Cultist Simulator: A Lesson in Light and Opacity

After playing Cultist Simulator for 14 hours I planned to discard it into the Did Not Finish abyss. But 14 hours is enough time to feel the creeping force of a malevolent being invading the mind (so it gets its own full review).

Released in 2018, Cultist Simulator was developed by Weather Factory, an indie studio run by Alexis Kennedy. Among his other projects, Kennedy founded Failbetter Games, the developer behind Sunless Sea. The tone, its mysterious gloomy sense of impending doom is comparable. Beyond that, the mechanics diverge significantly.

Cultist Simulator is a card management game. The player plays a protagonist slowly drawn into occult mysteries. They collect cards to deepen their understanding and immersion into forbidden knowledge. Cards represent objects, ideas, feelings, acquaintances, secrets, resources, or enemies. Cards are placed in slots, like Work or Time Passes. Over the course of a few hours the player acquires a vast trove of cards. The number of slots increases gradually from one to two, two to four, and four to eight. The increase ceases around ten. But, by the late game, the player owns dozens of cards. With nowhere to place them, they are rendered useless. The player is left with a collection of cluttering, unnecessary cards.

To use cards the player places them in slots. Some slots won't take cards because they don't correspond with each other. This is partially determined by the Aspect (type) of each card which is shown on the bottom right. For instance, the player can't place a Funds card into the Work slot. If the player tries, the card returns to the board. It doesn't always work this way. Sometimes the player is allowed to place a card into a slot, but when they close the slot, the card is rejected. These two different types of rejection end in the same result, but take different steps to arrive. I'm still unsure if I am missing the reason for the difference. Other slots, like Season of Despair, automatically appropriates the appropriate card, in this case, Dread.

Most cards are returned to the player after they fulfill their purpose in the slot. The player repeats the same processes to earn more resources. For instance, the player needs to constantly put an appropriate card into the Work slot to earn Funds (Without Funds the protagonist succumbs swiftly). The Work card is on a 60 second timer. The player needs to enact this action once a minute, sixty times per hour. What tedium! The player needs to learn more complex combinations to initiate members into the cult, to avoid despair, to evade enemies, and to acquire occult knowledge. Cultist Simulator is a complex solitaire of repetition, a task master that forces the player to learn combinations to collect stuff. But after acquiring that elementary stuff the player needs to learn more combinations to obtain more stuff. It is a repetitive and tiresome combination that requires the player to perform the same interactions dozens, if not hundreds of times, merely to stay afloat, or creep a bit closer to the shadowed light.

The player is on a timer. Time passes, slots call out for cards, and then discharge them when their time is up. Slots hold the card for a minute or two, before they yield their result. Cultist Simulator is on a timer, but the player can pause at any time, and increase the speed to “fast forward”. The passage of time makes the player feel like a juggler (even with the pause option). They need to keep multiple balls in the air, machines occupied with the correct inputs and outputs. With a limited number of slots, and time sensitive items (some cards appear or disappear on a timer), the player needs to plan their next move. The player also feels like a swimmer forced to tread water. They are compelled to constantly repeat the same actions to stay in the same place. New players spend time discovering how to progress. Cultist Simulator likes to keep its secrets, preferring to withhold information on concepts, stepping stones, and goals. The limited number of slots contributes to the feeling. The number of slots bottleneck the player, forcing them to wait. The combined effects of these roadblocks makes the player feel like an pet forced to jump through a series of hoops. The threats to the player, while formidable on the first or second playthrough, become easier to manage with each successive attempt. Despair, fascination, and sickness are easy to alleviate, but hunters are strange. Cultist Simulator threatens the player with hunters (policemen, opposing cultists), but in over a dozen hours they never initiated any action against my hideout.

Establishing a cult is the mid-game in Cultist Simulator. Before the player can establish their demented band of initiates they need a hint of a mystery and a bit of cash. Maybe a skill or two. An obsession allows the player to initiate the naive. With Funs the player buys books filled with lore. With cultists they ransack arcane locations for more stuff (lore, artifacts, hideouts).

As they creep through the physical world, they explore the dreamworld, examining the unconscious mysteries of the universe. Lore is one of those things that isn't explained and the player needs to figure out the alchemical process to combine them to create more powerful lore. Different types of lore interact differently with each other. Even with all this time, I'm still uncertain about the exact properties of lore.

The story of Cultist Simulator is extremely flimsy. It has almost no elements except a connection between playthroughs. My first character, a nobody, died quickly of disease due to a lack of funds. The doctor that cared for him in his final days found his notes and became the second character. When he died of despair, a police officer inspecting him became my third cult leader. After his death his daughter took over the search for secret knowledge. She retired when I accidentally completed a simple game ending objective. With her I had made significant progress. I was immensely frustrated by the game not being clear about what was happening. It would be like if Prey wiped your save file clean after you accidentally took the early, easy, incomplete, and stupid December ending. In spite of this gross error, the next character still connected to the previous one.

These are neat little transitions. They do become repetitive, because Cultist Simulator doesn't include enough detail to come up with more than a few options. Despite this appearance of connective tissue, each character doesn't carry anything over from past characters. Death is a slate (deck) clearing event.

So establish a cult, maybe, but with no instructions. Cultist Simulator at first seems like an esoteric choose your own adventure, but it is strictly regimented. The minimal story feels detached from the card gameplay elements. With its limited explanation, the experience feels opaque. Even after six hours rules are obtuse and unexplained. The developer is perfectly willing to let you drown to death in the fluid of your diseased lungs, or insane brain, over and over again. At 13 hours I was still asking myself, “What is the goal,” and “How do I win?” I began to wonder if it felt repetitive because I was playing too safe. I considered riskier strategies, but discarded the idea. If risks led to death, I would be forced to start over with nothing. It took hours to acquire resources. I didn't risk my current resources for an uncertain payoff. But, I admit, with risks Cultist Simulator is boring.

In conclusion, Cultist Simulator tries new ideas with its card mechanics. While initially deadly, the sting of death recedes with practice. What is initially mysterious and interesting becomes dull as play progresses. It remains opaque, confusing, and repetitive time after time. My first successful character “won”, but in a way that felt like a devastating loss. With my collection of cards stolen, I made one further attempt. After stumbling about for hours in an otherworldly dreamland maze I gave it up as a nightmare. In the end, I realized the game itself was like a cult, and I had to get out!

If only a learned Magus would teach this poor novice the secret to playing this implacable game.

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