izigame.me

I recommend this game if you want a good narrative experience, and aren't super squeezed for time. If you are really busy and require something truly exceptional, I would take your picky demands elsewhere!

WHAT IT'S LIKE PLAYING THIS GAME
-(YOU CAN'T ROLEPLAY A CHUBBY TIEFLING PALADIN.)
You play as WIKTOR SZULSKI, and only WIKTOR SZULSKI. Your WIKTOR SZULSKI might be different than my WIKTOR SZULSKI, but he is still WIKTOR SZULSKI. He is a quite-literally flawed aristocrat with a definite history. How you move forward with that history depends on the choices you make in the game. But you are very much inhabiting a specific role.
-(It's in the ISOMETRIC STYLE.)
But that is more of an aesthetic choice. The isometric style is more of a camera angle thing. There's no party to manage, or an inventory really, or even a shop. It's not that crunchy kind of game with lots of stats. You don't pick up metal boots that grant you .000003% more resistance to stuns. Your "inventory" is basically a really detailed journal where you store character biographies, quest goals, drawings, item descriptions, and blurbs from newspapers you can pick up and skim.
-(It's WHACKIER than you probably think.)
I don't know why, but I expected the game to be kind of grim and self-serious and sort of faux-philosophical and heavy with the Nietzsche quotes. And it's not like super cheery or anything--sad things happen; it takes place in 1905, which is 10 years before the apocalypse in European history. But there's kind of this zany undercurrent of humor throughout this whole thing. Nobody farts or anything. And nobody gets whacked in the nuts. But it's the sort of thing where you'll suddenly be in a fisticuffs with some big-nosed boozer, and you'll be all like, "Wait. Who the f#%$ is this guy????"
-(YOU FOLLOW A RED TRAIL A LOT. You click on lots of items and read lots of short snippets.)
There's a map and you travel around different sections of the city via old-timey horse and carriage. But you basically run around the streets of Warsaw in the isometric style and click on things to read. The things you click on can be hard to spot if you don't constantly use your Thaumaturge thumb-snap thing that makes sparkly red lights appear.
-(THE COMBAT IS BIZARRE, IN GOOD AND BAD WAYS.)
You'll be walking around and you'll see a posh lady sitting on a bench. You start talking to her, when out of no where, some Russian or Polish dwarf will intrude and start besmirching you. And suddenly you'll find yourself in a turn-based fistfight with like a triplet set of these Polish bums. One guy will smash you in the nose with his elbow and you'll lose like 11 health points. The next guy will shoot your guts out, but you'll only lose 2 health points from it.
Unfortunately, the combat encounters can be pretty repetitive. There's a puzzle-like element to it where you have to plan ahead. But each encounter feels pretty much the same, except the major boss fights. But the major boss fights are not radically different from each other, and aren't that radically different from the usual encounters. Very pretty art with the boss battles, though.
Once I adjusted the combat animations to "very fast," I enjoyed them and found them amusing.

DID I EVER WANT TO QUIT THIS GAME?
No. This game didn't have some long sewer level or underwater thing where I had to grit my teeth to just get through.

WHY I THINK OTHERS MIGHT CLICK ON THE RED THUMB
-They are very short on time and demand something absolutely exceptional. "Good" is not good enough for them.
-They hate, hate, hate the combat and can't get past it.
-It's a narrative adventure. It felt like I was reading a neat novella, and the world and gameplay brought it all more vividly to life. However, someone else might want to flip that balance between story and gameplay. They might be seeking great gameplay with a sprinkle of story to bring it more vividly to life. If you don't like the story, I don't think the gameplay is engrossing enough to keep you around. It's not one of those games where you can ignore the story just to mess around and engage with the mechanics.
-If you play this on Steam Deck, the game might initially launch in Polish. You just gotta be patient and fiddle around in the settings until you find the language option for English or whatever.
WHY I CLICKED ON THE BLUE THUMB
-I didn't always understand what was going on. But I was intrigued by the story and legitimately wanted to see how it all played out at the end.
-Great art all around.
-I'm a goofy person, and I greatly appreciated the bizarre humor.
-The setting is very unique and beautiful. I kind of felt like a time-traveling tourist. I don't think I've ever played a game in this setting before. As an American, it felt very foreign, and I loved that.
-The quest for unlocking the sad mermaid Salutor lady was really awesome. The setting felt different than the other parts of Warsaw, and there was lots of rain and bizarre characters. It left a long impression. When I think back on this game, I'll definitely remember that whole section.
-I loved the characters and felt like Wiktor Szulski was a real person. I purposely played this game as an arrogant jerk my first time around. And I'm bummed by the ending I got. I care enough about the characters to eventually do another more ideal run where I give everyone better endings.
-I feel like I've gained something by having these characters and this world floating around in my imagination. It feels more like I've gained something neat, rather than that I've lost time.