Cultist Simulator

I honestly have very mixed feeling about this game, on one side, everything that there is to like about is great, the art is simple and pretty, the lore is great, really makes you feel like some sort of crazed occultist with how it makes you obssesed with figuring out everything (also I'm just a sucker for lovecraftian and occult things in general, which the writting and atmosphere nails down) and the game }play loop makes you want to delve deeper and deeper But that same gameplay can be so GODDANM FRUSTATING, ESPECIALLY WHEN MY CHARACTER DIES OF DESPAIR FOR THE THIRD TIME BECAUSE THEY GET ANGY ABOUT NOT ACHIEVING INMORTAITY YET. STOP BEING RELENTLESS ABOUT IT YOU SOCIOPATHIC CRYBABY, YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ME MURDER SOMEONE TOO But yeah, it's not for everyone, it can be infuriating, and even when reading everything, figuring out what to do without any outside help can take a big while, but is still worth it for me, especially now that Travelling at Night is coming, and this is the best entry to figure out the lore with on my last note: Forge of Days ftw, she might be an idiot and responsible for indirectly creating three different end-of-the-world scenarios, but I'm a pyromaniac…

You have 60 seconds to gain "dread" or your multi hour run is toast. ♥♥♥♥ right off.

In a word: tedious. The game has some interesting mechanics and neat writing, but they are in no way worth the immense, mind-numbing tedium. I do not think having to re-sort cards every 45 seconds for the privilege of not having my save deleted is fun. This is not an exaggeration: every 60 seconds you lose one unit of money, and if it hits zero it starts to kill you. You have to permanently grind against this using a variety of mechanisms that give you approximately one money every 45 seconds if executed perfectly. Often times you need to not do this to avoid dying to other mechanics, so on average you barely break even, which is perplexing because there are other things to spend money on aside from your minutely bills. I spent 10 hours on this game and I was hoping that [i]maybe[/i] things were about to get less grindy. And then without warning my save was deleted from a mechanic I'd specifically tested earlier to make sure it wouldn't do that. Apparently it just kills you the second time??? Cool.

this is a great game that really lives up to its uniqueness. I don't know how to say too much without just saying yeah.

Boring.

I've really enjoyed my time with Cultist simulator. The Lore, the esoteric aspects and the exploration fo piecing together what works and what doesn't gets you into a rhythm that gives steady progression. It does demand that you want to engage with it, as it doesn't hold your hand or explain much (even tough some tooltips do). I can see how the base game can not click for some people, but if you have some mods, like speeding up time (this game is basically only playable in fast-foward) and researching a little on wikis or a codex mod, it is a very interesting resource management game with a incredible occult coat of paint. I'm glad I gave it a second try myself.