CULTIC: Chapter One Review - A Fistful Of Dynamite

[@charlesswansonii9319]

God I hope someone makes a voice pack for this game where they actually have the Cultists' quotes from BLOOD

[@KilliK69]

and Caleb's. hell, the dev should have a Kickstarter to get funds to hire Weyte to voice his character. Doesn't need to mimic Caleb, just some other personality which gits the game.

[@woodsmand]

Marramazum feear buxx!!

[@Trencher1375]

No please. Unless its a volentary mod.

[@julianwilson9537]

@@Trencher1375 All mods are voluntary

[@theylivewesleep.5139]

Yeah, it’s like how I want a doom reskin mod for Prodeus.

[@ICARUSLIV3S]

A few things I missed but was too late to change: Lever Action is great for shield enemies if you headshot em'. The alt throw for dynamite is a cluster toss not additional TNT. Probably missed a bunch more due to time constraints. Still gud gaem.

[@pessie83]

Is it me or did you used black robed cultist from Blood in the thumbnail?

[@derkernspalter]

You can also destroy the shield with the shotgun and put the second round in the Cultist.

[@elricbro3]

Great video! Thanks for taking the time to play and review :) I saw you mentioned this in a comment already, but the LAR and FG-42 both boast penetration so you can spoon-feed bullets to shield bois against their wishes.

[@LeBarmalei]

Dude, you legend

[@perryborn2777]

Found you! You have made the most fun first person shooter I've ever played! Absolutely phenomenal job man, and I can't wait for the next chapter

[@loger_2floofyboogaloo278]

loooovvveee the game and thanks for the tip!

[@btchiaintkidding7837]

Your game is fking awesome dude, i cant describe how much fun i had playing your game cant wait for the next chapter

[@magenta_iris]

Astonishing game, Great review. It's crazy seeing other Solo Devs doing maddeningly high quality stuff. Jason deserves all the props possible for Cultic.

[@HansAlRachid]

I'm always amazed at how quickly some people can beat a game like this. I'd consider myself fairly decent at FPS games, but with all the secrets to hunt for and the well designed levels to sprint through, it took me around 4 and a half hours on the highest difficulty to beat this one. Great game - I wish the Cultists had some sort of soundbite to give them more character, like their counterparts in Blood, but aside from that I can't really think of a single complaint I had with it. It could use a bit of a balance once-over though - the Incinerator is insanely overpowered, that thing absolutely shreds just about everything, even the final boss.

[@jsnug42]

Glad to see the boys at Monolith finally got around to making a sequel to Blood. Caleb is way more quiet than I expected him to be, though....

[@mrllamaton1873]

Blood 2 exists :-|

[@LuisMercadoorg]

@@mrllamaton1873 no, it doesn’t. It never had and you can’t change my mind.

[@lanereynolds4567]

@@LuisMercadoorg death wish is the real blood 2

[@brandonobaza8610]

@@mrllamaton1873 The Evil that has no name... the Evil that _must_ not be named. My father said it was a Hate from Old Times. Saw it myself! Saw what did _this_ to me! _(points to a missing eye)_ Saw it _clear!_

[@blackwolf249]

@@paullllehtx Welcome to the club, my friend.

[@robcoguy6909]

This game is great, i went for a more slow aproach and got a solid 3 hrs out of just the first 2 missions(2 out of 10 so far),and there are ALOT of secrets and stuff crammed into the beginning levels. So far its my game of the year.

[@alessandrodeangelis9029]

Me too. I'm playing on hard and my approach is very close to an action-survival horror more than a standard FPS (i'll probably try the more aggressive approach later). In fact even if i found the Sten i still like more the C96, and that weapon with full upgrades it's a beast. I really like the vibe of this game so far.

[@jukaa1012]

The amount of work this dude had to acomplish to make a product of this quality is mind boggling.

[@timohess3909]

It's absolutely impressive . I think its just sad that those retro games won't be ported to android and Apple also the mobile market is insanely big and those games would perfectly run on that hardware . Luckily There are hundreds of new doom/quake/duke mods in a similar quality and those are even playable on mobile . Stuff like Total chaos ,Siren ,Ixhoz ,ion fury ,alien Armageddon, slayers testament ,quake 1.5,voxel doom ,ashes 1 and 2 plus dlc ,painkiller mutilator ,survive . Absolutely crazy that those are free

[@david_aug_1017]

The most insane part is that it was all done in just over a year's time.

[@powerdude_dk]

Well deserved review Icarus. It comforts me to see the old school fps genre is still able to produce something fresh.

[@Yondras]

The double barrel at point blank shreds through shield cultists, run towards them, slide and shoot when close enough ! Love the game, I expected a really solid retro shooter but it goes beyond my expectations.

[@crazymcgee3604]

I would argue that this is a perfect Steam Deck game; short enough to enjoy in short bursts on break from work / school but engaging enough to make you want to come back.

[@josedorsaith5261]

I'm playing through it now. I find it almost impossible to believe that one man made this. It's incredible

[@msciel]

11:30 the "boy oh boy" syncinc with the shots was very satisfying

[@SouthJerseySkids]

The absolutely nutty speed attained by kick jumping is great too.

[@planescaped]

"How eager you are to go sniffing for secrets, of which there are many" You can get the Sten and FG42 in the first level as secrets.

[@sdfkjgh]

15:06 Icarus, you missed a perfect opportunity to have the "It lights a fire under my backside" happen while you're lighting up that molotov. For shame!

[@Szederp]

6:21 "In truth, I was having too much fun to care". Should be a Summa Summarum statement because you are so so right. The Market is now overflowing with retro fps games and there are only a few which stand out because a lot of huge corporations hire devs to develop such a type of game. A lot of them use Unreal 4 engine or Unity with poor optimization but Cultic, Hrot, Hyperviolent, Incision, Fortune's Run, Karm, Fallen Aces, Lazaret and like 20 more titles I don't wish to mention stand out. Thank you for this great review. I was following this game from the beginning. Excellent level design, great secrets and a unique atmosphere that all contribute to making this "product" a gem. Tested the beta, bought the game immediately on STEAM. (after payday ofc.) Excellent upload, excellent review. One last note: this 3DRealms is not the old one that put out Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior etc. This is now a Danish owned company that no longer has the "old Crew" hired. Completely new staff, keep that in mind. Thank you for the upload. Greetings from Central Europe.

[@GoodmansGhost]

Man, 2.5 hours? You a speedy boi Icarus. Took me just shy of 5 hours on Hard (which is the third of five difficulty settings.) And I didn't really get stuck anywhere.

[@jimbob3332]

A good flamethrower makes me spray like the one in this game.

[@XzMondayNightzX]

I was a little disappointed when I saw "Chapter one." and was like "Man come on... all this wait for chapter one?" But after playing a bunch last night... for a single Dev this is fantastic. It feels like BLOOD but FAIR. It's violent, the shooting is great and the visceral force of bullets is on par. The music is even banging, and the atmosphere is great. The fact this was done by ONE guy is amazing. Get this man a team. Can those AAA devs and their shitty pay to play / win nonsense and take all that funding and give to Jason Smith.

[@MrTheMasterX]

I could've never guessed this was a solo dev effort if you hadn't said so in the video, holy moly.

[@kahvikone]

Shield enemies felt like a threat at first but not after realizing that you can headshot them from the front if you aim with care. Cultic was a really fun game to blast through.

[@Razgriz_01]

Oh yeah, it's also where the Lever-Action and the FG-42 really helps out.

[@wanta1776]

I like the color scheme. Looks like old tales from the crypt comics

[@KilliK69]

yeah, reminds me of those old 4 color pulp comics. i like it.

[@bluerockcandy8344]

Well you sold me yet again Icarus. At first glances, I unfairly saw just a funny-looking Blood remake perhaps without all the charm, but I'm glad I caught this cuz the quality and work done to stand out as it's own thing is impressive and I feel bad for first judgments now. Even that gnarly color-scheme grew on me by the end of the vid, definitely adding this to the Halloween playlist!

[@dorrud]

This was a great review, bc the price and dev time had concerned me, but learning it was a solo dev makes it all the more understandable

[@peepopoo4387]

3DR's last few Early Access games have been develop disasters (Graven and Wrath for those interested). I wouldn't buy an EA game ever again with their name on it. I'm glad this game avoids getting caught in the crossfire of 3DR's past failures and I can buy it with a clean conscious.

[@Phoenix7786]

Had this on my wishlist for awhile. Definitely going to get it thanks to you, Icarus!

[@deathsyth8888]

I can't believe Caleb comes to help you at the end for the final boss and says "It's time for BLOOD!"

[@StrengthScholar0]

I just played the demo and was legitimately scared once. Killer sound design and good enemy placement are powerful tools.

[@HC-qc5rp]

I really, really, really enjoy this game so far as a huge Blood fan. It’s got a little RtCW in there too imo, which is neat. My only gripes are the limited color palette and the dynamite feeling a little awkward, but I can look past it all. This shit rocks and is full of loving details

[@MB-xz7ls]

It totaly worth the price. It took me 35-45 mins for each level on Hard with some searching for secrets.

[@peepopoo4387]

I have only played 30 minutes, but this game is insane and up there with Dusk and Amid Evil. The levels and atmosphere are absolutely stunning.

[@benprins8240]

Awesome review 👍 😀 So some of my favorite fps games are Blood, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Doom 2, No One Lives Forever 2, Bioshock and now Forgive Me Father and Prodeus. Love fps games, but to me they have to be fun, challenging, atmospheric, memorable and have a long campaign. Plus have excellent design. Is Cultic ch 1 worth picking up?

[@lordfriedrick7911]

1:07 That scene made me spit my drink at the screen

[@lordfriedrick7911]

honestly the TNT bundle and molotov tied togheter sounds like something out of a old school over the top FPS

[@Thyrork]

Yeah do more reviews Icarus, when and as able! Having more eyes on this fps renaissance is awesome.

[@mcgibs]

The quick kick ought to be able to stagger shield guys.

[@wishiwascooler]

Glad to see your opinion on this one, bought it day one and have been really enjoying it!

[@MrJakeTucker]

Started this last night and would carry on with it later if not for downloading Scorn. Will definitely come back to it.

[@peepopoo4387]

this game blows Scorn out of the water

[@theblobconsumes4859]

​@@peepopoo4387 Not really, they're just different games. Scorn is an adventure game with clear classic survival horror influences, Cultic is a 'boomer shooter'. Personally, I preferred Scorn and really valued my experience with it, but still really enjoyed Cultic.

[@MrJakeTucker]

@@peepopoo4387 Yeah, I played about an hour of Scorn, will go back to it in bursts as I love it's art, but I'm going back to Cultic now.

[@AnticitizenOne93]

Am I the only one who finds this game also similar to "They Hunger" mod?

[@MegamanXfan21xx]

Tying a molotov and TNT bundle together? Why has no one else thought of this?!

[@chasepalumbo2929]

This looks fucking amazing,

[@baxterstockman2191]

Such an epic game reminds me of the older school shooter Blood. I'm having more fan than the people playing scorn right now. Awesome soundtrack as well. Good review keep em coming.

[@j.h.6672]

You can change the color scheme and turn off this retro effect in the settings.

[@XaviarCraig]

Solid review, ya have me sold on it

[@zachgoodrich6100]

Awesome review. Now do a video review of the full release of Prodeus!

[@llucllumador380]

My run time of the chapter on hard was 3h 12 min (it tells you at the end) I went pretty fast without looking our for all the secrets. If you play on maximum difficulty and try to find all secrets I'm guessing you can get 5h ~ out of it. The duration of the game is perfectly fine given that it is only a single chapter for now. If I recall correctly this game's first chapter length was somewhat on par with Dusk's first chapter. If the final game is planned to have 3 chapters (I don't know, but I'm guessing) then we are looking at 9-10~ hours for a regular playthrough and up to 15 hours for runs with all secrets and max difficulty. This is just the standard run time of an old school fps game. The game is clearly inspired by blood, in its setting and mechanics. The only big difference is that enemies are not hitscan, but rather they shoot very fast projectiles. So you can dodge bullets by strafing, which is a good thing because it allows you to be more aggressive. The addition of the slide and the ability to store health packs also contribute to make the gameplay more aggressive and faster. To me, this game feels like Blood without the frustration (and blood can be very frustrating at higher difficulties). Another cool thing this game does which I didn't expect is it puts a lot of emphasis in the atmosphere. The creepy atmosphere is put front and center from the start of the game, creating a constant feeling of tension. During the most bombastic action sections this tension is not that noticeable, but there are some, more quiet, sections that really capitalize on it. You can go from playing an action fps to a survival horror game. It reminds me a little bit of Dusk which did similar things with the wendigos for instance. This is just a glimpse of what the final product will be like, and I'm looking forward to it.

[@eggziom]

Bought it! Good old cruo stragarana malaxos is exactly what we need these days. Thanks, Mister Icarus BTW, there's remastered Chasm: The Rift is available on Steam right now. Not a big fan of the game, but it had some tech features pretty neat for its time

[@DYNANiK]

I only have a problem with the color scheme, too. lol

[@AB0BA_69]

Same. I can enjoy Quake 1 and Doom 1/2 without any issues. I also love Dusk. This art style though...? Unfortunately not for me

[@aladad.I]

You can switch off the Color Filtering in options

[@artebirklaus]

I like this review as well as I like your various "mod-insanities", which is to say quite a lot =)

[@soundclock2939]

Once again another fan project that just makes me continue to beg for a Blood reboot

[@RetroGameSpacko]

this game makes you crave for the color green

[@DieselD7101]

This game is amazing, I had an incredible time with it. And the Interlude lever was amazing. (Mostly because of the revolver).

[@UnnamedSeeker]

Broomhandle, FG42 and China Lake? That's a rather, let's say eclectic load out glfor ashooter set in 60s USA.

[@cubeflinger]

Just missing the one liners! High quality but I hope future chapters define their own path.

[@restlessfrager]

Oh man an FG42? That's some wolfenstein call back I'm glad to be seeing.

[@ReadyAimFire_]

Guys with shields also annoy me, but i found out that 1 close range shotgun shot will kill them. Or toss dynamite from afar.

[@MB-xz7ls]

I used sniper rifle. One shot is good enough

[@brandonobaza8610]

Why the change in Profile Pic? If you don't mind me asking. The old one of your face "popped", it drew your attention and was immediately identifiable to me as ICARUS. I didn't even need to read the channel name. The new one sort of fades into the background like wallpaper. I'm a casual viewer, don't know if you already addressed the change. Fine content as always, my dude 👍

[@anon_y_mousse]

I hope they open source it at some point so I can port it to my system. It probably runs fine under WINE or Proton, but I'd rather have it native.

[@theytkjaper9668]

(Fallout 3D) I'm always happy to see new videos from you quality work.

[@TheHqppy]

Great review, great game. I don't know if you've done it but you should review Outlaws, a really really nice game, it's a western duke nukem 3d and it's awesome !

[@SuperLlama42]

Cultic looks awesome from what I've played of the demo, but I keep finding myself disappointed that there's no Stephen Weyte since the Blood influence is so strong. It makes me wonder if New Blood has some secret exclusivity deal with him.

[@thelordaboveknowall]

I swear there was a ghost in that chair

[@mugwump7049]

Turns out the crunchy pixels/limited palette look is just a switchable filter.

[@letsgoBrandon204]

Engine looks like Outlaws

[@haerfgvbag7050]

also you can roll after a high fall, reducing damage!!!

[@Grandmaster-Kush]

Seems like a very well tought out shooter, I will definitley get it further in development

[@tweezersalad4075]

I was holding off on it at first cause i saw it was just chapter 1, but the levels are actually pretty long and there’s a lot of them. It’s honestly a steal just for 10 bucks

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

MODA MANTA! **chucks dynamite**

[@audiosurfarchive]

You Think I Might I'm Worth A Dollar, But _That Thumbnail Makes Me Feel Like A Millionaire_

[@Renegade666]

I really wish the colour pallete didnt look like it was in 16 colour mode :(

[@ZeMovinPixxle]

alright you convinced me.

[@Moonrakerd]

it lives again!! :D

[@KilliK69]

not for long!

[@chiggn7456]

This game is absolutely awesome, for this price its a must buy, also the musik is spot on

[@Elgar337]

Game's great. I'm a bit disappointed with the music though, it's ok but I don't think it's on par.

[@ravick007]

This is the Blood2 we wanted back then. (Well, except for the weapon upgrades. Weapon upgrading systems suck!)

[@mysticalacer94]

A Fistful of Crudox Cruo!

[@gluttonousmaximus9048]

What are some of the more recent indie boomer shooters you can recommend to us in terms of Difficulty: How easy to get into, how hard to finish, or how simple/streamlined the controls are Openness: How explorable the maps are, and how it plays in slower vs aggressive styles Creativity: How weird the premise and weapon selections are, how seriously the plot goes Presentation: How the graphics look in recreating the retro look, how they run and look on a low-end PC, how easy on the eyes/ears everything is, and how satisfying it is to blow shit up

[@miroslavzima8856]

You would think cultists would give a slack after such long time of spanking their robes! But nope! They are on it again! Thankfully!

[@kevingrems]

What was this built with? Surely not the Build Engine?

[@GetsugaTensho85]

I'd like to know too?

[@Bonkasaurusrex]

Unity!

[@lastwymsi]

Great looking game!

[@Felsmukk]

Pretty great value for the 10€ price tag

[@wadewilson4018]

Do more of'em. 'Nuff said..

[@Draescan]

Icarus I might be going insane, but is your mic quality just.....off this time around? It's not as bass-y as I'm used to hearing from you and lacks texture.

[@haerfgvbag7050]

Love this one

[@brockelever]

I can see how Cultic possibly influenced the developers of Hunt: Showdown.

[@daviru02]

The demo isn't bad, but where is Caleb's crazy adlibs and the cultists shouting incoherent cultist speak? That was half the fun hearing them scream "IT BURNS IT BURNS ARGGGGGHHHHH!

[@Chaingun]

please start doing Blood Mod Madness!

[@mrllamaton1873]

MATRNAITS UNFEARABLE!

[@paullavery8894]

0.45 made me kek

[@BonesAlexander]

A Civvie11 video on this is gonna be interesting.

[@Anuskasv0]

Fantastic game.

[@Saver310]

scuffed blood

[@VaterOrlaag]

Set in the 60's. The weaponry is period-appropriate. Like this pistol from 1896.

[@sdfkjgh]

@VaderOrlaag: Any weapons that came before the set period as also period-appropriate. It's only weapons that came _after_ the set period, thereby either breaking the spacetime continuum, or breaking the gamer's willing suspension of disbelief due to the designer's research failure, that aren't period-appropriate.

[@polskastylezz187]

your new channel icon made me almost not click the vudeo

[@rodakscreens]

Where's the AWOL review

[@kylewhitmore5954]

Does anybody know when this comes out on consoles?

[@navi-charlotte]

what a great time to be an FPS lover boomer, lol

[@ramdom_assortment]

ROFL that thumbnail

[@alexandrocollings1116]

As a blood fan I'm really enjoying this game so far. However, I feel like the music is kind of bland and generic. The sound design is great, but the music tracks themselves leave something to be desired

[@tweezersalad4075]

Yeah sometimes the music just stops in certain areas too, no creepy ambiance or anything, and it will stay that way even if you killed the enemies there.

[@Helios8170]

Man I appreciate the graphics but it keeps making me think and feel like it's a Doom mod

[@MegaYoYo]

Just got my hands on this yesterday. I was planing on just playing for 30 mins. Beat the game in one sitting. I was so captivated I didn't want to go anywhere