Of all the games that I picked up on Steam last year, Cultist Simulator from Weather Factory was, by far, the strangest. It sells itself as a card game, but I don’t think that’s really what it is. There are cards, sure, but… Yeah, it’s weird. Let’s not equate weird with bad, because this weird is a fun mystery to try and work your way through and now it’s on a platform where we can really sink our teeth into it: mobile.
Here’s the thing: Cultist Simulator comes with no manual, no tutorials, and no help whatsoever. You could cheat and go watch videos or read walkthroughs if you get frustrated (and you will), but then you’d be missing the point. The main event in Cultist Simulator is figuring out how all the pieces fit together on your own.
So, it’s less a card game and more a story-driven, narrative game that just happens to use cards as its medium. It’s unique and creative and, it won’t surprise you, the brainchild of Alexis Kennedy. Who’s that? He founded Failbetter Games and was the developer of other strange narrative titles like Fallen London and Sunless Sea. If you like those games, I think Cultist Simulator will be right up your alley.
The mobile port is for iOS Universal and Android and doesn’t appear to contain the PC/Mac/Linux DLC, The Dancer. I’m sure it will be coming down the road if the base game sells well. It’s currently only $5 with a launch sale, and I guarantee you’ll get at least a $5 headache out of figuring out just what the hell is going on, so doing well shouldn’t be too difficult.
What a wonderful game.
Playthroughts are the perfect length too. Not too short to give you time to learn (and you WILL learn), not too long to be frustrating when you die (and you WILL die).
Love that there is even some sort of persistency in the world, with following playthroughs having references to previous ones.
I have no damn idea what’s going on. I can’t seem to generate anything but funds consistently. I keep dying to things coming out of nowhere. It is frustrating on another level.
And I’m hooked lol. I can’t explain why, just that I am. grumble grouse rabble rabble
Very happy with my purchase so far. Seems like a lot of variety in my runs so far, and I just ran down my ipad’s battery for the first time in a long while.
Yesterday night (or was it this early morning, can’t say) I had a HUGE, I mean HUGE WTF/REVELATION moment.
It was like I just played the tutorial before…you will see it when you’ll reach it as well, without any doubt.
Awesome game.
I also discovered the game has some kind of persistency…HOW exactly you die in the previous run opens up new choices for your character who starting immediately another run.
I was a reporter, a detective, a physician, a humanist…
What a game, weird I never heard about it before.
Does anyone know how to create health if you start without any?
Yeah that’s exactly what I meant…certain starting professions have no health AT ALL…and I die by illness.
Incidentally it was BY FAR my best run…my eyes where like O_O all the time after ‘the thing’.
Not sure how to survive but I guess there are other methods to prevent illness?
