

Russian Psychiatric Pastoral: Prologue
Ivan Lysenko · 2025 · Adventure, Simulation, Quick-Time Events, Interactive Fiction, Choose Your Own Adventure
Screenshots
About Russian Psychiatric Pastoral: Prologue
This episode is meant to test the game mechanics, after which the players can decide whether they are interested in buying the whole game.
In the prologue, the player will be given the opportunity to try out one interactive fighting sequence and put on a role of psychiatrist to interview a patient who suffers from schizotypal disorder.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2320080/
The Russian Psychiatric Pastoral - despondency, cruelty, lawlessness, and mental disorders. What else do you need to describe our reality? Immerse yourself in a multi-genre interactive movie, combining a psychiatrist simulator, a noir detective and unique fighting sequences built from a variety of video fragments. Take on the role of a professional psychiatrist, confront various psychiatric diagnoses, and investigate missing people.

At the center of the plot is you, a protégé of the authorities from Moscow. You find yourself in a small provincial town, which is famous for housing one of the largest psychiatric hospitals in the whole country: it holds the most dangerous criminals. In the depressing atmosphere of the Russian countryside you will meet a variety of crippled-by-fate locals, each of them adapted their own way to survive in this merciless reality. As you interact with them, you will find more and more details about the disappearance of people whose fate nobody cares about anymore. You will also analyze their mental disorders, from schizophrenia to bipolar disorder.

Key features:
- Varied dialogues, where you need to skillfully select proper words for every patient. As a reward, you learn more about their diagnoses;
- Collecting and matching information about missing people piece by piece;
- Explore a variety of mental diagnoses using educational charts and speadsheets;
- Exciting interactive fights, where your survival depends on your reaction;
- Unique aesthetics and atmosphere of the Russian countryside.

What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Players praise the game's unique and compelling atmosphere, particularly its distinctive Russian aesthetic and blend of unconventional gameplay styles that creates an experience unlike anything else. However, common complaints include unclear storytelling, excessive camera shake during action, punishing quick-time events with tight timing windows, technical issues like black screen crashes, and a generally gray, melancholic tone that won't appeal to all players.
9/10 feels like im literally in russia need more police to squat12 found this helpful
Initially, the plot is absolutely unclear and uninteresting, everything is gray and dull, the camera shakes too much when filming the action, QTEs are complex, with inconvenient buttons.10 found this helpful
⠀10 found this helpful
I can honestly say I have never, in my wildest dreams, ever played anything like this, nor imagined anything like this could ever exist. Equal parts Power Rangers on sega cd/3DO fmv game, Trauma Team diagnosis minigame with dialogue options, Russian ultra melancholy, and gritty gang violence. Not for everyone, not for the faint of heart, but I haven't been this entranced by a game in a long time. It is THAT compelling (for better and worse). (Dev: Couple suggestions: have the option to skip dialogue but still read what was said somehow, like a journal or history feature so we can review and make better decisions. Maybe make the quicktime success windows during fights more forgiving considering the fights are long and intense. Add Russian voiceover option, the dubbed vo actually isn't bad but I just prefer having the option for Russian VO with english subtitles :) and I think I'm not alone.)3 found this helpful
game stuck at black screen after the tutorial
pretty cool, even tho psychology is a fake leftie science
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