Recent reviews by iwanPlays

Makes you realize how tone deaf Commandos (1998) was.

Beautiful game, no filler content trying to stretch it out.

I did encounter bugs but nothing severe.

Some writing (and or voice acting) is awkward at times. It gets better over time (or I just got more used to it over time).

Good old screwing around with silly view fields and AI behavior have been had!

Minimal graphics allow my mind to fill in the gaps and the fantastic music sets a perfect atmosphere for that immersion. I literally can listen to the track for hours. Can you immerse yourself through sound, text and vector style graphics? If yes, perhaps this will be as exciting for you to play as it has been for me.

I went through an emotional roller coaster, figuring out strategies to survive and evolve, learning about humanity and myself until I finally began seeing through the mechanics and ridding myself of the fantastic fear of survival that was so bittersweet while learning the game.

In total, it took me about 9 hours to figure out most (don't think all) of the game, get lucky and reach an (the?) ending, however I had tried to play the prototype years ago, so I already knew basic host takeover mechanics somewhat. And I'm extremely familiar with the developer's previous game. So let's say 12-15 hours if I was new to all this? [the game has been expanded and I think the total time should be higher by now]

Worst game I've ever played.
5/5

Evil Cult gives the player control over a Cult which tries to take over key figures in society to spread its influence and complete the Final Ritual, before any of the competing cults.

Generators generate resources, making them an obvious prime target for expansion, yet the easier (cheaper) to influence Adepts increase the probability of gathering Virgins, which serve as resource wildcards and are of course necessary for rituals as a sacrifice.

Sects within the cult allow for some optional micro-management. However, the player's attention is mainly directed at the expansion on the map, resource balance, and awareness of the Investigator.

The Investigator is a computer-controlled invisible entity that tries to sabotage the Cult. Every cult in the game has to deal with their own Investigator and balance how many resources should be invested into battling them directly or whether expansion is more important and defending the resource Generators is enough or if Investigators should in fact be avoided at all cost and all cult activity is put on pause until awareness is minimized.

Experienced players will change their Investigator counter-strategy over the course of one game, mixing them within one turn even.

As a comparison: the Investigator is somewhat reminiscent of the Robber in the board game (Settlers of) Catan.

The ability to exchange two resources for one other also reminds of the trading system familiar to Catan players.

Depending on map size, difficulty setting and luck, one match can last 6-30 minutes (or up to around 60 on huge maps).

Pro:

• The perfect Casual (or even "Roguelite") 4X game for me because:
  
  • Early game is usually very short, reaching the tense part of the game quickly
    
  • Sects can be assigned a Task but will pick a reasonable one automatically if player prefers not to micro-manage
    
  • I'm the kind of player who enjoys early game in Heroes of Might and Magic, Civilization or Master of Orion but loses interest when micro management takes over the game. The player's attention in Evil Cult stays on the game map nearly all of the time, that's the way I like it.
• Very atmospheric music, which for me creates a feeling reminiscent of Deus Ex and Uplink
  
• Many configuration options for custom games (number of nodes, size of map, various probabilities...)

Notes

• There are sound effects, some of which one has to get used to (ASMR-like breath on node takeover, laughter on failure). Other sounds strongly remind me of HOMM 2 and Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space.
  
• Shortcuts like [ESC] and [Space] allow closing menus and pop-ups quickly
  
• There is a basic interactive tutorial but if you don't remember your current task you'll have to try to restart to see the last instruction again (or click around exploratively to hopefully take the intended next step)

Con:

• I dislike the bright puzzle cartoon color scheme of the default game and prefer the [classic mode], which you have to pick before starting the game. Some colors (resources, map background image) can be customized (modded?) rather easily by editing image files in the game's folder though.
  
• Custom games don't have any tried-and-tested pre-made templates except for the default custom configuration

Amazing atmosphere and sound design!

This tale made me stop drinking. I raise my glass to that! Cheers!

Have you watched that scene in John Wick 3 where he reloads the Colt Single Action Army? Receiver 2 is kind of like that but there's a risk of shooting yourself in the leg.

Weird, but cool.

I mean and. Weird and cool.

Low framerate is something to get used to.

A big negative review complains about movement costing energy - yeah it's not fun at first but once I got used to it I began planning my day ahead of time and risking moving "on the edge" for fun at the end of the day. I prefer it over a time-based day-night cycle. The map isn't very big, so the mechanic makes sense to slow down exploration. Doesn't feel artificial either. Thankfully never versions show the current energy on-screen.

They actually ban people who troll/gamethrow. moderators doing their job and this game is awesomely focused on communication and behavioral analysis

Uncanny and making me scare myself through its fine atmosphere akin to "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" although it allows me to set a faster pacing. If only I wasn't so scared to open that door... See me suffer through/enjoy the demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgoYAvrAm4M