Pathologic (2005)

Exciting announcement! Apparently a HD re-translated fixed version of Pathologic is on the way! I've been waiting years for this and I think I might pre-order it. Pathologic is a surreal game from 2006. It's kind of classed as "first person horror" but it's more than that. This game is one of those very unique titles, unlike anything else. The closest comparisons I can think of is perhaps Omikron: The Nomad Soul (1999) or perhaps Deadly Premonition (2010). In the game you're dropped into this surreal disturbing isolated victorian-era town, but it has strange steampunk/futuristic elements, a bit like Bloodborne. The Russian developers Ice Pick Lodge also made the game Knock-Knock (2013) a 2D surreal puzzle/horror game, but I feel like this was their true masterpiece. I'm glad it is finally being patched up and fixed. You're an outsider and you explore this huge town; the town is infested with a strange plague and it has day/night cycles, and I think you have 7 days or something to try to unravel the mystery. There's lots of branching paths and alternate storylines; the game is one big bizarre puzzle of madness, strange masked non-human being creep in the shadows, mysterious factories appear to be processing grotesque viscera of unknown origin. There's a nearby mysteries desert populated with huge skeletons of whale-like beasts from an ancient sea; a colossal geometric glowing gravity-defying structure looms over the city, inhabited by creepy beggars and lost children. There's strange symbols on the walls written in blood, posters the warn and hint at the impending fate. All characters move throughout their day cycles going about their business and your actions have direct repercussions upon the world as time passes. The small team really went shooting for the moon with this one, they aimed so very high and you can feel the sense of breadth, depth and atmosphere, the huge amount of effort than went into this bizarre nightmare, despite the many faults of the original release. It's not a shooter, it has some RPG elements but it's closer to a puzzle game or adventure game or interactive story or something. It's very unique, perhaps even some Lovecraft vibes too. The original western release was plagued with loads of game-breaking bugs and truly horrible translation. I think they used google translate or something for all the dialogue so it was an incomprehensible mess. I played it for many hours and I adore the game but I eventually couldn't progress, hampered by endless glitches, game-breaking bugs, corrupted save files and the poor translation making the game nigh-incomprehensible, and yet still it sticks out in my mind as one of the most memorable gaming experiences of my life. It is open world and I still explored this strange eerie town and I have yearned for more. I heard about a bunch of fans trying to work on modding it to fix the problems and translation errors, but nothing came of it. Suddenly today I realised that a fully-fixed updated version is about to arrive! If anyone likes weird surreal bat-shit crazy obscure masterpieces keep your eyes on this one. I'm really excited for this, I can't wait to play! It's due for release on 29th of October 2015, I've pre-ordered and it has been bumped right up to the top of my 'next-to-play' list. I don't think many people will appreciate this thing but I'm pumped up and ready to finally explore this strange world that has haunted my dreams for the last decade.