Thaumistry: In Charm's Way

I thoroughly enjoyed Thaumistry: In Charm's Way. It reminded me of when I was a teenager and played Infocom's text adventures. The game was developed by an Infocom veteran - Bob Bates. A very well thought out and cleverly designed game for anyone who enjoys text adventures.

Thaumistry is a great little text adventure. I haven't played one of these seriously in over 25 years. My memories are of mysterious wide worlds, reams of scribbled maps that loop back on themselves and being stuck for weeks or months trying to get through stubborn doors. The good news is that Thaumistry keeps the fun bits of the genre - the humor, the easter eggs, the hints of a bigger story going on behind the scenes - and take away some of the most frustrating bits like needing to make your own map or notes. You can always get a mild hint by typing "recap" to figure out the places you've been and the puzzles you forgot you didn't solve yet, and that was all i needed to get through the game without any walkthrough or more direct hints. Thaumistry is a fine game, whimsical and fast-paced and sprinkled with odd little in-jokes and trivia. It doesn't tell a really deep or serious story, but that's okay. It's fun. if you played text adventures as a kid and were a bit intimidated by getting back into them now, this is a great way - buy it on Steam, double-click, off you go. Well worth it.

Okay, I kickstarted this game, so I'm not sure if I got this game for free. Technically I'm backing the project and got the game as a result. Anyway...I just love these old games. This is a love letter to the throwback text based games of old. I've loved these games since I first discovered them (after this get Secret of Monkey Island if you haven't played that game yet). Point and clicks have added graphics but this is the art in its truest form. Not that anything is wrong with graphics, and to be clear, they say no graphics, yet whenever I've played text adventures, I've always had a very clear image of my character or the dragon or the person I'm speaking to, etc. The writing and description always has to be that little bit better because of the lack of graphics. I think if you liked Choose Your Own Adventure books, this game will be right up your alley. The puzzles are fun and I found them challenging enough that I had to quit the game and think about it for a bit before coming back to try something new. To be fair, it does take a bit of "game logic" and if you've played a point and click in the past it'll definitely help you get in the mind set. Generally, the more point and clicks you play, they easier it is to get into the mind set and solve the puzzles. Speaking of fun, there's a bunch of little details and hidden jokes so look at everything. I spent at least an hour on the misheard song lyrics part. If this is your first game, take your time to explore. The jokes are worth it. This game had me laughing and snickering the whole way through. TL;DR This game is totally worth the price. Worst case, you don't have a cup of coffee today. Boohoo. Treat yourself to a little gem of a game. My ONLY complaint is it was a little bit shorter than I wished and I really wanted the fun to keep going!

What a cool game! And what a crazy trailer too. They've got Al Lowe, Tim Schafer, and Steve Meretzky...in the trailer, not all involved with the game, haha. But if you read those names and you imagine a certain type of humor, then you're pretty close to what to expect with Thaumistry. It's a modern-day fantasy style game, and casting spells is an essential part of solving a lot of the puzzles. Think LOOM but in a modern setting and you're an inventor rather than a weird little cloak guy and there's no graphics and also you don't have to play music to cast spells... Ok, maybe I just wanted you to think about LOOM, isn't that a neat game? This one is definitely worth playing for the humor and the footnotes (yes, footnotes, with external links and everything)! The price is definitely right for the amount of gameplay you have here - by which I mean it's really cheap! Give it a try.

Nice work! Loved stepping into a story like I did a long time ago. I would love to see more of this stuff!

Fantastic game. Well-written and well-crafted. Thank you, Bob Bates!

Loved every minute of it. Fun story and challenging (but not insanely hard or unfair) puzzles, and a versatile parser where one can try out all kinds of silliness - just like the old days, but without the deadends, finally. Oh, and although I summon Greek waiters all the time for my irl culinary needs, I never summoned them to my assistance in a game before (That’s funny—I thought I just heard a bouzouki!!) If you like Text Adventures (aka "Interactive Fiction" to the freshmen) then, at a bit over 3 euros, Thaumistry is the best gift you can give yourself.