Cultic review

 Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, today I get to review a game that nearly went pass my radar. Until a friend of mine told me about it. Easily, one of the finest indie games I played all year. I played some amazing games this year too. One of my birthday games, I'm here to review Cultic. Does the game live up to hype or fall flat in it's grave?

Cultic (2022)

Cultic was developed by one person. Last time I reviewed a great game developed by one person was UnMetal. Cultic is heavily inspired by Blood as well as a few Wolfenstein games respectively. The story from what I gathered is a man ended up taking on a cult by himself. During this insane endurance, he uncovers the cult's plan to revive a creature.

The general plot ends up being similar to Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. Obviously going by the title, most of your enemies are cultists. Which by itself is very similar to Blood. Some of the animations especially death ones are similar to those from Blood too. Like burning enemies to death, they will run around screaming.

I should point out this isn't the full game. There are plans to make an second episode campaign. Considering in the near future, I will be finalizing my epic Games of 2022 list. I felt this quickly makes up for not being a full game. In fact, I don't even mine having to buy additional episodes for this game. Why because this first episode is mind blowing awesomeness.

There's ten levels that's bigger in scale from a lot of older FPS games on the same engine. Build engine with a long list of classics like Duke 3D, Blood and a few others. There's a lot of enemies in this game too. Two particular levels at a point you will not be able to save state your way through. The boss fights works well enough to get the job done.

The weapons are surprisingly all fun to use. There's a lot of violence in this game. Parts of the game play felt like Wolfenstein series. Like some of the weapons works similar to the same exact weapons in that series. The game does give you a lot of ammo as well as health mostly from fallen enemies. So I felt most of the challenge was fair.

The level designs felt like Redneck Rampage series in a few ways. But not the ways you're thinking of. The general scale like the size or the additional depth within the levels. Not to mention, how the bosses shows up for the most part. I also liked because there's so many enemies. You have to use more of other weapons.

I played a lot of similar FPS games, most of them if you play it just right. You could dominate them with mostly using one gun no lie. In that regard, I respected you had to do that often. Also don't even consider rushing in. Most huge areas have a good ratio of enemy types to quickly make that a bad idea. You do need to find key items, mostly differs.

A large amount of key items is keys. Cultic also lay out files you can read. Even if you picked it up but quickly got it off screen. You can still view the files you didn't fully read the first time at any given time, I love that. The soundtrack itself is amazing work. The sound effects are some of the finest I ever heard off that engine.

Some level designs like the one that mostly becomes burning later on including walls & pillars are very nicely done. Some of the enemies felt like those in Killing Time. The way the levels ends is a little not what I was expecting. Usually on FPS games for that engine you'll just get score screen before moving onto the next level.

Here the game play slows down while changing colors becoming blueish then score screen comes up. Cultic is a truly refreshing FPS game. You also get additional modes to play after beating it the first time. You need to quickly adapt to survive in this game. Level 6 is one big endurance test. You got to fight a lot of enemies until the tank boss shows up.

Thankfully, that's one of two check points in the stage. The enemies do not stop coming either. I should point out tank boss is one of a very few bosses to have an health bar. You'll need to use explosives to damage the tank. Honestly, this is a boss fight you wouldn't expect back in the day for Build engine FPS games.

You also find these stations to upgrade your weapons. You'll need to find weapon parts, some are well hidden too. Yes the upgrades do help out a lot. Of course, everyone has their own play style that works for them. I'm more of let's kill enemies fast. Explosives are your best friend because a good usage can kill a lot of enemies at once.

Some kills will slow things down for a short period of time. The most awesome version is when you blow a few enemies' heads clean off with the shotgun. Cultic is a true master piece among indie FPS games. I would even say as of a few years ago, I'm noticing more interesting games within indie developers.

The final boss fight is virtually a similar concept to the final boss of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. Both even begins with a similar enough cut scene. Where the enemy leader attempts to control the creature but ends up getting killed by it instead. A major difference is in Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, your enemies suddenly became allies for this one boss fight.

Both games also ends after killing the final boss too. A few levels doesn't have any secrets either. I'm debatable on modern FPS games how I like em. But retro style wise it's either classic Doom games or good Build FPS games. Of course, there's a few notable exceptions like GoldenEye on Nintendo 64. Cultic is a game that really delivers in an action packed FPS game.

In every possible way, this game is done incredibly well. The closest criticism I have that may or may not get improve on is attempting to go up stairs. I don't have as much trouble going down the stairs. For some reason, when you try going up em, you have to be careful to not fall off the stairs. Other than that, wow Cultic is a must own/must play game.