Fortunately, what the game lacks in narrative clarity at this stage, it makes up for in abundant atmosphere. This is established right from the opening cutscene of children having a funeral procession for a rag doll — a dark, compelling video I can't resist watching each time I load the game. The soundtrack is excellent, creating a disturbing ambience that's creepy enough to be unnerving and yet subtle enough to stay in the background where it belongs. The 3D graphics are undeniably dated, looking several years old at this point, but in some ways this ends up working to the game's advantage. The entire town feels lost and passed over by time, and the game's dated visuals support that sense of stagnancy and decay. And while not nearly as smothering as it is in Silent Hill, the fog in Pathologic helps create an oppressive sense of confinement and doom, despite really being an illusion created by draw distance limitation. Admittedly, these can't have been intentional, but they work! It's a dreary and bleak environment, and the threat of pestilence is almost palpable.

The town itself is surprisingly large and quite dynamic, with day/night cycles, weather changes, and various NPCs roaming the streets. With the help of an in-game map, you'll soon become extremely familiar with your surroundings, as you'll have both ample opportunity to explore and the need to do so. While not a true sandbox environment, given the time constraints of the storyline, the world of Pathologic offers far more freeform exploration than the vast majority of adventures. (And by that I mean "all of them".)

Navigation is handled with the familiar mouse and keyboard combination used in first-person action games. The controls are fluid and comfortable, and you'll soon be zipping around the maze-like streets of Pathologic. Or maybe not "zipping", as even top speed isn't particularly fast, which is too bad, as you'll be doing a lot of trekking back and forth. So much so that your character will become tired and hungry, in fact. As time passes, you'll need to eat and sleep to keep your strength up. Unfortunately for you, tainted food and water can increase your risk of disease, so you'll also need to take medicine to safeguard your immunity levels. Those, in turn, can have side effects that impact your health, so you'll then need to find ways to improve your physical condition. Maintaining your welfare becomes a constant balancing act throughout Pathologic, which adds a nice layer of strategy to the proceedings. Each condition is represented by a status bar that is easily accessed with a keystroke, or appears on its own when approaching a critical level. It's possible to lose the game outright by failing to correct whatever disorder is out of control, so ignore them at your peril.

Necessary items can be found by rummaging through garbage, buying in shops, or trading with the townsfolk, particularly children. Strangely, money is slowly accumulated simply by running around, presumably by "discovering" it in your travels, but this never requires any action on your part, so it feels more like interest being accrued on your life. Which, given the gruesome nature of the story, might not be so out of place as an explanation. More valuable items like protective clothing and weapons will also be necessary as you progress further into the story.

Yes, weapons. Knives, guns, and homemade explosives are all present and accounted for, but Pathologic is not to be considered an "action" game by any reasonable standards. One of the other conditions you'll need to monitor is your character's "reputation", and killing people negatively impacts that, so violence is clearly not a recommended course. Whether there's a greater emphasis on action later in the game, I cannot say for sure, but it's definitely not Pathologic's primary focus. If and when you do engage in combat, it's a relatively simple real-time affair of maneuvering yourself into the best position for a few mouse clicks of punishment, preferably dodging the incoming attempts at the same. If you die, it's game over, but success in this area really depends more on your character's physical condition going in than your skill at delivering pain (assuming you're not innately terrible at the latter).



Running away, on the other hand, is something I experienced on more than one occasion. The second scenario starts with you wounded and under suspicion that has most villagers intent on spilling your blood. If spotted, the music quickens and you'll be relentlessly pursued, forcing you either to turn and fight (and in your condition, this is suicide) or hoof it to the nearest available open building (thank heavens for pacifist merchants and apparently insurmountable doors). This is great for getting the heart racing, but really it's more of a nuisance, and finally restoring your reputation comes as a welcome relief. There are similar fight-or-flee encounters elsewhere in Pathologic, but only occasionally, as humans are only one of the lethal killers in the game, and much easier to avoid than the plague.

I'd have preferred to offer more insight into the later stages of the game, but Pathologic looks to be a fairly massive experience, and finishing even a single scenario would have me playing long after the game's imminent release, which rather defeats the purpose of a preview. So what can be said conclusively at this stage? Perhaps it's best left that Pathologic looks to be one of a kind experience. Its many rough edges may yet be resolved, but even if they do, the game won't be to everyone's taste. Certainly it's anything but a traditional adventure… or a traditional RPG, survival horror, or simulation. But debating genre is to miss the point of the game entirely. It's new, it's unique, it's daring and surreal, and if that's not worthy of attention in this day of recycled formulas, I don't know what is. Whether the game can deliver on its potential remains to be seen in the final version, but it's refreshing to see that genre innovation is becoming contagious.

Pathologic has been licensed by GMX Media for release in the UK later this month. Russian publisher Buka Entertainment, who own the international rights, are still in negotiations to spread the game to North America and elsewhere around the world.