The Thaumaturge Review – Salutors and Magic in Warsaw

The Thaumaturge should have arrived on the market a few months ago, but the developers wanted to postpone its release in order to make the latest improvements to the game. Postponements aren’t always good news, but in the case of The Thaumaturge, we can say that the wait was worth it.

If you are curious to know what we think of the game, continue reading our The Thaumaturge review so that you can have a complete vision of what awaits you if you decide to proceed with purchasing the game.

A Long Journey to Warsaw
The Thaumaturge starts with a cutscene where we meet the main character, Wiktor Szulski. Wiktor is a special person who can control demons and influence people’s thoughts. His sister Ligia sends him a letter, asking him to come back to their hometown, Warsaw. So, Wiktor begins his journey and reaches a small village near the big city.

In the village, Wiktor meets some guards of the Russian Tsar, and then he goes to an inn to find a healer named Rasputin. Before Wiktor can reach Warsaw, he must solve a big problem: he needs to reconnect with his demon friend, Upyr, whose power is fading, or else he’ll go crazy. After proving to Rasputin that he’s a thaumaturge, Wiktor has a strange vision of his father and encounters a demon called Salutor. But he gets interrupted by a woman and decides to talk to Rasputin about what he saw.

Rasputin takes Wiktor to the village cemetery, where they learn that someone killed the village sage in a fire, causing chaos. Wiktor starts investigating to find out who brought the demon Salutor to the village, which he learned about in his vision. After talking to locals and searching for clues, Wiktor discovers the truth. Then, Wiktor faces the demon and, with Rasputin’s help, manages to control it. He decides to send telegrams to Warsaw and Paris but receives news that his father has died. Shocked by this, Wiktor goes to Warsaw with Rasputin to meet his sister, fulfilling a favor he owed Rasputin for helping him.

We won’t say any further about the plot of the game because, since The Thaumaturge is a game in which the plot is the focal point, we would risk giving you too many major spoilers. What we have told you is, in practice, what you experience in the prologue of the game, which also corresponds to the portion of the game that you can try thanks to the demo. From here on out, in fact, the plot will thicken and you will have the opportunity to make your choices.

Combat, Salutors, and Skills
Thaumaturge is an isometric role-playing game, and the main focus is on investigating and talking with other characters. Throughout the story, you’ll need to explore different places to find clues and put them together to figure out what’s going on. So, while you’re checking out all the locations that are present on the map, make sure to search every nook and cranny.

Since Wiktor, the main character, is a special kind of person with powers like Perception, he can find clues easily and figure out where to go next. Besides Perception, he has other powers he can use depending on what’s happening. For instance, when talking to someone, he can use Manipulation to get them to say what he wants, but he needs to find clues first to know their weak points. Also, Wiktor can use his powers to calm people down or even use his pride to give strong answers, but that can lead to good or bad outcomes.

When it comes to fighting, Thaumaturge has turn-based combat, and before you start, you can choose how difficult you want it to be: easy if you’re more into the story, balanced if you want a more balanced experience, or challenging if you want a tougher time. In battles, you’ll have time to plan your moves based on who you’re fighting. Plus, before each fight, you can change your skills and upgrades to fit the situation better.

As you progress, you’ll unlock new skills and upgrades through a skill tree, so you can customize Wiktor to fit your style of playing. Also, once you’ve reconnected with Upyr, your demon friend, it’ll help you in fights, and its skills will be super handy. For example, it can weaken enemies, making them easier to defeat with powerful attacks. You can also catch other Salutors along the way, which makes your skills even more diversified.

These new Salutors you can catch are essentially bosses to face. When facing bosses, it’s a bit different; you don’t fight the boss directly but rather fight shadows of them. Once you defeat enough of these shadows, you beat the boss. But watch out for the effects they can have on you, some can be really dangerous. Thankfully, there are skills and upgrades to help you deal with those effects.

Good Graphics with Some Uncertainties
Thaumaturge isn’t a huge-budget game, but it still looks pretty good. The graphics are nice and modern. The places in the game all feel real and immersive. The atmosphere is really cool and helps make the game enjoyable. The characters and demons are well-designed and spooky. But the animations and facial expressions could be better. Sometimes, the characters’ eyes look empty, which isn’t a big deal for playing, but it could be improved.

The dialogue and voices in the game are well done. The conversations between the characters were interesting and well-written. You will hardly have time to get bored, even when you have to watch long cutscenes or interact with characters for a long time to discover some mystery or be able to continue with the game plot. The English voice acting was good, but playing in Polish gives a different vibe, especially for Wiktor’s character.

Lastly, let’s talk about the technical stuff. Thaumaturge is a good game overall, but there are some small issues. Sometimes the textures take too long to load, and there are some frame rate problems in certain parts. However, to be precise, we must say that we played the game before a major update was released aimed at correcting some problems that the developers are aware of. So, it is likely that these problems are no longer so noticeable.

The Thaumaturge Review – 9/10
The Thaumaturge is a great game in almost every way. The story that the developers wanted to create is interesting and never banal; it has the strength to keep the player glued to the screen for its entire duration. The characters built are really interesting, as is the game world that hosts them. On the technical side, there are some uncertainties, but nothing so debilitating that it really has a bearing on the overall gaming experience. If you are a lover of this genre (or even if you aren’t), The Thaumaturge cannot fail to be on your list of games.

*The game was reviewed on PC thanks to a key provided by the developers.

Diana has been a huge fan of video games since she was a child. She started her “career” with Nintendo and then moved on to other platforms as well. She is a computer engineering student. She is passionate about everything related to the gaming industry and writes for various websites in the sector. Although she is a big fan of horror games, she plays almost all genres fearlessly.