Pathologic 2 developers go in-depth on the game's combat and autopsy systems

Pathologic 2 is one of the games I'm most looking forward to in 2018. It's the remake of creepy adventure game Pathologic, which came out in 2005 and is considered one of the major influences on the modern survival horror genre. The remake smashed its Kickstarter target earlier this year before releasing a suitably weird trailer, and now developer Ice-Pick Lodge has put out a gif-heavy progress update and gone in-depth on many of the game's systems, including combat and autopsies.

First, let's recap what the game actually is: you're a medic trying to save a town in which a plague is running riot (hence the need for all the autopsies). You only have 12 days to do it, and you have eat, drink, and sleep as well as avoid the infection yourself.

So, onto the update. Shooting is not going to be central to the game, but the team want to make sure the guns are weighty, and they're "not yet happy with how it feels", they said in the update. The gif below does look like it needs some refinement, but I like some of the detail in the reload animation, such as the character pulling back the hammer before each shot (click the full-screen icon in the top right to see it in action).

I like the look of the game's looting system, too. Lootable containers are split into several compartments, each of which can behave differently. One might require a key, for example, or one might contain the plague infection, introducing an element of risk.

The autopsy system from the original game has been refined as well. There will be "no more looting bodies as if they were cupboards"—instead there's an 'autopsy interface' that you'll interact with, which basically means you're clicking and dragging organs. Lovely.

&nbsp;Click 'full screen' in the top-right&nbsp; — Click 'full screen' in the top-right

The game's reputation system has been similarly tweaked. In the original your global reputation went up and down depending on your actions, but now that's specific to neighborhoods within the town. So, as you move round the map people will react to you in different ways.

Lastly, the team gave an update about the progress of the game's setting. The town is fully built, but around a third of it still needs refinement, and they still need to create abandoned 'burnt-out' districts that were destroyed in an attempt to contain the plague. "The sense of place is arguably one of the most crucial elements for a game like Pathologic 2, so we’re making sure every corner of the Town feels right," the team said.

Clearly there's lots of work still to do, but what they have so far would suggest they're still on track for a 2018 release. For the full, gif-heavy update, click here.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.