Thaumistry: In Charm's Way

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".

I'm taking it slow, but I'm enjoying it so far. If you're a fan of Infocom and Steve Meretzky type games, this one's for you. I'll update if the game takes any radical turns, but so far it's been nothing but that, and I want to ensure it lands well and is entertaining throughout.

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.

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.

An enjoyable story, with puzzles of the right difficulty, making me feel like I'm smarter than I am while guiding me along.

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.