Developer Ice-Pick Lodge and publisher HypeTrain Digital have revealed the release date for upcoming not-quite-a-demo Pathologic 3: Quarantine, a free-to-play prologue that will introduce the world of the game.
Revealed back in December, Quarantine will be arriving for PC via Steam on March 17th, giving what the two studios call “a chilling glimpse into the dark and immersive world of Pathologic 3“.
Pathologic 3: Quarantine will tell the story of how Daniil Dankovsky, also known as the Bachelor, came to leave his “acclaimed lab” and kick off the events of Pathologic 3 proper. Quarantine will also introduce the core gameplay mechanics that will make up the basis of Pathologic 3.
As Ice-Pick and HypeTrain tell it, Pathologic 3: Quarantine will ask you to “examine patients, uncover strange secrets, and make first steps towards defeating Death”. That’s a pretty tall order for a prologue demo.
You’ll be able to examine and diagnose patients with the mysterious Sand Plague, but you’ll also be prying into their personal lives to see what kind of unsavory secrets they’re hiding.
As you play, you’ll also be building Dankovsky’s mental map of the world around him; the two studios say the Bachelor is a “sharp mind in search of the truth”, and it’s that very truth you’ll have to uncover throughout Quarantine.
You can check out the release date reveal trailer for Pathologic 3: Quarantine right here.
If you’re not familiar with Pathologic 3, it’s the third game in the Pathologic series, although technically, it’s actually sort of the first.
Announced in October, Pathologic 3 is actually an expanded and revised version of the long-awaited Pathologic 2 Bachelor Route, which was intended as an expansion for the second game but which appears to have taken on a life of its own, appropriately enough for Pathologic.
It gets more complicated, though, because Pathologic 2 is sort of an expanded and reworked version of the original Pathologic. It’s best to think of each game in the series as a reimagining of the first rather than a true sequel.
In any case, Pathologic 3 is due to arrive on PC sometime this year. The free Quarantine demo-slash-prologue will be available on March 17th.
