Thank you Kalypso Media for providing us with a review code!

The Inquisitor is a video game adaptation of Jacek Piekara’s I, the Inquisitor book series.  The biggest twist to this game's universe is that Jesus Christ did not die on the cross.  Instead he descended from the cross and took revenge on his tormentors.  As a result, the world remained in sin and took a nose dive spiritually.  

The Inquisitor takes place fifteen hundred years after Christ revolted.  You play as Mordimer Madderdin an infamous inquisitor sent to the city of Koenigstein to investigate vampire rumors.   Some of the townsfolk will treat with you with respect and others with disdain.  Your reactions to them will shape how characters view you and which of the multiple endings you’ll receive.  

As an inquisitor, Mordimer wields a lot of power and nobody thinks twice about him being a judge, jury, and executioner to those who go against the church’s teachings.  Some of the townsfolk will answer your inquiries honestly while others will require you to use your spiritual powers to discern the truth.

With prayer, Mordimer can enter the Unworld and collect shards to reveal past events that will shed light on his inquiries.  Getting to these shards of truth will require avoiding detection from the shadow warriors.  Multiple visits to the Unworld are necessary, and each time new elements are added to make it more challenging.    

In town, Mordimer can stop and pray at shrines.  By doing so he’ll fill up his prayer gauge which grants him the ability to reveal the location of the current objective.  This is a handy feature and I wish it was available in real life!  

Mordimer’s prayers are often twisted and contrary to true Christian beliefs.  Sometimes Mordimer will pray to “Christ who is vengeful” and other times he’ll ask for protection for giving into the sin of mercy.  After praying at a shrine a cloud of smoke will arise and a symbol will indicate which path you are on.  I has a cross appear which meant that I was on the merciful route.  (Forgive me Father!)

On a positive note the loading screens have Bible verses including Luke 19:27, Deuteronomy 32:42, Jeremiah 48:10, Matthew 10:28, Nahum 1:2, Isaiah 9:18, Joshua 1:18, and Exodus 22:18.

Even with Bible references, The Inquisitor is still a very mature game that should not be played anywhere near children.  All sorts of Earthy language is used including F-bombs.  There are lewd discussions about prostitutes and the town brothels.  One of the harlots get murdered and has her kidneys removed.  The Inquisitor has to investigate the grisly crime scene and help locate the murderer.  The prostitute is found naked so nudity is unavoidable.  There are references to sex outside of marriage but nothing is shown in that regard.  

The Inquisitor is a mixed bag when it comes to visuals.  The world is well designed with a muddy depressing town to gorgeous mansions and church cathedrals.  The character models are quite dated and are unfortunately in uncanny valley territory, which makes them look unintentionally disturbing.  Females often have clumpy hair and the facial expressions and appearances don’t match the emotion and voice overs accurately.

The voice acting it pretty good but there are some kids in town whose voice doesn’t fit their body sizes very well.  The background music suits the mood but is otherwise forgettable.    

A single playthrough will take roughly ten hours to complete.  Sadly, you won’t have any control over your saves so seeing all of the possible endings will require multiple playthroughs.  When The Inquisitor first released many people were complaining about the numerous quick time events, puzzles, and the janky battle system.  The developers have listened to their audience and provided options to disable quick time events, skip puzzles, and make the battles easier.  

Even with those improvements, there are still some glitches worth noting.  In the Unworld it’s in Mordimer’s best interest to remain undetected by the enemies.  If seen by his foes, Mordimer goes into a battle mode and is unable to leave it until all of the nearby enemies are defeated.  On numerous occasions I was stuck in this battle mode and unable to retrieve a shard needed to leave the Unworld.  If the save system was manual it wouldn’t be a big deal if someone saved after collecting each shard.  However, if you need to leave the Unworld over this glitch you have to start over from the beginning and collect all of the shards all over again.

Despite the obvious heresy, The Inquisitor is a fun but flawed experience.  Because of the glitches and game length, I recommend holding out for a sale before buying this game.  That is of course if the mature content doesn’t dissuade you.