Holstin is a psychological survival horror game that boasts a throwback pixelated aesthetic and a genuinely unsettling tone. Its latest trailer - which just dropped at the Future Games Show - shows off its seamless switching between first and third person in its isolated and haunted 90s Polish town setting, and, wow, it's as eerie as it gets.
The Thaumaturge Review
04.03.2024 - 18:37 / ign.com
In a video game industry that often feels like it’s bloating into a monolithic, unsustainable beast propped up by annual staples and once every generation blockbusters, a small silver lining is that it’s still big enough for games like The Thaumaturge to exist. This mid-size RPG may not match the jaw-dropping scale of a game like Baldur’s Gate 3, but it’s still packed with atmosphere and good ideas that are mostly well executed. Aside from some buggy movement and odd voices, the turn-based combat is full of interesting strategic choices, and its great writing and story manage to punch up tried and true point-and-click clue finding and lore gathering.
You play as the eponymous Thaumaturge, a sort of Witcher/John Constantine mash up of a supernaturally gifted human and an extraplanar detective named Wiktor. His journey to uncover the circumstances of his father’s death often finds him plying his esoteric trade both in service of this goal, and as a distraction from it. The various intertwining stories of a Poland at the brink of revolution, as well as Wiktor discovering all the ways things have changed at home in his fifteen year absence, tie a compelling narrative knot across its 20 hour run time.
Though I found a lot of its main and side stories to be interesting, the slow pace does mean you’ll spend long stretches of time reading and listening before being given a chance to act. When you do, usually through dialogue options that can vary based on past choices or your own abilities, sometimes The Thaumaturge asked me to make assumptions about Wiktor’s life and old relationships that I had no context for. For instance, it regularly asks you to either be nice or a jerk to people who apparently know him, but doesn’t give you adequate reason to decide one way or the other. The voice acting can also be a bit shaky, with accents that are all over the place – more than one person that is supposed to be a native to the region sounded like I could have met them in a Wawa here in the great state of New Jersey.
That said, I did like that dialogue options regularly felt risky, and limitations imposed by previous encounters or Wiktor’s current stats made chatting people up feel like a challenge. I can’t speak to how differently any of these exchanges would go if I chose some other option, or how long it would take to reach the consequences of those choices, but The Thaumaturge at least puts on a convincing show of giving you meaningful control over its events.
Quests involve a lot of snooping around, investigating objects both mundane and magical in private and in public, all to earn “observations,” which are clues you can draw about the people who interacted with them based on any lingering emotional residue. The
The website gametalkz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Top Authors
Popular Topics
gameranx.com
21.03.2024 / 14:07
Rumor: God Of War Ragnarok Won’t Come To PC Until Q1 2025 At The Earliest
We have a new rumor about the God of War Ragnarok port to PC.
pushsquare.com
21.03.2024 / 00:29
MLB The Show 24 Review (PS5) | Push Square
MLB The Show 24 may not be the best-looking sports game on the market anymore, but San Diego Studio continues to lead the field by pushing the boundaries of the genre overall. This year’s release may feel largely familiar when you’re at the plate, but the expansion of narrative-based experiences in the Storylines section demonstrates how the first-party developer is evolving elsewhere.
gamingbolt.com
20.03.2024 / 16:37
Destiny 2: The Final Shape Underperfoming Could Lead to More Layoffs at Bungie – Rumor
From layoffs and a delay to Destiny 2’s The Final Shape to a new Marathon director and the rumored cancellation of Matter, Bungie is in a fair amount of turmoil these days. The developer delayed The Final Shape to allow more time for polish amid reports of pre-orders tracking below expectations.
pushsquare.com
20.03.2024 / 01:25
Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator Review (PS5) | Push Square
On paper, Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator seems like a great time. Leisurely picking up fares in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, Barcelona. Exploring and finding points of cultural interest, forming and customising your own taxi company — it all sounds like a relaxing experience, right? Wrong.
polygon.com
19.03.2024 / 18:13
Elden Ring is $20 off, letting new players save before Shadow of the Erdtree arrives
Don’t you know? It’s time to return to Elden Ring to polish your character before the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion drops in June. For those who haven’t played the base game at all (oh, how I wish I could experience this game again with fresh eyes), you have an opportunity to snag a rare discount on Elden Ring, which is required to own if you ever plan to play the upcoming DLC. If you need more convincing, even after it took home Polygon’s game of the year prize in 2022, check out our Elden Ringreview.
thegamer.com
14.03.2024 / 13:31
Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection Has Ruined The Iconic Loading Screen Sound
Star Wars Battlefront: Classic Collection has somehow messed up the iconic loading screens by messing up the sound effects that play during them.
gamesradar.com
13.03.2024 / 17:38
To get better updates out quicker, Palworld dev asks players "genuinely interested in bug hunting" to help polish the survival game through its new testing program
Palworld's developer has launched a new testing program and is looking for players who are "genuinely interested in bug hunting" to help polish the game's upcoming "exciting new content."
gamesradar.com
13.03.2024 / 17:37
Indie studio announces 2 games at once in a bid to prove that The Witcher isn't the only epic European fantasy RPG out there
In an attempt to prove that The Witcher isn't the only European folklore-inspired RPG on the block, new studio Mighty Koi Studio has announced not one, but two brand new games.
gamesradar.com
11.03.2024 / 22:49
Final Fantasy 16 PC port is in the "final stages of optimization," system requirements are "somewhat high," and there's a demo on the way
The PC port of Final Fantasy 16 is at the end of its development cycle, producer Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida has revealed.
rockpapershotgun.com
08.03.2024 / 17:13
The Night Wanderer is a sci-fantasy Soulslike that blends sword-fighting with cybernetics
Polish developers Mighty Koi have announced The Night Wanderer, a new sci-fantasy Soulslike RPG with metroidvania level design – yes, yes, tick those genre boxes! - in which you are a grim bearded swordsman exploring an alien world that looks a bit like pre-industrial Scandinavia.
ign.com
08.03.2024 / 15:21
The Night Wanderer Is a New Soulslike Based on a Best-Selling Polish Fantasy Novel Series
Developer Mighty Koi Studio announces The Night Wanderer, a new sci-fi/fantasy soulslike with RPG elements based on the Polish book series "Lord of the Ice Garden" by Jarosław Grzędowicz.