Cultic PS5 Review – A Modern Classic Drenched in ’90s Horror Vibes
Cultic is a game that was on my radar for years; its visuals and gloomy demeanour calling to mind Monolith’s monolithic macabre magical masterpiece Blood, a title that is never far from my mind! Comprised of two lengthy chapters, Cultic is an FPS set in the 1960s in the town of New Grandewal. You play a detective who follows leads to an asylum whilst investigating local disappearances and gets knocked out and assumed dead. Waking up in a grave, you continue your investigation into a strange cult. So far, so Blood...so... good!
Let’s not beat around the bush, Cultic is a fantastic game, and it grabs you by the BUILD Engine from the get-go, with a drudgy, moonlit colour palette that’s rich in darkness and groove.
The audio melds with the muted visual tone in an almost incomprehensibly golden blend that had me literally hanging around and staring at trees with a flickering brazier in the distance just to drink in the ambience, or perhaps linger in a darkened corridor with buzzing electrical lights; the mood is HEAVY and punishingly beautiful – consistently so.
As you make your way through the stages, all of which flow into the next in a way that directs the narrative further into the dimmer reaches of humanity – and beyond – to create an enthralling and immersively bleak experience.
