“Jesus didn’t die on the cross, however got here down and unleashed vengeance on all of the nonbelievers,” begins I, The Inquisitor‘s description on Steam. “1500 years later, a military of Inquisitors brutally implement the religion.” Alright, I am in.
I, The Inquisitor relies on a darkish fantasy, alternate historical past novel series by Jacek Piekara began in 2008. There are not English translations of his works but, however I belief developer The Mud S.A.’s assertion that they are bestsellers in Poland—they actually know their darkish fantasy over there.
What actually excites me about I, The Inquisitor is its seeming emphasis on exploration and investigation over fight. And, once more, that you simply’re enjoying a personality who was impressed by Imply Jesus shrugging off the crucifixion to grow to be a legendary ass-kicker. The suitably gothically-named protagonist, Mordimer Madderin, is helpful sufficient with a sword, however the developer’s description focuses extra on “enlightened sleuthing.”
“Monitor down and interrogate suspects,” it reads. “Uncover the hidden truths of town and its inhabitants. Piece collectively the proof and make your ultimate judgments.” Sounds nifty!
On this RPG fan’s humble opinion, multi-part investigation quests like these in Skyrim, The Witcher 3, and Neverwinter Nights 2 are a number of the greatest in RPGs, and the exceptional Disco Elysium centered a whole sport on a homicide investigation. If I, The Inquisitor is something like these examples, it could wind up being precisely my factor.
I do need to surprise simply how brütal Piekara’s fictional setting manages to be in comparison with the horrors of our personal historical past. In any case, we had a Jesus who purportedly died on the cross professing a message of mercy and love and we nonetheless acquired a great 2,000 years and counting of schisms, pogroms, crusades (8 regular, one Children’s), inquisitions, reformations, counter-reformations, the Black Loss of life, anti-popes, sieges, sacks, desecrations, hereditary slavery, colonial empires, and not less than one bonfire of the vanities.
The Inquisitor-verse is gonna need to be fairly darkish to be worse than all that, even with a very ornery alternate Christ, although a tough translation on the again of Piekara’s Ja, Inkwizytor Mlot na czarownice means that Imply Jesus “drowned Jerusalem in blood” and it seems to be like demons are a really actual drive on this setting, so issues can all the time worsen!
And hey, possibly one other Polish darkish fantasy sequence tailored from novels will take gaming by storm. (Stay up for an I, The Inquisitor Netflix sequence in Winter 2034.)
