Pathologic remake confusingly renamed Pathologic 2 'to avoid confusion'
Huh?
Ice Pick Lodge's remake of Pathologic, their wonderfully unpleasant 2005 horror, has picked up a publisher and a confusing new name. The crowdfunded full remake is now named Pathologic 2 [official site], though it definitely is not a sequel. New publishers Tinybuild say that the name is, somehow, "to avoid confusion". Right-o. Accompanying today's weird news is a gameplay vidblast showing sickness, autopsy, and purification in the diseased and dying town. Observe:
Pathologic is a mystery-solving survival horror set inside a town which is being killed by a mystery sickness. This isn't in the usual video game sense that NPCs sit around repeating the same few lines of moaning dialogue, but a real and terrible -- and accelerating -- decline that is lived across each of its simulated days. Playing as doctor, shaman, or mystic healer, we try to investigate the sickness. It's a... life sim RPG survival horror? Everything goes bad, quickly, and survival and horror become so much worse.
You can read so very much about that in young man Quinns's one two three-part diary. Spoilers, obvs.
So what's up with this new name? Alex Nichiporchik of publishers Tinybuild says, "What we referred to as Pathologic is now Pathologic 2 to avoid confusion between the original game, Pathologic Classic HD, The Marble Nest, Mor. Utopia, and so on."
Yes, it was strange that Pathologic has both a remake and revamp (one started after the remake was crowdfunded, even) and that does bring definite potential for confusion in whatever name they chose. 'Pathologic 2' brings a whole new load of confusion of its own, mind. Weird.
Well, expect Pathologic 2: Not A Sequel some time in 2018.
An alpha build should be going to Kickstarter backers "soon", packing a smaller town and sketches of some game systems. Tinybuild say they plan to release builds fairly frequently, following on feedback to tweak the game's direction.