So the optimization is nowhere to be found. In 2k on RTX 4090 it gives 50 FPS on average in a dence city location no matter DLSS or other settings (Low to High - no difference). This is absurd! The story is also absurdly captivating, and since I'm a sucker for those I give it a positive review. The combat is clunky as hell, but somehow I liked it's mechanics, reminded me of retarted version of 1st Assassin's Creed combat system. Hated Underworld sections, felt like a padding and really the same. Character models are dated, but city can be beautiful (sort of, it's dirty, filthy and disgusting) and very atmospheric. Overall I don't mind some clunkinnes, only if they optimized it at least a bit. If you like me and value story the most, I can highly reccomending it, although with the amount of issues still only on sale, otherwise it's better to avoid it.

As it turns out, I have a real fondness for games coming from eastern Europe. The Witcher. Metro. Cyberpunk. Sherlock Holmes. The Sinking City. The Inquisitor. These are all games made by Polish and Ukrainian developers (CD Project Red, 4A Games, Frogwares, and The Dust).

The Inquisitor is a 3rd person detective mystery / 3rd person action / puzzle game, falling somewhere between The Witcher and Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes games in terms of gameplay.

Let's get this out of the way -

The first things you'll notice about the game are performance issues and the low quality uncanniness of the character models and facial animations. I'm using a GTX 4070 Super and an i7-12700K, and at 2K resolution I'm not able to get 60fps consistently. It dips frequently and experiences judder. The scaling options don't seem to help much; nor do the graphic quality settings. Also, it uses a launcher for some reason when launching from desktop.

If you're using a Steam Deck, performance is of course, worse, but at least there you get some performance benefit from the scaling and graphics quality options. Still, you're looking at a frame rate of mid 20s.

So, how am I playing it? I'm primarily streaming this game to my steam deck from the PC and at 800p resolution I'm getting much better performance at full graphics quality with no scaling on, and a better experience as a result.

Now then, onto the game itself -

You gather clues by investigating crime scenes and interrogating suspects and talking to witnesses, and then to fill in the blanks, you go into the "Unworld". Think of the upside-down from Stranger Things. You have to stealthily make your way through stylized labyrinths in order to uncover nuggets of truth to receive a vision of the exact events that unfolded before or during the crime.

It's pretty cool.

Back in the real world, you also have swordfights, quick time events, puzzles, and some agency over how you approach a conversation or situation that feels like an action RPG.

It's actually a lot more in depth of a game than I had expected from playing the demo, and the premise of an alternate timeline where Jesus jumped off the cross to exact vengeance on his captors does not wear thin. It's fascinating.

I do wish the game had a map and a fast travel system that actually worked, as I got lost and stuck on occasion. However, they were awesome enough to add in options to let you skip parts of the game you don't like (i.e. puzzles, QTE, or swordplay). They also have accessibility options, which I didn't expect with a low budget game.

Aside from the uncanny facial animations and character models, I actually liked the art direction overall.

The swordfighting and Unworld gameplay were pretty enjoyable, I was adequately challenged by them and found the controls responsive.

The dialogue and story was great, characters well rounded and voice acting was pretty good overall. You could unfortunately tell certain voice actors were not recorded in studio and their audio was not treated to match the rest, so there would occasionally be big dips or gains in volume and quality.

The Inquisitor is a great game that is held back by its performance and visual quality issues. If you can get past those two things, the game has a ton to offer and I think you'll really enjoy it.

I'm thankful for this game and I hope they are able to make a sequel. Unfortunately I think its price point combined with the aforementioned issues has resulted in the mixed reviews you see here and probably impacted sales, so we probably won't be treated to a sequel.