Review of The Thaumaturge

 I bought this and played it to completion right around when it was released which is pretty unusual for me. I am usually more a patient gamer who waits for games to "mature" (ie get game breaking bugs patched.). Thankfully, my playthrough was mostly bug free. So overall I am happy I bought it and played it.

Setting: This is a really big part of the attraction for me. It is set in Warsaw in 1905. For me this made the game a lot more interesting and engaging than another generic fantasy setting would have been. The city is represented with what seemed to be authentic districts and sights (although of course the actual game map is greatly simplified). At that time this part of Poland was under Russian control so there are simmering tensions that add to the intrigue. There are some ways in which the setting is altered though. Firstly, magic is part of the setting. This takes the form of people (thaumaturges) who have the ability to control spirits known as "salutors". There is a strong psychological dimension to this because these spirits are tied to character flaws in the thaumaturge. Magic is somewhat rare in that there are very few thaumaturges. But these are sufficiently high profile that the general populace is aware of them. In fact another aspect of this is that there is anti-thaumaturge sentiment. This is one of the main plot points. I also liked this aspect of the setting and felt it was an interesting take on magic. Secondly, the Russian royal family is present in Warssaw at this time. I guess they are just visiting but it seems to be a semi-long-term presence. I don't think this is factual but I am unsure.

Characters: Another strong point of the game is the characters. Because our main character comes from a wealthy family but has a disreputable past he is able to move in various social settings. So he is able to interact with the Russian aristocracy but also with port workers, Jews, gangsters, and anarchists. This really fleshes out the setting and makes it more interesting. It brings out the tensions and reveals different dimensions of the city. One other thing that kind of stands out is the fact that Rasputin is present in the city and trying to get associated with the Russian royal family. This may seem silly to some but I enjoyed the character and the role he played in the story. Overall, I felt the writing of the characters was good and their predicaments were interesting.

Plot: I don't want to give spoilers so I will speak in generalities here. I felt the plot was ok but a bit less strong than the setting. It also felt slightly disjointed in that there are several different sections and the objective changes. There are some major decisions which seem to give different endings that I am interested in replaying the game for. Overall, I thought the plot was good enough to keep me interested but I feel like it wasn't the games strongest point. I liked a lot of the side/sub quests though.

Mechanics: The main one is a method of finding your way in the game. Basically, your character snaps his finger and some red glitter emanates from him. This red glitter will lead you to the next place you need to go. I feel mixed about this. I liked the visual aspect. I thought the red glitter looked cool. It also streamlines the exploration. As far as I know it is a novel way of handling this issue of letting the player know where to go. I partly felt though that it made finding your way a bit too easy. Part of the fun of rpg games is exploring the world and finding the stuff you need and other stuff along the way. Of course the red glitter didn't totally eliminate this but it did diminish it a bit. You have some choice in terms of what storyline or quest your following but within that it just tells you where to go. It's also static. This red glitter is separate and doesn't have any upgrades or development. It ends up feeling a bit like hand holding. Meaning the game is doing some of your work for you and making it easier.

There are also some mechanics with respect to your salutors and your character flaws. Basically dialogue choices will either feed your character flaw or diminish it. Feeding it can result in increased abilities and extra dialogue options. I didn't see exactly how much this impacts the game but further playthroughs may reveal that.

Lastly, the salutors you control can be used to manipulate other characters' psychology or responses. I liked this aspect but don't feel like I have a lot to say about it.

Combat: This is where your salutors get most of their work. I thought the combat system was interesting in that I have never played anything quite like it before. It is turn based, meaning one action happens at a time, either yours or an opponent's. But it's stylized in a way with cards you have to choose to take your actions. The salutors have a range of abilities that they can use as well as you having normal attacks. These salutor abilities can do various things such as interrupting or stunning an opponent or giving you health back. On the other hand, I feel like combat is my main complaint with the game. I played on normal difficulty and combat just felt way too easy. I only had to do a few fights over again and I never really had to engage with the upgrade systems. I am a pretty lazy gamer so it may have been part of why I finished the game. But I think I would have welcomed a bit more challenge here. Of course I can try playing on the top difficulty setting if I want to explore those combat systems a bit more.

Sidequests: Basically there are three levels of quests in the game. One is main story quests. Then there are side quests. Then there are city secrets quests. The first two are pretty self explanatory. The main story line quests relate to the progression in the game. There are cut scenes. (a cut scene is like a video as opposed to regular game play but it is not actual video, it is still animation.) Sidequests are interesting little stories that often require you to go several places and interact with stuff but they are generally kind of stripped down compared to main story quests. The city secrets quests are just little things. You get them from stuff you find around the city. So basically you just go to one place and don't have to interact at all. It just shows some text and a sketch. At first I found these a bit annoying just because there isn't much too them. But they do give xp to boost your stats. But they grew on me. In the end they give a bit more flavor to the city. I am kind of in the middle on optional content like this. Some people don't care about them at all and will just play the main story quest. Others are completionists who insist on collecting all the collectibles and doing every little thing there is to be done in the game. I am kind of in between. I have a bit of a collector bug but I am not a completionist. I like to do regular side quests and I do like to do the collecting stuff but I am mostly in it for the main story. One interesting thing is that a lot of the sidequests seem to have a timer but the only thing that really seemed to affect the timer was progress on the main story. That is, actually spending time in the game didn't seem to advance the timers. Also some sidequests would start with the timer already partly gone.

As I said, I am happy with the game. I recommend it to anyone who feels the setting is interesting. But if you are a power gamer you are probably going to want to turn up the difficulty.