When is a game almost not a game, but an unsettling experience? Cultist Simulator, on the surface, is a card game which throws you into the mechanics with little or no hand holding.

Cultist Simulator is a uniquely unsettling, but engaging experience

You are presented with a board and several cards bearing symbols. On one level, there appears little aim to the game. It allows you to live out a life of relative normalcy or to form a cult. Really. Go ahead and form a cult and dive headlong into a Lovecraftian dystopia.

It’s an immersive blend of strategy, dark humour and deep narrative. Though be warned, because there is little in the way of hand holding, the learning curve is steep and at first you will fail more than you will succeed. You will need to learn how to combine cards for a desired, though not guaranteed, outcome.

At its centre the game is a card-based game which uses manipulation, rituals and limited resources to form your cult. You begin with a single acolyte, but with the appropriate choices this expands to gain you more followers.

Because of the nature of the game, the choices that are presented are relatively random, some beneficial. Others, often not. Your choices will determine which narrative part the game will follow. The only thing guaranteed is that should you succeed then you will be drawn into a chillingly dark and unsettling universe.

It’s an immersive blend of strategy, dark humour and deep narrative

What make the game special is the attention to detail. Here choices have consequences, and I don’t think a single play through will allow you to uncover all the lore. Through the game you discover that you are not the only one to seek the forbidden knowledge and that there are other groups with their own secrets and motivations.

The overall presentation may seem somewhat simplistic at first, but once you have many cards in play a complicated background would be too distracting. Having said that, the presentation of the cards is offered up in a visually distinctive manner and the overall artwork adds to the creepy feeling, like reading an arcane book you really shouldn’t be looking at.

In conclusion, Cultist Simulator is a uniquely unsettling, but engaging experience. True it may be difficult at first but persevere and you will find yourself in a macabre world, which becomes quite addictive in the end.

9

Charles Packer