The Thaumaturge Review – Historical World With Distinctive Vision

The Thaumaturge is a short story-driven RPG. The game is compelling to those who would love to dive deep into mystery-solving and relish their time playing a tempting storyline. The game’s most appealing trait, which I like, is the balance between fantasized and reality-touch narrative. 

Story And Setting

The game’s narrative revolves around Russian unions facing challenges such as riots and rebels from an intrusive and threatening crowd in the European region.

However, the main storyline does not intersect with historical events. The protagonist (Wiktor Szulski) is a Thaumaturge who can pierce the fabric of reality to dive into the dimension of beings that no normal eye can see. This allows him to tame demon-like beings, known as Salutors, to enhance his powers.

The game exhibits the stellar appearance of its characters and Salutors. Progressing the main storyline will unlock new Salutors up to the limit of eight.

In almost every aspect of the game, players must observe their surroundings and declare a conclusion based on their observations. 

Attaining these demons will extend the heights of Thaumaturgy’s potential. Causing a great deal of skills improvement in combat and interaction with objects or NPCs. There are four traits of Thaumaturgy in the game (Heart, Deed, Mind, Word), and every Salutor is assigned to a specific trait. 

Upgrade for the combat unlocks new moves, or the familiar ones are further enhanced. As for the interaction, examining the objects reveals more information or unlocks unique dialogue options during decision-making.

Whether to use the power for good or evil is up to the player. This means that the game has multiple dialogue options, which impact the outcome of the lore. Most of the time, the choices will dictate an individual’s good or ill fate. 

Overall, the story is the most intriguing aspect I have experienced in the game.

In almost every aspect of the game, players must observe their surroundings and declare a conclusion based on their observations. 

Interacting with any object will reveal descriptions that carry certain emotions or lore bound to that object. Regarding this, I found this game’s mechanics quite tedious because it requires a hefty amount of focus on gathering and reading information.

Overall, the story is the most intriguing aspect I have experienced in the game. It highly acquaints the player with the capability of Thaumaturgy and how the world around a Thaumaturge reacts to such a potent ability. However, a fair aspect of this talent is highly fantasized for entertainment purposes in this game.

Side Content Compared To Main Events

The main storyline of The Thaumaturge is undoubtedly a compelling narrative. However, the game offers numerous side quests, highlighting the related characters’ back story more adequately.

The game’s enticing character development and engaging side content, filled with mind-boggling plots, felt highly captivating to me.

Now, being optional is not a quality to judge in story games. But whether those side quests are worth hustling for is the real deal. As for the side quests, I would highly suggest playing them as well. 

The first thing to consider here is that The Thaumaturge is not based on rewarding mechanics. This factor might sound disappointing. However, it is not. The game’s enticing character development and engaging side content, filled with mind-boggling plots, felt highly captivating to me.

The game is simple in terms of story progress. You will have to play the main story to unlock more potential of the character’s power, and that’s the only way. This is because progression in power requires taming Salutors.

Gameplay

The game’s core dynamics are to interact with its environment and gather intel. By doing so, you can open new side quests, unlock new dialogue choices in a side quest, or amuse yourself by acquainting with the events happening around you. 

The game’s highly interactive environment, well-written story scenarios, and responsive NPC lines enthralled me.

I expected the gameplay to be a striving ground, blooming with wacky and odd puzzles. However, that was not the case. It’s rather a handholding experience where objectives are exposed, and puzzle-solving is not a concept.

This truly makes the game’s story quite straightforward and easy to proceed with without engaging in challenging gameplay. On the other hand, it is also making the whole gameplay scenario somewhat mundane.

The game’s highly interactive environment, well-written story scenarios, and responsive NPC lines enthralled me. Apart from the story, the game’s combat felt clumsy to me. Although the presence of combat is negligible, it still plays a crucial part in delivering an enticing gameplay experience.  

Is Turn-Based Combat Good In Thaumaturge?

Taming dreadful and ferocious beings only to realize you can not use them openly in combat is quite a sorrow. The Thaumaturge is for players who love to test their mettle in every aspect of the game. The game is utterly an open challenge to those who prefer to practice their intellect rather than steel and strength.

The gameplay is not nearly as challenging because the mystery solving is relatively passive. However, the decision-making in dialogue choices makes the game considerably compelling.

The game is utterly an open challenge to those who prefer to practice their intellect rather than steel and strength.

Now, combat is the only approach to turn the tides upside down and make things challenging. Being turn-based combat, setting the difficulty high will surely turn the odds against you. Following this, planning every move in combat becomes a necessity. 

All in all, my remarks on turn-based combat is that it suits the game well. Not that I have enjoyed this combat mechanic, but it truly grips the players’ concerns, captivated by the intellectually challenging gameplay.

Visuals And Performance

The innovative art style and real-world resemblance mixed with the fantasized story concept are exceptional and an astounding match for the story and visuals overhaul.

The game intends to reflect the visual overhaul based on the real-world scenario. The old culture and tradition of the European region, along with its domestic challenges, are displayed in the most precise manner.

The innovative art style and real-world resemblance mixed with the fantasized story concept are exceptional and an astounding match for the story and visuals overhaul.

The details of the surroundings are so well-shaped that they complement the storyline. Even a slight detail on a tiny instrument is present to dignify the lore and help players make efficient choices in the story.

There is little to complain about the game’s performance, as most of my walkthrough experience went smoothly. Yet, I have encountered several minor setbacks regarding the visuals.

Even though playing on a high-end PC, there were numerous times when texture rendering seemed to be falling apart, or performance issues were faced where the game would stutter, leaving a massive negative impact on FPS. 

However, the developers clarified that FPS may drop in graphics-intensive scenes. So I can’t complain there.

Verdict

The Thaumaturge is a basic-level game in terms of objectives. The level-gain mechanics are quite passive, along with the story’s progression.

What I appreciate most is the uncomplicated yet filled-with-suspense story structure. Moreover, the game’s lively overhaul of its characters will surely enhance the thrillful experience of the players already gripped by the game’s intensive, plot-thickening story’s layout.

To summarize, the gameplay does not intend to divert the players into any grinding. Instead, The Thaumaturge is ideal for players who only want to enjoy a short-story campaign without hustling for rewards and unlockable affairs.

These were the factors based on which I drew my conclusion for review of The Thaumaturge. Check out more of our latest coverages.

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