The Inquisitor

A grim yet strangely gripping dark fantasy adventure.

There’s no doubting the pitch for The Inquisitor catches the attention. You play Mordimer Madderdin, a holy inquisitor of the church whose job it is to hunt out heretics and enforce the faith – even if that means a spot of torture. That faith, by the way, comes courtesy of none other than Jesus himself, who in the world of

The Inquisitor did not die on the cross but instead broke free from it and then went on a bloody rampage across the world.

The Inquisitor opens with Mordimer being dispatched by the church to investigate rumours of a vampire operating in the 16th-century town of Koenigstein, where he soon discovers a series of bloody ritualistic murders, as well as strands of a far deeper and more sinister plot. You step off the boat at Koenigstein’s dock, and from that point on it’s your job to investigate what is happening and who is responsible.

The Inquisitor really is a relatively slow-paced detective narrative adventure first and foremost. You will engage 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, 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.

The Inquisitor does deliver on the concept of carrying 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 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, because if you buy in to the The Inquisitor’s

vibes and weird world, this is a grim and gripping experience.

VERDICT

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

Robert Jones

1 Those guys in the background stole Mordimer’s copy of APC magazine. 2 By sitting on benches you can eavesdrop on people for clues. 3 The cathedral’s interior shows the church’s power and wealth.