The Thaumaturge Reviews

LOVE THIS GAME! This game is expansive, loosely historic, and atmospheric all while having a fascinating plot to follow. This game has 12 POSSIBLE ENDINGS. I just finished one ending and have already started a new playthrough to work on the next. Amazing game that does not disappoint!

The historic setting, soundtrack, and fully voice-acted characters bring this game to life by immersing the player into an eerie, strife-riddled, pre-Soviet world where selfish human traits can devastate the very communities in which they are allowed to fester. Combat starts off with simple choices but gradually becomes more complex as the player advances, and dialog decisions can affect mission and follow-on character interactions. The dialog is mostly enjoyable, with various characters speaking different languages appropriate for the setting. However, in some cases, the voice acting distracted from the immersion, as certain Warsaw locals sounded as if they were born and raised in...let's say Albuquerque (this referenced character, and the boxing sisters, are the only exceptions I've discovered so far). The game looks beautiful as well, with dialogs focused on the characters speaking and the isometric view during movement designed with cozy environmentals and otherwise irrelevant townsfolk to populate the various locations. The only glitches I've experienced are visual, with the overhead view sometimes squeezing into a smaller screen ratio on occasion. The game is still playable in this state, though mouse clicks still register as if the game were still portrayed in the display ratio selected in the Options screen. Restarting the game always fixes the issue, and it is by no means game-breaking. Definitely an enjoyable experience!

A really in depth investigative game with a very interesting hook of the main character being a Thaumaturge. Leave no stone unturned as you use your senses on objects to find out what people are feeling and thinking to find out the truth. Several different outcomes for some side quests! For me, the graphics are choppy and at times my character clips invisible objects and cannot move properly. Nothing game breaking as it resolves fairly quickly but still it gets in the way of an otherwise beautiful setting. If you're looking for a good investigation game with a story set in the Romanov Era with Rasputin, this is it!

What an amazing game! Very original and extremely entertaining. HIGHLY recommended!

Overall really enjoyed the setting, salutor designs, combat music. The history mixed in made me do some reading after completion.

A truly excellent game. The best money I've spent on steam in ages. I never leave reviews but I had to because not enough people have played this. Aesthetics 11/10 - Peak Graphics 9/10 - Lovely lighting at max but easily adjustable to slow computers very occasionally glitchy, never in a gamebreaking way Gameplay 9/10 - The magic system is truly compelling and deeply embedded in the mechanics of all three modes of play (combat, conversation, walking about). My only issue is that some of the mechanics weren't spelled out super clearly like how levelled up actions work, but its not hard to figure out. Story 10/10 - Just loved it. Super engaging. Cared about the characters. Choices actually felt important and affected conversation decisions and the ending was pretty modular so individual choices affect parts of the ending. Abaurycy 12/10 - THE POET AND THE PILGRIM (I love Abaurycy so much he is my favourite character.)

I have mixed feeling about this game. It´s easy to see that there was a lot of work put into this game and you really feel set back into Polish history. The lore and mythical figures are very interesting. There is really a lot of potential here. On the other hand, the story just didn´t capture me. Some characters are interesting, but you only get to know everyone very superficially. The game is dark, but plays it safe at the same time. There was never a shocking or surprising moment for me. The gameplay consists mostly in walking around and in some combat that I personally found a bit boring. I think if you really like this setting a lot and slow-burn stories, you might still want to buy it.

Reminds me a lot of playing the Witcher 1 back in '09, a really interesting setting with great writing and characters that's wrapped in Eurojank. Fun AA experience, but it's not always a smooth ride. Really hope to see the concept further refined in future installments. + Pride system is a very interesting balancing act between feeding your Flaw at the risk of locking out future dialog options and being forced into certain late game paths. Sometimes you have to pick and choose your battles. + The Salutors are all very cool with unique combat niches and are tied to some of the best quests in the game. The serial killer plotline in the slums is a standout.  + To collect all the monsters and power-ups you need to be a dick to people, again forces you to engage with the core themes of the game in regards to Wiktor trying to balance his pride and ambition with his obligations to his loved ones and community.  - Lack of enemy variety, fights end up feeling very repetitive. Very disappointing that in a game all about capturing Eastern European spectres, you never actually get to fight any of them, or even any other Thaumaturges. Lots of fights also feel shoehorned in just for the sake of throwing in a combat encounter. - Some of the translations are a little questionable, lot of colloquialisms that sound very modern, which is too bad when the game otherwise does so much to try to immerse you in turn-of-the-century Poland.   - Quests are interesting with varied outcomes, but feels like most investigation boils down to "Scan for clues, then exhaust all dialogue options."

Just finished the game. Don't waste your time with this one. It's absolute trash and extremely infuriating. Not only is the gameplay just extremely mid overall, but the gameplay mechanics actively conflict with the choices of endings you can receive. I'm referring specifically to the skill tree and collection of salutors vs. the dialogue choices that having maxed out branches of the tree enable for you. At the end of the game, no matter which side you pick, you NEED to have maxed or almost maxed out branches of the trees. Despite what the text says in a locked dialogue choice, having a salutor means nothing. You NEED the specific branch of the skill tree unlocked to a certain level. I had collected all eight salutors and it still locked out dialogue choices telling me that I was not at a high enough skill level for a specific branch OR missing a salutor. Why mention the ownership of the salutor at all if it makes no difference? To add insult to injury it is impossible to max out all trees and there is no respec option. Furthermore, if you waste skill points trying to get all trees unlocked to a specific level, you actively screw yourself b/c you won't have enough skill points to max out ANY of the trees, but the problem here is you need the branches of every tree leveled up to a certain extent or the combat itself becomes extremely slow and annoying since you are unable to deal enough damage or heal quickly enough. And all that aside, there's just the absolutely boring gameplay which is akin to a walking simulator while spamming the right mouse button to trigger your thaumaturge sense / perception. Like 70% of the game is your character just walking around and doing this, occasionally clicking on glowing stuff on the ground, which you click through to obtain a "conclusion" which is supposed to give you additional dialogue choices, but oh wait...ONLY if you have a high enough developed branch of the skill tree or all those clues you find don't actually mean anything. And finally, there's the god awful turn-based combat. Listen, I like turn-based combat games. I like them a lot. But this game? Oh it made me hate turn-based combat so much. Battles, even those with minor mob enemies, are so slow and drawn out and give you so little experience that they are more or less not worth it at all. Absolutely awful balance and game design. Seriously, skip this one or maybe only pick it up on a DEEP sale. Although even though that's what I did, I still feel like I wasted my money and time with it.

The Thaumaturge is a prime example of a game that I would give a "neutral" rating to if I could. The presentation is pretty solid, the premise is unique, and there is definitely some heart put into it. The devs here did a good job on the game, and you can tell there is passion. In fact, there is definitely an audience of gamer that I may recommend this to, but I think it's an overall no go for me. I completed the game, and I gave it a decent shot. I got most of the achievements, and I truly enjoyed the first 8-10 hours of the gameplay! It gave me a CRPG mixed with Disco Elysium vibe, and I enjoyed watching the main character fool around in peoples minds. The Salutors are incredible from an artistic point of view, and the first few battles with them were pretty cool! Nailed the art work here... shout out to the art team! The gripe I had is that it sorta lost all the charm after that 10 hour mark. I kept waiting for the plot to build up to something I would be excited about, and it just sort of... never did. The climax points of each chapter didn't really feel meaningful to me, and I started to feel encumbered by constantly trying to read every piece of information on every item I picked up. I found that most explanations and artistic descriptors were largely irrelevant. There wasn't much to gain from reading most items, and this is the primary mechanic of the game. Look up some gameplay before you grab this one. It's more of a CRPG, detective game with a ton of seemingly dull dialogue. If I cared a bit more about the characters, I would have probably enjoyed it a bit more, but outside of the main character and one or two others, there wasn't a ton of personality. This is just my opinion, and I could see how people would find it interesting. The writing wasn't half bad! Though the game is much better than Greedfall (a game I truly did not enjoy), it suffered from some of the same visual issues. During animations, facial expressions were odd, loading/saving always created a glitchy experience for a few seconds, and character progression really stalled about halfway through the game. I probably wouldn't recommend this to any of my gamer friends, but there is definitely an audience out here for this. It's not a bad game! The best advice I can give is look up a bit of spoiler free gameplay and see if its for you before dropping the money. Overall 5/10