The dictionary defines Thaumaturgy as the performance of miracles, specifically within magic. Fool Theory’s near-perfect combination of story, setting, and gameplay, with The Thaumaturge, definitely counts as one.
At its heart, The Thaumaturge is a game about human flaws, the kinds that change lives. That is a great premise for a strong story, but when you put it into the powder keg of 1905 Warsaw, you get brilliance. The game has us follow Wiktor, our jaded Thaumaturge, as he reluctantly returns home into the political cesspool of a divided Poland. His story starts off shaky and emotional as he attends the funeral of his estranged father and investigates his death.
The Thaumaturge truly sets itself apart with its mythology and magic system surrounding supernatural beings called Salutors. They are the beating heart of this game. They feed off the flaws of the characters, creating one of the best turn-based combat systems I have seen in a while.
A Layered Game
This is an unfairly beautiful game, but that’s just the start of it. Like God of War and the Assassins Creed games, Fools Theory presents a tantalizing mix of history and folklore to create something wholly unique with The Thaumaturge.
In between conversations with Grigori Rasputin and investigations with the very real, if extinct, Flying University, you see the whispers of a burgeoning communist movement. You witness the Monarchy, and their secret police try to hang onto power in a country struggling for freedom. From a fight for economic and gender equality to discrimination on religious grounds, the world of The Thaumaturge is thrilling.
The Salutors are the supernatural mirror for all of this upheaval and ugliness. They are beings that are drawn to deep flaws and influence the people around them to exhibit characteristics of those flaws. Based on mythological creatures from Slavic and Jewish mythology, as well as the mythology of travelers, they are connected to 4 dimensions: Heart (Feelings and desires), Word (What has been said), Mind (Thoughts, memories, and ideas), and Deed (actions).
As a Thaumaturge, Wiktor can not only see the Salutors, but he can connect with and use their powers to manipulate others in both the story and combat.
One of my favorite things to look for is how a studio works around the budget or manpower constraints they face. Fools Theory has managed it brilliantly.
The team saved time and money by avoiding the creation and animation of different stories and characters. Instead, they created detailed encounters with a lot of different conversation options. This leads to a lot of complex characters that have clear responses to your decisions, and you quickly find yourself locked out of conversation options as a result of your decisions. Some of these choices seem apparent as they are tied to a mission goal. Some are hidden, like bringing in an ally, which can completely change how an encounter plays out.
They have also added a lot of small stories through notes and articles. It fills out the world with lots of fun details that don’t require a lot of additional art assets or storage.
A Cause For Wonder
The Thaumaturge features a brilliant, strategy-driven turn-based combat system where you control Wiktor and his Salutors. Not only do they disable enemy traits, but each also has different strengths and weaknesses, capable of causing mental or physical damage, boosting your actions, and even providing health.
The efficacy of Wiktor’s investigations and ability to fight completely depends on finding Salutors who unlock actions and how you use your Thaumaturgy points to level up and unlock skill upgrades. Choosing how you use them to buff your actions to create lasting, long-term damage in a fight is a key element of your strategy.
The second big element of choosing which action you are going to put into the queue is how many rounds it will take for an action to come into play. Where it gets tricky is understanding the actions of the enemy to see how they impact their allies and you. From slowing each other down to interrupting action and causing recurring damage, you have to spend time considering every single element of the fight, especially at higher difficulties, so that you can stay 5 steps ahead.
The second-best element of this game is the music and sound effects. I can’t wait to add the OST to all of my playlists. I paused the games at times, just to listen to the music. The Thaumaturge has a beautiful, moody soundtrack that plays with a lot of music traditions to create a sound that tugged on my emotions and highlighted the story. In between the happier sounds of a Balailaika, you’ll suddenly hear a haunting violin, tentative piano, or some amazing harmonies and scatting.
The Flaws In The Design
I should talk about the flaws in the game, but there are almost none. Not only are my following complaints nit-picky, but absolutely none of them, even the bigger errors, took away from this game. In fact, by the time you play this title, which you should, Fool’s Theory will likely deal with most of these complaints.
There is no denying that this game is incredibly beautiful. Warsaw literally comes alive on your screen. However, the animation for a lot of it is very stiff.
On the funnier end of things, this game features a lot of inconsistent voice acting. Wiktor and his family all have wonderful Slavic accents, but suddenly, you will walk into a bar, and the bartender with a long Polish name, talks to you in a strong American accent. It’s jarring and breaks immersion but was so funny that I found myself looking for it.
This game does too much hand-holding. The perception system leads you to absolutely everything, but this is a constraint in the camera and gameplay style. On the more ‘meh’ end, we are told what to think through the game, making every investigation and scenario linear. As a result, we remain observers rather than catalysts.
The Thaumaturge also has small inconsistencies in how you use your mouse and keyboard, leading to confusion, like how to apply a point to level up. Then there are the small errors where the subtitles don’t always match the dialogues or where observations use the incorrect genders. These are all small details that slipped through the cracks. A bigger one here is how Wiktor indulges in his flaw, pride. There is no way to track the status of our pride, so it gets confusing when we are locked out of a conversation option because our pride is too low.
The only thing that really bothered me is that at times, the story takes leaps that don’t always make sense. Wiktor also often gets distracted by his thoughts or by conversations with Salutors. It takes you away from the overall encounter and the next minute, you are wondering what just happened. The biggest moment that comes to mind is during a seance sequence where I went in flirting with a character. The next thing I knew, everyone around the table was scolding me for bad behavior and I couldn’t figure out what even happened.
Make Time To Play This
For every tiny hiccup, The Thaumaturge has 10 things worth writing home about. This game is pretty amazing, especially where it matters, in the gameplay. All the characters are interesting and unpredictable and this is a world worth discovering.
The biggest compliment I can pay this game is that I did not care even when my game crashed without saving half a day’s worth of gameplay. I really did not mind replaying it; I was already thinking of what conversation track I wanted to try. The crashes have since been fixed.
GamesHorizon received a review copy of The Thaumaturge for Steam.
For every tiny hiccup, The Thaumaturge has 10 things worth writing home about. This game is pretty amazing, especially where it matters- in the gameplay. All the characters are interesting and unpredictable, and this is a world worth discovering.
The Good
- Amazing Mythology and Magic system with a historically accurate setting
- Lot of ways to resolve encounters, including hidden options that you have to discover
- A lot of complex characters to interact and develop relationships with
- Incredible soundtrack
- Amazing strategy-forward, turn-based combat system
- Cool level-up system that impacts conversation, investigation, and combat options
- Lot of story and world detail to discover.
The Bad
- Some stiff animation and inconsistent voice acting (accents)
- Some random leaps within the narrative can be confusing
- Story itself is very linear with limited deviations based on player choices
- No way to track Pride, which impacts your conversation options
- Minor inconsistencies with subtitles and mission logs
