Main Features

The Thaumaturge, developed by Fool's Theory and published by 11 Bit Studio, will be released on March 4, 2024 and will be available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and Series X, and PlayStation 5.

It is a tactical RPG, with isometric camera and turn-based combat, set in 20th century Europe, bringing an engaging story and difficult decisions that guide our skills towards various possible paths.

The power of a Thaumaturge

The Thaumaturge brought a gameplay style that has been well explored over the years, the dynamics of tactical RPG are well developed here, whether during exploration or during turn-based combat, which has a very interesting operation.

Starting with the game's story, which, right from the start, proved to be very interesting, as the protagonist, Wictor, appears in a very mysterious way, with a very ill-looking face and seems to have a great desperation to find a treatment for his "illness."

Thus, initially, our goal is to locate a local healer, famous for actually having a "connection with God," and convince him to help us reestablish contact with our Salutor, a kind of spirit guide for thaumaturges.

The most interesting part of this initial presentation is the introduction to the powers of a thaumaturge, which are the high capacity for perception and investigation of objects, leading to conclusions that become privileged information that is used to convince people to carry out certain actions or even capable of revealing secrets and valuable information.

It is worth noting that Wictor is not necessarily a protagonist of good, since one of the great charms of the game are the morally ambiguous decisions, since all the information we acquire and when forming our conclusions (the basic mechanics of problem solving and persuasion) are used in the way the player sees fit. Our Salutor is a fundamental part of this endeavor, as he has a power very similar to hypnosis, a technique that greatly enhances the immersion in 20th century Europe, surrounded by dark stories and supernatural powers.

These gameplay details, throughout my experience, were excellent, as they were able to build a very strong atmosphere, combined with constant tension, fundamental pieces for the game's immersion.

Combat and its development

Regarding the combat of The Thaumaturge, we have here a point that, throughout my experience, was quite positive, due to the fact that the combat pace demands strategy so that you take the least amount of damage possible, when it cannot be avoided.

The combat mechanic is based on a prediction system, at the top of the screen we have access to an interface that allows us to see when the enemy will attack us depending on the attack we choose to execute. Our attacks can be quick or slow, with quick ones being weaker and slow ones being stronger, what makes this combat tactical is the decision of when to use each type of attack.

If we use the slower attack, the enemy will attack us in the meantime, causing us some damage, that is, the use of slower attacks has to be very well thought out, since enemies can use weapons, knives, and other sharp objects that tend to cause more damage than just a punch.

The Thaumaturge is a game full of personality and extremely interesting, much of it is also due to the adopted graphics engine, as it is a project where the environment is a fundamental part of the immersion, the visual part easily delivers a cinematic experience, since the cutscenes themselves appear to be in real time.

In general, The Thaumaturge is very fun and intriguing, a quality that I haven't seen in a new game in a while, leaving its negative point only for some performance issues, such as abrupt FPS drops. I believe that with the launch update, this problem, mainly, should be corrected.

A great candidate for success

The release of The Thaumaturge is a very positive point, in my opinion, because the set offered is very complete, the story progresses in a very natural and engaging way, our choices and actions are remembered by NPCs, and our strategy of persuasion, investigation, and combat is a very volatile point for our development, since the game works with a talent tree system, that is, our thaumaturge can have various personalities and various ways of approaching the same situation.

The game, in a general context, is very easy to play, it is possible to do most things with just the mouse, playing on PC, and the key mapping is excellent, both for the keyboard and for controllers, the menus are very intuitive and the visual part of the interface has its own identity, quite charming, indeed.

The game is not localized in several languages, which is a shame, many languages that have huge gaming communities that would surely like to benefit from a translation, at least textual.

The game's audio is good, the voice acting fits the characters very well, the presence of accents is also a noteworthy feature, in addition to the soundtrack, which brings songs that match the situation we are in, especially during combat.

An old style, but well executed

My experience with The Thaumaturge was very good, despite the FPS drops, I had a lot of fun during the game, always with the feeling of wanting to know what happens next, a feeling that, for me, is essential in a story-driven game.

The game itself is not light, the optimization was not very good, but I managed to maintain good frame rates for most of the game, it was also possible to test the frame generator feature and AMD's FSR3 technology.

For this review, the game was experienced on PC, using the Steam platform. I would like to thank Fool's Theory and 11 Bit Studio for providing the access key.