The Pathologic games have been known for their unique takes on the RPG genre, and how gameplay mechanics can be used to emphasize certain story elements. With the release of Pathologic 3, executive producer Alexander Souslov and engineer Nikolai Ponomarev were kind enough to answer some of our questions about how the latest entry will evolve not only the series, but the genre as a whole.
Pathologic 3 emphasizes using unique gameplay mechanics to tell different stories. Can you share a concrete example of how a mechanic changes the way players perceive or interpret the world?
You are very right saying that Pathologic uses game design as a way to convey the protagonist’s feelings. We don’t have many ways to influence the player’s emotions. Movement speed is one of the few such tools, but it’s an extremely noticeable and very powerful one. Dankovsky, in a state of apathy, is a very slow creature, and it is an intentionally very irritating movement speed. It’s agonizing because this apathetic-depressive state should genuinely be agonizing for the player. The aim is to create a desire to get rid of it, not because it penalises numerical stats, but simply because it’s so frustrating. Accordingly, mania is inspiration and a very fast movement, but it’s also a thriller. I’m running and my health is burning up from this run. Will I be able to run away from the rioters and find a bottle of medicine, or will I run into a dead end and die there in 14 seconds? We evoke similar feelings with the new travel system. We look at the map. We choose a district. We decide on a route. The Town breaks down into separate districts because Dankovsky perceives the Town as a set of separate locations with their own functions. He’s a stranger here, it’s just logistics that need to be solved in the most optimal way.
"Will I be able to run away from the rioters and find a bottle of medicine, or will I run into a dead end and die there in 14 seconds?"
If a player consistently makes the wrong calls, like botching every medical diagnosis, can they still reach a meaningful conclusion or “ending,” even if it’s a bad one?
On one hand, we wanted to allow the player to make mistakes, move through the story, and reach a story ending. Most games assume that the player must follow the designers’ instructions, leaving freedom perhaps only in the order of completing those instructions. For example, I must defeat this helicopter boss, maybe not right now, but after some time, but I must defeat it. Furthermore, most games forbid the player from dying, or rather, pretend the player is immortal – if a boss kills the player, then you just need to jump back in time, i.e., load a save, and continue. In Pathologic 3, we allow death by mistake.If Dankovsky commits suicide or has a heart attack, that’s part of the experience. If the player loses all time – that is, spends all the amalgam – then the game deletes all saves, and that is also part of the experience. It’s an official way to complete the game. As for diagnoses – as long as the player manages the epidemic by other means (for example, by eliminating the Shabnak, or resolving issues through administrative decrees), then making diagnoses isn’t even necessary. It’s just one way to play through the game, and all these methods can be combined (issuing quarantine and deratization decrees, creating a vaccine, eliminating the Shabnak). Obviously, not all endings can be called “positive”. Some are quite grim, but they are still endings.
To what extent will the Powers That Be shape or steer events throughout the game?
We’re treading on dangerous spoiler territory here. You mention ‘The Powers That Be’, which is a Plot Concept, so we can’t discuss it without a spoiler alert. But I would say: in this instalment of the series, we are precisely allowing the player to be a figure of power. The decrees issued by Bachelor Dankovsky are, among other things, a simulator of a medical dictator. Some decrees are intentionally absurd, some even harmful. But the Town carries out these orders, albeit in its own way. The game tries to show this gap between a conceptually correct order and the complete uselessness of that order because people create informational noise when conveying the concept to the executors.
"In this instalment of the series, we are precisely allowing the player to be a figure of power."
How much agency will players have in responding to, or pushing back against, the influence of the Powers That Be?
Again, spoilers here, of course. Let’s put it this way: if you look at the structure of events in Pathologic 3 as the notation of a chess game, there will be several aggressive moves from powerful pieces (these are strange chess, with several queens) – but the player will be able to use the conflict between these powerful pieces and make their own moves. Furthermore, in this game, moves can be replayed. I would say that a dedicated player who remembers to manage their time expenditure will be able to play this game as they wish and nothing will stop them. But you must keep the clock in mind.
Looking back on Pathologic 2, what were the biggest lessons from its development and release that directly informed how you approached Pathologic 3?
From the very beginning, we thought about game optimization. That is the main lesson we learned after the release of the previous Pathologic. The game must function as stable code, otherwise it will not even be considered a narrative or visual work.
The Pathologic 3 demo was described as featuring “entirely unique content” that hadn’t been seen before. Will that content appear in the full game as well, perhaps reframed, expanded, or experienced from another perspective?
The full version of the game contains slightly more scenes in the Capital; we will visit the Thanatica laboratory several times, where Dankovsky and his assistants are trying to find a cure for death. There will also be a certain chess episode (the theme of chess is actually quite pronounced in the game).
"There will also be a certain chess episode (the theme of chess is actually quite pronounced in the game)."
Beyond shared themes and the broader setting, will Pathologic 3 include any more direct connections to the earlier games (returning characters, events, locations, or narrative threads)?
We generally relied on the plot developments that were already outlined in the very first Pathologic in 2005. Of course, they are seen through the eyes of a different character. It’s their interpretation, but those who are very familiar with the series may see many references to past games in the series.
Now that Pathologic 3 is out, are there plans for expansions, updates, or additional content post-launch?
We are currently very actively delivering fixes for the bugs that were present at release, but there are also discussions about what we can add to the game besides fixes. Not all content made it into the final version, and not all stories were told, and not even all game features made it into the release. I think once polishing and bug fixing are complete, we will make a plan specifically for content additions.
There is going to be a Pathologic 4, surely, right?
I will say cautiously – we have some IDEAS on that matter.
As a developer, what are your thoughts on the PS5 Pro? How does boost in GPU help in developing your game compared to the base PS5?
To be honest, we simply targeted the base PS5 because after the not entirely successful console release of Pathologic 2, with the third Pathologic, we primarily wanted to achieve stability. Therefore, our main PS5 version was created specifically for the base version of the console.
"It’s very hard to beat ML-based temporal anti-aliasing (AA) with software-written heuristics"
What are your thoughts on PSSR? What kind of opportunities will this open for the game?
We do not support PSSR when running on the PS5 Pro. However, we would have loved to try it out to see if it could provide better anti-aliasing (AA) than what we shipped. It’s very hard to beat ML-based temporal anti-aliasing (AA) with software-written heuristics, as it’s a kind of supercharged heuristic in itself. While I think temporal-based AA, such as PSSR, will remain in the industry due to its upscaling, multisampling and denoising capabilities, I would like to see purely spatial ML-based alternatives for cases where temporal solutions are not suitable. If vendors won’t provide something like that, hopefully it could be achieved using self-trained cooperative vectors in modern graphics APIs and, fingers crossed, the next generation of consoles.
What resolution and frame rates will the game target on PS5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5 Pro?
The PS5 and Xbox Series X both run with a dynamic resolution that targets 4K at 30 FPS. 4K is achieved most of the time. The PS5 Pro is expected to achieve this more consistently due to its increased GPU performance. The Xbox Series S runs with dynamic resolution, targeting 1080p at 30 FPS and never dropping below this in our tests. Initially, we targeted 1440p, but reduced it to 1080p to improve stability and texture quality on the Xbox Series S.
Do you have plans to launch the game on Nintendo Switch 2?
We have such ambitions!