If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Pathologic gets new trailer and a Kafkaesque nightmare demo build you can try if you dare

Pathologic is a cult classic horror game being rebuilt to be less awful to play, while remaining totally awful in all the ways that count. Find out what the fuss is about.

Cover image for YouTube video

Pathologic developer Ice-Pick Lodge has put together a new build of its remake demo, The Marble Nest. Here's a new trailer to celebrate that.

Unlike the early alpha build demo, which was restricted to backers and press, this one will be available to everyone to try, should you suddenly take a fancy to wandering plague-ridden streets as the world collapses around you in a surreal illustration of human nature under pressure.

It sounds groovy, am I right? The first demo build of Pathologic was fantastic, but a hell of a chore, which was very inline with the original. Ice-Pick's intention is for the finished game to feel like fingernails made of razors on the chalkboard of your brain, but for psychological reasons, not because of terrible interface and translation, so it's worked hard to make this new build less horrible. Except where it's supposed to be horrible, obviously.

I haven't had time to play the new Pathologic demo build for myself, but you don't need to take my word for it anyway: it's out now on Steam for you to check out for yourself. Please do, and send your feedback, so that Ice-Pick can continue to navigate the tightrope balance of being painful but not rubbish. There's a couple of hours of content in there so you can get a good feel for the whole Pathologic thing, but it's a parallel story rather than a slice of the game so you're not spoiling anything.

Pathologic will release in northern autumn for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. If you've never heard of it, it's a remake of a horror RPG with harsh survival mechanics in which you attempt to solve the riddle of a city visited by plague. Saying that is like saying icebergs are bits of very cold water, though; it's a factual sketch that says nothing of the experience of the thing itself.

Sign in and unlock a world of features

Get access to commenting, homepage personalisation, newsletters, and more!

In this article

Pathologic

PC

Related topics
About the Author
Brenna Hillier avatar

Brenna Hillier

Contributor

Based in Australia and having come from a lengthy career in the Aussie games media, Brenna worked as VG247's remote Deputy Editor for several years, covering news and events from the other side of the planet to the rest of the team. After leaving VG247, Brenna retired from games media and crossed over to development, working as a writer on several video games.

Comments