The Thaumaturge (2024, Windows) Review

WHERE FLAWS ARE GOOD

The Thaumaturge is a Polish interactive story (from developer 11 Bit Studios) that inserts just enough gameplay elements to make it a CRPG. It features the isometric perspective, choices, skills, leveling and turn-based combat, but as I was playing I felt that it would be just as great to experience as a plain visual novel.

It just radiates atmosphere; taking place right at the start of the 20th century, The Thaumaturge paints a depressing existence in the city, with its muted colors, muddy roads, gated mansions and industialized brick buildings. The somber string soundtrack instils melancholy and hopelessness. You can almost feel the stench of horseshit and the pollution of the Vistula permeating the sophisticated facade. Workers rise against their employers, women rage against gender inequalities, people are being persecuted for their religious beliefs. Something's rotten in the state of Polish Russia. 

Please take note that this game is not for everyone. In order to love it like I did, you have to be okay with lots of reading and listening to dialogue. I can guarantee that if you are, you won't be disappointed; the writing is top-notch, creating a cast of memorable characters that embroil you in sidequests so elaborate they're indistinguishable from the main quest.

Taking place mostly in Warszaw in 1905, the mature, character-driven plot follows the thaumaturge Wiktor Szulski. Against the backdrop of the early stages of the Russian revolution, he sets out on an open-ended personal quest related to his late, estranged father. In his will, the old man left him his powerful grimoire. A problem arises - the grimoire has been lost somewhere in the city. Your quest is to find it.

In your pursuit, you can act anyway you want; you can be a proud asshole, befitting of your posh clothing style, or you can be more humble. It works on so many levels, mixing politics with the deeply personal and even psychological. Your choices affect story developments tied to Wiktor, his nation and the fate of many characters as well as Wiktor's relationship with them.

The game raises many interesting questions, and the most intriguing is the concept of flaws. Without them, how do we overcome anything? How can we strive for anything when we feel complete? We all know flawed characters are the best, and in The Thaumaturge, several NPC:s wear them like mental scars, indicated as a shining red wound within their souls. When they do, they're prime targets of so-called salutors; invisible demons who latch on to said flaw to exploit it for their own amusement.

As a thaumaturge, Wiktor is an expert on these salutors, since his kind is the only one who can see them and possibly tame them. As you progress through the game and explore Warszaw, you investigate what flaw haunts certain people. Once you find out, you can fix them and recruit the salutor that was drawn to it. You can collect up to eight of them as if they were Pokémon, and utilize them in both of the central game mechanics - combat and psychic detective work.

One of the most prominent characters turns out to be Rasputin - yes, the Rasputin - who becomes an important participant in the upcoming plot. He doesn't disappoint; he's cunning, charismatic, friendly - and perhaps, or perhaps not, totally reliable. Whenever you find a new salutor, you can turn to him for help in taming the beast. It's clever writing. That way he stays relevant all the way through to the dramatic ending.

The turn-based combat is about planning; where and when to use what salutors' specific abilities, and what unlockable abilities to apply to your own standard attacks. For instance, you can strengthen your quick attacks, or hasten your slow but powerful ones. Or you can apply a stunning effect to your bleeding attack and watch them stand helpless as the life force trickles out of them. All that, and much more.

Sure, the possibilities are near endless, but that unfortunately doesn't mean they're required. On the standard difficulty, I quickly found a foolproof way to win each battle. With just a little tweaking, it even worked on the trickier bossfights. I felt like I beat the combat side of the game early, which ruined that aspect of the game for me. Every battle screen became little more than a slight hindrance. If you want a real gameplay challenge, you should probably select a higher difficulty.

Luckily, The Thaumaturge is so much more than just combat. Your intriguing psychic skills make you a master manipulator and detective, and that's how you spend the lion's share of the game. You can read a person's feelings from any object they've touched. If you're unsure of a suspect's intentions, ask them to hand you a smoke and read their emotions lingering in the cigarette. No wonder thaumaturges are looked upon with distrust and malice. No secret is safe around them.

This results in a lot of playful dialogue where an NPC tries to seem polite and accommodating, not knowing you know he's a cold-blooded killer (or something to that effect). Overall, the dialogue is fantastic; playful yet brief, full of wit and personality. It sounds natural, as if they're actually conversing rather than explaining or advancing the plot. The same goes for the item descriptions, written in style. I "read" each character's possessions - clothes, tools, furniture, etc. - with great interest, soaking up every word since they add so much subtext to their spoken dialogue.

Wiktor's voice actor (Maciej Nawrocki) speaks in a drowsy, almost drunk manner, making him sound like he's on the verge of falling asleep. His performance is an acquired taste, showing a not-so-subtle hint of arrogance, further elevated by his aristocratic upbringing. Even when he's under grave threat, his nonchalante manner of speaking make it sound so effortless. Like, "I don't have to be scared, because I will demolish you in a fight." Starting out somewhat skeptical, I came to like this character a lot.

Add to that a slightly interactive world; newspapers reporting on nationwide upheaval; bulletin boards advertising dubious tinctures; wanted posters of crooks you can be sure to meet later. Scattered items reveal clues to locations of hidden activites - moonshine breweries, gambling dens, football matches - you can seek out to earn a chunk of experience. It's this game's version of "lore", but it feels infinitely more relevant than usual.

I only wish the detective gameplay wasn't so overly automated. You right-click to detect items of interest, that are then pointed out by a stream of consciousness; a beautiful visual effect in burgundy that flows across the screen. It sticks to certain objects that you can then left-click to investigate - if you've the spiritual affinity to read them, that is.

Once you've gathered enough clues, Wiktor draws the conclusions himself, automatically, which is a bit disappointing. But the clues are so well-written and absorbing, I made it a sport to reach the conclusions before Wiktor did. If they make a sequel, I hope they gamify the detective work some more; make the player have to work a bit to solve the cases. I certainly felt like I was up to the task.

But with character writing this good - just wait until you meet Rasputin, Wiktor's sister Ligia, madame Samira, Abaurycy and uncle Voronin, just to name a few - and excellent dialogue, I barely notice how little gameplay is actually involved. My mind is just as wrapped up in the happenings as if it was a full-fledged game of action and reflexes. I was constantly trying to calculate where all the plot strands were supposed to twine further down the line. The ending was amazing, and the choices so many, that I kept reflecting on what happened, or what might've been, for a long time afterwards.