Alright. The Thaumaturge is done and dusted. I’m not certain how many endings there are in the game, but I qualified for four based on my choices and skills, so I saw those four. You play as Wiktor Szulski, who is the titular Thaumaturge.

The game itself takes many twists and turns, but much of the game focuses on your friendship with Rasputin, and your relationship with your twin sister as you try to figure out how and why your father, also a Thaumaturge, was killed while navigating the politics and general social climate of 1905 Warsaw.

The story was very detailed and intricate, with a ton of lore and interesting branching paths that will, as mentioned above, ultimately dictate which of the game’s endings you can enjoy. Very well written and although the story itself is fiction, the backdrop of 1905 Poland and specifically Warsaw was, so far as I can tell, quite historically accurate. This game was highly enjoyable from a story perspective. And the progression of Rasputin from the beginning to the end was particularly compelling and noteworthy.

Along the way, you will also seek to defeat and tame salutors, which are spirits who attach themselves to people who have a strong personality flaw (such as anger, fear, and so on). Additionally, you as a Thaumaturge already have a companion salutor who chose you based on your own flaw (pride in Wiktor’s case). A Thaumaturge can see these spirits, and thus try to separate them from their host and add them to your collection. Which in turn offer you special insight and abilities when dealing with other people, and new combat abilities as well.

Combat is turn based and resolved using Wiktor’s fighting abilities and those of his salutors, along with upgrades and buffs earned along the way. These are purchased via skill points and are presented as four skill trees based on the type of salutor you are upgrading. Combat was fun and prevalent, but not specifically the game’s focus.

The game’s focus is really investigation and dialogue. You, using your heightened senses as a Thaumaturge, will find many, many secrets in Warsaw, mostly taking the form of side quests. Some are story related, most are world building instead. Designed to help you get to know turn of the 20th century Warsaw. You of course will also use your investigative skills to further the main story quests.

Gameplay is isometric, although cutscenes are 3-d. There is thankfully fast travel, and objectives are clearly marked. The world crafting was very well done. Everything looked very believable, and the developers clearly put a lot of time into the graphics, really making Warsaw a living breathing world.

Additionally, every interaction is fully voice acted, and I thought it was quite well done. The team did a good job of getting a solid effort from the voice actors. The music in the game was quite enchanting, and the sounds of the city itself were omnipresent and ideal for the places they were representing.

I played this on the Steam Deck, and I would consider it to be Verified despite not having that status. There were some issues with the game, but none seemed to be Deck specific.

Rather, the issues with this game were very much general optimization issues. The game did struggle with framerate drops under certain circumstances. Specifically when it rained, when you were running through certain areas where it seemed like it struggled to keep up with the game’s rendering, and occasionally during conversations. Additionally, the game would sometimes freeze during the transitions between the end of combat and the ensuing cutscenes. These freezes required restarting the Deck and then continuing the game. None of these specific crashes repeated themselves. Meaning, upon restarting the game, the game functioned as it should after said battle(s).

Anyway, I very much enjoyed my time in the game. Special shoutout again to the devs for how they handled Rasputin. That was immaculate. And I wonder if Albuquerque man will be a future expansion or another game in the IP. I guess we shall see. Although I received this gane as a gift, it definitely earns its asking price. Definitely give this game a look.