Pathologic: Difference between revisions

{{tropelist}}

* [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]: The game notably averts most of these. Many of the gameplay mechanics are surprisingly realistic: the [[In-Universe Game Clock]] is a [[Timed Mission|major constriction]] and is constantly ticking, enemies take few hits to kill but ammunition is scarce, using weapons or wearing clothes decreases their (very limited) durability, being [[Stupid Evil]] and reducing your [[Karma Meter]] will get you killed, etc. This may be one of the many reasons why the game is [[Nintendo Hard|maddeningly difficult]] and no part of it is described as "fun", even by fans.

** [[Karl Marx Hates Your Guts]]: All shopkeepers except Gryph and the barkeep for Stamatin's pub have the exact same prices for their wares, and ''your'' items will always sell for half the price it takes to buy them.

* [[Alien Geometries]]: The bizarre Polyhedron at the edge of the city.

* [[Anti-Hero]]: Most characters, including the playable ones. Particularly the Haruspex though, who even starts out with [[Hero with Bad Publicity|critically low Reputation]].

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: In this case, Anyone Could Die based on your actions.

* [[Back Stab]]: Doing this with any melee weapon (any ''actual'' weapon, that is, not your fists) will result in a [[One-Hit Kill]]. Just hitting the person's back isn't good enough though: you need to hit a ''very'' tiny area located around the base of the neck.

* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Dankovski. Also, damn near everybody who wears a longcoat.

* [[Cosmic Horror Story]]: Of a rather unusual kind, but it still shows.

* [[Cosmic Plaything]]: [[Fridge Horror|Everyone]], including the player character.

* [[Critical Existence Failure]]: Limping around and heavily bleeding from innumerable bruises and cuts? No problem: you'll still be able to walk, aim and fight exactly as well as when you're at 100% health. This wouldn't normally be that notable if it wasn't for the game's otherwise [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality|strict adherence]] [[Averted Trope|to realism]].

** Somewhat averted with the exhaustion and hunger meters: though you won't feel any adverse effects from them until they reach 100%, once they do, your health will begin to drop instead.

* [[Firing One-Handed]]: Every weapon except the rifle. Yes, even the [[Sawed-Off Shotgun]].

* [[Fragile Speedster]]: The marauder enemies. They're extremely agile and skilled in melee combat (traits bolstered by the fact that you fight them in small, cramped rooms), but can be killed with a single rifle shot anywhere on their body.

* [[Freudian Trio]]: The three lead characters qualify despite the fact that they don't work as a team at all.

** [[The Spock]]: The Bachelor.

* [[Guide Dang It]]: A lot of sections, especially the effects of items: only a few actually have helpful descriptions, and there's little way to tell which foods are most efficient (bread and smoked meat, by the way). Fortunately, there ''is'' an [https://web.archive.org/web/20130903170718/http://www.pathologic-game.com/path_walkthrough_eng.pdf official guide] that is very helpful.

** There is a specific example that the walkthrough doesn't help with due to a wonky translation: in Day 7 of the Bachelor's scenario, there's a sidequest that involves {{spoiler|collecting the mask and overall of an Executioner}}. However, there's a very narrow window of time for it to actually trigger: you need to talk to Mark Immortal after performing the penultimate step of the day quest, but before actually completing it. Semi-justified, since the sidequest relates to the day quest, but it's still bothersome that the game doesn't tell you this anywhere.

* [[Harmful Healing]]: The childrens' powder is one of the very few ways to {{spoiler|reduce your infection level}}, but it takes ''a lot'' of health (around 90%). Considering what it's made of, it's a miracle it can even heal.

** There's "harmful buffing" as well, of sorts: many medicines that boost your immunity have an adverse effect on your health and exhaustion as well, though not nearly to the extent of the powder.

* [[Healing Factor]]: Taking painkillers will cause you to regenerate health over time. It's very slow though, don't rely on it. They're best used right before sleeping, especially since [[Harmful Healing|they shoot your exhaustion through the roof as well]].

* [[Healing Hands]]: The [[Squishy Wizard|Devotress']] hands, apparently. Also a subversion, since she can [[Little Miss Badass|incapacitate or even kill]] with them via her [[Psychic Powers]].

* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: Despite (presumably) never having held a gun before the game begins, the three healers become remarkably adept with their weapons as soon as they pick them up.

* [[Ink Suit Actor]]: Most of the main character [[NPC]]s have faces identical with their small photo portraits seen in the conversation menu. [[Easter Egg|Some of the actors used for the photos are members of the dev team]] (e.g. Artemiy's portrait shows one of the game's writers).

* [[Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence]]: Used with both fences and edges of the playing area. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] when in a dialogue, one of the playable characters randomly notes that he can't climb fences and pipes. All the more ironic since he [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|does just that]] in a cutscene earlier in the game.

** If you get infected, the screen becomes blurry and zooms in and out periodically. If your infection meter is already high, the screen will also black out for a few seconds.

* [[It Got Worse]]: The infection. And the Executioners are harbringers of this. If you see one, be prepared for some very bad news.

* [[Just Before the End]]: [[Dying Town|The town has certainly seen better days...]]

* [[Justified Tutorial]]: Once you arrive in the city, the Executioner and Tragedian will be waiting patiently at your doorstep. If you talk to them, they will explain the various game mechanics and survival strategies via colourful metaphors (as is typical for them).

** Added points for lots of fairly funny [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] [[Expospeak Gag|in their expospeak]].

* [[Karma Meter]]: The Reputation meter is an interesting and realistic variation on this. It's actually, for all intents and purposes, another health meter, and one of the most important ones at that. If you squander your Reputation, an already [[Nintendo Hard]] game will become [[Up to Eleven|even more difficult]], as important [[NPC]]s will refuse to help you or provide shelter, most likely resulting in your unavoidable death.

* [[Knife Nut]]: You can use a scalpel or a bigger ordinary knife as melee weapons to defend yourself (or others). Firearms are the more powerful and safer to use weapons though, since melee fights in the game are [[Spam Attack|fast]] and [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|brutal]].

** Another example of this trope are the looters, who seem to be expert knife throwers. Like, ''ridiculously adept'' at it... Thankfully, you can [[Dodge the Bullet|dodge the blades]] if you think and move fast enough.

* [[Knight in Sour Armor]]: The [[Player Character]] (and, by extension, the player) will definitely become this by the end if you try to play morally.

* [[Let's Play]]: There is one for the [http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3033830 Bachelor] and one for the [http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3359432&pagenumber=1 Haruspex] on the [[Something Awful]] discussion board.

** The [http://lparchive.org/Pathologic/ Devotress] has an archived on with a smoother translation.

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: Every storyline character is named and is a major player in the story. The rest are just ragdolls.

* [[Loads and Loads of Loading]]: Every single time you enter/exit a building. Also, that ridiculous fog due to draw distance limitations.

* [[Magic Realism]]: Combined with [[Cosmic Horror Story]]. Unfortunately.

* [[Malicious Slander]]: The players characters are victims of some, and other characters deploy it as a weapon. It's not hard to work people up into a frenzy, the way things are going.

* {{spoiler|[[Meat Moss]]}}: Seen in the the city districts and quarters that got hit by the plague. [[Magic Realism|On buildings, the paved streets...]]

** [[Talking Is a Free Action]]: Time is also stopped during dialogues, which you will be even more grateful for, given how plot-heavy the game is and the [[Wall of Text|Walls of Text]] in most dialogues.

* [[More Dakka]]: [[Averted Trope|Nope]]. An automatic weapon would be useless due to the scarcity of ammo, anyway.

* [[Multiple Endings]]: All are [[Bittersweet Ending|bittersweet]], at best.

* [[Name of Cain]]: The Kain family.

* [[Never Bring a Knife to A Fist Fight]]: If you've come under attack, it's generally better to cripple your enemy with a firearm first, then hit or stab him. As long as you have ammo, that is...

* [[Nintendo Hard]]: It's pretty easy to waste time and resources at the start of the game in a way that will totally screw you over by the endgame.

* [[No Antagonist]]: Despite their conflicting methods, all the Adherents wish to put an end to the disease and restore order to the town. Even the thugs and bandits only rob out of necessity.

* [[Nominal Importance]]: When you talk to any of the characters, an icon with a black-and-white photo appears in the corner of the screen. With storyline characters, it's a person resembling the model. With random people, [[Lampshade Hanging|it's a creepy ragdoll]].

* [[Ominous Latin Chanting]]: The main menu theme. The rest of the game features examples of ''[[It Makes Sense in Context|Ominous Steppe Nomad Chanting]]'', interspersed with haunting, predominantly [[One-Woman Wail|female vocals]]. They greatly add to the already gloomy atmosphere of the game.

* [[One-Hit Kill]]: [[Back Stab]]s and [[Boom! Headshot!|headshots]] will result in these.

* [[One Bullet Clips]]: Sidestepped. The revolver is reloaded offscreen (the character pulls it down to their side first), avoiding the need for custom animations depending on how many bullets it currently has. The rifle ''is'' reloaded on-screen, but it has a ''literal'' one-bullet clip, so the trope doesn't apply. Played straight with the shotgun, however, which is also guilty of the "reload more visible shots than you actually have" subtrope.

* [[Organ Drops]]: They're only available to the Haruspex, since [[Justified Trope|he's the only one who knows how to]] [[Squick|cut them out]].

* [[Wizard Needs Food Badly|Player Needs Food Badly]]: You need to eat and even ''sleep'' regularly, since you can die not only from infection or low health, [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|but from hunger and exhaustion as well]]. And if you're wondering how a person can die from starvation within only a couple days, the Tragedician who explains the game's rules at the beginning basically says [[Hand Wave|"that's just how things are around here."]]

* [[The Power of Blood]]: ''And how...''

* [[Powers That Be]]: The Authorities.

* [[Putting on the Reich]]: General Blok is quite fond of a vaguely Nazi-ish salute, though he is by no means evil.

* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: The three [[Unlikely Hero|main characters]]. [[Deconstructor Fleet|Sort of...]]

* {{spoiler|[[Reality Is Out to Lunch]]: And weirdness is on special}}.

* [[Reckless Gun Usage]]: The reloading animation for the [[Sawed-Off Shotgun]] shows the [[Player Character]] using the stock "flick the gun back to close it using its own weight" technique. In [[Real Life]], this is actually a rather dangerous action that can damage the gun.

* [[Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]]: The Bachelor's scenario makes a case for the Enlightenment, while the Haruspex is on the side of Romanticism.

* [[Rule of Three]]: Three playable characters, three ruling families, three town districts, three gangs of kids... it goes on.

* [[Save Scumming]]: You'll be doing this a lot.

* [[Science Hero]]: Dankovski.

* [[Show Within a Show]]: The Theater puts on a play each night after midnight. Attending it is completely optional and has no tangible benefits, but you might [[Plot Parallel|learn something]] if you do.

* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: The protagonists are mostly [[Hero with Bad Publicity|hated]]. [[Jerkass|The people are small-minded bastards]]. Dankovski's "[[Love Interest]]" {{spoiler|commits suicide}}. Guess which side the story's on?

** Here's a quote from [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/11/butchering-pathologic-part-2-the-mind/ a review] that explains this:

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: ''[[The Void (video game)|Turgor]]'' (a.k.a. ''Tension'' or ''The Void'').

* [[Standard FPS Guns]]: Calling Pathologic a "standard FPS" would be laughable, so many of the traits inherent to the guns don't apply, even if the game does use them.

** [[Knife Nut]]: There are two kinds, both of which have [[Breakable Weapons|limited durability]], undermining their use as [[Emergency Weapon]]s. They can cause a [[One-Hit Kill]] if you use them to attack an ''absurdly tiny'' hitbox located around [[Back Stab|the back of the neck]], but due to the fact that people shift from side to side when walking, as well as the rather long delay when attacking, it's very hard to actually pull it off.

** [[Handgun]]: The derringer is roughly equivalent to the pistol in most shooters, but you can forget about ammo being plentiful.

** [[Sawed-Off Shotgun]]: You only get it halfway through the game, though it is quite effective at killing large mobs.

* [[Strange Girl]]: Laska, the keeper of the cemetery who communicates with the city's dead, singing to them and bringing offerings to their tombs.

** Ospina, a girl from the steppes who calls herself an evil spirit and keeps creepy dolls lying around her house.

* [[Talk to Everyone]]

* [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo]]: Maria.

* [[Timed Mission]] (plus [[In-Universe Game Clock]]): Basically the entire game. All quests must be finished the day they were received. The game spans 12 days, and you know this from the very beginning.

** There is a way to modify the [[Scrappy Mechanic|overly speedy flow of time]] [http://forum.ice-pick.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4278 by a simple edit of the game's config].

* [[Translation Train Wreck]]: The game itself has a notoriously awful translation, but isn't ''this'' bad. The manual, on the other hand...

* [[Trauma Inn]]: Averted for the most part. Though exhaustion will always decrease, you'll only recover health if you take painkillers beforehand. It can also be a double-edged sword: hunger will always increase while sleeping, as will the infection level if you're already infected.

* [[Trial and Error Gameplay]]: Sadly, quite ''a lot'' of it if you're playing for the first time. The aforementioned [[Scrappy Mechanic]] and [[In-Universe Game Clock]] don't leave enough room for bigger screw-ups on part of the player.

* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: An important theme in the game, but especially in the {{spoiler|Bachelor}}'s ending.

** The game's original Russian title - ''Pestilence: The Utopia'' - hints at this, along with a short throwaway dialogue with one of the town's [[Upper Class Twit]] [[NPC]]s.

** To top it all off, the [[Judge, Jury, and Executioner|Inquistor]] is poised to arrive the next day, and if you can't stop the disease by then, they are likely to take the reins themselves and destroy the plague [[It's the Only Way to Be Sure|at any cost]].

** Probably not coincidentally, this is the point where the red angels of death start appearing in the infected districts.

* [[What the Hell, Townspeople?]]: Invoked by Artemiy [[Snark Knight|in a few sarcastic jabs]].

* [[X Meets Y]]: It's as if the works of [[The Master and Margarita|Mikhail Bulgakov]], [[Franz Kafka]], Hieronymus Bosch and [[China Mieville]] were thrown into a single pot and cooked thoroughly into a delicious [[Mind Screw]] horror soup.

* [[You All Look Familiar]]: Every [[NPC]] except the [[Nominal Importance|named ones]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Survival Horror]]

[[Category:Miscellaneous Games]]

[[Category:Pathologic]]