A certain dungeon inmate who counts sewers in games is gonna love this thing.

Great video! Thanks for taking the time to put it together. I appreciate you going out of your way to discuss the episodic release model vs. Early Access - it's been a very hot topic since launch haha

These past few years of retro-style shooters popping up all over the place reminds me of the early days of the roguelike boom back when binding of isaac nuclear throne and spelunky were blowing up and I am completely here for it

Finally, after all these year of Doom and Quake inspired games, we finally got (probably) the only Blood inspired game other than Dusk and even so, Dusk is an accumulation of multiple games and not solely on Blood.

Personally my GOTY so far, nothing has ever quite scratched the Blood itch until now.

I particularly felt that the first cultic demo, released in the middle of last year, was much more difficult than the current version of the game. The amount of ammunition found in the scenario and dropped by enemies made this very clear.

Immediately bought it, it has good regional pricing and the guns feel extremely crunchy.

I love the chapter approach means we get a multi-chapter Pro Cultic and I am all for it

As a huge Blood fan, I've had Cultic on my radar for years, gonna have some fun!

Well, here's the 3D Realms-published Blood 2 the fans and boomer shooter enthusiasts deserve. Can't wait for the rest of the chapters.

Love the content bro ! Ideal reviews I can learn from

Nice, another retro shooter that turned out great. Definitely adding it to my wishlist.

I have not seen or read anything about this game until your video. I've never even seen your channel before. But just based on your video I bought the game. Thank you.

Hahaha. "So let's go live... again." I love it!

Just got the game yesterday 😀😀Does remind me of Blood.

I played it on hard difficulty, and it was challenging just enough. The challenge dropped in later levels, since at that point you're familiar with most enemy types and you have enough ammo, but I'd say it's still pretty balanced and challenging at times (especially if you, like me, poorly handle grenade-type weapons, since this game seems to push the player to use the dynamite bundle most of the time). As far as lever-action rifle goes, I had no issues with it. Probably because most of the time, I lacked enough ammo for it (not sure if that's because of the difficulty setting, or because I simply didn't find it). In the first half of the game I rarely had more than 20 bullets for it even when I was careful about ammo consumption. I used it pretty much only when I ran out of ammo for other guns, or precisely for those long shots, before I got FG42 which is easier to use at those ranges (and pretty much only option against snipers, yes you could kill them with lever-action, but they're just so hard to see without a scope, sometimes I used the scope of FG42 to aim, then without moving a mouse switched to lever-action, and that works, but it's still awkward). That being said, considering it is technically one-handed weapon (I think your lighter stays on when you're firing, meaning you use it with one hand), I'm inclined to agree that it would be realistic if it would be less accurate on those very long distances. But still, as it is now, I have no problem with it. One weapon that I have a problem with in terms of balance is flamethrower. It is realistic for it to be extremelly powerful, but considering the ammo you have and considering it takes just one puff of flame to kill like 80% of your common enemies, then you can clear pretty much entire asylum grounds level with just flamethrower. And that's a huge-ass level. Problem is that if you're using flamethrower as it's supposed to be used, meaning with bursts of fire instead of just one puff of fire, then it drains quickly enough to be balanced, but there's nothing stopping the player from just using one ammo at a time... so I'm not really sure how you could balance this weapon without lowering its' damage output, which would make it unrealistic.

This looks so awesome

17:27 Game is too easy, so now I'm having too much fun with it. That's the old school gamer mentality: you're not supposed to have too much fun playing a game, it has to be a chore. 😄

Finally, a new video

I thought the FG42 was gonna be like the plasma rifle from Doom a high dmg per shot assault rifle not another version of the lever action.

I've always liked the idea of a dash but I've never really liked how it's been implemented, like I've just not seen anything that I really liked.. and that's if it's not been consulitus streamlined into ineffective, hexed at the executable if they don't like to turn it off double tap movement key - kind of thing LOL.. I have had a lot of fun success with a dash-like slide.. where the multidirectional slide feature was more of a, the inputs work this way and we never got around to trying to restrict those parameters.. and as it stands while it doesn't really make a lot of sense that you can do a power slide from a standstill backwards or in all directions LOL it sure does feel and look cool as I'll get out and it's extremely useful as a dash like function.. like the Dodge rolls for button spammers Target lock games.. except like everything that is not crappy, you can actually control it as opposed to automated button pressing timing game.. And as a feature it just uses the same control set so, since I'm a toggle crouch guy, you just hold down Sprint or even just tapping it, with whatever movement or directional key and tap the crouch key, then tap it again when you want to stop and start recovering, for instance if you wanted to do just a quick under rail Dodge.. or just needed to start booking it in a different direction or dodging a different direction LOL.. cuz honestly it really is a Dodge it's a slide that works by dodging.. and Andy Lee that's the only way I found it to be fun or really just not weird and tacked on LOL.. I remember when first person Dodge rolls got translated from hybrid first person third person games and just my epic disappointment in like Jedi outcast that it didn't actually rotate the camera a full rolling rotation.. which would have been fine for me back then but I'm sure was in no way a technical limitation LOL looking back upon it.. but it always felt weird especially without full body awareness being a commonplace thing and going from third person where you do, even that alone because it never really translates.. also with the same control scheme without a Dodge you could just jump tap to the left or to the right and that's essentially the same thing depending on how your jump acceleration works.. what kind of dampeners you have etc.. but for the most cases this would work even on like a dampening restrictive jump like Half-Life 2.. It legitimately clears distance in the length of the slide, allows you to control that distance, is a rapid push in any direction while changing your stance as almost like a side note LOL unless you're doing in under slide situation.. or you're playing chivalry with these controls which doesn't exist but it would be cool where you actually do as a feature Dodge under blades and swings cuz that's a real game that actually modern unlike Target lot button spam timing games and it doesn't have that but it does have the double tap and honestly I hadn't thought about it until I started playing with it entirely independently.. and that would that would actually fit far better for the function and actually had some really cool things given that it already treats a lot of the core elements of that as part of its gameplay.. on multiple levels instead of just slide cool I got under something quickly or I you know basically the discussion you were having about Dodge and slide and it's usefulness being kind of nebulous.. and since slide being cool feels a lot more useful LOL. the only third person button timing Dodge that I really enjoyed was the pirouette from The Witcher games... I'm a huge fan of flanking and getting around people including a whole soft block breaking technique in the riddick games to get around people despite that trying desperately to treat melee as a soft lock consoleizedrhythm game.. fortunately it's machine games so you can break it and enhance it because everything that they've done so far and just done previously has had immersive Sim component in its design.. and God bless them. Combining things too is really where it's at like that same philosophy that launched the rocket launcher in painkiller by shooting the stakeout right after shooting the rocket and using the physics to give it a boost if you can hit it which was not hard once you got the timing and the feel for it.. but probably not thought about until they were playing with it and realized they should definitely leave it in LOL.. things like doing a kick that has an inverse push like if you kick a wall and it pushes you back.. using that to kick yourself up off the ground when you can buy them with a jump and then go straight into the Dodge slide so you basically run forward do something like do a spin in the air after doing the kick jump and then just basically Dodge completely to the side.. and you still have the same forward momentum but you've just added an artificial momentum on top of that which is just feels cool it's almost like you got to thruster pack.. which if you know in a perfect world with really cool peripherals that have evolved instead of regressed over 20 years.. I'm sure there would have been a way to use the kick push to control that and in a lot of cases there is in certain mods for like Garry's mod for like parkour stuff but physics movement is.. well like physics it's not a requires a lot of the player using input and modern games don't like to do that.. much better if the player just is tangentially involved in playing, cuz it gets bad once they don't have the game playing for them as it turns out, especially with an entire generation growing up having that be the norm. But like any sort of enhanced movement or player agency I'm just always trying to push, either as a concept or or just because it used to be a lot more standardized to have things like leaning and body manipulation weapon manipulation etc and it's kind of almost like we've had the worst of both worlds in the modern age, and even worse beyond that you have these games that look at it as a desperate detractor if they're not hyper focused on a particular play style, instead of trying to open things up like the industry was heading now it's reinforcing at all costs quite often at its own expense in its own mission LOL.

I bought the game yesterday (played the demo a while ago) and i finished it in very hard. the winchester is a wonderfull headclick , but it's maybe too good because you can cheese some ennemy like you said . A lot of mecanic are cool , but i'm sure you don't need to master them to finish the game , even more so if you play on easier difficulty. I didn't really need to use the slide that much for exemple , even the chainsaw mob wasn't demanding this feature to be kill . So yeah i understand what you mean in the end of the video . Having said that , the game is great , and even if it's short , it's a mix between old and new and make me a bit nostalic of the FPS of the 90s era (even if i didn't play blood , i was playing doom , duke nukem 3D , and so on )

in main menu select progress in there you can choose what levels you want to play

Sound design reminds me of the gore noises from Bone Tomahawk, it’s like dry gore noise instead of moist gore noise, if that makes any sense lmao

Outside the law? Nah.. He is the law now.

The creator of Cultic said on X that his influence was Resident Evil 4 and (for some reasons) Dark Forces 2. Protagonists` jacket and pistol, monsters, achievement names and other - all references to RE4. Why someone thinking of Blood? It has different tone and story and atmosphere then Cultic.

Great game, great review.

Bought it day one and have been really enjoying it. The levels feel good in terms of layout and secrets and the enemies are fun to fight, and some are downright scary/disturbing.

I think many of these boomer shooters are misremembering how games looked in the 90s. We actually had 256 colors back in the day.

I'm on the 4th level and i'm fucking in love. Such a great game

I would expect the future episodes to ramp up the difficulty. Hope so anyway.

Achievement unlocked: "Don't Tell Dave" sneh

instead of being like blood if its idea is a more survival style blood instead of technique in close quarters i think its good

I’m at the very end of this game right now and it’s an absolute blast

LOL I was stuck on first boss for quite some time, it is not an easy game even on casual, at least on Steam Deck.

Good to know it's not early access and it's the first chapter. I tend to avoid early access games just because I forget about them before the game finishes and then I never go through to properly play the finished version.

kinda disappointed that you didn't use cluster toss and molly + dynos. also he could make magnum ammo even more scarce to balance out lever action.

From what I've heard so far from other people's videos in terms of the progression of the campaign, I would say it's a good guess that chapter 2 can/will be the companion dlc like ancient gods part 1 where it can challenge the player to their limits. From what I've played so far, switching between lever rifle sniping and shotgun corridors is a fun balance I think the game struck.

Ahh yes, I've been waiting on your review Edit: okay so the wait was definitely worth it. You've pointed out many interesting things here. Thanks for a great vid, again!

My only gripe is this game doesn't have the more magic or sci fi weapons of Blood, but in a way this game wants to be different so, that can be understandable.

Having a C96 in a game is always nice. Game looks interesting, i also played the demo but it felt pretty wide open with a lot of the areas - is the majority of the remaining game maps also that far open / wide sized or more corridor shooter style as i prefer the second , lurking through houses, mansions, finding secrets behind boards and wallplates and so on?

Any physical release for this game?

You just want every game to be Blood.

actually it felt more like Resident Evil 4 in fps than Blood)

The dev told me there aren't enough weapon parts to upgrade all your weapons 😔. this will certainly change with Chapter 2. probably.

Awesome horror shooter of 3d realms...👌👌👌

when will this be released on the PlayStation 5?

I would like to know when this game will come out on PS5?

Plays like a Resident evil game without the resource management, extremely addictive.

hadn't had fun with video game in a long time, Its gloriuos on my 48" 120Hz OLED

Playing the game on extreme difficulty feels like the right amount of challenge imho

Just finished the game a few minutes ago, It's well worth the 10 buck 👌

Is it Steam Deck verified?

Alright I'm gonna buy it maybe today. Edit: blood kicked my ass so bad I quit haha. Might give that another go again in the future

Beautiful, beautiful game. Good progression, good narrative, engaging gameplay. A must buy. And yeah, the sg42 feels kinda unnecessary (and even out of place in the setting)

I didn't play either 'Blood' games or 'Hexen' games "back in the day" when I was a teenager. However, from what I can tell 'Cultic' has gone for a 'Blood'/'Duke Nukem 3D' look ['Build engine'?], whereas 'Dusk' has a 'Hexen'/'Quake engine' look to it's graphics?

Given the basic nature of the presentation they should add ballistics to the bullets.. the code overhead would be negligible at best even in the worst of coding cluster apps and then you could also just do it well like you know games have done often on when they felt like it since you know system shock LOL. At least in 3D but you know certainly before that as well.. it adds a variable that is subtle but it changes up to hit scan mechanics into something that seems tangible... And it would give weight to the Dodge and dash functions.. have to do some sort of curve interpolation for the AI but it really is not that complicated and I wish we would see it moreespecially with the irony that most games that use it are multiplayer games where it would in theory be the the most complicated to factor in.. whereas with single player I rarely ever see it and it's really kind of annoying cuz it's amazing how how much that little tiny subtle delay matters like from the beginning and it was just.. I mean that's a really simple implementation that works really well at close quarters too.

Just needs some n64 fog maybe. Just not as drastic xD

No replaying levels is a bit disappointing.

I like the fact that I don't lose like half of my health after popping my head out of a corner for three seconds, unlike other boomer shooters

So it is only supposed to have 2 episodes?

Can somebody please just make 3D blood just just do it.. like you don't need to sit in in the build engine anymore to just get the ball rolling LOL they remade blood so many times they've added to blood so many times.. but nobody's ever actually seem to bother putting it into the third dimension or really adjusting much of it at all in the grand scheme of things.. which I get that if you want to play old School blood then you got to play it old school.. that's how that engine works and that's how that game works for that engine.. but you know you could also do something pretty darn fun in three dimensions that would be very similar LOL you could probably get all of the things that you like about build engine blood, and add a whole bunch of other things that you can't do in single digit animated Sprite uninterpolated with hyper interpolated high frame rate movement uncanny valley blood... and there's things you could do in build engine that you know would add to it as well and I really find it strange given how much attention and actual professional releases in some cases that blood and the blood format of of game using the IP components has.. especially given that it never had a successful or even chance at life iteration in the third dimension which most of these franchises were at least given one go at.. and in the case of blood it was shipped halfway done through apparently no input on the developers LOL and they went on to make fear LOL and then they went on to never do that ever again LOL and that's kind of where I'm I'm like you know what can we start taking up where they left off maybe? And then you say what about dust and I say what about unity engine where's the modding you can't mod.. I think dusk might have more motability than most if my understanding is correct but pretty much everything that new blood does is strictly in the modern consolitis proprietary project sense.. until they decide otherwise which I hope they do but they're not going to it's it's not expected anymore which is ironic given that they have a entire existence centric around targeting the very era that was built off of and as a core component of was modding.. to a point where they have a modern graphics engine in PS1 graphics.. but it shipped like an Xbox game on a disc except it's not LOL and that's normal and the only people that actually would really understand how it's not the way that was are the people that their core audiences.. but even those people are have forgotten pretty much.. Rant> I'm just yeah I don't know.. I can't say I've seen other than maybe Doom itself, but even with doom you see really cool you see gz Doom came out of that you know.. like people have messed with it and it does have successful translations into the third dimension and one of which even has some odd support that came out a couple of too little too late later so it never fostered a community despite being more or less capable around 2013 I think for the edtech for engine and then of course because the company is now Bethesda owned and the engine is now Bethesda corporate, it can no longer exist in any capacity that ever would have under the old guard and carmack.. because.. Bethesda LOL.. they could be worse, but they're definitely not good they could just be so much worse.. bethesda! Hopefully Microsoft will expand the engine propagation, but I doubt any of the other things will change I mean you're still talking about it executables that are locked for basic cvars and the only reason we would have functional versions of five and six engines outside of the 2016 release, which got special treatment.. so basically every other idtech game, that suffers from a number of configuration and very easily solvable solutions in implementation more than anything else that just you know didn't make it to the menu LOL.. and considering that the best of themselves are the only ones that despite needing at the most or didn't really adopt the technology amongst the internal studios and as far as I know eternal is the only seven version of the engine.. let's just say thankfully somebody hacked the executable and posted it, which is a step further than anybody really was willing to take for any sort of modding in the really strange community that Doom in modern Doom has that is really kind of well at least it is something LOL it could be worse.. but it's I don't think it's good right now it seems like it's problematic or leading to such but you know what at least it's a thing LOL at least it exists in in a in a rare twisting gaming culture that actually is a positive! Can't always say that about communities cuz I mean we live in a world of proprietary publisher-based servers being normalized in PC gaming.. and microtransactions at all in the first place LOL. it can always be worse and apparently we're fine with it and will be increasingly fine with it as the newer generation is even less aware than the current New generation that was entirely raised from the ground up in the ecosystem and considering how complacent the one that I'm from was about it.. let's just say it will get worse so take what you can get I guess?

Is this coming to gog?

it look like Early Access

LOVE IT BUT FOR SOME REASON, I DON'T LIKE THE UPDATED CULTISTS LOOK SRY CAPS

Blood sure is difficult but not in a good way. It's not the combat required proficiency with your arsenal and movement, it's that the annoying hitscan enemies constantly appeared behind corners or closed doors and instantly killed you. Even your footage shows this.

3DRealms are the EA of not AAA games, prats!

if the lever action rifle gets nerfed?? I'm blaming you and only you. #shutupaboutgreatweapons

All the Cultic reviews make me glad I never played Blood . That game sounds awful. 😆 usually when people say “ the game is good but back in my day fps games were more difficult and super frustrating to play yada yada…” i know the difficulty will be about right for me .

blood pissed me off and wasn't very fun so I'm glad there's this lol

It's a bit too derivative of Blood

I will never understand why a person would complain about a weapon in a single player game being too good. You know not everyone is a sadist. I enjoy the lever action, ammo isn't Uber common either.

I have to say this game is at it's best when it does the horror shooter thing, like Blood and Dusk. The other parts feel generic and very boring. That being said I cannot ignore the talent this dev has for creating a great horror vibe, shame there are not many levels that deliver that. The whole thing with range of weapons and players taking advantage of them is correct and needs to be removed from future episodes...

I really lose all interest when you tell me "the first half is ready!" I'm so sick to death of endless early access fps games. Episodic releases are still early access.

This channel has criminally low subscribers count.

If I’m completely honest, I prefer blood way more, everything feels smoother and greater impact, I think I’ll give this game a pass, I played the demo, it’s just not the same.

I am a tiny bit disappointed by this game. On the one hand it's great. There are however some minor things that are not the best. The dithering effect looks awful in my opinion, thankfully it can be turned off. The music so far is not good at all. It's boring, slow and too melancholy, not at all fitting for a shooter. The throwing off the dynamite is dumb too. I don't see the use of throwing unlit dynamite with the quick throw anyway, I think it should be lit. But fine. What's not fine is if I select the dynamite from the weapon wheel it doesn't light automatically when thrown! Why would I want to throw it unlit when I purposely selected it fully and there's a dedicated dynamite quick throw button that already throws it unlit?? Small stupid things like that are what make this only a 8/10 for me.