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The first storyline is that of a Bachelor of Medicine, Daniel Dankovski, who has been asked to come to the town to scientifically establish that one of the residents is over two hundred years old. However, the man dies as soon as you arrive.
The second storyline is that of a Haruspex, Artemii Burakh
The third storyline is that of Klara, the Devotress, the young woman who many believe is either a messiah, or a demon. She is able to either heal a person or utterly kill them with a gesture of her hands.
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There are three main families in the game, all in some way fighting against each other for the control of the town. Other than them, there are [[Loads and Loads of Characters|loads and loads of other characters]], all somehow related to the story.
The game received many good reviews praising its atmosphere. Sadly, the English translation was [[Blind Idiot Translation|absolutely incomprehensible]] at times, which, coupled with the developer being practically unknown outside Russia, resulted in rather bad sales
{{tropelist}}
* [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]: The game notably averts most of these. Many of the gameplay mechanics are surprisingly realistic
* [[Adam Smith Hates Your Guts]]: Justified by the epidemic and supplies not coming into the isolated town anymore. Fortunately, the value of your items and the quest rewards scale as well.
** Also inverted on occasion, where prices will sometimes ''decrease'' on the next day. Increases are far more common
** [[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.
* [[Anachronism Stew]]
* [[Another Side, Another Story]]: All three main characters have their own agenda.
* [[Anti-Hero]]: Most characters, including the playable ones. Particularly the Haruspex
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: In this case, Anyone Could Die based on your actions.
** Though, more specifically, only the characters who would "give their life to you" will "die because of you".
* [[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
* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Dankovski. Also, damn near everybody who wears a longcoat.
* {{spoiler|[[Beautiful Void]]}}: {{spoiler|Day 12
* [[Betty and Veronica]]: Eve and Maria in Dankovski's scenario. Subverted
* [[Big Freaking Gun]]: {{spoiler|The army's cannons used in the ending scenes are ''fucking giant''. And they're mounted on railroad tracks
* [[Blind Idiot Translation]]: [[Zig Zagged]]
* [[Boom! Headshot!]]: It's usually a [[One-Hit Kill]]. Try to get the hang of it, since anything that conserves ammo (see below) is a very useful technique.
* [[Boss Battle]]: Exactly one, and it isn't even necessary to progress the plot
** Arguably, there's also {{spoiler|the hunchback and [[Flunky Boss|his squad of arsonists]]}} in the Bachelor's scenario, though he isn't much tougher than a regular enemy. And again, it's [[Bonus Boss|optional]].
* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: [[Averted Trope|Forget it]]. Ammo is scarce.
* [[Breakable Weapons]]: All weapons have 'durability' scores that go down when you use them. Though weapons can still be used even at 0% durability, the game averts [[Critical Existence Failure]]
** Equipment also has a durability score that goes down the longer it's worn, though it seems to play [[Critical Existence Failure]] straight.
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]/[[No Fourth Wall]]: Depends on how you look at the theater themes.
* [[The Caligula]]: Nina Kain, deceased mother of Maria, often acted this way, though she still was beloved and respected by the Town's people.
* [[Central Theme]]: Sickness and decay—both in the physical and metaphysical sense—are the most obvious ones, though the theme of sacrifice—that everything comes at a price—is also important.
** The former is present throughout much of the gameplay:
** The latter is especially prevalent in {{spoiler|the [[Multiple Endings]]
* [[Changing Clothes Is a Free Action]]: Although the inventory menu is the only one to avert [[Menu Time Lockout]], your character still puts on/removes clothing instantaneously. Yes, even a ''plague mask''.
* [[Children Are Innocent]]: [[Playing with a Trope|Played with]] [[Deconstruction|to hell and back...]]
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* [[City with No Name]]: Sometimes it is just called "The Town" or, in Russian, "Город" (Gorod). It's also often referred to as "Town-On-Gorkhon" ("Город-на-Горхоне" Gorod-Na-Gorkhonye) (the Gorkhon being the main river that runs through the town).
* [[The Clan]]: Three of them. The Kains, the Saburovs and the Olgimskys.
* [[Closer to Earth]]: Compared to [[Judge, Jury, and Executioner|what we]] [[Utopia Justifies the Means|hear of]] [[All Crimes Are Equal|the other Inquisitors]], {{spoiler|Aglaja}}, the only female Inquisitor we know of, is extremely fair, kind
** The [[Rule of Three|trio]] of "aristocratic women" (Lara, Julia
* [[Cosmic Horror Story]]: Of a rather unusual kind, but it still shows.
* [[Cosmic Plaything]]: [[Fridge Horror|Everyone]], including the player character.
* [[Creepy Child]]: Laska.
** Ospina
* [[Critical Existence Failure]]: Limping around and heavily bleeding from innumerable bruises and cuts? No
** 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.
** Completely averted with the infection meter
** Averted with [[Breakable Weapons|weapon durability]]. Melee weapons will get weaker with less durability, and ranged weapons will become less accurate.
* [[Cutscene Incompetence]]: At one point, you enter a dungeon reasonably well-armed and with a killing score comprising of dozens of thugs. Then a handful of unarmed mooks approach you and beat the [[Player Character]] into a pulp while you watch helplessly.
* [[Cutscene Power to the Max]]: Subverted. The opening cutscene of Artemiy's scenario shows him beating a group of armed muggers to death with his bare hands... however, once gameplay starts, it becomes apparent that the battle took its toll on him, as his [[Life Meter]] is at critical levels.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: One review called Pathologic "''[[The Elder Scrolls|Oblivion]] with cancer, in a good way.''"
* [[Dark World]]
* [[Daylight Horror]]: Absolutely. Could very well be the best example of this trope when it comes to video games.
* [[Dialogue Tree]]
* [[Dieselpunk]]: The town's architecture, aesthetics and level of technology evoke this, [[Used Future|in a very dreary fashion]].
* [[Disc One Nuke]]: It's possible to get a revolver and a decent amount of bullets on the first day in both the Bachelor's and Haruspicius' scenarios. Though the revolver isn't the greatest weapon, it'll allow you to survive encounters with relative ease, and you won't get any more guns until
** In the Bachelor's scenario, one reward for a sidequest on
* [[Downer Ending]]: If you refuse to make a decision on the final day, or fail to complete the game properly, you get treated to {{spoiler|a horrific montage of the town overcome by the plague, right before the army comes and destroys everything}}.
* [[Eldritch Location]]: ''A lot of them
* [[Empathic Healer]]: How the Devotress' [[Healing Hands]] work.
* [[Femme Fatale]]: Maria Kain.
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* [[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.
** A weapon example is the revolver. It's relatively weak and pretty inaccurate, but its large magazine size allows you to fire multiple bullets in quick
* [[Freudian Trio]]: The three lead characters qualify
** [[The Spock]]: The Bachelor.
** [[The McCoy]]: The Haruspex.
** [[The Kirk]]: The Devotress.
* {{spoiler|[[Gaia's Vengeance]]}}: {{spoiler|The infection is spreading because the ''earth'' is sick
* {{spoiler|[[Gainax Ending]]: No matter which one you get, it's going to make your brain blow a circuit}}.
* [[Gateless Ghetto]]: Avoided. Most of the houses can be broken into. All you need is a lockpick...
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* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: "But I need the dead tissues not [[I Love the Dead|for entertainment]], but for struggle against the illness!"
* [[Glass Cannon]]: The arsonist enemies. Their firebombs can deal high amounts of continuous damage, and have long range, but they have just as much health as regular townspeople, meaning they can be killed with a single rifle shot.
* [[Golden Ending]]:
* [[Good Old Fisticuffs]]: Your basic weapon. Nothing special though. More of an [[Emergency Weapon]] at best...
* [[Grey and Gray Morality]]: The line between good and evil can get chillingly thin in this game.
* [[Guide Dang It]]: A lot of sections, especially the effects of
** There is a specific example that the walkthrough doesn't help with due to a wonky
*** Even more specifically (also due to translation weirdness), there's one that's a [[Guide Dang It]] within ''the official guide itself''! In the section describing the aforementioned quest, the guide mentions that {{spoiler|the overall}} is in {{spoiler|a "pit" that's "opposite of the cemetery"}}. These are pretty confusing
* [[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
** Though the powder is perhaps the most prominent example, due to the game's multiple survival meters, this happens for most healing items. Usually, something that restores one bar will reduce the
* [[Have a Nice Death]]: When you die, you get a short cutscene with the Executioner and Tragedian symbolically playing out your death scene on the stage of the theater.
* [[Healing Factor]]: Taking painkillers will cause you to regenerate health over time. It's very slow though
* [[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]].
* [[Heal Thyself]]: You'll be doing that a lot. The only means of restoring your health, though (the actual health, not the infection level), are rest and ''bandages''. That's right, you can even remove the symptoms with a couple of bandages.
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