The Inquisitor Torrent begins with Mordimer being sent by the church to look into rumors of a vampire operating in the 16th-century town of Koenigstein, where he quickly finds a series of bloody ritualistic murders, as well as hints of a much deeper and more sinister plan. You step off the boat at Koenigstein’s dock and from there, it’s your task to investigate what is happening and who is to blame, with the game’s dark fantasy story unfolding slowly.
The Inquisitor is primarily a slow-paced mystery adventure. You’ll do a lot of talking in this game. From talking to important people in Koenigstein, like the mayor and notable merchants, to questioning suspects (sometimes while pressuring them), learning about the game’s lore from religious officials, and investigating potential leads with the town’s nobility, Mordimer is a detective first and a fighter second. There’s combat, but it’s a small part of a game that’s almost more like a Broken Sword: investigative conversations mixed with puzzles, rather than an action-adventure of clashing swords and leveling up.
However, while you’re playing detective on the surface world, occasionally you must use Mordimer’s special ability (don’t ask) to visit the Otherworld, a dark and sinister shadow realm that exists alongside the real world. Here, Mordimer can use what he has learned on the surface world to find and gather fragments of the truth from the Otherworld, which appear as glowing orbs within this shadowy realm. Each time Mordimer visits the Otherworld, his task is to collect these orbs which, once gathered, reveal a vision of what has occurred. This helps Mordimer uncover the truth and advance the plot.
Gathering the orbs isn’t easy, though. In the Otherworld, the aforementioned Darkness constantly hovers over the land, flying around looking for Mordimer, while ghostly shadow warriors also wander about. Later in the game, there are additional dangers as well. Fighting the shadow warriors lets Mordimer draw his sword for some combat, but the Darkness can only be avoided, with players needing to guide Mordimer to a haven of glowing light. If the Darkness catches Mordimer too many times, it’s game over. So, stealth is key to success in the Otherworld.
Most of this action, like much of the game’s story, is predetermined. You’re experiencing a set story rather than creating your own as you play. It’s an interactive, scripted adventure and, overall, I think the developers have done a good job in crafting it, even if most of it doesn’t offer multiple ways to complete it. The game’s narrative and visual atmosphere are among its best qualities, and playing out Mordimer’s role in this story is satisfying—and becomes more so the further you progress.
The Inquisitor Torrent is set in a fascinating, dark world, and its story often puts you in strange and interesting situations. Searching for a vampire and attempting to solve murders in a medieval town is a great premise, and it’s engaging to search for clues at a crime scene, to try to figure out the best options in conversations and interrogations, and to try to piece everything together.
However, it falls short of its ambition, whether due to action scenes that aren’t challenging or choices that are too unclear to understand where they’re leading you or lead you to the same outcome regardless of your decision. The Inquisitor holds your hand too tightly as it guides you toward clues and destinations, making it a detective game where most of the detection is done for you.
The Inquisitor Torrent System Requirements
- OS: Windows 7/8/10/11 (64 Bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i5-8400
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 23 GB available space
