Unlike many adventures, Pathologic presents a consistently evolving world, with the population continuing to go about their business whether you're there or not. You're going to do a lot of chatting to those who wander the streets, but you'll always know just who happens to be integral to the story — and your eventual escape and knowledge of what’s truly happening — by a real-world photo that accompanies them during dialogue. The non-vital (though not entirely unimportant) characters are represented by a mere rag doll image.

Besides the Adherents and the many regular citizens of the town, there are a total of 17 more reasonably important characters who'll help you understand more of what's going on in exchange for making on a few time-consuming (and tedious in most cases) side quests. Think of your typical fetch and carry tasks and you're just about there.

The gameplay in Pathologic is certainly different from any kind of traditional adventure, and actually plays much more like the RPG Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, albeit a slower-paced, less brutal version of Oblivion. Using the keyboard and mouse to venture around the maze-like city, you'll encounter characters you can chat to, items to pick up, and actions to initiate via a swift click of a mouse button. Control-wise there's little, if anything, to criticise, though of course it will require an adjustment period for those more used to the point-and-click variety.

Fighting does occasionally occur, and it is essential at points to kill off a certain character in order to progress. Here again, the game plays out in much the same manner as a slightly uglier looking version of Oblivion, clicking on your opponents in real time while grasping your weapon in your hands. Nothing overly inventive, but neither is it unwieldy nor tedious. Other than these important bouts, combat can be avoided in its entirety as long as you keep yourself on the straight and narrow. Breaking into someone's home and allowing yourself to be discovered in the act will, unsurprisingly, encourage them to kick your thieving little behind. Keeping out of harm's way during one of these break-ins is as easy as holding the stealth button, however, and the character AI will handily allow you to wander wherever you please without the occupants becoming remotely aware of your existence in most cases. This fact certainly doesn't help with the believability of the game world, of course, but it does make the game much more forgiving.

The more dangerous opponent is the disease itself, and you'll also need to keep yourself safe throughout this epidemic, equipping yourself with enough protection to avoid infection and preventing your health from deteriorating. You're even required to regularly eat and sleep in order to keep from succumbing to exhaustion. Trading items with the townsfolk becomes an essential part of keeping yourself in shape, allowing you to survive the full twelve days. One item of junk you pick up on the streets may seem useless initially, but to a child, it may be worthy for them to trade an important vial of medicine you need to keep yourself alive. Each relevant component of your health is represented by a progress bar that is only ever a keystroke away, and they will appear and remain onscreen when nearing dangerous levels, so you'll always have a decent chance to correct the problem. This isn't as easy as it sounds, however, as often one 'solution' creates a new problem. Some medicines increase your immunity but endanger your overall health or increase your need to sleep, for example, making attending to your needs a constant balancing act.



By now it should be obvious that Pathologic is anything but an adventure as we've come to know them, and whether or not it's your kind of game should be perfectly clear to you. But if you're still interested, hear this: the game possesses not only one of the worst translations (from the developer's native Russian), but also packs some of the most intriguing and intelligent writing ever witnessed in gaming history. Although I don't want to give anything away by divulging actual dialogue, this is indeed a clever, challenging story, but you'll have to sift through a lot of largely nonsensical conversations to absorb it. With enough perseverance, the payoff is well worth the effort, but it's not easy to get there.

If you're tired of clichéd plots and the ridiculous conundrums that most adventure games toss your way, then Pathologic is one of those rare titles to make you realise the potential that gaming has to create something truly memorable. The story, the unapologetic blending of multiple genre conventions, and even the realistic challenges that are placed in your way all add up to create an experience the likes of which we've never seen before. Even so, its many significant problems make Pathologic a difficult game to recommend. On the one hand it's intelligent, interesting, and could even be hailed as one of the few games that could broaden gaming as a mature storytelling medium. But on the other, so much is lost in one of the worst translations ever witnessed, and the dated visuals are of such a shockingly poor standard for the vast majority of the game that it simply can't be recommended wholeheartedly. Still, if you're up for a whole different kind of adventure, you may just find Pathologic to be worth your time. No, you won't adore every minute, but if you're willing to suffer a few hardships along the way as you dig through the dirt and decay along with your characters, there's plenty of gaming goodness to be found beneath.