izigame.me

A city is a marvellous thing. It is the organic culmination of persevering, inattentive marks left by millions of insignificant people throughout the years. It is the human psyche in its most concrete form. A city, despite its composition from non-natural materials, such as stone, rock and asphalt, is as natural as humans that inhabit it. There is a sense of comfort that can only be found between the walls and fences and utility poles, the spontaneous laughter that rises from seeing graffiti only saying Miley Cyrus, not even making a statement like “ftw” or “sucks”, in a neighbourhood where most walls are adorned by revolutionary slogans and calls to action, or the invocation of memories caused by revisiting the crevice where I hid the cool rocks I found and seeing its still there even though I left my hometown many years ago. Nevertheless, even if these were to last a lifetime, a city is organic and bound to change, and so do its inhabitants. Most significant changes happen when the human condition is in disarray and upheaval, manifesting directly on the cityscape, creating some of the most interesting events of our collective history.
The Thaumaturge’s brilliant setting, Warsaw in 1905 is one of those times. Poland at the time was under Russian occupation and Warsaw’s various factions; Marxists, social democrats, Jews and anarchists were preparing for the inevitable showdown against the Russian state apparatus, the Okhrana and Polish collaborators, ultimately reshaping the cityscape in the image of social unrest. Fool’s Theory’s reconstruction of Warsaw is quite brilliant as unlike most open-worlds, it does not treat the urban space as a static behemoth that only acts as a set dressing, but recognizes that it is in constant state of flux. It is aware that the city was rapidly changing due to technological progress and simultaneous development of philosophical ideas and manages to convey this understanding without being unnecessarily educational or didactic. I loved how one side quest and one unmarked quest was directly related to the sewage system, and I am not talking about mind-numbingly boring sewer quests that seem to be all the fuss in gaming. Dealing with people’s reactionary response to the construction of sewers and resolving a strike of construction workers which left one of the largest avenues in Warsaw as a literal shithole hits all the right spots for me.
As a sucker for urban spaces whether it is digital, fictional or real, the setting is not just intriguing but also looks amazing. I am not sure if this is the achievement of Fool’s Theory or the Unreal Engine 5, but Warsaw, even with its bleakness and impending sense of doom, looks incredibly beautiful. Facades, interiors, parks, ports and bazaars are all quite detailed and remarkable enough that I even started to learn the unintelligible Polish street names and quite comfortably found addresses that were given as part of urban discovery quests. If you enjoy the bleakness of The Witcher, you will find a tingling sense of familiarity while you are going through various districts of Warsaw. The resilience of the various, quite likeable comrades we find through our adventure, and their belief in the progress of history is the only counteract against this oppression caused by the space, creating an intriguing contrast between the city and its inhabitants.
While the game follows the story of a bourgeois thaumaturge in an alternate reality and is obviously not a completely faithful retelling of events which took place in 1905, the chaotic mental state of Warsaw at the time is quite fitting to this alternate reality, especially the game’s concept of thaumaturgy. In accordance with the rising positivism of the early 1900s, the human psyche was considered as the last unconquered island of knowledge and psychoanalysis was a new science that would conquer this new land, exciting almost all strata of society. In the game, psychoanalysts are a class of professionals called thaumaturges, who can expose and cure the personality flaws and diseases of the mind, especially if they are contagious as salutors, the game’s version of mischievous folklore creatures, attach themselves to a flaw and deteriorate the overall mental well-being of a community. Even though I would have loved further expansion of this idea, possibly even creating a conflict between traditional thaumaturges and scientific psychoanalysts or showing Wiktor doing more actual thaumaturge work akin to Witcher to show the full extent of what is possible through this alien science, what Fool’s Theory has here is an amazing proof of concept.
I will not go into details of what I did find lacking in The Thaumaturge, not only because I tend to favour unique and ambitious games even with their flaws, but I also like to highlight what is amazing rather than nitpicking their mistakes. But it will suffice to say that gameplay mechanics and the quality of voice-acting is hit and miss. Detective work is largely automated and combat, even though has a solid foundation, needed a balancing and variety pass to be actually challenging and engaging. Voice acting performances for the main cast is decent and Rasputin’s voice actor, Brian Dobson, did one of the best voice-acting performances I have ever heard in gaming, but I cannot say the same about minor characters. This is why I am inclined to say The Thaumaturge is an amazing proof of concept rather than an amazing game.
Overall, Fool’s Theory has some very interesting ideas and an incredible setting, fully realising their vision here and there, not quite so in other places but in the end The Thaumaturge is just a small slice of what is possible in this alternate reality. I completed the game devoting 43 hours in the span of just three days, enjoying every second of it but I could not stop thinking about what could be improved upon more. There is something poetic about the devs taking charge of the first Witcher remake, because the first Witcher was not a perfect game and very much open to improvement, but it was unique and ambitious enough to leave its mark and make people ask for more. Just like The Thaumaturge.
On the cusp of greatness/10
P.S.: How perplexing it is to not include the anthem of Polish Socialist Party, Warszawianka (1905) adapted after thirty workers were killed during May Day demonstrations in 1905, in Warsaw, in a game that takes place in Warsaw, 1905. Soundtrack is quite good on its own and there are records of the songs you can collect, but this should have been a must to include.
P.P.S.: Thinking about how urban spaces cause change on the human psyche, it is incredible how Warsaw, 1905 inadvertently influenced a person living in a completely different place more than hundred years later. I was quite in love with Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls when I was around 12 or 13 and read obsessively about the Spanish Civil War, and eventually discovered A las Barricadas, which I adapted as my nickname since then was an adaptation of Warszawianka by the anarchists.