Among Cultists has been successfully funded on Kickstarter twice, selling out almost immediately, but does it live up to the hype?
Among Cultists is currently enjoying it’s second run through Kickstarter and both times met their goals. The folks at Godot Games must be excited. The first time through the crowd funding platform they included two expansions and one customization pack. This pack allowed you to turn your friends and family into playable characters. One thing that surprises me is the return to Kickstarter. I don’t follow the platform like I used to but this is the first campaign I’ve seen repeat itself. This time of course with a new expansion but little to no other additions that I’ve seen.
From the few companies I’ve watched on the platform, most use their success to build up their abilities to provide their customers with their desired products but most then use that success to fund the infrastructure needed to build or print their product without further outside assistance. Is this a part of crowdfunding that is entirely normal that I was unaware of? Entirely possible. I’d say likely probable even. Of course, I doubt you’re here to read my ramblings about crowd funding and are more interested in the game itself that was funded. Let’s be honest, me too.
At first glace I immediately fell in love with the artwork by Andreas Schroth, Jarrod Owen and Karsten Schulmann. Between the box art and the maps I’m not sure which parts are the best but they absolutely killed it. Speaking of first glances, when looking at the game I had thought that it would be a cross between Clue and Among Us and wasn’t sure how such an amalgamation would work. Social Deduction games have been around awhile and I feel an argument could be made that Clue was one of the first mainstream SD titles. It was a classic when I was a kid and my own will tell you I’m ancient now. Among Us I feel could also be considered one but in video game format.
For those that are visual learners, the Godot Games site features many tools and videos to use to help you learn the game. Gameplay can be quite complex overall, expect to look things up a few times in the book or videos for clarification. This happened quite a bit for us and I’m sure it will for you as well. At the start of the game players learn their role and the rules they follow and then play what reminds me of the grade school classic- Heads up 7-up. All players close their eyes and the cultists open theirs to identify their teammates (if they have one) and anyone that has already been killed and just doesn’t know it yet. Just like in Among Us, death does not mean you can no longer help your team. There are some events that won’t trigger until someone IS dead anyway.
Each time you interact with a player you exchange cards and can influence the cards in the room. Once the cards are revealed it’s up to you to figure out if the dead player or the room’s cards were ones that were there before or added by a specific player as clues to their identity. Like Among Us, the Cultists win by completing a specified number of kills or with more players playing the game doesn’t just stop once enough are dead. They simply allow the investigators complete their mission and then they reveal if they successfully killed enough prior to the win and if they have they claim the victory. We never had enough playing to play it this way but at this time I can’t see the benefit to changing the end conditions.
The rulebook was our biggest complaint, primarily the organization of it but access to video tools made this more tolerable. Between amazing artwork, some truly ingenious gameplay and a Lovecraftian them that I love, this game is a must play for me. If you like Social Deduction games or investigation based titles then you will love this, more so if you are a fan of the Elder Gods as well! If you manage to get ahold of the expansions Down into the Abyss or Mountains of Chaos, they add SO much to the game in additional art, gameplay twists and expanding on the enjoyment then I’m certain you’ll find the game to be better than before. I can only assume the latest expansion, Under the Surface, only enhances it further. We hope to play that one soon.
