The Thaumaturge

Game is middle of the road with neat moments. The last chapter railroads you if you have too much "Pride". Pride is a dialog mechanic. The more pride answers you give, the more pride you have and can later pick more prideful answers. The problem with pride is: - Basically a late game trap - The game doesn't hint when you have too much - It doesn't allow you to lower it - It doesn't hint at this being a rail-road later on. In fact, most of the game, you have clear options around any prideful answers. i.e. skill can trump pride. - Went back several missions, still had too much Rest of the game: Combat is neat for what it is. Types, shields and bleeding-like effects. It's similar to the South Park games in that regard. Not the best system. Easy to game, but fun for the time you spend. Story feels cut down. Fractions are introduced, out again. The larger scope is set in Warsaw with a brewing revolution, but no significant progression of the topic. In between there are little stories happening. Those stories are neat but not grand. The gameplay loop is basically a walking simulator with a million little items to scavenger hunt. The worst point and click mechanic there is. Scan room, pick up random items, game concludes with something when you found a set (e.g. finish quest). You have a "Witcher Sense" and you literally have to press scan constantly. Each region has day and night, once you concluded a set, something may change on the map. So the main mechanic of the game is to run around and scan, then run around some more ... to scan ... It feels like somebody really liked Poland and Warsaw, but didn't know how to make a good game out of it. The indigence are there, but the focus is on scavenger hunt minutia with brawling in between to increase the run-time. Otherwise, there is not enough there but a few tiny interesting slice of life stories, which I enjoyed. Could be a 3 if it was longer and focused less on run simulator mechanics (i.e. if it had more meat).

Excellent idea, original world, an interesting plot, real conflict. the game puts you in front of a couple genuinely hard moral dilemmas. RPG system is simple but provides a lot of depth both in and outside of combat Your main character has a flow of pride, which is used as a persuasion mechanic, in some situations you will need to be prideful to stand your ground, in other scenarios your pride will stop you from making smart decisions. the system has a lot of depth and made me stop and consider my actions often. Combat can be genuinely tricky, I played most turn-based rpges in my life, and I find them boring and easy these days, however, the uniqueness of systems in Thaumaturge made me scratch my head and lose 5 battles during the campaign not counting genuinely tricky final fight. This is the first time in years that I had to think so much during combat, and I loved it! The start of the 20th century was a genuinely interesting time of strife, and conflict and awakened national identity. Warsaw was truly a melting pot, of religions, identities, dogma and politics The political concepts of imperialism, unity, just rebellion, the first steps of feminism and many more are all present and provide an interesting backdrop to the game. I cannot recommend this game hard enough! Definitive must buy the only 2 drawbacks I can think of, are the lack of Polish dub, and very very limited interaction with the saloutors' mystical spirits of the game which I was hoping would be a bigger part of the game than it actually is.

I feel like the setting is the star in this game, it's certainly something I rarely get to see in games. This comes up in the inventory items, readables, and conversations. The mechanics are pretty straightforward (the combat is integrated quite well), but the background that drenches the game makes every moment fun. I really hope I see more games like this in the future!

I was afraid that the story and setting would be too pushy, focusing on national movement, etc. But the game allows you to make decisions, to choose who are you and what your motivations are - and all of them are logical. Characters are interesting and not "flat". I hope to see a sequel one day.