I know I pulled you in here with one hell of a headline, but I’ve been having a bunch of fun with Pathogenic over the last couple of days. So much fun, in fact, that I want to make sure as many people as possible hear about it, so you’ll have to forgive a smidge of sensationalism back there.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, the headline is accurate. Pathogenic is a lovely top-down arcade shooter. It does indeed fuse the creature creation aspects of Spore with the viral-growing elements of Plague Inc. And then, finally, it does shrink you right down and let you experience the inside of the human body, a bit like the 1987 movie Innerspace.
What is Pathogenic, then?
I’ve compared it to a few things that it is like, so let’s now zero in on what it actually is.
Pathogenic is a twin-stick shooter, and it’s also an action-roguelite where you can unlock new abilities and become more powerful the more you play. It’s set inside the human body, but you’re not playing as Martin Short in Innerspace. Instead, you’re a nasty little virus, and you’re infecting a poor (?) doctor in a lab.
Your virus starts via a cut in the skin, and once you’re safely inside the body, you must work your way through the guts, and then eventually up into the heart, where you’ll do your best to kill your host. It might sound a bit macabre, but it actually feels more like playing an arcade shooter that has been fused with an elegant coffee table book about the immune system.
Pathogenic revels in its biological theme, and I’ve really enjoyed how the whole thing has been pulled together, with its great audio-visuals, simple yet elegant combat, tight controls, satisfying physics, and a really clever approach to theory crafting.
Under the Microscope
As you play and beat the mini-bosses that guard each region of the body, you’ll unlock points to spend on powering up your starting build. The big upgrades are applied between runs, and you can boost your damage, health, and luck – that sort of thing.
Your starting build can be evolved mid-run, but I’ve yet to be really sold on the benefits of increasing your mass when the levels are so tight and confined. There are so many other ways that you can upgrade your build over the course of a run, with new weapons and power-ups to be assigned to a limited number of hardpoints.
You can switch to the editing mode whenever you like, and I really like how this modular upgrade system has been implemented. You really do feel like you’re evolving your virus during each run, thanks to Pathogenic’s excellent use of transmogrification and the intuitive structure of the editor.
With a host of ways to evolve your viral avatar, a whole body full of defences to fight through, and a brilliant scientific theme that has been implemented with style, Pathogenic has made a very strong impression on me. I’m going to keep playing to make sure, but I think I’ll be adding Aberrant Labs’ action-roguelite to several of my best-of round-ups in the next couple of weeks.
