PC Gamer

That’s a pretty average day inCultist

Simulator, a morbid and deeply

engrossing singleplayer narrative

card game set in the ’20s. The goal is

to establish a

Lovecraftian cult. You’ll

collect and study

unspeakable grimoires,

carry out unthinkable

rituals, attract a

devoted cadre of

followers, and find a

way to finance your

strange obsessions – all

while trying not to lose your mind

along the way.

WHICHCRAFT

You begin Cultist Simulator with just

a single card on your table, called

‘Menial Employment’, and place it in

your only tile: Work. When the Work

tile’s timer expires, you get the job

card back and also a Funds card: your

earnings. Congratulations, you have

just crafted a living and learned the

basics. As time passes, more tiles and

cards appear, and by placing new

cards in new verb tiles – Study,

Explore, Dream, and Talk – you will

craft more cards. Eventually your

once-bare table will be covered with

different cards, provided you survive

long enough.

At first, you probably won’t

survive long at all. An Illness token

may appear and spit out an affliction

card, eating away your health. Dread

will consume you if you don’t find a

way to fight it off. A Time tile steadily

sucks your funds away, and if you go

broke you’ll quickly starve to death.

And as you study the occult and

begin talking to like-minded people,

you’ll gain notoriety, attracting nosy

journalists and pesky cops.

These threats to life and sanity

crop up constantly and managing

them, along with your

occult studies, finances

and health can be

exhausting at times, a

plate-spinning act that

can thankfully be

paused with a keypress

so you can catch your

breath and mull over

your options. Dying or

otherwise failing restarts you from

the beginning again, armed only with

whatever you’ve managed to learn

about the game and the choice of a

new starting scenario.

CULT FOLLOWING

After a few games spent learning how

to manage the basics of self-

preservation, you’ll be able to focus

on the intriguing stuff: forming your

cult. You’ll gather a diverse library of

lore by visiting bookstores, auctions

and even your own dreams. These

lore cards can be studied to advance

your understanding of the invisible

arts and choose the guiding

principles of your cult.

Experimenting with combos of your

gathered literature, you’ll eventually

gain the ability to enter a dreamworld

in which your card table is replaced

by a map of sorts, a doorway that

contains more doorways. For your

character it’s another step along the

mysterious path to enlightenment,

and for you it’s another tantalising

piece of the puzzle of understanding

how Cultist Simulator works.

It’s impressive just how much is

simulated on a virtual tabletop with

nothing but with cards, tiles, ominous

background music and sound effects

and timers. There’s no voice work,

and none is needed because it’s a

brilliantly written game. The text is

economical, just a short line or two of

description for each card or event, yet

it’s awash with intrigue and deftly

paints a portrait of the mysterious

and horrifying alt-history you inhabit.

I’m not a Cthulhu or Lovecraft guy,

but I loved to examine and ponder

every little bit of text I came across.

I’m also not usually a card game guy

but I found it fascinating to try out

new card combinations just to

discover what would happen.

Like when a detective foiled my

attempts at abducting him, but I then

discovered I could share a dread card

with him, scaring him away. After all,

I’m consumed with hopelessness.

Maybe it’s time he was, too.

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

Asingleplayercard

game about founding a

Lovecraftian cult.

EXPECT TO PAY

£15

DEVELOPER

Weather Factory

PUBLISHER

Humble Bundle

REVIEWED ON

Core i5-6600K,

8GB RAM, GTX 980

MULTIPLAYER

None

LINK

http://www.weather

factory.biz/

cultist-simulator

85

Cultist Simulator is a

dark, engrossing and

challenging card and

crafting game that had

loads of depth.

VERDICT

It’s impressive

just how much

is simulated on

a virtual

tabletop

W

hile I’m earning a living as a portrait painter I’m

simultaneously meditating on my goal of obtaining

unearthly power, sending followers to retrieve an

artefact from a mysterious circus and dispatching a

hulking brute to eliminate the dogged Inspector

Wakefield. That damn Wakefield is a thorn in my side, investigating and

accumulating evidence against me. My paid goon doesn’t straight-up

murder the detective, but instead abducts and imprisons him in my

cupboard, where he eventually starves to death, leaving me a nice

decomposing corpse I’m hopeful I can find a good use for.

CULT CLASSIC

Craft your own shadowy cabal in deep and

engrossing card game CULTIST SIMULATOR. By Christopher Livingston

CULTIST

C-C-C-COMBOS

Recipes for success

CLUB+FUNDS

A fun night out on the town will often

provide contentment.

DREAM+FUNDS

Provides opium for contentment when the

club is closed.

PAINTING + NOTORIETY

Sell your portraits for more cash, but

attract attention.

WORK+PASSION

Helps convince an annoyed boss not to fire

you for slacking.

TALK+FOLLOWER + JOB

Helps convince a cultist to get rid of the

annoyed boss.

Cultist Simulator

REVIEW