The Thaumaturge is a quality title whose generally compelling narrative and commitment to immersion outweigh it's basic and unimpressive gameplay mechanics and systems.

This game vaguely reminded me of Planescape Torment, a degree of praise I'd normally be hesitant to ascribe to a game, but the end result of the experience (deep immersion in a visceral, distinct period/place and a commitment to choice and consequence) feels familiar to PT.

As a non-spoiler disclaimer I ended up with the objectively worst ending out of many options, but I understood why, and how the choices I had made contributed to the outcome. It felt appropriate, bold and satisfying. Can you ask for more from a passably told, unique story game than feeling connected to the characters (Ligia is the GOAT) and invested in always wanting to see what happens next?

The graphics are surprisingly good for a (AA at most) title priced around ~$30 at launch, the soundtrack has some bangers, almost all cutscene dialog is voice acted to an acceptable standard and there is a shocking amount of historical and real world references tied into the fiction.

With that said it should be stated clearly that the actual gameplay of this game comes down to wandering around fairly pretty isometric Warsaw streets hitting the "pulse to highlight items" button that has become a staple of modern gaming, hitting the interact button on revealed items, and parsing the brief written description of the item before resuming the follow the arrow and sonar pulse items pattern. Amongst the many dialog prompts in the game there are a few notable overt "illusion of choice" moments, that while not more egregious than other titles in the genre, should be noted for people who truly despise this conceit.

The combat is turn based but rudimentary, and a fun puzzle to parse the first 5 times before becoming tedious very quickly. I highly recommend you select 'story' difficulty and sped-up combat animations and just plow through the combat sections if it doesn't resonate with you but you are compelled by the story.

Equally I strongly advocate for skipping the tedious filler 'tertiary' quests the game constantly throws at you. The main story is very strong, as are the few literal side quests. Skip the tertiary (listed distinctly as an 'urban secrets' section of your journal) list of collectables constantly assailing you as you navigate the city.

My playtime clocked in at over 20 hours, but I think an optimal play through focused on the main story, eschewing the hard difficulty combat and skipping the filler tasks, might clock in closer to 12-15 hours, with much more satisfying pacing and overall experience.

The game catch me by surprised. I never even heard bout the game no its development, just casually stumble it during my RPG search. While i keep my expectation low, 20 hours in and it turns out i enjoying every bit of it.

Its a mix between being a detective , solving mystery and turn based RPG.

Settings :

• Set in 1905 Warsaw,Poland during russia invasion/revolution. I have zero idea about this but the narrative carried out through the game game me some understanding regarding the economic, political and social crisis.

Story :

• Revolve around the MC, Wiktor Szulksi who is a thaumaturgist, a magician that can command solutor (spirit) who trying to solve a mystery surrounding his father's death and a missing grimoire. I basicly reminded of Persona series where u can have awesome monsters in your repertoire to command. I really like this guy, and infact u mold his personality as you like based on choices u made during dialogues. down the line, the choice made impact other people relationship with him and even change the endings. As the result of your actions and choices, you are locked from some responses. There's no right or wrong, just merely consequences.

Gameplay :

• For every missions, you basically have to find clues and sometimes involved a status check (Heart, Mind, Deed, or Word) to be able to perceive it. You are exploring every crook and crannies for some clues/traces that might lead to side quests and hidden quests. After a while i get bored reading everything, and just read the summary after he tied up everything. But i like they keep it simple , u just snap you fingers and it point exactly where to reach. So someone like me who has no patience, thank you for this ! running around like blind man searching for clues would make me quit like every other detective games lol. Oh and u get exp points for every traces you found. You can upgrade your stats by points get from exp, the from there you cna get modifiers to improve you combat skills. And you can catch pokemons, sorry i mean solutors. Some you get through story, some optional and some are hidden.

Combat :

• Now, its a turn based battle and im such a sucker for. Not a strategy tiled turn based, but like traditional JRPG style with some tweaks on it. You have couple of actions to attack, deplete focus points , cursed them with DOT and ult moves. Every one of your salutors has different skills sets and every skills has different window timing means some let u act very fast and some very slow. It very easy to understand but require some strategical approach after you reach some points where enemies has traits that need to be disabled by salutors , have 4 enemies (max) and hit like a bricks.. Sure it gets boring because i think most of the fights pretty easy, and u can brute force after u get strong salutors (Golem just make a pancake of everyone). But nevertheless its still fun and satisfying for me. The movements are pretty simples but combat can be quite slow. You can use any of your solutors freely , super good!! reduce the hassle for setup b4 every battles.

Graphics, Design, Environment

• Damn pretty.. Its using UE5 so it should looks good , i really like the mundane , dark, mystery historical settings.

Sounds

• Sound design and voice acting help bind everything together. They have a really good VA all around, i didnt skipped any of the voiced out lines.. i also learn some of the cursed word in russian... idi na hui ! lmao

Performances

• Occasional bugs and glitched particularly when loading into a new zone... i think had like 2 crashed earlier , but other than that. Totally playable.

Verdict :

• I like it enough that i made a 2nd playthrough (fast). The 1st playthrough full pride, full salutors and rasputin route and 2nd zero pride, some solutors and cotorie routes. I like 2nd one better, im glad i play the 2nd time.
• If you are RPG nerds, definitely checks this one out .
• 8.5/10 . I will keep the developer in my radar. Congrats Fool's theory . Very engaging and fun game.