(At the time of writing, the full game has yet to come out)
One of the classics from the 90s era of shooter is the game Blood. Due to its excellent atmosphere, naturalistic level design, unforgettable main character, and overall great gunplay it managed to stand out from the rest. Cultic takes those same elements and attempts (and succeeds) to replicate and improve upon the experience originally provided by Blood.
There isn’t much more to be said, it’s a really good shooter seeped in atmosphere that takes inspiration from the right places. If you played and enjoyed Blood or are just a fan of the genre, then I highly recommend Cultic.

Story
You are a detective who has dug too deep into a supposedly harmless cult, now you wake up in a pile of bodies and have to fight your way out.
It's not a story-focused game, but still, I was invested. The numerous pieces of lore scattered throughout the levels certainly helped.

Mechanics and gameplay
It’s the standard throwback shooter formula with some additions. If you’ve played any other FPS of this genre, you will know pretty much everything there is already.
Gunplay is solid, weapons feel satisfying to use, especially since headshoting is a thing. There are also upgrades you can get for said weapons. Level design is excellent, offering natural feeling environments and a smooth transition between levels.

Graphics/Artstyle
Cultic is by no means photorealistic. It pays homage to the 90s era of gaming while still looking like something that was made in this decade. The colour pallet chosen here gives a unique aesthetic that adds a lot to the retro feel.

Atmosphere/Immersion
The atmosphere is perhaps the strongest point of Cultic. It's not horror, but the feeling of playing Cultic is similar. This is due to the cult theme (men in robes, ritual circles, those kinds of things) the game takes on.
With a strong atmosphere comes strong immersion. This is definitely true in this case.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack is pretty good, it has the same cultish, horror theme that permeates throughout the rest of the game. My favourite part is “Abomination”.

Final Thoughts
No one-liners :(

My first review didn't do this game justice and I will just say it now: this is the best retro style shooter there is in my opinion. It just hits all the spots.

- Hit Feedback? Absolutely amazing. Popping enemy heads or throwing dynamite/Molotov cocktails in a group of cultists never gets old. It is sooo damn satisfying
- Weapon Roster? Simple but perfect. Every single weapon feels good to shoot, sounds gorgeous and has its moments. There is not a single weapon that feels useless or gimmicky. Also the flamethrower is so damn powerful that it always feels good to use. And that's saying something when usually flamethrowers are almost always very gimmicky weapons in other games
- Freedom? This game advertises that you can play it in every way you like and I totally agree with that. The game doesn't force you to use specific weapons or other stuff like that. You can always tackle the enemies in whatever way you like and that's just really cool
- Maps? Varied, creative and with the perfect length for my taste (around 30 minutes for a single map). The secrets are very well placed without being too crazy to find them and the variety of the maps is really nice. Big boats, asylums, mines or police stations, it's all here. Also there aren't really any arena fights which is a big plus for me
- Graphics? Retro and chunky. It feels gritty and dirty which is the perfect look for this game. If you don't like it tho you can disable it in the settings
- Theme and Atmosphere? Man I love it. It feel's like a weird baby from Resident Evil 4 and Blood and I'm all here for it. The little messages you can find throughout the game are also very well written. Also the horror segments of some maps just add soo much to the general atmosphere. It's so good
- Music? Gorgeous. Also this game knows that there shouldn't be heavy metal music in every single chapter of every single map. Cultic knows when there shouldn't be any music but it also knows when to throw in the nice beats when some Cultists need some action
- Enemy Variety? Decent for its length. This is the only part where I maybe would like one or two more enemy types, but it never gets boring and introduces new enemies until almost the very end
- Difficulty settings? There is something for everyone here. "Very hard" is a decent challenge without being too crazy, and "Extreme" is for the people who really want to strategize about how to tackle fights
- Updates? The new completely free map "Interlude" was a very challenging little introduction in whats to come in Chapter 2. It feels fresh and also introduces a few new weapons. All for free.
- Upgrades? Finally an old school shooter in which the progression system doesn't feel tacked on. Finding weapon upgrade parts in secrets feels really rewarding and using them to upgrade your weapons in exactly the ways you want is very useful. Also it helps to make sure that you mostly use the weapons you want to use

All in all this game is just amazing. It's always a good time to pop some cultist heads or throw a Molly in a group of cultists and hear them burn. It's absolutely crazy to me how just one dude could pull this off. Hats off to Jason Smith for this absolute achievement he pulled off.
I can't wait for Chapter 2!

A really solid boomer shooter, made by a SOLO DEV. Holy hell. This was a solid time, full of good mix of action and suspensefull setpieces.

A very quick play for just a single episode and an interlude level, it left me wanting more from it. Which is the point honestly. For sure play this one if you enjoy games like DUSK or Blood. I enjoyed the gunplay with all the different kinds of weapons available. The best part was throwing TNT is the best method of ammo conservation which is just hilarious to me, and so satisfying.

I will continue to update this as more episodes come out, but whats on offer as of right now is solid enough to pick up and play right now. Highly recommend!

Cultic is a master-class for Boomer Shooters.

It remains fresh over a ~5 hour campaign, with the constant introduction of new enemies and weapons. Level and Art design are amazing, but the highlight is for sure the gameplay, which is probably my favorite of any game in this genre.

Set pieces are always interesting and challenging (I recommend playing on either Very Hard or Extreme), and some of the levels have this incredible horror atmosphere that is usually pretty hard to accomplish in games where you're a killing machine running and gunning everywhere.
Music accompanies the flow of the game and its carefully crafted atmosphere.

Pacing is usually pretty good, though, as is commonplace with games of this style, you can ruin it yourself by looking for secrets and trying to 100% the level.

It really makes me exited for whatever the developer comes up with next.
A must for anyone into this sort of games.

I had this recommended to me by a friend after raving about Titanfall 2 and ULTRAKILL to him. He had glowing praise for it - but having just rolled credits, eh, me not so much! I think it's good, especially considering that it was made by one guy! But by the time I got to the final boss I was very ready to be done with it, and doubt I'll be coming back to see what gets added to the game down the line.

Cultic is a very competent retro-style FPS with a super unique artstyle, perhaps my favourite thing about it. Thing is, in the world of New Blood you've gotta do a lot to stand out as a boomer shooter, and I just don't think Cultic does quite enough. It's fun to lob molotovs and dynamite, and the game's occasional use of light as a mechanic was neat - but mostly it felt a little tired. It clearly takes a lot of inspiration from Resident Evil 4. I mean, it's a game set in a rural countryside where you're fighting religious cultists who soon start whipping out shields that look pretty much exactly like the ones from RE4 and eventually you even get the classic Chainsaw Ganado-style guys coming after you. As an FPS that takes such heavy inspiration from a third-person shooter, it often slows things down for the sake of atmosphere, but I didn't really feel that this meshed with the mechanics. I never felt scared because of how powerful I was. If it was trying to instil in me a sense of dread, it didn't really work because whatever could have possibly jumped out at me would've instantly gotten shotgun blasted in the head.

Cultic also takes some cues from old-school DOOM level design, and that's not really my thing! I like the new-school DOOM philosophy (particularly DOOM 2016) of "hey, here's a fuck-ton of enemies, go wild!" instead of the more labyrinthine, lock-and-key, exploration-based design of classic DOOM. In a game like this, where shooting feels so good, I do not want to be looking around and backtracking to find ways to progress. I certainly don't wanna be reading journal entries! Stop putting journal entries in your high-octane boomer shooters, you gosh darn freaks! I am not playing this game to fuckin' read! All the moments in which Cultic stops - which it does quite frequently, I found a bit frustrating. Particularly annoying was the 2nd level, The Shipyard, which has you progress by identifying extremely missable vents in tiny floor tiles in the corners of dimly lit rooms. This was not a hard level, but I spent over 30 minutes in it trying to find a way forward, scouring the entire level. Eventually I had to look it up only to discover the way forward was to shoot a vent (which is not a mechanic the game had taught me was a thing) that was just hiding in the corner of a random-ass room.

(On the note of spending more time in levels than I wanted to, I found the music a little repetitive! It's like, fine! But mostly a bit too simple and again - not really fitting for a game like this! I need a bit more energy and a bit less melancholy if your mechanics are gonna make me so busted!)

So, it's a perfectly enjoyable boomer shooter-style FPS that can be really fun when it gets going. But it takes almost a little too much inspiration from other things to the point where it ends up making design decisions that clash with the core gameplay, in my opinion. In an objective sense, it probably deserves a slightly higher rating than I've given it, but it does a lot of things that annoy me personally. I think it lacks a bit of an identity of its own! And I don't really see a reason to come back to this when I could just as easily slap on ULTRAKILL or DUSK or DOOM or, hell - even Resi 4.

I got super interested in this game two years ago because of its art style and the fact that its like a mix between Blood and RE4, both games that I absolutely love.

The weapons, enemies and sandbox of the game are incredible, straight up. All the weapons are crunchy are extremely satisfying to use, all holding a very important purpose within the sandbox of the game. The physics with throwable objects also are so fun and satisfyingly.

The best way to describe this game in general is that its just meaty. There's so many little mechanics within major mechanics such as the dynamite in the game seemingly working like Blood's dynamite but you're also able to throw an unlit TNT and shoot it like a remote explosion or unwrap a bundle, separating each TNT into separate explosives.

The level design overall is very well thought out and solid but there are some parts in levels, specifically in the first half of the game where I feel some parts could be condensed or the game doesn't do a great job directly the average player into the next area they need to go in order to progress the game. Every level after The Crypts (E1M5) is incredible though. Thee second half of the game is pure insanity and its fun as hell.

I love almost everything about this game but like I've said, the level design could use a bit of work with enemies getting stuck pathing on the environment sometimes and some areas having weird pacing.

The other thing is I feel like the music for some levels really doesn't match the vibes of the atmosphere at all. Like on The Mines, you have this only 80's-esque synth track that sounds almost upbeat in this super gritty and spooky section of the game.

This game is still great though and I wish it got more attention, looking forward to the second chapter. The second half of the game for me especially started to hook me and I had so much fun with it.

cultic is a fantastic retreading of the boomer shooter formula. many a 90s FPS fan will take one look at cultic and instantly think of blood (1997). they wouldn't be wrong, but blood is just a small influence on its enemies, combat, and arsenal. I mean, it's got cultists and napalm. what cultic takes more inspiration from is the explosive nature of the build engine, yet streamlines the interactivity of the famous games made on that engine. it's still quite interactive, but most of the time, you'll only interact with readable notes and doors (thankfully, you can flush the toilets). however, if anything, resident evil 4 is cultic's biggest inspiration. from the absurdity to the stylish combat to the uncomfortably heat-inducing horror, cultic is taking resident evil 4 into the boomer shooter formula. you can shoot axes out of the air, throw dynamite and shoot it, grab an enemy's dynamite to throw back, and combo weapon swapping with slow-mo into a tornado of hellfire, all while offering intricate arenas to maneuver and explore. for the billions of retro 90s throwback shooters saturating the market these days, cultic is a phenomenal execution of the genre's pioneers while also offering cathartic modern twists. sucks that it's unfinished. very eager to play the next game or episode or whatever the weird release structure is called.