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Hello Gamers! this is @tsukuyomi once again and today I'll finally bring you my newest review, and it's time for **Cultist Simulator**!
But before we jump onto it, remember to **follow @SteemGC** for more content like this, **Resteem, Vote and Comment** if you liked the article.
Alright, let's go!
# Cultist Simulator: Make yourself from scratch and bring the dawn.
https://youtu.be/heaH_KvB4eU
I know it's a late review, my reviews are usually done on weekends, **however** there is a more than valid reason for me to be this late: **This game is very tricky, hard to master and advance and it has nothing to guide you from the beginning other than clues that you catch onto with time**. I have spent several days playing this, I have gotten to certain points but I know that I have not been able to delve in the deepest parts of it, however, I wanted to give you my thoughts because it is its mystery what has me completely hooked on it.
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# The Plot:
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You are a simple person, a normal individual, nothing defines you when you start playing for the first time, you have a name and you are an apprentice, you have a menial work and nothing to your name. What drives you? What do you want to become? What is your innermost desire? You will find out, as things happen, dreams unfold, people appear in your life and opportunities are given. The Goal? You make it, and other might follow you on your path towards it. Or maybe you will succumb to a restless life of no fulfilment... or maybe you don't need anything, and you will remain a simple individual.
Chances will be given to you, ways, opportunities, it's up to you to chase them or ignore them. Be wary, because you can manage to have everything under control and without your cards changing things might not amount to anything in the long run. The idea is to be creative, to strive and to see beyond. Try and experiment, who knows what you will find ahead?
Creating a Society won't be easy and you will lose a lot along the way, but such is life. This is a game about choices and what to do with your personal resources, your sanity, your passion and your reason. You decide what to make of them, what to work on and what are you capable of.
That plot description came from my heart as abstract as I wrote it, why? Because that is what this game is, abstract, quiet and malleable. Mysterious and unwilling to take you by the hand through itself. If you're ok with that let's revise the mechanics:
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# Gameplay
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Cultist is a game of resource management, first and foremost. Secondly, it's a game of alchemy, card dealing and crafting. Elements are sorted in very distinct ways, however the ways you can use them are not strict or rigid, it's up to you to find what works and what doesn't.
## Verbs
Verbs are like slots, they exist to be filled with cards, and certain types of cards go in each. As verbs, they are an action, for example **talk**, **explore** or **work**. This is how you do things in-game, you put the ingredients into the verb slots and perform the action, afterwards, your actions deal a set of cards according to its consequences.
## Cards
Cards are the ingredients you need to make things, if you want to talk to someone, that someone is a card, and that card is the ingredient the verb needs to perform the action. If you want to work, that work is a card, and that card is put into the verb slot to perform the action. It's a very simple mechanic that allows for endless results when combined with each other.
## Types and Aspects
Aspects are the types of cards you will have, in here I have to make something very clear: **you NEED to read every aspect and description there is**. Fail to do so and you will never understand what you are doing. Aspects share colors and symbols, pay attention to them and you will understand the game. Don't pay attention and you will encounter hours after hours of no advancement and repeatedly failed tasks that will lead to frustration.
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Taking into consideration those basic aspects you will have everything you need to advance. Cards can be leveled up, combined, even subverted. Different combinations will lead to different outcomes, and a bunch of details will need to be taken into account to do your action alchemy. It's all about that, and that is how you progress.
After your first run you will have different legacies to start with depending on how you met your end in the past run, much like **Sunless Sea** (from the same creator, Alexis Kennedy) your past run determines some things of your next ones.
You will have **followers**, you will have **adversaries** on your steps trying to cuff you, you will make **deals**, you will encounter many obstacles and many blessings along the way.
As time passes, some **verbs** cannot be controlled, they will appear and feed off the things they need, if you are becoming insane and you have enough Dread laying around, it will be the end, conversely, if you have to sustain yourself and have no money, illness will come for you, and without vitality to fight it, it will be the end of the road. Such things are uncontrollable, and they must be fed, whether you like it or not, and you don't get to decide what they will take from you, much like you don't decide what you will get sick of.
The whole premise of combining cards and the story telling that gives away little hints without anything being certain gives this game a unique quality to it. I simply have not seen any other game quite like it.
# Art and Soundtrack
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As with every game from Failbetter (Alexis Kennedy's studio) the artistic concept is impeccable and thought out from beginning to end. Failbetter revels in simplicity and gives a beautiful, stunning and detailed game from surface to bottom. Every symbol, every color evokes something, everything is tied together.
Aspects and categories are not in your face, rather they are implied in the color schemes, as a little hint that your brain starts tying together after a while. The flat design is functional and perfect for the concept and the fact that some cards are even animated and you notice in a "did that just move?!" kind of way is an amazing touch.
Sound is good and it does add to the ambiance, however the atmosphere is not as pressing as in the Sunless franchise for example, where its protagonist and demands attention, in Cultist it is much more subtle and it changes according to moods within the game and stages.
# Overall
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Cultist Simulator is a beautiful game, almost breathtaking personally. It's filled with trickery and demands attention and focus, intelligence and logic are paramount, and games that are this challenging while being this overwhelmingly simple deserve attention and respect within the community. Games do not need to be flashy, loud or in your face to be masterpieces and I hope this game finds its way further into mainstream because its developers deserve a whole lot of praise for the amazing work they did.
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You can buy Cultist Simulator [on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/718670/Cultist_Simulator/) right now!
I hope you enjoyed my opinions on this game and that you give it a try. Thank you very much for reading, I'll see you next with the news!
**Follow @SteemGC** for more articles like this and leave a **comment** with your opinions, **upvote and resteem** if you liked the article and see you on my next post!
*All images are from Cultist Simulator's [Steam Page](https://store.steampowered.com/app/718670/Cultist_Simulator/)*
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