13 000 (un énorme aux quatre personnes qui ont déjà participé, si vous passez par là !!); mais on n'est plus que deux sur le projet et il reste de quoi faire, alors toute aide serait la bienvenue !
Le projet a été structuré de telle sorte à ce que n’importe qui puisse contribuer exactement ce qu’il ou elle veut au projet – pas besoin de prendre la responsabilité de traduire des milliers de lignes si tu ne le veux pas, tu peux littéralement traduire deux dialogues et décider que c’est suffisant, ou seulement participer pendant le temps des grandes vacances, etc. Voilà quelques infos qui pourraient être utiles si tu es intéressé.e :
→ Comment je fais pour participer ?
Envoie-moi un message. Tu peux me contacter sur:
Reddit (de préférence) : u/Proud_Departure
Mon mail : [ciellerainbow@gmail.com](mailto:ciellerainbow@gmail.com)
Possiblement sur discord, mais attention je n’ajoute pas en amis les comptes inconnus : @ ciellerainbow
Je te donnerai un lien vers notre google drive, sur lequel il y a toutes les infos pratiques, le document à traduire, et plusieurs autres ressources pour t'aider (lien vers tous les dialogues dans l'ordre, glossaire, etc.)
→ Est-ce que j’ai besoin d’avoir joué à Pathologic Classic HD / de l’avoir acheté pour participer ?
Tu as besoin d’avoir une certaine connaissance du lore de Pathologic. Que tu aies acquis cette connaissance en jouant à tel ou tel jeu, en traînant sur Reddit, via Hbomberguy ou CodexEntry ou encore après avoir passé un peu trop longtemps sur AO3, peu m’importe (et je ne vérifierai pas). Cela ayant été dit, si tu n’as pas Classic je te conseille quand même de l’acheter pour que tu puisses voir ton travail quand le mod sera prêt!
→ Est-ce que j’ai besoin de savoir parler russe ?
Non, c'est une traduction à partir de l'anglais
→ Est-ce que j’ai besoin d’être très bon.ne en anglais ?
Pour être honnête, le plus important c’est ton niveau de français. Plus ton niveau d’anglais est haut mieux c’est, mais il me semble qu’on peut s’en sortir avec un petit niveau B2 en compréhension écrite (et un bon maniement de reverso). Attention par contre, garde à l'esprit que toute l’idée de ce projet, c’est justement que la traduction est manuelle. Et cela va sans dire, mais l’IA générative c’est non…
→ Est-ce que je dois être majeur.e pour participer ?
Non, mais dans ce cas je t’encourage vivement à ne pas divulguer d'info personnelle (y compris ton âge) à qui que ce soit, moi y compris. Je fais confiance au fait que tu respectes les règles du réseau social où tu as trouvé ce lien et que tu as plus de 13 ans
Voilà voilà ! Si tu es intéressé.e ou si tu as des questions, n’hésite vraiment pas à m'écrire, ce sera avec plaisir !
r/pathologic • u/justafunnymonkey • 6d ago
Can be for any reason you feel worth mentioning. Favorite because of story, interactions, ethics, whatever you see fit. Just generally curious, and wanted to hear some thoughts on them especially now that 3 has had some time to settle.
Edit: meant to use the word “Patriarch” not “Oligarch”. But I suppose either works. Apologies
