The Thaumaturge wouldn’t have caught my eye if I hadn’t familiarized myself with isometric games such as Baldur’s Gate 3, but I am so grateful that it did. Developer Fool’s Theory is heading the story-driven RPG. If you’re a long-time fan of isometric games, you may remember the studio’s name from Seven, another unique twist on the underrated genre. Fool’s Theory is also made up of devs who worked on the likes of The Witcher 3, and The Thaumaturge’s publisher, 11 Bit Studios, also worked on other banger games like Frostpunk.
The Thaumaturge is more culturally driven than the developer’s previous game, though, plunging players into a fantastical, wicked version of 20th-century Warsaw. Just like in Baldur’s Gate 3, the choices you make while playing will affect your overall experience in the RPG game. Fool’s Theory writes that we can expect to make “morally ambiguous choices” as we play as protagonist Wiktor Szulski, a man blessed (or cursed) with a rare power known as thaumaturgy.
It’s up to us to shape what kind of person and thaumaturge Wiktor is, just as it is with our Tavs in Baldur’s Gate. I would say it’s more like playing one of BG3’s Origin characters, though, as you have a character with a background whose future you shape. You can try Wiktor’s shoes on and play The Thaumaturge right now while the free demo is up during the Steam Next Fest, which ends on Monday, October 16.
If you’re interested in finding out more about The Thaumaturge or are looking to download the new demo yourself, you can head on over to its official page on Steam for a deeper delve into the upcoming game. Fool’s Theory says that with the demo, “You’ll have a chance to play through the prologue” rather than the full game, “which should give you a good feel of the game without spoiling the plot too much.”
I’m excited to see what thaumaturgy looks like in-game, especially with the Salutor system. Basically, the Salutors are creatures consumed by thaumaturges like Wiktor, and they feed on human flaws. They look almost Dark Souls-esque, but you can choose to tame them. I’m sure this will have some sort of impact on your moral standing in-game, as the dev says you can use Salutors “to gain an advantage while exploring the world and when bringing your adversaries to their knees.”
While you wait for the full game to come out so you can have a go at using the demonic entities yourself, you can browse through a few of our other favorite fantasy games available to play now. For some new entries to look forward to, you can look around our roundup of the most intriguing upcoming PC games to add something other than The Thaumaturge to your wishlist.