The Thaumaturge

The Thaumaturge is an adventure game featuring turn based combat, set in Warsaw, 1905. Player character Wiktor Szulski is a kind of mage who can sense memories and emotions of people by touching an object which belongs to them. He can also capture demons (called salutors) which are invisible to most people, and use their powers during combat. [H1]Gameplay (medium quality)[/H1] • Most quests play like a detective style investigation, where the player must explore the area, talk to NPCs, and find clues which unlock more dialogue options or identify the location of where to go next. • However, this is less interesting than it sounds. In practice, you just have to run around spamming right mouse to sense important objects or pieces of paper, and then left click on them to get the information. The player doesn’t have to interpret the clues at all, Wiktor will always know what to do next once you’ve found all the clues. • As you’re exploring the city, you’ll frequently be attacked by thugs, police, soldiers, etc. And some quests lead to boss fights where you’ll need to defeat and capture salutors who have possessed civilians. • Combat is turn based, and the turn order for the player and enemies is shown on a timeline at the top of the screen. Each attack or ability takes a certain length of time to perform, and usually weaker attacks happen quicker than stronger attacks. • Your salutors can also attack or use abilities during combat. Only one salutor can be active, but you can swap them at the start of each turn. • Some abilities apply status effects such as bleed, which deals damage over time, or you could delay or even cancel the enemy’s next action. Some enemies have resistances to status effects, or regenerate health each turn. These traits can usually be removed by attacking them with a specific salutor. • Your attacks and abilities can also be upgraded with special effects such as double damage, self heal for each bleeding enemy, cancel enemy attack if they’re bleeding, etc. This can allow you to set up some strategies, for example I would often start by applying bleed to all enemies, and then use my other attacks which had bonuses triggering off bleed. • Combat was fairly balanced on the normal difficulty. I only had problems with a couple of boss fights which involved several enemies applying bleed and other negative statuses to me. However, one salutor has an ability which protects the player from statuses, so I just needed to change tactics to constantly use that protection to stay alive while I slowly took out the enemies myself. [H1]Story (low quality)[/h1] • Main story is very slowly paced. For many hours, there’s no sense of an overall goal or a primary antagonist to defeat [spoiler](although I had my suspicions about a couple of characters)[/spoiler]. Wiktor has to return home to attend his dad’s funeral with his sister, and afterwards for a long time you just progress from one minor task to another while looking for a missing book. • Localisation is poor. Dialogue often feels like its missing something in translation, with many examples of unusual grammar, while sometimes not making sense at all. • The script also does that thing where characters keep randomly inserting foreign words into their sentences so for example even if you're playing with English voices and English subtitles, if you don't also speak Polish / Russian / Spanish / German, you won't always understand what is being said. • Conversations with NPCs usually have dialogue choices. Some choices are marked as "pride", which is Wiktor’s character flaw relating to his salutor. These choices often feel aggressive or arrogant, and because I usually try to play as a nice/friendly guy, I found that I was locked out of many dialogue choices later in the game because I didn’t have enough pride points. Sometimes I only had one available dialogue choice, which meant the conversations were basically playing themselves. • Voice acting is very poor. [h1]Technical (medium quality)[/h1] • It took me 20 hours to complete the main story and most of the side quests. • I didn’t have any problems with bugs or crashes. [h1]Recommendation[/h1] While the turn based combat can sometimes feel tactical, unfortunately I really didn’t enjoy the poor quality story. My recommendation is to avoid playing The Thaumaturge, especially because there are so many other better games available.

I loved this game. I was hooked — the world, the style, the characters, all of it. It gave me something to look forward to every day. But now it’s broken, and the developers haven’t done a thing to fix it. It crashes on startup with a fatal error: BulkData compressed header read error. This package may be corrupt! I reinstalled it three times, verified files, cleared saves, reset settings, killed overlays, disabled antivirus, tested memory, launched it outside of Steam, even tried to manually redownload the files from Steam’s depot system. Nothing fixed it. The .exe didn’t even exist in one of the installs. I spent hours troubleshooting this. It’s not my system. The game’s data is corrupt or mispackaged, and the devs haven’t acknowledged it or provided a single fix. What hurts most? I’m dying. This isn’t just a hobby for me. I don’t know how much time I’ve got left. I chose to spend it on this game because it gave me joy. Now it’s gone, and no one seems to care. If you’re thinking about buying it, just know: even if you fall in love with this world like I did, they might still take it away from you — and leave you with silence.

It's a shame what a disappointment this game turned out. The whole concept and setting are good, but there are sooo many bad things about the game. First of all it's not an RPG even close, you just walk around locations (which are actually good) clicking RMB and collecting objects that will lead you to some npc. It was kind of interesting for a few first hours but it became tiresome and boring. Enemies are just some random bums that randomly come up to you and engage in fight. Absolutely no variety in enemies and most of human NPC look hideous (salutors look great). The game had a huge potential but it was flushed into toilet by poor design, lack of variety of quests and enemies. It is not that bad but I just can't give a positive rewiev

Gorgeous visuals, very nice story. Do not avoid or bypass side quests, as they spin off into good gameplay. If you like isometric games this is a must.

I had heard this game was mediocre. It has gotten basically no attention in my experience, so I assumed it was true. I bought this on sale, and was surprised to find it is exceptional. The combat is unique and varied, and doesn't overstay its welcome with its novel systems. The writing really elevates it. A large portion of the game is reading events from the perspective of a person who left behind an idea due to their emotions, and I have to say I enjoyed reading every single line of text. The only part I didn't enjoy was that the later 1/4th of the game feels very confused. I honestly did not know how to react to the "point of no return" choice until I experienced a bad ending, and both of the other possible endings. It kind of comes out of nowhere, and each option deletes 1 half of the game's characters from the narrative. Despite being 26+ hours into the game, I still didn't feel like I understood why this option was there. Even now I still don't really get it. Despite all that, I can't recommend this game enough for fans of turn-based RPGs or CRPGs in general. There are not many that are as good as this one. Most of them are AAA games, and the indie ones are relatively rare. Also just really enjoyed the Polish setting and feel of the game. I almost even turned Polish voices on for the entire game, but I wanted to hear the English-ified Polish as well.

This game had such massive potential when I first saw it which what hooked me into playing it in the first place. At first it was fun but as the story progressed the gameplay and the main story itself began to essentially fall apart. I have no idea what’s going on in the main storyline and the only reason I played for so long was so I could hopefully find something that could help me piece together everything even if it meant doing all the side quests for additional lore but even that didn’t help Huge miss on its potential in my personal opinion

Game cant decide what i wants to be! Is it a mystery solver? An open world RPG? A deep lore based supernatural story teller? NONE! it chokes any choice of RPG with narrow choke point choices, terrible map and camera setup for an open world, and LONG, VERY LONG, drawn out sentences and paragraphs of lore that tell you...nothing. Combined with poor combat mechanics, poor story flow, it has potential, but solidly sits at a big disappointment

PROs: - Story - Setting & Atmosphere - Voice Acting CONs: - Combat is too easy and gets boring quick - Essentialy a walking simulator with constant right click Overall opinion: I really recommend this game for anyone who doesn't look for a big action title, an interesting setting, great story and rememberable characters and a big sense of mystery. The story has multiple endings based on your choices throughout the game and they all feel flashed out. TL;DR: very solid interactive novel, 8/10 if that's the experience you're looking for

Lots of potential in the setting and story, but ultimately a letdown in the gameplay loop and poor dialog. Can't recommend unless it's very cheap.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this game when I first saw it, but I'm glad I gave it a chance. The narrative, characterization, world building and writing are definitely the strong points of this game, and I love the setting and tone the devs went for, and can see the passion they have for this setting and world. The magic system, as its explained (excluding the liberties taken in combat) felt very grounded and real, and the writers took care not to make Thaumaturgy overly powerful in the story. The story is very real, grounded in reality, and doesn't shy away from hard topics. The game isn't afraid to let the player make choices they might come to regret later. Some highlights of the game for me are the secrets and side-quests that show the small joys that can be found in such a dark and dreary setting, along with the lovely sketches you get. The flavor text for various items you interact with through your powers of observation and thaumaturgy are beautifully written. Very vivid language and expressive prose that paint a picture in your mind of how Wiktor sees the world, and the objects he interacts with. Wiktors relationship with his sister is very heart-warming, cheeky, and well acted and written. Now, the game is not perfect, and I feel if the game were to ever try a sequel, it could be improved in some of the aspects of combat, cutscenes, facial models/expressions/animation, and exploration. Some of the voice direction and dialogue was also a bit off at times, in part due to some slang and english/polish sayings being a bit lost in translation possibly. I chalk most of this up to budgeting and time constraints though, and I'm still very impressed by the game they were able to make, and the tightly-knit story they've crafted with care and passion. I would definitely be excited to see another game set in this universe, or even a continuation of Wiktors story. I will definitely be looking out for the future games this developer releases.

I can't express how much I love games that give me choices and also one of my favorite powers ever is summoning, so this is just such a treat to play :)

Plot and quest lines were interesting for me Minus is - I had to change 3 different PC to avoid game crash (annoying) But if your PC strong enough - you will enjoy this game

Without Plitch I would never endure to end, but otherwise with Plitch help very interesting game.

I like the story and the lore, the graphics are really good for a small studio, but the combat and the soundtrack are behind in comparison, and the mechanics needs real work. Maybe for a second opus ?

Bottom line: if you like exploring, side quests, and a set-format for in-game combat - you will like this game. Pros: 1. History - If you are into the history and, from a Western perspective, diving into a time directly before the Bolshevik revolution, this game will appeal to you. Additionally, you will enjoy the multi-layered complexity of regional tensions of that time. 2. Combat - I particularly enjoyed leveraging the strengths of each demon companion to aid in combat. Additionally, I was inspired to learn more about the folklore of this region as a result. Just take a peak at the demons you just may catch if you play this game! 3. Background/Setting - A decent amount of love and care went into the environment of the Thaumaturge and it really shows. I really got a feeling that I was there with the people, and it didn't feel as if it was "just" a game. Cons: 1. Predictable game play - Now, to be fair I put this in the pro & con category, as anyone who has played Pokemon or any such game, the combat doesn't change. But if you do not enjoy that sort of combat style, you may want to find a different game. 2. Voice Over Acting - For some reason the voice over acting is inconsistent or inappropriate for the region (i.e. An American voice out of nowhere for a reoccurring character). I liken it to having all English accents in a story all portrayed in Germany, for example. 3. Audio - I may be the only one that has a problem with this, but when I played the game it gave off this buzzing. I'm not sure what it was. I tested this against other games, and playing videos on YouTube and no buzzing like this. Just a heads up. Overall: I had a good experience playing this game. It has great bones, and despite a few flaws, Fool's Theory and 11 Bit Studios should be proud of this piece.

Interesting game, with a cool vibe! The views are gorgeous and Warsaw looks like a dream at some points. Another good thing is that I encountered next to no bugs in my playthrough. The story was quite captivating, from beginning to end, decisions you made had impact that I could see. Most of these impacts were achieved through dialogue, making it a bit less varied than in some other RPGs, but this is not your classic Isometric RPG. It's very much story driven, and that focus on the story makes it good, but also quite linear. The characters (most of them) are very well developed, and you can see their personalities well throughout the story and side quests. The nice thing about the game is also the setting, Warsaw is brutal, smelly and beautiful. The tiny pieces of Warsaw you collect through clues and conclusions is something that greatly contributes to the immersion. You know, stuff like people playing football on a Sunday afternoon, or you encountering a man who writes his novel in the patisserie, etc. Combat is fun and flashy, but for me, a bit too easy to be satisfying. The only fight I struggled with was the last fight of the game, which, even on Challenging difficulty, took me about two tries. The other fights are total wipes for the most part. The clue mechanic is nice, but it seems a little underdeveloped. Sometimes, using clues and conclusions, you can avoid combat, or maybe manipulate someone, but the clues themselves as a mechanic aren't very fun, because there is almost no player engagement in them. It would be nice if you could set a difficulty for the "Clue minigame" and then when set to a higher one, you can try to connect the dots on your own. It would make the mechanic more interactive, unlike what is currently implemented. Salutors are cool and they are distinct, acquiring them sometimes requires some sacrifice, but in the end they are just tools, the lack of interaction with them maybe makes them sort of only pop up in some of the dialogues and the combat. All in all, I would recommend this game to people who are looking for an engaging story combined with extremely nice visuals. But the game itself isn't very systems heavy, there's not that much player agency and the story is fairly linear. So not like other Isometric CRPGs in any way, but in it's own way, it is really nice.

A unique, turn-based detective game with horror and mysterious elements that leans into turn-based combat, an interesting blend of elements. If you like any of the aforementioned 'genres', this game peaks in each and every one. You can also choose whether you tap into your protagonist's own characteristic flaw, that can end up overtaking conversation choices for you, another unique take on dialogue choices and similiar matter. I'm only surprised it isn't as big as it could have been, hopefully over time it gets the attention it truly deserves. Whole recommend this game. [b]8.7/10[/b]

it's a point and click detective story, not unlike disco elysium in that sense. much lighter on the texts, and it is not bad. combine this with JRPG style combat, and put all that into 1905 warsaw with mysticism and magic. I really enjoy playing this game. it's well written, not the best but still very well, wonderful graphics. i recommend it. the english translation and voice acting is not brilliant, but does not bother too much.

within the first 30 minutes I realise I have an identity crisis about being a Pole, know dark magic, fist people on the streets for nothing and hating the scenery around me. Pretty Polish, 10/10

Loved how the side quests are connected to the main story and how rich the story gets as you complete each quests. 10/10

top-tier rpg here. his is a really well crafted experience. looks amazing, love the environment and the setting. really cool world building. good dialogue and a LOT of good writing/lore in extra stuff. the mechanichs are so good I think they could`ve gone even deeper with them. but i really loved my time with this one.

wasted potential, but still fun to play.

Unexpectedly fun narrative, but that Rasputin...

The Thaumaturge is a fantastically immersive game; excellent soundtrack, engrossing worldbuilding and solid writing. The story captivated me thoroughly, and to set it in such a rich backdrop, which is so clearly important and dear to the developers, was a brilliant decision. [h3]It's not a game without Flaws, however.[/h3] Some of the dialogue feels [i]too[/i] modern at times; that, along with the lacklustre voice-acting and ill-fitting accents (American-sounding Warsaw-born and raised), made for some truly immersion-breaking moments. Graphically, the game was beautiful at best and screen-tearing at worst, with a lot of texture-popping, models T-posing right after appearing out-of-nowhere. [h3]Conclusion[/h3] Ultimately, though, this game was phenomenal and I am very much keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel.

Very relaxing with a good story. I really am enjoying playing and believe that it has excellent graphics and is worth the cost. My only criticisms for the developers are: 1. Sometimes the graphics get a little glitchy and may cause a crash. 2. The combat system gets a little repetitive and boring, even with so many salutors. Overall, love the language Russian/Polish/English, love the story and the history of it. Great work, devs!

boring linear gameplay

nice story

Great

fascinating

I like everyone