Vampires, jesters and pigs in a thoroughly muddy fantasy world
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition and it’s fair to say this one was fairly unanticipated too. There’s a backstory to The Inquisitor that may cause some to cross themselves in disbelief, but also a vampiric investigation with enough third-person action and adventuring to attract a new crowd of the faithful.
This particular inquisitor has nothing to do with Monty Python or Warhammer 40,000. His story traces back to the climactic event of the Christian gospels, that moment on Golgotha we’re all taught about at Sunday school, when Jesus gets down off the cross and sets about making his displeasure at his unpleasant treatment abundantly clear. Remember that?
If this all sounds a bit far-fetched, it’s because it’s based on the work of a Polish fantasy author. Such things have a pretty good record in games, following the success of TheWitcher, and Jacek Piekara is the latest to lend his stories to the medium. It’s not his first foray into gaming, however: he co-created Galador –ThePrinceandtheCoward, a 2D point-and-clicker with a hint of Dragon’s
Lairabout its graphics, in 1998. You can get it on GOG.
Back to the story. Following the Lamb of God’s unorthodox dismount from the cross, he sets about setting up a more brutal version of the church, its rule underlined by inquisitors who violently enforce its rules and purge the heretical. Which brings us up to date. You are such an inquisitor, Mordimer Madderdin, who dresses in black and has been sent to the town of Koenigstein to investigate rumours of a vampire, and to dish out all the revenge and violence that this reimagined religion requires.
A CHASE SEQUENCE ENSUES AFTER AN URCHIN PICKPOCKETS MORDIMER
DIRTY OLD TOWN
There’s a real Koenigstein out there, on the river Elbe in Germany close to Dresden and the Czech border, not too far from Poland. It’s probably not like the one depicted in TheInquisitor, though, all filthy streets and dilapidated housing as you step onto the dock to be greeted by the captain of the guard. Locals stand in the mud as flies buzz around the fish and pig parts they’re selling, but none of them can be interacted with or spoken to, even if you barge into them, and they’ll push you out of the way if you stand in their path. Stallholders stand unresponsive, not trying to sell you anything, doors and gates are largely impassible, and while there are men vomiting at the side of the road, more men harassing young ladies down side alleys, and a whole fair going on in the town’s main square, it feels very much a world made to be looked at rather than played with.
Achase sequence ensues after an urchin pickpockets Mordimer, but his capture is stymied after the inquisitor takes a wrong turn and is blocked by a low barrier he can’t jump over, despite dodging falling ba
