Get ready to get weird in Pathologic 3: Quarantine, a free 'prologue chapter' about a young doctor looking for immortality in the world's most miserable town

Pathologic 3: Quarantine Release Date Reveal - YouTube

Announced in October 2024, Pathologic 3 promises to blend the notorious weirdness of the Pathologic series with a new twist: Time travel, enabling players to "revisit key events and alter them" in hopes that things will turn out slightly less awful than they did the first time around. We still don't have a release date, although it's slated to be out in 2025, but we'll soon be able to get a taste of what's coming in Pathologic 3: Quarantine, a free prologue chapter that's set to arrive in March.

Normally, I would say no, you can't go back in time so you might as well learn to live with it, but this is Pathologic, so probably a little bit of chronological hopscotch is in the cards. Your task sounds grim regardless: You'll have to examine and diagnose patients to fight the Sand Plague, but also dig deeper into their lives "to find out the unpleasant truths they may hide." Is that relevant to a medical diagnosis? Again, in Pathologic, I'm going to say probably yes.

Courtesy of a recently posted developer's blog, here's a closer look at some Pathologic 3 gameplay—note that it does have some "spoilers about gameplay mechanics," so if you really want to go into it cold, maybe give it a pass.

Pathologic 3 Devlog #02: Do No Harm - YouTube

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Pathologic 3: Quarantine is set to come out on March 17, and as mentioned, it's free. You can snag it from Steam.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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