The RPG genre has had a renaissance in recent years. From massive hits like Baldur’s Gate 3 to experimental titles like Disco Elysium, RPGs have surpassed the standard template to include new and unique experiences. The Thaumaturge, from Fool’s Theory and 11-bit studios, is a new RPG on PS5 that brings its unique setting, story, and gameplay.
Should RPG fans drowning in options for 2024 and into 2025 take the time to move The Thaumaturge to the top of their backlog, or does this game fall to its myriad of demons? Let’s find out!
One of the Most Unique RPGs I’ve Played
When I first saw The Thaumaturge, I was intrigued. Its 20th-century Warsaw setting, detailed graphics, and phenomenal folklore-inspired demons checked a ton of boxes for me as a gamer. I followed the reception for the PC release, and when the opportunity to review it came up for the PS5, I jumped at the chance to check it out.
And let me tell you, fellow gamers, I am so glad I did. For those who want to know if The Thaumaturge is worth your time and money, let me save you a few hundred words by saying yes, especially if you’ve enjoyed recent RPGs prioritizing story, dialogue, and choice.
Let’s start with the story for those who want a more in-depth analysis. You play as Wiktor Szulski (pronounced like “Victor”), a Thaumaturge. These masters of mystical arts have supernatural perception that allows them to peer into people’s hearts and detect emotions that have attached themselves to everyday objects.
This allows Wiktor to examine almost anything in the environment and pick up on the emotions, desires, and secrets of those who have interacted with it. Not only can a Thaumaturge do this, but they can also recruit and summon demons known as Salutors that prey on flaws found in human beings.
These flaws include pride, greed, recklessness, and the like. All of this lends Wiktor the kind of reputation that precedes him, and you’ll encounter a number of characters who are amazed, suspicious, or downright hateful toward him in equal measure.
It’s a world that feels real from the moment you set foot in it. This is due to the quality of the writing, the Polish voice actors that lend authenticity to the setting, and the beautiful and detailed environments.
At first, I was also surprised at how personal the storyline can be. You start off by investigating a murder, but soon, you find yourself heading home to attend your father’s funeral. Of course, there are side quests that you can find through exploration, and I highly recommend you do them as they add richness to the world and characters.
But by and large, The Thaumaturge is a story that weaves the supernatural into everyday life in a way I wasn’t expecting, but one that feels compelling nonetheless. The characters are deep and nuanced, especially the ones you investigate and get to know by exploring their homes and possessions to discover the emotions and secrets that stain them.
I have to call out the quality of the writing once again as well because even the smallest of items in The Thaumaturge include a wonderfully detailed and poetic explanation of the emotions attached to it. It’s also very exciting to collect several of these insights and watch Wiktor piece them together to form an equally compelling conclusion.
While there are some who would probably prefer to come to these conclusions themselves, the way it plays out allows for enough player agency that you’re still in control. More importantly, these findings translate to new dialogue choices that the game highlights or calls out if you don’t have the information to select them.
Even still, there are also dialogue choices that will be locked because of choices you made, and the game will let you know, but it, unfortunately, doesn’t say which choice led to that outcome. This would have been nice to see for those who want to try different choices on a subsequent playthrough.
So, from a story and setting standpoint, The Thaumaturge is truly unique and extremely immersive, thanks to its level of detail in every environment. Now, let’s talk gameplay and combat.
Smooth Gameplay and Serviceable Combat
The world and story of The Thaumaturge were easily enough to immerse myself into, but how does it all come together from a gameplay standpoint? The game is played from an isometric (top-down) angle similar to other RPGs like Disco Elysium or Baldur’s Gate.
Using the R2 button (which has a satisfying click of tension on the DualSense) you can snap your fingers and get a quick read of anything useful in the immediate area. This is represented by a wave of red particles that always looks pleasing to the eye.
You’ll see these particles gather near items with an emotional charge, which lets you quickly identify what’s interactive in any given environment. It streamlines things while letting you explore at your own pace.
Gathering these clues will help you piece together conclusions and unlock new dialogue options in the various main and side quests available to you. The game also marks certain side quests as temporary, but it doesn’t say how long you have to do them. This is another minor quality-of-life option that I would love to see in a future patch.
For example, are the quests only available until a story milestone, or is it a specific number of days? This would help players better organize their time since there’s no shortage of things to do once you start exploring.
From a combat standpoint, The Thaumaturge goes for a classic turn-based style that has Wiktor and his Salutors on one side of the screen, and enemies in the far field of view. As you collect EXP, which can be earned from nearly every action, you’ll earn upgrades you can apply to your attacks for different effects.
The game also asks if you if you want to spend points or adjust your upgrade slots prior to each battle, which is a wonderful addition. Combat doesn’t come along terribly often, but when it does, you’ll want to be prepared.
Attacks are organized based on their speed and the type of damage or status effect they do. Slower attacks do more damage, but have the risk of being interrupted by faster enemy attacks. This is all displayed using a timeline at the top of the screen.
Interrupted attacks aren’t much of an issue on lower difficulties, but it would have been nice to have more detail when selecting an attack regarding how it lines up on the timeline. Right now you’re just told it’s fast, slow, or very slow.
A major plus to the combat is that you can switch your Salutor any time when it’s your turn without wasting an action. This is great because the game marks with a green symbol which Salutor is best suited for the enemy you’re targeting.
This is especially helpful because many enemies will have special traits that can only be disabled by a specific Salutor. You’ll need to attack with them to stop these, which are powerful until they can be dealt with.
Given all of this, battles play out in a satisfying fashion, with nice animations and wonderful demonic attacks from the Salutors. The more basic attacks, like punching or shooting, look impressive alongside the supernatural abilities, but they get the job done.
I don’t know that the combat adds a lot to the experience, and it’s worth saying again that The Thaumaturge is primarily story-focused with spots of combat, but it does serve as a way to highlight big moments and frame the story for larger conflicts with new Salutors.
Just keep in mind that you should be coming into this with an eye for story and narrative, and not primarily for tactical combat.
Smooth Performance on PS5 Pro
To my knowledge, The Thaumaturge isn’t optimized for PS5 Pro, but since I played it on that system, I opted for the performance mode as some anecdotal evidence shows it provides resolution boosts for games with dynamic resolution scaling (I don’t know for certain Thaumaturge uses this).
All of that aside, the game’s default Quality mode felt a little too choppy and looked blurry in motion for me, but these things went away almost entirely on the performance mode, which turns in a smooth framerate and crisp resolution. Switching between the two, as I often do for new games, didn’t reveal a huge difference beyond the smoother gameplay, so I would recommend performance mode for this title.
Beyond that, The Thaumaturge has a wonderful presentation that feels authentic to the region and time period. Native speakers further support this in the voice cast, all of which lends to the game’s immersion.
Environments are detailed and complex, while characters are a little less so. Everyone looks fine, but animations and lip sync can feel a little stiff. Even so, it’s not distracting to the point where it took me out of the game at any point, and more than likely a result of the AA budget.
In a year packed with great RPGs, The Thaumaturge stands out thanks to its unique setting, superb writing, unique gameplay mechanics, and solid combat. If you’re looking for something different, look no further. Let The Thaumaturge cast a spell on you.
Final Score: 8.5/10
Review code provided by the publisher
Article by – Bradley Ramsey
Insert date – 12/10/2024