And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the next round of "Guess the Genre!" The first question is worth £30.

Today's topic: Pathologic. Is this game...

A) Adventure
B) RPG
C) Survival Horror
D) Simulation
E) All of the above

Don't you hate multiple choice questions? You want to pick one, but the others sound sort of right, and then the all-or-nothing option beckons teasingly. This is exactly how I feel about Pathologic, having played through many hours of a preview version provided by UK publisher GMX Media, and yet still knowing I've just barely scratched the surface. But for now, it'll suffice to say that the game includes "A", if not solely limited to it.

While I can't be sure of genre classification, I can say with absolute clarity that this is one strange bird. No no, I'm not talking about the character with the human body and the head of a giant bird waiting outside your front door as soon as the game begins, although that should tip you off about the kind of surreal experience you're in for. I'm talking about the whole game, as Pathologic is surely as unique a game as I've played in some time. Perhaps ever. Just don't ask whether the game is good or bad just yet, because the answer will always be the same: it sure is "different".

Pathologic is set in an isolated town that resembles an impoverished area of eastern Europe, but scientifically stunted and trapped in a living nightmare. Whether for real or only in the minds of the inhabitants, here the lines between superstition, folklore, and reality are permanently and tragically blurred. Only too real, however, is a virulent plague that has spread through the town's water, crops, and livestock, and has recently begun to claim its first human victims when you arrive. Actually, if you believe the manual, the entire game is only a prototype simulator designed to test decision-making in preparation for such cataclysmic events truly happening, though this layer of abstraction never impacts the gameplay. And given the utterly bizarre choice of roles you're offered, it's more than a stretch to think of these as the last great hopes of humanity.

The game provides three different scenarios depending on the character you choose. The first casts you in the role of a doctor practicing an extreme form of medicine looking to confront the very aging/death process itself. The second sees you become more of a witch doctor than medical doctor, whose skills are some combination of surgeon and sorcerer. The third character is a woman referred to as the "devotress", who also has supernatural healing powers. Her role remains a mystery for now, as just the first two scenarios are available at the outset, while the third can only be unlocked on completion of the others. You can save and load games from either of the first two at any time, but you likely won't find yourself switching between them, as each provides a lengthy standalone experience intended to be played through to completion. Playing just one is essentially a game in itself, but playing all three will flesh out information only hinted at in each case individually. In an interesting twist, the lives of the characters (at least the first two) not only intersect but actually oppose, as each must fulfill a "destiny" at cross purposes with the others. However, while a fascinating concept that adds a nice level of intrigue, your actions can't actually affect the stories of the other, as there's no carryover from one scenario to another, and opposing characters act autonomously in each.

No matter who you're playing, your initial reasons for arriving in the town soon become secondary to the fallout of the epidemic, whose early victims are initially considered a series of murders that coincide with your emergence. So in one case you'll need to convince the town of the real danger, while in another you'll find yourself the target of a suspicious and hostile community. Needless to say, these experiences play out quite differently, at least until you're able to clear your name in the latter.



I'd tell you more about the story, but quite honestly, I can't. Not because I haven't played enough yet, but because I simply don't understand much of it. The ever-confusing blend of the mystical and the physical is challenging enough to follow, but the current state of localization makes it practically unintelligible in parts. While presented fully in English, with a combination of sporadic spoken lines with text-only dialogue (common to most RPGs), the translation from the game's original Russian is agonizingly incoherent at this stage. It's not like a Babelfish travesty that can't even connect words properly, but the overall meaning can be incredibly obtuse. It's a bit like reading Faulkner or T.S. Eliot, which allow you to read through fluently, only to finish with a blank and increasingly pained look on your face that finally produces an audible, "Huh?" Of course, this is only a preview version, so here's hoping GMX is able to iron out the largest language wrinkles before release.

What makes this issue so key is that Pathologic is heavily story-oriented. A large part of gameplay is engaging the townsfolk in dialogue and trying to piece together the unfolding drama and your involvement in it. Understanding your goals and purpose is crucial to advancing the plot, particularly as the game plays out in real time. Characters will come and go on their own schedule, and at times you'll need to know who to meet and when in order to make any progress at all. While such time allotments are fairly forgiving, that doesn't help you if you're wandering aimlessly from a lack of direction. The surprisingly unhelpful in-game journal proves to be no ally, so you're left to fend for yourself in making sense of the (presently confounding) tale.