The Thaumaturge Review - Isometric Adventures

Our The Thaumaturge Review will tell you what we thought about the latest dark isometric RPG from Seven Developer Fools' Theory.

If you enjoy this review, you might also want to see our recent review of mad science drive-em-up Pacific Drive. We've also recently done a treasure trove guide for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. 

What is The Thaumaturge?

The Thaumaturge is a story-driven isometric RPG set in turn-of-the-century Warsaw and tells the tale of Wiktor Szulki, a sorcerer with the ability to learn people’s secrets via the use of demons. After journeying to the Russian wasteland of Siberia to deal with a slight issue with his powers, he returns to Warsaw with a famous historical figure in tow to deal with the death of his father, with whom he had a complicated relationship. 

Being set in the early 1900s in Warsaw, then controlled by the Russian government, there’s a decent aspect of the storyline and your choices throughout it that are based on tensions between the Polish nationalists and the Russian-led government. However, the main crux of the storyline revolves around finding the only thing that your father left behind for you, his black grimoire. 

The Loose Threads

If the story seems like it’s all over the place, that’s because it kind of is, in one sense. If you stick to doing the main storyline, you’ll pretty much shoot from start to finish in no time flat, but if you do that, you’re actually missing out on a huge chunk of the available gameplay. The real meat of the gameplay lies in the exploration of the city, and rediscovering your old haunts and memories. 

In terms of actual gameplay, it’s an isometric RPG adventure, with a decent split between turn-based RPG combat and explorative sections where you have to solve a mystery or uncover information you can use to get the better of somebody else. No matter which of the two you prefer, you’ll find plenty to whet your appetite here, though some aspects of the aforementioned gameplay can be a little on the shallow side. 

Time For a Fight

The combat is decent enough, with your stats and abilities being tied to the variety of different demons that you can meet and tame throughout the storyline. There’s the standard sort of quick attack, heavy attack, options, but you also have access to various systems that you can combo out, such as the focus system. Focus is another stat that each character has, and if you attack that instead, you can make them vulnerable to a finishing move. 

You also have access to some demons that can do insane damage by taking advantage of the focus system, even outside of the special final moves you get access to. It gives you a great incentive to explore the city and find some of the more well-hidden demons, especially since not finding those demons can actually completely lock your character out of getting to certain high points with the stats. 

Upgrades to Gameplay

There’s also an upgrade system, where you can tack on further effects and status ailments to your different moves. At first, these seemed rather token, but as you develop your abilities, you can genuinely earn some moves that really turn the tide of battle. Especially since you can unlock some insanely powerful additions such as the potential to triple damage, or the ability to stop people from performing their currently queued move. 

So, if combat is very deep and interesting, what element of the gameplay does feel a bit flat? Well, the issue is that you’re frequently called on to investigate an area to progress, and in literally every single case this means running around with your special Thaumaturge vision until you’ve found everything, then speak to people/make a deduction. This happens without fail every time, and it just results in approaching each deductive moment the same way. 

Well-Written Words

Luckily, the saving grace of the game comes from the writing. The dialogue is impeccable, and a lot of the missions and conversational threads genuinely feel like they’re well connected. It’s honestly also just fun re-doing conversations more than once and hearing the various sarcastic responses that your main character can achieve. 

The Thaumaturge’s graphics are pretty decent, at least on par with other recent games in the genre. That said, there are a few animation problems here or there that let the side down, and honestly the biggest problem has been the optimization. Even on decent hardware on the lowest settings, it sounded like both my Desktop and Handheld PC were trying to launch themselves into the surface of the sun. 

Music and Melancholy

Music and sound design are both appropriate for the period, with a decent amount of work going into making the sounds of the city as believable as the sights. There’s also a lot of joy to be found in the soundtrack itself, with the dark undercurrents of a demonic RPG matched well by the dark tone of the musical choices. 

Honestly, I feel like I didn’t get enough of The Thaumaturge. In total, the game ran around 15 hours with some side content done, and the end completely came out of nowhere as far as I was concerned. That said, there are enough separate paths to take and interesting facets to the way the game works that it almost feels like it was built around being replayed, maybe on higher difficulties and taking a different approach to both conversations and combat. 

The Verdict

When all is said and done, The Thaumaturge has done what it set out to do and created a heavily story-driven isometric RPG with a detective-esque undercurrent running through it. While it might not be the most involving on an investigation front, the top-quality writing and characters will keep you coming back for more, even if it’s just to see if you can get your hands on any demons that you missed. Assuming that your gaming devices haven’t melted into molten slag in the meantime. 

The Thaumaturge was reviewed on PC via Steam with a code provided by the Publisher over the course of 20 hours of gameplay. All screenshots where taken during the course of review.