CULTIC

It’s a boomshoot masterpiece. The level design is the real star here, with intricate and sprawling areas that reward exploration. You never feel lost and every place feels logical and like it makes sense to the setting. The enemies are excellent, requiring thoughtful approaches. They will cook you if you’re not being intentional. Gunplay is *chefs kiss* with every weapon feeling delightful. The rifles feel like cheating when you line up some poor fool’s noggin and pop it like a ripe watermelon before he knows you’re there. And the art style… who would have known a muddy mix of brown, blue, orange would sing like this? It drips atmosphere and I found moments genuinely creepy. That it’s made by one person is not actually surprising: the clarity and singleness of vision here is so evident. And it pays off.

Yeah.

The best one.

THE BEST BOOMER SHOOTER HANDS DOWN

Bruh, its inspired by RE4 but its RE4 with Blood with every good thing about boomer shooting.

Seriously. This is a masterpiece and a true passionate love letter to the games of the 90s.

If you like FPS games, this is for you.
Do you like horror? Got it in spades.
Like solving puzzles? yep
Theres no map. Its oldschool in all the best ways. Like an expresso of the best of the 90s. All the best parts filtered into a tight perfect cube.

Get in there. Get it.

My friends this is quite literally the Hollow Knight of boomer shooters. If you played Doom 1 or 2 cuz you where curious about retro FPS games, play it. If you played RE4, play it. If you've played Blood, Quake, Dusk, Duke 3D, Shadow Warrior. play it. This game doesn't just take it's influences and mimic them, it understands aspect of what made them interesting and fun to play, then elevates them. Please if you love FPS games and have been on the fence, I promise this is easily one of if not THE BEST one out there right now. The only thing I'd say may dissuade some people is if you don't particularly like voxels. Otherwise 10/10 keep letting this guy cook

Honestly 10/10. Most fun I've had playing a sp shooter in a long time. Yes, chapter 2 required exploration, backtracking and frustration, and I loved every minute of it. I was bummed when it ended. Looking forward to more.

One of the finest horror/action shooters that I've had the pleasure of completing 100% (Minus the "removed" Christmas achievement, hope this gets fixed)
Cultic is one of those games that hits all of the right notes with me, with tightly crafted gunplay centered around entirely consistent enemy design that all works in harmony to create easily one of my favorite games of all time.
While noted that Blood is a core inspiration at a glance, digging deeper into this game shows that there is someone out there who is a bigger fan of Resident Evil 4 (2005)/5 than I thought I was. Despite all of that, this game stands on its own with a very easy to learn lineup of enemies that all have their counters and weaknesses- and even with the limited color pallete, each of their attacks are perfectly telegraphed through audio and their neutral stance before they attack, giving ample time to dodge and get into over which this game's level design lovingly offers around each encounter.
To my surprise, cranking up the difficulty doesn't just make enemies tankier and increase their squad numbers (more kills = more ammo, baby!)- but they also show notable changes in their behavior in how long their attack volleys last such as the basic Pistol Cultist going from a pretty slow three-round volley to a very quick five-shot and resetting to their chase state much quicker. Each unit also has a great sound cue before and after they fire, as they all share the same weapons you do so you're bound to learn when to disengage when you can clearly hear trouble around the corner as some of these weapons are just as devastating to you as they are to the crowd.
To me, this consistency is exactly what I want more games to have as eventually muscle memory forms quicker and at the end of the day, each encounter in this Horror-themed shooter where ammo is important to retain- turns into pure math and with how each weapon is designed to serve their own role or niche, there's a level of synergy between all of these aspects in the game's general combat design that I've been sorely missing with other games in the same genre.
I really appreciate that being able to complete the game on Extreme is a total knowledge check of both combat and exploration as these your resources such as ammo and weapon upgrades are so precious to your survival it's worth spending an extra playthrough to learn upcoming encounters- it all brings me back to doing knife-only challenge runs in the games that inspired this; except the big difference with the Hatchet, it's fully capable of one-shotting most fodder to mid tier enemy and saves you so much ammo you're always going to have what you need. Really the only sore spot I'd consider would just be how tanky the Adept enemies are but a single well-thrown molotov or lantern is just enough to get rid of them, and even on the hardest settings with minimal exploration I found myself having plenty of options to fight back.
I can gush about the general gunplay and enemy design for hours, but I haven't even gotten around to the chapters themselves and how beautifully designed everything is there. Every level has a theme that they stick to and knows very well when to back off and let the player breathe after an intense action sequence with unnerving atmospheric horror or the occasional moment of levity that almost always slaps a dumb smile on my face. (note to the devs: I really appreciate your use of Skeletons, it's ALWAYS funny)
Going into Chapter 2 blind was one of the best choices I made as the narrative buildup and the surprise punches it pulls on you just shows that the team has a solid grasp on pacing and I never felt that there was a moment where my time was being wasted and is a top-to-bottom phenomenal experience that I can see myself coming back to in the future.
It's always satisfying to play a game that caters to your own tastes with such confidence in itself and I'm happy to say that Cultic sits comfortably as one of my all-time favorite games. This is a polished experience that understands what it is and has the right amount of content to make repeat playthroughs worth exploring.
If there was truly a negative I could say about this is just a pipe-dream wish for a Level Editor so I can make Survival maps- just so I can port over maps from Mercenaries but I was already partially beat to the punch with the hilarious inclusion of a remixed RE5 Mercs map. (I see what you did with the Mines, Jason.)
As if it weren't obvious enough, yeah I'd recommend this game. Definitely worth experiencing if you have any passing interest in survival horror or FPS.

CULTIC is pure carnage. I adore how the atmosphere, music, and level design come together. Headshots are satisfying as hell. The whole thing plays beautifully from start to finish. Extreme Mode is the ultimate way to play. Highly recommend.

This is fenomenal. This is just the best. Maybe one level was not that great for me, but even then not great doesn't mean bad. Because overall this is one of the best shooters out there. Jason, thank you for this amazing game and I can't wait what we will see next from you, good sir