Inquisitor

its like the devs never learned from past games. The graphics are pleasant enough, but the game has poor animations and even poorer game mechanics. Even the very first quest is an exorcise in patience, and when you've completed a task the game doesn't even let you know (which is frustrating in the case of a quest like "go kill all the bats") Add to that the inability to do simple things like remap controls and you have a pretty crap game.

Yeah, one star. I'm not giving this one any more credit than it deserves. The setting is somewhat interesting, yes, but in the end it seems like a lot of rather arbitrary picks from history rather than a coherent world. The investigations start off interesting, yes again, but soon enough you'll realise that the only way to go about them is to repeatedly tick off all the conversation options with all the named NPCs. And as far as the actual gameplay is concerned, there isn't actually much to the game. Combat is simply bad, character creation is perfectly uninteresting, and all things considered there's not much else to do. Given how much time they spent making this game, I have to wonder what they were actually doing. There is plenty of dialogue in here, but it's average in quality and ultimately just a lot of inane blather. Ultimately it fails to deliver either as a game or as an interactive story.

I would have liked to get further into this game before reviewing it but I can't. This game is broken. I've had about 20+ crashes to desktop. I would tolerate this if large portions of the game didn't feel like a chore. I don't mind the long descriptive dialogues but the combat is far too weak to want to continue and there is a ton of it. The enemies are essentially damage sponges. So, prepare to hold your mouse button down for unnecessarily long battles. If you could adjust the speed of combat it would help with the grind (mod idea maybe). There is clearly something to appreciate her but it is ruined by the tedious combat.

There are some unique and interesting aspects to this game. 1) Unlike some, I like all the reading. Some great story telling going on. The text falters in some places with speach is just a little too "current" but if you can get past that it is nice to see a game features text so well. 2) The idea of the Inquisition sounds at least on the surface, real cool. I am looking forward to my first trial and "co-erced confession". Thinking of using the Rack for that one. This to me seems like a great game direction. Though it could be controversial to some, the idea of being able to torture somebody in order to get a confession to bolster the proof othe Heretic deeds sounds way cool to me. Especially when it comes with what appears to be some accurate history on the Inquisition and its rules of how this was done etc. 3) I love the idea of the little green boxes and the genie. Indeed I used this guy to get me out of a tough scrape neat the end of Act 1. I let him do all the fighting and the impossible became easy. 4) I also love the detective nature of the game where it is necessary to figure out who the Heretics are. 5) Some cheats are available if you don' want to grind and instead want to work the other aspects of the game. To me this turned out to be a very big help. But there are serious problems. 1) graphics are kludgy. The animations are dull. The resolution does work but some maps are not ported to the higher resolutions (found two so far) so you have to stop the game reset and 1920x1080 and restart. 2) balancing is way off. The game is real hard at the beginning, even on easy. Thank goodness for the people on gog who are providing information via the community or I would have been lost (read cheats). 3) It really needs a thorough walkthrough with details on significant events. For example, there is a book called the HERBERIUM that I need to find but I don't see it, and the advice from the GOG community is too vague. I need to know exactly where it is dropped or found because I don't see it where I was told it should be. Still don't know if this means I am stuck. 4) Bugs. There is at least one big bug. You can sell quest items. Once sold they are not retrievable, i.e. the vendor you sold it too does not put it in inventory for you to get it back, so you cannot do the related quest. If it is a main quest then I imagine you are done and your only solution is to find a savegame before you sold the time. So is it worth the time and energy needed to play it? Well... I am going to keep playing at least until I have sent my first Heretic through an Inquisition. Maybe I'll try the Iron Maiden instead of the Rack. Hail Flavius!

In the end, Inquisitor is a bit like an old school RPG holy water : faithful worshippers see it as a consecration and a benediction, less motivated believers handle it with more or less indifference, but heretics and possessed will cry out in pain when touching it. Nonetheless, it is definitely a ceremonial jewel that promises an unique, visceral and generous experience. An experience that stands out from nowaday's video game scene with its anti-consensual, challenging but rewarding approach. However, it is a jewel that doesn't suit every hand, since it requires some concessions and prerequisites towards its indie's technical limitations and its resolutely hardcore approach. Yes, Inquisitor is clearly out of phase with its time, still, it remains to be seen if it's considered as an atemporal video game or rather an out-dated one. Pros: - Dark, gothic and rich setting - Investigation/torture/excution - Divine lifespan (140h +) and good replayability (RP !) - Blessed price (12 €) - Old school and hardcore ! Cons : - Some little sins on interface and technical side - Old school and hardcore ? Score : 9/10