[BLOG] Cultist Simulator Review

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TGB_SirhcAndAr0n
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Joined: 12 Feb 2018, 01:55

[BLOG] Cultist Simulator Review

Post by TGB_SirhcAndAr0n »

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here »

Today we are taking a look at Cultist Simulator by Alexis Kennedy and Weather Factory studio, Alexis being notable as the creator of Fallen London and Sunless Seas.



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Now if you're familiar with Fallen London or Sunless Seas then you'll have a good idea of what is on offer with Cultist Simulator, essentially a narrative based game based heavily on making decisions, sometimes tough, sometimes easy, but always with purpose. Cultist Simulator however, unlike the other games is a card based strategy game as opposed to the adventure, exploration style of the others.



Set in the 1920's Cultist Simulator puts you in charge of a regular person, one that has been beaten down by the world and lacks purpose, just spending their days working in a soul crushing job, although the open of the game places you on their final day of menial work so you can receive your last pay and start your journey proper.



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Now, the plot of the game is quite difficult to sum up, as the game is basically the next evolution of the choose your own adventure story; so you can drastically shift what will happen based on your choices (even waiting too long to make a choice is in itself a choice that will shift the story and your subsequent choices).



The main point of the game is to select an old god (from literary icon H.P. Lovecraft's work) to worship and base your cult around, and then bringing the old god to the current world to take their rightful place, but how you choose to do this is up to you.
In case you were wondering about the whole "aren't Cults inherently evil" thing: yes they are. You are the bad guy in this game - but that's not how you see it, following the will of a higher power and all.



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As a card based strategy game you have a board and cards, sounds simple enough, however as a video game there are plenty of secrets and surprises in store, the more choices you make the more cards appear which means more choices become available to you, after a few minutes of playing you'll find yourself with a dizzying amount of cards, how do you use the cards though?



Well you begin with an "option" slot and resource cards, as you make choices you will receive more option slots, more resource cards and modifier cards, so you can drag a resource card into an appropriate option slot which will create a timer countdown while it processes, during this time you can read other cards, make other plays or if available drag modifier cards into the option to change the outcome.



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As you can have multiple timers counting down at once, you never really are stuck waiting for things - but if you do find yourself wanting to speed things up, there is a speed modifier you can select at the bottom of the screen.



One terrifyingly realistic aspect of the game is that in order to survive and continue playing, you must expend wealth cards, this also means that you need to find ways to bring in wealth consistently so you don't burn through it all, again you have multiple options for this that expand as you play, but your first way is to have your character work, this negatively impacts their health (which is something I can relate to before joining Sanitarium FM of course) so there are always ramifications to your choices, if you work to hard you could deteriorate your health, but if you work too little you could run out of money, in the same fashion there are things you can do that will raise your fame which could make it easier to gain new followers, but it will also make you a target for detectives (however you will need to break laws for the detectives to get any evidence against you) so again you'll need to find the balance that works for you.



These things coupled together make the game surprisingly fast paced and tense, with new cards appearing all the time, some of them also with expiration's of their own, so you always need to be on top of things if you want your cult to prosper and your god to awaken.



What seems like a basic and even boring game at first look is one of the deepest and most manic experiences I have had in a while, if you like H.P Lovecraft, reading, strategy and using your imagination then Cultist Simulator could be just what you're looking for, the game has also seen fairly frequent updates since release so it looks like you'll have a lot more options soon too.



I'll leave you with a quote from the developers summing up the game:

Become a scholar of the unseen arts. Search your dreams for sanity-twisting rituals. Craft tools and summon spirits. Indoctrinate innocents. Seize your place as the herald of a new age.


Cultist Simulator is available NOW on STEAM - https://store.steampowered.com/app/718670/Cultist_Simulator/



For more of a look at the game, check out the video review below -





The indoctrination has begun, 7/10



~TGB_SirhcAndAr0n
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