Cultist Simulator

if you love to play a game where you don't ever have a clue what's going on, cultist simulator might be for you. I've sunk hours into this game without a singular glimmer of understanding. if there is a sprecific goal or order of operations, I sure can't tell. somehow I'm getting achievements for things I supposedly achieved in game that I can't make heads or tails of. maddening.

密教模拟器足以荒废十世人生

Didn't connect with it sadly. Visually and from the game's vibe it had good chances to do so, but I didnt connect with it / enjoy myself that much. Not a game I'd actively recommend.

ゲームコンセプトは面白いと思うが、あまりにも説明不足過ぎる。 結局Wikiを見ないとわからないことが多く、作業感が強い。

游戏本体缺乏可玩性，玩这个游戏也是奔着看它的文本和背景来的。好在创意工坊拯救了这个游戏，里面的一些mod打上去就很好玩了……

I cant get a rung really going, I might be dooing somthing wrong, but it takes soooooooo long to do ANYTHING

更加凝练的语言和机制

Despite the many hours I have sunk into this game, I just cannot recommend it. It has a fantastic atmosphere, with a great soundtrack and writing to boot. However, the gameplay itself is one of the most monotonous and frustrating gameplay experiences I have had the displeasure of playing. The main "hook" of the game is that there is no tutorial. You, taking the role of someone who must learn the art and knowledge of the occult, must take risks and gain information on how the game works and how to beat it. This sounds like a fantastic premise, and games such as Outer Wilds have executed this idea perfectly, but unfortunately Cultist Simulator emulates this premise in the most mundane and confusing way possible. I won't go into a full explanation of how the game works, but put simply, you place cards into verb squares which result in a myriad of effects or situations occurring. The game dresses it up a bit, but that is essentially what you are doing. The game does give you subtle hints, such as highlighting what cards the verbs will accept and the protagonist will give subtle queues as to what might happen. The issue here is that the game gives you no goal. In fact I would argue that TOO MUCH information is hidden from you. There is vocabulary, hidden gameplay mechanics, and other nuance that the game simply expects you to figure out on your own. I find it unreasonable to expect a puzzle to be solved if the player isn't aware a puzzle even exists. My main issue is that the game boils down to managing timers and the frustratingly endless task of keeping your character alive. Oftentimes you will be staring at your computer screen watching timers go down as if you are playing some kind of cheaply made clicker game on your phone. The rest of the time, at least in my experience, is making sure your character doesn't get ill or succumb to despair. Despite my many paintings or other attempts to raise money and ward off despair, I could never seem to get a good handle on my character's health, leaving me in an endless loop of trying to survive instead of, you know, being a cult leader. That last statement is the final nail in the coffin for me for Cultist Simulator. You never actually feel like you are the leader of a cult, mainly because the game seems to do everything in its power to stop you from doing anything in your cult. Even when you do, your cult members seem like nothing more than expendable resources rather than actual people, and anytime you try to do any cult-like activities, they often end in run-ending catastrophes. Oh, there's also some kind of dream mechanic where you enter "The Mansus" and are tasked with climbing it. Beats me how you even do that, and entering The Mansus never really seemed to be worth it unless you wanted your session to be interrupted with the map and collecting a useless card that disappears in 60 seconds. Cultist Simulator has the absolute most disrespectful use of a player's time I have ever seen in a video game, and it pains me that I spent nearly 30 hours trying to look for a great game underneath.