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Cultist Simulator

Blaine

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Grab the Codex by the pussy

Since I'm on a huge board game kick just lately and am also generally a fan of the Cthulhu mythos, I went ahead and bought this sight unseen to see what was what. It doesn't exist in physical form, and probably wouldn't be playable as such.

There's a bit of controversy in the Steam reviews section, often centered around the absence of instructions or a manual (it can be argued that you're supposed to figure the game out as you go along), that it's too frustrating to succumb to the despair mechanic without really knowing how to combat it initially, that the goals and win conditions are unclear, etc. Even from my minimal experience with the game thus far, a lot of this can probably be put down to casual whining, although I can't say with true certainty yet.

Steam tells me I've played 40 minutes. I can tell you right now that this game is unlike anything I've ever played. It's in the format of a card-driven tabletop game, has a distinct CYOA feel, is rather abstract in its core mechanics, and contains a lot of descriptive text by the guy who did Fallen London and Sunless Sea (I haven't played those).

I'll probably need to do a short video at some point. Otherwise, explaining it would take way too many words. Edit: Video uploaded.

 
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Urthor

Prophet
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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I have no idea when I backed this but apparently I did in fact throw money at a game because sunless sea so all aboard.
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
FFS, another "simulator". My next game should be a simulator, I just have to figure out a theme to it. Reality Show simulator. SJW simulator. Furry simulator?

Joking aside, this looks like a fun game, although I'm not into card games so I'll probably pass.
 

Blaine

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Video is up in the OP. I elected not to do a voice-over, since blithering wouldn't have added much, if anything.
 

Jenkem

その目、だれの目?
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An oasis of love and friendship.
Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I helped put crap in Monomyth
FFS, another "simulator". My next game should be a simulator, I just have to figure out a theme to it. Reality Show simulator. SJW simulator. Furry simulator?

Joking aside, this looks like a fun game, although I'm not into card games so I'll probably pass.

it's not really a card game, it's more like a real-time resources manager with lore
 

Matalarata

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Blaine any update? Looks like something I'd like to play at least once but I would be glad if you could give us your evaluation about replayability. Can you follow different strategies or are you more or less forced into an "optimal" course of action? Do you know if there are multiple endings?

Writing seems decent enough, how's it in the long run? To be blunt, do you stop to read the fluff or is it totally skippable after a couple of hours?

As far as I can tell the general feel of the game's mechanics is something like a mix of worker placement and resource management, am I right? From what I can see in your (and other) videos, it's vaguely similar to a solo game of Terraforming Mars, although obviously cpu assistance changes everything and such comparisons are moot...



Basically, should I buy this or the latest expansion for Mansion of Madness?


Edit: ▼▼▼ This must be current year's most useful post. 'gratz oneself, you won the boardz and the internet!!1!
 
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zaper

Yes.
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I love CYOA games as much as the next incel larper soyboy, and I spent a lot of time playing Fallen London, Sunless Sea and fiddling with the Story Nexus they had, but I do get tired of the abstractions, card mechanics and witty humor they have here. I would rather play a "Cultist Simulator" that was less a board/resource management game with cool icons and more about sacrificing people in sinister rituals, managing(and recruiting) followers and avoiding both the public eye and the police force.
 

Blaine

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Grab the Codex by the pussy
Why does a Trumpanzee needs to play larp as himself again in his spare time? Truly baffling.

Translation for the uninitiated: Blaine voted for Donald Trump and is therefore already a cultist—so why would he need to LARP one by playing a computer game?

I'll let you judge for yourself what would motivate oneself to drag political rivalries out of GD and into what was previously (and will henceforth remain, as far I'm concerned) an apolitical thread about an apolitical computer game, completely out of the blue.
 

Jaedar

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Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Love the aesthetic but goddamn gameplay-wise it's dull as hell.
I think it works quite well early on, but it quickly falls into a rut of slowly trying to grind out money so you can buy books so you can study them for knowledge so you can slowly improve the tier of that knowledge...
 

Blaine

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Grab the Codex by the pussy
For me it's interesting as a curiosity alone, and quite a unique and accomplished thing to have thought up and designed, even if it falls too flat to be thoroughly enjoyable for either storyfags or gameplayfags.

Also, it's not quite finished and they do plan to release DLCs, which are absolutely free to early adopters without an additional Cancer Pass, so they might shake up a dull core gameplay loop a bit.
 
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I bought it and have played about 4 rounds. It's pretty fun, and the writing is well done, although I'm sure it will get samey after a dozen rounds or so. There's significantly more actual gameplay compared to Sunless Seas; the game is basically a series of risk/reward scenarios (although both the risks and rewards are initially obfuscated from you until you've played through a few times) with different paths opening and closing depending on which risk/rewards you choose to pursue. I'm yet to have a :mindblown: moment with it, but overall it seems like an entirely enjoyable low-key genre mash-up. Will probably table it for now and wait for patches/dlc, but for anyone on the fence I would give it a recommendation for anyone who enjoyed KoDP, Academagia, or Sunless Seas.
 

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