Thaumistry: In Charm's Way

Who needs graphics? :) Fantastic text-based adventure. It was so well written, clever and funny. I want more of these high quality games!! You can set the color scheme of the screen any way you like. The game has an in-game hint system to give you anywhere from a gentle nudge to an outright solution if a player needs it to get back on track. Play time and quality of the story made this game well worth the price. Basically, you get what you type into the game. I was running around casting spells on everyone I met and just messing around with everything the game put in front of me and was rewarded with a lot of little funny bits throughout my playthough. Just one little example, if you read the whiteboard repeatedly you will get quite the large collection of math and science jokes. Things like that go beyond just getting through the story and make the experience so much richer and engaging. I just loved playing this game.

This game is great. It's a text adventure. There's no sound, no music. No mouse needed. In this game you are a failed inventor who is approached by a secret society of magicians. There is currently a convention of strange inventions in progress, and one of these devices threatens to expose the magical community. You are given a spellbook, and your main task of the game is to infiltrate the convention and shut that device down. As you progress, you will need to solve some really puzzles involving a lot of the novel sci-fi devices at the convention; there's a time machine, a duplicator, a teleportation device, and a few others. Your primary reward for solving puzzles is learning new spells. While there is a regular inventory, the primary method of problem-solving is the application of the spells you learn. Some spells are straightforward, like "levitate" or "fix broken electronics", but others are more creative, like "summon hula dancers", or "sing like Aretha Franklin". There's well over dozen of these to play with, and they provide a fun way of interacting with the world with a lot of easter eggs. In a genre that is famous for B.S deaths, unforgiving puzzles, guide-dang-its, logical leaps, and dead ends, I am happy to report that Thaumistry has exactly none of those things. The game is beautifully designed. The game has a lot of areas, but they gradually open up over time, so it never feels overwhelming. It does a great job of teaching as you go. For some of the later puzzles, when you have access to most of the map, the "think" or "recap" commands will give you a clear idea of your goals and gently point out which areas may be important to your current situation without providing a blatant hint. There *is* a blatant hint system, but I was able to complete the game in about six hours without resorting to any hints or any external guides. I think the difficulty was *just* right. If you are interested in text adventures, this is a great place to start.

This was really great. I grew up playing the Infocom games (although I don't think I actually managed to finish more than a couple of them), but I hadn't played a text adventure in years and wasn't sure how I'd take one at this point. Turns out I was hooked immediately and finished the game in a couple lengthy sessions. One of the best adventure games I've played in years. Thaumisty is similar in tone and as well written as the best Infocom games plus with the huge added benefits of not repeatedly killing you and not ever allowing you to do something that makes the game unwinnable without telling you. I managed to get through the game with only one minor hint from the ingame hint system, but it wasn't an easy game. I did a lot of thinking and reexploring and trying things to find the right answers but almost never feeling like I was just banging my head against the wall and getting frustrated, and in a number of cases it was real eureka moment when I managed to draw to right connections. I really dislike in some adventure games when I don't feel like I have any idea what I'm supposed to be doing to advance the story, and the "recap" system in Thaumistry was a nice way to keep the player pointed in the right direction without spoiling anything, especially in the middle portion of the game when the map opens up and there are a lot of puzzles going on at the same time.

This game was great fun--witty, chatty, and puzzles that are just hard enough to be satisfying. I did need two mild hints for some puzzles towards the end, but all of the puzzles felt fair, and they followed the logic of the game. This game feels like a labor of love. And it's funny too--the humor reminds me a bit of the old school text game "Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of it." The parser input is great as well--very rarely was I fishing for verbs. A really fun experience. I hope this developer makes lots more games in the same vein.

This brings back many happy memories from the golden age of Interactive Fiction. Definitely one to check out if you're a fan of old-school text adventures, or even if you've never tried one before. The parser is excellent, the writing is full of wit and whimsey, the puzzles are logical(ish) and even when not, the solutions certainly left me chuckling to myself. Hopefully, we'll get to see more of these in the future (I won't spoil it, but there's a lead-in to a possible sequel at the end)

Back in my day, games like this were called "text adventures", nowadays it's "interactive fiction". "Thaumistry" is a nice call-back to the Infocom games of yore, made by an industry veteran. The humor and the slightly obtuse puzzles (one is based on a groan-worthy pun) are what you would expect from a game like this. It does come with a couple of quality of life features to make it a bit more accessible, like a built-in map, a hint system, and autosaves. It's also relatively easy compared to the text adventures of the 1980s: you effectively cannot die (except you really, [i]really[/i] force it) and there are no dead ends. If you liked games like Zork, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or The Guild of Thieves, you will like "Thaumistry".

Thumbs up! This reminded me of classic text adventures by Infocom. Text adventures are something of a lost art these days, but they were very popular in the 80’s. If you haven’t tried text adventures before, this is a good introduction. It’s a fun game and the achievements are straightforward. You’ll get them all just by finishing the game. You don’t need to endure monotonous grinding or find pointless collectibles to get them. This game was designed well. My biggest complaint would be that they haven’t made a sequel yet. Text adventures were the precursors of point and click adventures and the general gameplay is similar even though text adventures didn’t have any graphics. For example, both types of games involve collecting an assortment of items and figuring out what to do with them. In a point and click adventure, you click on a backpack icon to check your inventory, but in a text adventure, you would type the word “inventory” to check your inventory. Both types of games involve staring at your inventory a lot and wondering if you missed a clue somewhere. Text-only adventures declined in popularity as computer graphics improved and graphic adventure games became more popular. Eventually, graphic adventure games were overshadowed by first person shooters, but that’s another story. This game would not be out of place back in the 80’s, but it does incorporate two features that weren’t in use back then, a built-in map and the recap function. The map is just a simple diagram of where you can go. It’s not an instant travel map, but there aren’t any pointless mazes, so finding your way around is easy enough. The recap function lists puzzles you are working on in case you forgot what you need to do next. For example, the recap might say that you went to the auditorium, but the usher wouldn’t let you in without a ticket. That’s a reminder that you should get a ticket somehow. In addition to the game itself, there is a pdf file called CyberFeelies which is included. It’s not necessary to read it to solve the game, but it gives some background about the game universe. It’s also worth taking a look at the video on the store page for more background. There are cameos by game designers who became famous in the 80’s and 90’s, Al Lowe, Steve Meretzky and Tim Schafer. Final verdict. I found the game to be quite enjoyable. It wasn’t too easy or too hard and there were some really funny jokes in the game. Two thumbs up!

Really fun text adventure by an Infocom alumni. Feels similar to games from that era but also very modern. No dead ends, deaths, and has an in-game map and hint system.

I definitely recommend this game to anyone who enjoys reading and likes comedy! I found out about Zork a few years ago. I had no idea you could have fun simply by interacting with a computer using a command line. Thaumistry is a Zork improved. It has a wider set of commands with a lot more witty content, and offers a simple GUI with a menu and a map, and also the possibility to click on a few links that are revealed during the game. You type whatever comes to mind, trying to combine verbs or spells (you play as some kind of magic user) with any person, object you encounter to see how they react, and uncover the story. I had to use a few hints when I was stuck in the second half of the game,[spoiler]I did not think about using an uncertainty spell to fix a vending machine... [/spoiler], but overall, advancing in the game is straightforward and logical. What was missing is a soundtrack. Like the original Zork, the game is silent. I would have liked to hear some background music and sounds while moving between locations. That would have added to the immersion. Anyway, just try the game, you won't regret it! [spoiler]A Mathematician, a Biologist and a Physicist sit in a sidewalk cafe watching the house across the street. Two people go into the building, then three people come out. The Physicist says, "We have made a measurement error." The Biologist says, "They have reproduced." The Mathematician says, "If one more person goes into the house, it will be empty."[/spoiler] [spoiler]It’s pitch black. You are likely to eat a grue. Time passes... The longer you stay here in the dark, the more likely it is that you will eat a grue. Time passes... You really do not want to eat a grue. Time passes... Time passes... Time passes... Unseen claws pry your mouth open. You eat the grue. Then the grue eats you. From the inside-out. Yuck![/spoiler]

If you like reading books and point-and-click adventure games, give Thaumistry a try. The lack of visuals is compensated with more commands and flavor text, which makes the world feel more alive than a standard adventure game.