Throwbacks are fun, even when that throwback is so far that it feels like the early 90s.
Cultic from developer Jasozz Games is an interesting take on a throwback of first-person shooters from the Wolfenstein 3D days. It’s a 2D texture/model 3D title with a ragged color count (feels like 256) and features repeating enemies and difficult bosses. While this game screams going backward to a simpler time, its mechanics and how it plays are as modern as Doom: The Dark Ages.
Now, that doesn’t mean that it’s as good as Doom: The Dark Ages, or any AAA modern first-person shooter, but it does mean that it will blend well with the modern gaming bunch. I just didn’t want my words to be torn into pieces there and end up disappointing the lot of you. But this game is worth your look when you’re contemplating a new FPS experience.
Let’s get the review going.
Starting with the story, having risen from the dead, your character is hellbent on taking down a multi-tier cult that is bringing bad vibes to the world. The story is simple in its construction and execution, and much like old school FPS games, there doesn’t need to be more motivation than simply taking down a cult because they’re evil. In other words, the game gives players enough push to get them going and shooting. It’s like watching the turn from peaceful to violent in John Wick. It just takes one moment to give violence a reason to exist. Anyway, the game is easy to get into because of the story, and that story provides just enough reason to keep rooting-tooting-shooting.
As for the actual gameplay, it’s easy to understand its construction. The gameplay is linear, as there is only one true path through the environments to the boss fights. The gameplay is kept tight and on track with this linear lineage. That means players will be led to the action and sometimes frustratingly stuck in places, trying to work out where they should go next, or at least find the path to the next section of the game. For example, the opening of the game has the main character crawl out of their grave, out of a dungeon, and down a path toward a deeper, yet highly sinister power. The gameplay and player are driven down a single path that, at times, might feel explorable and open, but generally are built to keep the player moving forward quickly. It’s a basic early FPS 101 type of design, where the player is welcome to smell the roses around them, but to progress, they need to keep heading one direction to complete the stage.
Now, is that linear design bad for this type of game? No. Jasozz Games seemed determined to replicate an old-school way of playing, and by making the journey linear, they have completed that vision. This is how most games of the type felt, open but also linear. The game is built to replicate the era of Quake and Doom, when huge environments were just single-path, linear journeys. Much like those designs, Cultic does feature goodies and hidden gems here and there to make it feel bigger than it is. Of course, that sense of enormity is a trick to get the player to explore the environments, but it’s a well-placed trick in the overall scheme of the linear gameplay. Everyone wants to feel like they’re in a bigger world in games like this, and Cultic does this well.
Shifting gears to the actual fighting in the game, it is a blast (pun intended). The game features a bevy of fun weapons with finite ammo. Each weapon has its own power and range, which means taking out cult members from afar or up close will determine which weapon the player chooses to use. For example, there are rifles, shotguns, and handguns in the game. Pressing L1 quickly lets the player shuffle between those gun options and choose on the fly what weapon is best for whatever scenario they’re coming up against. Should the player have a bunch of cult members or monsters up close, then the shotgun would be the best choice to get the most out of the group at once. If the player wants to shoot from afar to stay out of harm’s way, they only need to break out the single-shot rifle to get some long-range action going without taking much damage. Each weapon choice comes with a consequence in the action, which will make players consider what they should be shooting with and strategize the playing field before diving into the demise of cultists. While old-school games did this, Cultic’s devs did a great job of accurately portraying how these weapons work in a modern game of this type, giving the player a more immersive experience that requires them to think a bit. Anytime you can make an old school FPS experience more than just a shooting gallery, that is a good time.
Of course, the weaponry is nice to shuffle through, but the dynamite option can be fun as hell. This weapon took me a few minutes to grasp when playing, but after understanding what was being asked of me, it became a clever and highly useful way of taking out multiple group members at once. Back in ye olden days of FPS gaming, throwing a stick of dynamite or an explosive meant just tossing it and watching the carnage. With Cultic, the player must throw the dynamite, then either shoot it or light it (multiple ways) to set it off. That’s a neat little gimmick in the old school design that acts as a modern mechanic and offers a bunch of ways to approach enemies without taking on damage. It’s clever and fun, which only bodes well for the experience. It also provides a bit of stress, especially when an idiot (like me) doesn’t realize they have run out of ammo to set the dynamite off.
On the receiving side of the multi-weapon violence, the common enemies in the game are awfully repetitive, as players will find out for themselves right from the get-go. The cultist that the player will come in contact with in the first stage will be the same model design throughout, with just differences in robe color and weapons to separate them. Brown cultists carry axes they swipe or throw. Gray cultists carry guns that they can fire from a distance. Both types repeat quite often from the beginning of the game until the end of the first chapter. That enemy repetition is consistent throughout the game until players arrive at bosses. Maybe that is on purpose, as it does represent how it was back in the day, but it doesn’t make it any more varied. I do wish there was a bit more variety between cultists, but I fully understand the intention to replicate what the 90s FPS experience brought gamers.
On the boss side, these characters bring unique fights. For example, the first boss the player will run into is carrying a chainsaw and is designed to look like the crazy Resident Evil 4 chainsaw man, and, much like the RE4 character, is tough as hell to bring down. In addition, he has other cultists hanging from a cave inside of bags, which come alive when the fight begins.
Unlike common enemies, during the boss fight the difficulty is ramped up to 11, even for a beginning boss, and it shifts hard when it comes to figuring out how to take him out. In other words, it raises the gameplay experience to a different level, which is either going to be taken well by players or feel unfair to them. For me, I felt like the fight really did ramp up beyond what it should have been. I understand the shift, but it turned a playful trip down memory lane into a Dark Souls-like experience that I don’t like. I don’t want difficult times at the beginning of any game, as I would rather slowly ramp up those times as the game progresses. I personally call this the confidence-building gameplay difficulty scale, as starting easy-peasy and then raising the difficulty bar slowly helps to build the player’s confidence for bigger fights. But in this day and age of gaming, the game’s difficulty will probably be acceptable to most.
With navigation and movement in the game, Cultic took a page straight out of the first Doom title. The player can look about every which way they want (even up, a concept that was born with the first Doom title), and quickly get to a target without much fuss. The controls in the game are a modern version of an old-school FPS. This means that they are quick, accurate, and expected with what the player will get. The controls are also tight yet just loose enough to make aiming a bit of a challenge, especially when trying to ignite dynamite or shoot a common enemy from afar. Players going into this game will still feel like they have played with these controls before in the modern gaming era, but the game emulates a perfect replication of its entire theme – old school first-person shooters. The only criticism I can give this game is that the look, mixed with the smooth controls, kind of made me motion sick. I’m old, so that is also to be expected.
As for the style of the game, the gameplay elements stick to yesteryear concepts, while also toting some modern design. The visuals go against modern design, as the look of the game is hilariously old. I know that design decision was intentional, and it fits with the overall point of the gameplay design, but it’s still hilarious to see flat, pixelated textures that look like a game you’d find on the Sega CD + 32X. As mentioned at the beginning of this review, it does sport a 256-color palette, which means it is going to look off and ugly as sin. But if the devs were trying to replicate that visual style, then it is ‘mission accomplished’. It’s pixel perfection with a side of ‘oh my God, how did people play games that look like this back in the day’. It’s gorgeous in its own right, while also ugly as hell.
Overall, Cultic brings that old school intention and feel into its gameplay execution in many of its elements. It acts like an old school FPS with its linearity, emulates what one would expect with repeating common enemies and difficult bosses, and brings together one of the ugliest sets of color schemes and graphics in the most beautiful of ways. It does all this well while sporting modern movement and a touch of familiar design. Is this going to be a game everyone is going to love and understand? Not at all, as it does have its imperfections with repeating enemies and overly difficult boss fights. In the end, though, the game does enough to warrant a look for players wanting to get something fun and unique.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Cultic from developer Jasozz Games is a fun game that is a tip-of-the-hat to old-school first-person shooters from the early 90s, while also sporting some modern gameplay amenities to make it feel familiar to most gamers who love the genre.
