Developer: Jasozz Games
Publisher: 3D Realms
Genre: FPS, Retro-Inspired
Price: $19.98
Release Date: Oct 13th, 2022, Sep 18, 2025
Where to buy: Steam
CULTIC is a standout title in the “boomer shooter” renaissance, a grisly, atmospheric, and highly kinetic first-person shooter developed by a solo talent, Jason Smith. The game’s distinct visual style masterfully blends chunky, detailed voxel environments with flat 2D sprites for enemies and weapons, creating a retro aesthetic that simultaneously evokes the classic Build engine games like Blood and delivers a unique, modern sense of dread. This lo-fi, high-fidelity presentation is coated in desaturated browns and grays, immediately establishing a gritty, horror-flavored world that successfully manages to be both frightening and cathartically violent. The sound design is equally vital, featuring crunchy, impactful weapon audio and a somber, synth-driven soundtrack that transitions seamlessly into frenetic action jams, echoing the best of John Carpenter’s atmospheric horror. The core premise establishes the player as a nameless, disgraced detective—the “Outsider”—who rises from a mass grave, consumed by a singular quest for revenge against the insidious cult that nearly ended him. This simple, rage-fueled narrative provides the perfect, visceral motivation for the carnage that follows, grounding the player’s relentless slaughter in a personal vendetta against an occult conspiracy.
Chapter One: The Descent into Madness and the Art of Brutal Efficiency
CULTIC: Chapter One serves as an exceptional and self-contained introduction to the game’s brutal, resource-management-focused gameplay loop, spanning ten meticulously designed maps. The campaign begins with the detective’s escape from the initial burial site, immediately forcing the player to master the game’s core mechanics: a powerful arsenal of period-appropriate firearms, an essential dodge-and-slide movement system, and the critical need for resource conservation. The early levels, transitioning from rural towns to mineshafts and a haunting asylum, perfectly establish the game’s shifting tonal gears, blending claustrophobic horror segments with larger, arena-style combat encounters. Weapon balancing is a highlight, with every gun—from the humble machine pistol to the lever-action rifle—remaining viable throughout the campaign due to the collectible weapon upgrade parts that unlock alternative fire modes and enhanced capabilities. While some early reviews noted a slight weakness in enemy AI and an ultimately trivial final boss, the chapter’s strength lay in its immaculate atmosphere, satisfyingly crunchy gunplay, and the inclusion of a robust, Resident Evil 4 Mercenaries-style Survival Mode that significantly boosted replayability.
Chapter Two: Escalation, Horror, and the Test of a Solo Developer
CULTIC: Chapter Two is the planned narrative culmination of the Outsider’s story, delivering a campaign of equal or greater length that dramatically expands the scale and challenge established in the first chapter. Emerging from the police morgue, the detective is thrust into the ravaged, cult-infested cityscape of New Grandewel, with the level design immediately showcasing greater environmental variety, featuring detailed city streets, shopping centers, train stations, and a menacing mansion. The gameplay receives key refinements, notably a revamped dodge-and-tackle, and a significant increase in both enemy count and tactical difficulty, with some levels reportedly containing hundreds of enemies, firmly solidifying the title as a “horror shooter.” New enemies, including heavily armored SWAT officers and corrupt cops with quick, accurate revolvers, require more thoughtful engagement, often demanding the liberal use of fire and explosives to bypass their defenses. Chapter Two also introduces new weapons, such as the SASG pump-action shotgun and the powerful Magnum revolver, which integrate smoothly into the existing, balanced arsenal while demanding careful ammo consideration.
The Critical Divide and Focus on Resource Scarcity
A central difference and point of discussion between the two chapters is the significantly increased difficulty and, more specifically, the heightened scarcity of high-impact ammunition in the second installment. While Chapter One was generous enough to allow players to swim in ammo by the mid-game, Chapter Two forces a deliberate engagement with the game’s complete toolset—a design choice the developer has indicated was always intended. This shift means that the player must rely more heavily on the unlimited-use axe, the kick, the environmental hazards like explosive barrels, and strategically-lit Molotov cocktails to manage basic cultist threats. The amplified challenge, while celebrated by many as a successful, more mature blend of horror and action, led to some player frustration with the new, long-range accurate enemies and the size of the new maps, occasionally resulting in players getting lost. However, this increased difficulty, coupled with a greater emphasis on Resident Evil-style exploration and pacing, has been widely lauded as making the entire CULTIC package stronger, forcing players to master the granular, clever combat mechanics they may have overlooked in the more generous first episode.
Legacy and Future: A Monument to Retro-Inspired Design
CULTIC has firmly cemented its place among the best modern “boomer shooters,” not merely as a tribute to classics like Blood, but as a title that surpasses its inspirations by injecting clever, contemporary mechanics and a palpable sense of style. The single-developer nature of the project—a common point of awe in its positive reception—highlights the consistency and sheer quality of its execution across both chapters. The combined ten-plus hours of content, complete with extensive weapon upgrade systems, secret hunting, and the intense Survival Mode, offers a substantial and highly replayable experience that justifies its episodic, non-Early Access release structure. With Chapter Two concluding the Disgraced Detective’s story, the game stands as a polished, atmospheric, and deeply satisfying journey into the heart of a Lovecraftian, B-movie-esque cult conflict. Ultimately, CULTIC is a masterclass in focused design, proving that a meticulous retro aesthetic, tightly balanced gunplay, and a willingness to challenge the player’s reliance on firepower can still feel fresh and utterly devastating in the modern era.
Conclusion: A Blood-Soaked Masterpiece of the Retro FPS
In its completed two-chapter form, CULTIC stands as a definitive, high-water mark for the modern retro shooter genre, successfully evolving from an outstanding spiritual successor to an essential, self-defined experience. Chapter One provided the grim, blood-soaked foundation, delivering tightly-designed levels, satisfyingly crunchy gunplay, and a masterclass in establishing a desolate horror atmosphere, all while introducing the core, resource-conscious combat loop. Chapter Two, however, served as the true test of the game’s vision, escalating the challenge with significantly larger, more complex maps, a swarm of more lethal enemy types, and a crucial tightening of the ammo economy that elevated the gameplay to a strategic ‘horror shooter’ level. While this increased difficulty and scale occasionally tested player patience with resource scarcity and map traversal, it ultimately delivered a more refined and rewarding experience, forcing players to master the full kinetic toolset of slides, kicks, and environmental traps. The combined journey of the Disgraced Detective is a triumph of solo development, perfectly balancing visceral Build-engine inspired action with a palpable sense of dread, leaving the complete CULTIC package a brutally fun and highly recommended conclusion to a stellar horror-FPS narrative.
