The Inquisitor review

Our VerdictThe Inquisitor is a grim yet strangely gripping dark fantasy story, memorable if a little rough around the edges.

Our Verdict

The Inquisitor is a grim yet strangely gripping dark fantasy story, memorable if a little rough around the edges.

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Need to KnowWhat is it?A dark fantasy adventure where players try to solve crimes and unearth heretics as Holy Inquisitor of the church, Mordimer Madderdin.Release dateFebruary 8, 2024Expect to pay$39.99/£34.99DeveloperThe Dust S.A.PublisherKalypso MediaReviewed onNvidia RTX 3090 Ti, 32GB RAM (DDR4), AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, ASRock B450M Pro4Steam DeckTBALinkSteam

Need to Know

What is it?A dark fantasy adventure where players try to solve crimes and unearth heretics as Holy Inquisitor of the church, Mordimer Madderdin.Release dateFebruary 8, 2024Expect to pay$39.99/£34.99DeveloperThe Dust S.A.PublisherKalypso MediaReviewed onNvidia RTX 3090 Ti, 32GB RAM (DDR4), AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, ASRock B450M Pro4Steam DeckTBALinkSteam

Mordimer bests another foe in a duel.(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing Mordimer holding a sword to a man’s throat.

The Inquisitor really is a relatively slow-paced detective narrative adventure first and foremost. Youwillengage in plenty of talking in this game. From chatting to notable figures in Koenigstein, such as the mayor and notable merchants, through to interrogating suspects (sometimes while torturing them), learning about in-game lore from religious officials, and onto investigating potential leads with the town’s nobility, Mordimer is a detective first and fighter second. There’s fighting for sure, but it is a small part of a game that’s almost closer to a Broken Sword: investigative dialogue interspersed with puzzles, rather than an action-adventure of clashing swords and levelling up.

Yes, torture is part of Mordimer’s armoury.(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing Mordimer torturing a man.

Primary suspect

Mordimer’s journal helps you keep track of people and plot threads.(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing Mordimer’s journal.

The cathedral’s interior shows the church’s power and wealth.(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing Mordimer Madderdin walking through a cathedral’s interior.

Oh, and you’re also travelling to a dark shadow spirit realm called the Unworld where a Cthulu-like abomination called The Murk is constantly trying to devour your soul.

This Cthulu-style beast, named The Murk, will kill you quickly if it sees you, so staying hidden from its gaze is key.(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing the Unworld

Welcome to Unworld

Because while on the surface world you’re playing detective, periodically you need to use Mordimer’s unique power (don’t ask) to visit the Unworld, a dark and sinister shadow realm that exists on another parallel plane to the real world. In doing this, Mordimer can use what he has learned while detecting on the surface world to locate and then gather fragments of the actual truth from the Unworld, which manifest themselves as glowing orbs within this shadow realm. Each time Mordimer visits the Unworld his job is to gather these orbs which, once fully assembled, unlock a vision of what has happened. This in turn reveals truth to Mordimer and progresses the plot.

Finding enough of these knowledge orbs in the Unworld will reveal a truth-bestowing vision to Mordimer.(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing Mordimer standing in front of a knowledge orb in the Unworld.

The Inquisitor review showing Mordimer kneeling at a light well

Fights are infrequent in The Inquisitor, but always dramatic.(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing Mordimer fighting a crazed jailer.

Delivering justice

Upon learning the truth of what has happened Mordimer will, eventually, have to confront what is essentially a boss character in the world of The Inquisitor. Boss confrontations often take place in multiple stages, with each stage leading to a more difficult version of the challenge. So, for example, an early boss sees you playing a deadly game of hide-and-seek, where Mordimer is hunting for the boss but, also, the boss can hunt Mordimer, too. If Mordimer remains in dark areas too long then he’s in trouble. Each time Mordimer finds the character, though, the next part of the hide-and-seek game gets a bit harder. Equally, combat encounters with boss characters work the same way, progressing in challenge. One encounter sees you fight a series of brothers, with each being tougher than the last. You get the idea.

QTEs are a thing in The Witcher, and can be insta-death if you fail.(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing an quick time event

Another mechanic The Dust employs a fair bit is QTEs, both in and out of boss encounters. For example, almost as soon as you’ve entered Koenigstein you find yourself chasing a pickpocket through the town’s streets, needing to successfully press buttons at key times to stay on the thief’s tail. While in the aforementioned boss fight there is a quite dramatic chase away from him where timed QTEs are required. Later in the game, there are unfortunately a few insta-death QTE moments, too, such as when having to fight a knife throwing foe. I’ve never been a fan of QTEs, and their inclusion here feels a bit dated, but overall they’re not too punishing and didn’t detract from the experience..

Graphically the game is often pretty, despite a basic core engine.(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing Koenigstein’s central market place.

Most of this action, just like much of the game’s narrative, is on rails. You are playing through a singular experience rather than fashioning your own as you go. It’s an interactive, plotted adventure and, overall, I feel The Dust has done a really good job in crafting it, even if most of it does not offer multiple completion paths (for the record, though, the game does have multiple endings depending on player choices). Narrative and visual atmosphere is one of this game’s best qualities, and playing out Mordimer’s role in this story is satisfying—and crucially gets more so the more you play. Needless to say, there’s far more going on in Koenigstein than initially meets the eye, and uncovering the depths of the plot is interesting, as too is just existing in The Inquisitor’s world, which frequently is pretty, evocative and grounded, even though the visuals can be rough around the edges.

This guy’s model and animation just never looked right to me.(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing pub landlord and Mordimer sitting at a table

She looks very suspicious, but is she actually up to no good?(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing a woman with dreadlocks.

Despite the audio-visual discrepancies, The Inquisitor ran flawlessly on my machine, with zero crashes or major graphical bugs. The really rather basic minimum system specs required (GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / AMD RX 590) also mean I’m sure basically every other PC gamer is going to have no worries running this game at a playable framerate. I was also impressed with the fact that The Inquisitor supports up to 120hz displays and framerates, as well as offering ultrawide monitor support, too. From a technical standpoint, The Inquisitor delivers.

The Inquisitor is a grim yet strangely gripping dark fantasy story, memorable if a little rough around the edges.(Image credit: Future)

The Inquisitor review image showing Mordimer standing in front of a gallows.

Keep the faith

The Inquisitor does deliver on the concept, which is to carry the player along on a dark fantasy narrative in a unique, twisted world. But that core experience is interspersed with so many ‘lite’ variants of certain gameplay mechanics (combat, QTEs, stealth, etc) we’ve all played better versions of that they come to dilute and almost detract from it. It would be wrong to crucify the game for that, of course, because if you buy-in to the The Inquisitor’s vibes and weird world, this is a grim and gripping experience.

The Verdict79Read our review policyThe Inquisitor reviewThe Inquisitor is a grim yet strangely gripping dark fantasy story, memorable if a little rough around the edges.

The Verdict

79Read our review policyThe Inquisitor reviewThe Inquisitor is a grim yet strangely gripping dark fantasy story, memorable if a little rough around the edges.

79Read our review policy

The Inquisitor reviewThe Inquisitor is a grim yet strangely gripping dark fantasy story, memorable if a little rough around the edges.

The Inquisitor review

The Inquisitor is a grim yet strangely gripping dark fantasy story, memorable if a little rough around the edges.

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Our Verdict#

Primary suspect#

Welcome to Unworld#

Delivering justice#

Keep the faith#

Our Verdict

Primary suspect

Welcome to Unworld

Delivering justice

Keep the faith