“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 is predicated on a darkish fantasy, alternate historical past novel collection 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 just’re taking part in a personality who was impressed by Imply Jesus shrugging off the crucifixion to turn into a legendary ass-kicker. The suitably gothically-named protagonist, Mordimer Madderin, is useful sufficient with a sword, however the developer’s description focuses extra on “enlightened sleuthing.”
“Observe down and interrogate suspects,” it reads. “Uncover the hidden truths of town and its inhabitants. Piece collectively the proof and make your last 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 outstanding Disco Elysium centered a whole sport on a homicide investigation. If I, The Inquisitor is something like these examples, it might wind up being precisely my factor.
I do should 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 superb 2,000 years and counting of schisms, pogroms, crusades (8 regular, one Kids’s), inquisitions, reformations, counter-reformations, the Black Demise, anti-popes, sieges, sacks, desecrations, hereditary slavery, colonial empires, and no less than one bonfire of the vanities.
The Inquisitor-verse is gonna should 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 appears to be like like demons are a really actual pressure on this setting, so issues can at all times worsen!
And hey, possibly one other Polish darkish fantasy collection tailored from novels will take gaming by storm. (Look ahead to an I, The Inquisitor Netflix collection in Winter 2034.)
