Cultist Simulator

I'm not going to lie, the highs of this game are incredible. The worldbuilding is some of the best I've ever seen in any medium, the atmosphere and ideas present are amazing, and I'm told the research and care taken to replicate real-life esoteric beliefs and practices is mind-blowing in its efficacy. Even the way Cultist Simulator delivers its lore forces us to be immersed in its world since we learn about the fascinating mythology of its universe the same way as the protagonists do, in bits and pieces. I would buy a novel or entire book series based on this world in a heartbeat. That being said, I would not consider this game to be fun or something I would sit down to casually. Its deliberately obtuse and complicated at times to the point where a lot of one's time is spent slotting some random shit to other random shit instead of appreciating its lore. The worst part however, is that once one actually understands how the game is played, it becomes grindy and unfun. Despite the appe...

it is fun. it is well made. it is detailed. HOWEVER this game will not respect you. you need to be aware of that as you play. The game demands much, and if you make any sort of error it will end your run. BE prepared for it to give zero respect to you or your effort.

It really made me FEEL like a cultist slowly going insane as they dive deeper into an esoteric tome for no real reason other than the maddening frustration of being confused by it and the overwhelming urge to know more. Unfortunately that tome I couldn't comprehend was the game. The game will not respect your time nor does it care whatsoever if you understand it. It will happily let you grind away at useless or highly sub-optimal things for hours on end without letting you know you're being a fool. It demands that you hold a LOT of minute information about specific interactions in your mind at once - good luck coming back to this game after taking a week off from it! It was often slow, repetitive, and downright confusing. And yet, like a cultist whose mind has been overtaken by their fascination, I felt the urge to keep playing and did so for many hours. It is either a genius work of art or a confusing mess. So I'll give it a thumbs up.

This game has instilled upon me agony, the likes of which I have not felt in quite a while. Hiding basic gameplay mechanics from you, obscuring with this the incredibly shallow gameplay. People say discovery is the joy, but nothing about the discovery is any enjoyable. Messed up too much? Time to go back to the start to the even more noticably mundane and boring parts. It somehow manages to make the mystery, the unknown boring. It gets worse if you learn about it. The more you learn, the more you realize that the lore is really not worth talking about in the slightest. This game doesn't respect your time and neither does this game deserve respect for any of its decisions. It is like playtesting was left out of the equasion entirely. The game would have been better if it was just turn based, excusing you from the endless waiting, even on double speed, or if perhaps it just had options to either speed it up more or automate some tasks. Couple all that with several questionable d...

No matter how obtuse, difficult, and even tedious this game can be, I always find myself returning to it. The atmosphere is perfect and the game really captures a sort of tension you don't often see elsewhere.

An esoteric, but engaging game of discovery, occultism, and resource/time management. You have to optimize to survive (and make rent) but the glory of the game comes from leaps of intuition and making a bold move with resources that have cost a lot to acquire. Plus, the occasional human sacrifice in the service of apotheosis.

As someone who spent ages reading books in oblivion and skyrim, and who actually liked the text adventure sections in the sims games, I think I'm in love with this one.

Absolutely LOVE the gameplay and the depth of the lore underneath it. Exploring how to play through loss gives it a very roguelite feel; one with deep worldbuilding and where reading esoteric texts in the game is essential to progression and exploring the various endings..

This is one of my favorite games of all time. Excellently written and wonderfully arcane, Cultist Simulator grabbed me by the throat and has not let go. If you like cannibalism, eldritch horror, and games that do NOT hold you by the hand at all, give this a try!

Awesome game, if you like experimenting and figuring things out for yourself. It requires a bit of patience and you need to like being in a state of wonderment, but that patience is definitely rewarded as you progress.