The Thaumaturge Review

One year after first being revealed, Fool’s Theory and 11 bit studios’ The Thaumaturge finally arrives. Is the game worth playing, or should you stick with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth?

The Thaumaturge Review

The Thaumaturge follows the story of Wiktor Szuliski during early 1900s Russian-owned Warsaw. Wiktor is a Thaumaturge, a person who the game calls a “miracle worker,” but who is more of a spiritual detective. Being a Thaumaturge means seeing people’s thoughts and intentions, makes you great at solving people’s problems. The other benefit of being a Thaumaturge is that you get a Salutor. When the story begins, Wiktor is sick and can’t connect with his Salutor well. He searches for another miracle worker and stumbles upon Rasputin, known for his healing abilities. Rasputin helps you unlock your powers and aids you in befriending new Salutors.

After getting help from Rasputin, you receive a telegram from your sister that your father is dead. With your new friend in tow, you return to Warsaw to say goodbye to your father and collect your inheritance. The city was under the Tsar’s rule, and treason was not tolerated. Citizens and miracle workers can be targeted for no reason at all. Thankfully you have family here and a house to stay in. After saying goodbye to your father, you are left with a task: Find his Black Grimoire. Your father was also a Thamuterge, and his book will help you become stronger. With that in mind, you stay in Warsaw and try to find the Grimoire.

While the Tsar’s army controls the city, that doesn’t mean the streets are safe for you to stroll. Corrupt cops, drunkards, bandits, and countless others all want a piece of you. Wiktor can talk his way out of fights sometimes, but his main flaw is pride, and all of those answers typically trigger a scrap. Combat is turn-based, but certain attacks go quicker than others. So, for instance, you can do a quick light jab twice before an enemy does their heavy attack. On top of that, you need to take focus into account. Focus is sort of a shield for characters, and if you break it, you can make a strong attack with yourself or a Salutor.

You see Wiktor fights side by side with his Salutor, even if normal people can’t see them. Upyr is your first Salutor, and it can heal and deal huge damage to enemies with full HP. Lelek, on the other hand, has moves that drain focus from enemies, opening them up to your power attacks. Then there are the upgrades. All of your moves have slots on them, and you can put your upgrades from the skill tree on your attacks. All of these upgrades have their uses; you can build your Wiktor how you want. Mine was a powerhouse with debuffs and self-buffs, so it would one-shot most enemies when I made a strong attack. Plus, if you don’t like a particular upgrade, you can change them before any fight.

You get your attack upgrades through the skill tree, which gets bigger as you get more Salutors. The other things you get there are the HP, focus, and skill buffs. I talked about Wiktor being a sort of spiritual detective earlier. When you use your Thamuaterge vision, you can discover clues and secrets people leave behind. Some people have a stronger will than others, so you can’t tap into the secrets directly. That’s where your stat points come in. Certain clues will be locked because you don’t have the right level for your skills. To upgrade, you need to fight, do side quests, and find lore in the world.

Warsaw is a big place that is divided up into districts that you can visit. As you get further into the story, more districts open up with new activities and quests for you. Most of these have you using your powers to find something or someone, but you get good experience and can use your flaws to get into more fights. With Wiktor’s power, he can find out things others can’t. In the game, this is done by showing you a red mist. You follow the mist to an item and then check it out to learn more about the person it is attached to. You find enough clues, you make a deduction, and you can unlock new dialogue options for people.

The other thing that affects your dialogue and story choices are your flaws. Wiktor starts with pride as his main flaw and gets new ones as he unlocks more Salutors. Pride gives you options not to be pushed around, get a bit more aggressive, or just have a straight-up fight with people. Picking it in certain conversations will lock other choices later in the same conversation. The other benefit of these flaws is that they give you stat boosts. So, on top of getting a new ally for combat, you also get stronger Thaumaturge abilities. The downside is that sometimes you get yourself killed using those choices.

Tech-wise, I did run into a few bugs and had a couple of crashes. You get wonky animations and T-poses from time to time as well.

Anyone who is a fan of playing a supernatural detective will enjoy The Thaumaturge. Its dark atmosphere, engaging story, and tactical combat will keep you coming back for more.