Exploring The Thaumaturge: A Unique RPG Experience

In a video game industry that often feels like it’s bloating into a monolithic, unsustainable beast propped up by annual staples and once every generation blockbusters, a small silver lining is that it’s still big enough for games like The Thaumaturge to exist. This mid-size RPG may not match the jaw-dropping scale of a game like Baldur’s Gate 3, but it’s still packed with atmosphere and good ideas that are mostly well executed. Aside from some buggy movement and odd voices, the turn-based combat is full of interesting strategic choices, and its great writing and story manage to punch up tried and true point-and-click clue finding and lore gathering.

The Thaumaturge: Unraveling Mysteries and Secrets

You play as the eponymous Thaumaturge, a sort of Witcher/John Constantine mash up of a supernaturally gifted human and an extraplanar detective named Wiktor. His journey to uncover the circumstances of his father’s death often finds him plying his esoteric trade both in service of this goal, and as a distraction from it. The various intertwining stories of a Poland at the brink of revolution, as well as Wiktor discovering all the ways things have changed at home in his fifteen year absence, tie a compelling narrative knot across its 20 hour run time.

Though I found a lot of its main and side stories to be interesting, the slow pace does mean you’ll spend long stretches of time reading and listening before being given a chance to act. When you do, usually through dialogue options that can vary based on past choices or your own abilities, sometimes The Thaumaturge asked me to make assumptions about Wiktor’s life and old relationships that I had no context for. For instance, it regularly asks you to either be nice or a jerk to people who apparently know him, but doesn’t give you adequate reason to decide one way or the other. The voice acting can also be a bit shaky, with accents that are all over the place – more than one person that is supposed to be a native to the region sounded like I could have met them in a Wawa here in the great state of New Jersey.

The Intriguing World of The Thaumaturge

Quests involve a lot of snooping around, investigating objects both mundane and magical in private and in public, all to earn “observations,” which are clues you can draw about the people who interacted with them based on any lingering emotional residue. The lingering lust on bedsheets or wily chaos on a stray bullet stuck in a wall can help you draw conclusions about the people who were involved with these things. Even though this largely means using your perception to investigate glowing objects in a more mystical version of Batman’s detective mode, the particularly good writing that accompanies the clues does add some heightened drama as you work to put all the pieces together in your head before The Thaumaturge puts a giant neon sign on the right answers for you.

Turn of the 20th century Europe is a comfortable setting for all this political drama and magical intrigue. The Russian imperial expansion into Poland, and the latter’s revolution against the intruders, is thick with the kind of tension only a ghost skeleton with a Cavalry saber can cut. The constant push and pull between the occupiers and the increasingly more disgruntled citizens is something Wiktor’s supernatural adventure is constantly butting up against, and it really helps keep this story grounded and relatable even when things get dense with lore and macguffins, which is a hallmark of good science fiction.

Combat and Challenges in The Thaumaturge

Moving around Poland is sometimes a little glitchy, but it’s a city that is dense with people to speak to and stuff to find that I was excited to explore. Warsaw is filled to the brim with folk who’d rather you and your brethren be dead or maimed than in their business, and luckily when combat does break out, you aren’t alone. Salutors, the spiritual beings that haunt the people and places of the world, can be tamed to assist you. Each has their own strengths and types, which can be used against certain kinds of enemy weaknesses, Pokemon-style.

Combining Wiktor and your chosen salutor’s attacks to most optimally synergize your offense never felt boring, though it’s not particularly challenging, either. Weaving your strategy is key, and the enemies you face provide varying levels of difficulty, adding depth to the gameplay experience.

Conclusion: A Unique RPG Experience

The Thaumaturge offers a unique RPG experience with rich storytelling, engaging quests, and strategic combat. While it may have some pacing issues and minor drawbacks in voice acting, the game’s world and characters make up for these shortcomings. Dive into the world of The Thaumaturge and uncover the mysteries that await!