Lavendermuse

The Thaumaturge finally released!!!

Bonus post!! I wanted to give my reaction to The Thaumaturge as quickly as possible because I’ve been super excited for this game! I actually wanted to get this out yesterday, but the game ended up releasing too late in my day for that.

This won’t be a full in-depth review of the game. (That’ll be coming on Friday.) These will be some spoiler free first impressions of The Thaumaturge. How good is the story and gameplay? How does it look and run? And, do I recommend it?

The Story Is Engaging!

I’m very early in the story but it’s SO good at immediately dropping you into 1905 and making you feel like you’ve always been there. The game is full of flavour text and portrays the diverse personalities, viewpoints, and cultures it claims to so naturally. The supernatural story of Wiktor pursuing salutors blends seamlessly into the historical story of Warsaw pursuing its own identity under the control of the Russian Tsar. So far the choices I make – and their consequences – feel natural and not like they exist simply to make me FEEL like I’ve made a choice.

I braced myself to feel alienated from the main character. Leads of ‘choices matter’ games often feel like a blank stand-in. But no! Wiktor is funny, prideful, and the game slowly reveals more of his past and personality to you in a way that feels natural. There’s no obvious moment of “okay, we need to introduce the audience to this guy.” The same is true for all the other characters. Everyone feels very chaming and alive.

(Bonus points for well-written women!)

And those are just the fictional characters. I went into this game almost entirely unspoiled beyond all but the concept. The GASP I let out when I saw Rasputin. The LOUDER gasp I let out when I realised I was having a bromance adventure with Ra Ra Rasputin himself.

My personal favourite bit of writing so far is when Wiktor introduces himself to Rasputin as a Polish Thaumaturge. Rasputin responds with something like “you claim to be a wizard from a country that does not exist, forgive me for doubting you.” It perfectly captures the game’s wit, natural dialogue, and intense awareness of historical context.

The Gameplay Is Fun!

I had a blast with the turn-based combat. Not only is the music for fighting a banger, but the combat itself is simple and fun. I played on Balanced settings, but I might bump it up to Challenging because the combat so far has been very easy. The most ‘wow’ moment I’ve had was when I realised Wiktor’s salutor could fight alongside him in combat. I think I literally said “oh that’s so cool” out loud.

Making new discoveries and connections in the detective gameplay has been really fun so far. The almost poetic revelations Wiktor gains from ordinary items are so well-written that the process never feels repetitive. Each new discovery has weight from how it’s framed.

But…

I already know everyone’s number one critique of this game will be the graphics. There’s a lot of clipping with character models, textures sometimes didn’t load in properly for me, and there’s issues with lighting that made at least one character’s hair look… interesting. Rasputin looks okay. Tsar Nicholas II looks worse than he probably did at his real life execution. Wiktor’s model varies in quality. I’m not a person who cares about graphics so this isn’t enough to dent my impression of the game at all, but yes: even I noticed.

I don’t want to critique that without pointing out that the game also does good things with its graphics. I appreciate that characters’ appearances actually change when appropriate. Yes, Wiktor clips through his prologue outfit, but once he’s back in Warsaw in a waistcoat, that clipping issue vanishes. The isometric view is absolutely fine in terms of detail and visuals, and the game crafts an impressive variety of atmospheres with the same tools.

In terms of gameplay, my only critique so far is a minor annoyance in combat that I’ll expand upon on Friday. I haven’t experienced any gameplay bugs at all. I have one minor complaint about the story. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which actions will advance the story and shut you out from further opportunities to explore.

However, given the game’s focus on choices, this makes sense. After all, it’s more realistic if you are just as unaware as Wiktor of when you’re closing the door on an opportunity. I’m honestly looking forward to replaying certain sections and seeing what I missed. So this isn’t so much a problem as it is something to be aware of if you’re starting the game.

First Impressions!

My first impression is that I love this game. It might not be the prettiest game out there, but the story has its hooks into me already. I can completely forgive some ugliness for the experience it provides. This sort of storytelling, historical research, and atmospheric, bug-free gameplay are getting rarer and rarer these days. This game CLEARLY comes from a place of great passion and enthusiasm for the concept. They took a great idea for an interactive story and made it work with the tools and budget they had.

It reminds me of Pathologic 2. That game is also limited in visuals but if you care about the stunning story it’s telling, the deep philosophy it’s engaging with, you probably don’t care about that. For me to compare any game to the writing of Pathologic 2 – especially after just two hours – is high praise indeed.

So yes, I absolutely recommend you check out The Thaumaturge. If you don’t judge a game by its graphics and you like your stories to have some meat and meaning, it’s probably perfect for you. If you prefer quick gameplay, or graphical glitches are a dealbreaker for you, this game probably won’t hit.