CULTIC: Chapter Two DLC

Boring and tedious. Best part of either chapter is sniper bit at the end of the Train Station map. Other great bits are the mall w/ the mannequins, the special Christmas map, first meeting the Afflicted (unironically my favorite), and the bit where you are in a shootout w/ the heli + enemy waves at the church. The Bolt Action is VERY satisfying to use. The Fairgrounds, the Manor and the Bunker. They arent horrible but they are boring and tedious to me b/c keyhunting in massive maps just isnt appealing to me.

What happened? Every enemy is now a giant bullet sponge, or a giant bullet sponge with burst damage. Every gun you have is a tickle gun (outside headshots... sometimes... with only specific weapons). Why is it a huge process to get rid of the shield I never want? Slaughter fights with a weapon set that is not conducive to slaughter fights (this ain't classic doom)? Every other fight involves the not-pinkies (they're pinkies, you can literally backstep them *exactly* like pinkies) getting dropped behind you after they get introduced. I'm utterly convinced from just the first two maps that boomshoot should not do DLC.

tldr: get it on sale. Unfortunately not nearly as good as the first chapter. Why? The biggest reason is the level design. Unlike in Chapter One, I actually needed the map here or I'd have been horribly lost, and I had to look up where to go next several times anyway. I even skipped half of one level by stacking up chairs to climb over a wall because I couldn't find anywhere to go and thought that was the intended solution until the level end screen said I only killed half the enemies. The horror sections are very jarring because you just go inside a room and suddenly the brightness is turned all the way down. Some of them did get me anyway because they were long enough for that, but I do think having better scene transitions shouldn't have been that hard. Every level also has one big arena section in it somewhere where you go into a big room and lots of enemies show up. The last one is especially bad about it because you can see them just spawning in from nowhere, unlike the others where there are at least some doors they could have come from. Personally, the most annoying thing here are all the invisible walls Chapter Two has everywhere now. Why can't I jump on a roof in the middle of the map now? It didn't seem to be an issue in the first chapter. Otherwise, I don't like the new armored cop dudes with shotguns. They are annoying bullet sponges unless you use molotovs on them and I don't like that being the only way to deal with them quickly. What I do like are the new weapons (getting a shotgun that works with a shield is great, and the bolt-action rifle is fun too) and exactly one of the new levels (the train station). I'm still going to recommend it because it is still an alright game, but only a 6/10 now where I'd have given the first chapter a 9/10.

Doesn;t feel as tightly designed as Episode 1. I wouldn;t quite give it a pass but near the end of the episode and I;ve been enjoying it much less than Episode 1. Encounter and map design seem weaker with a much larger focus on very long range combat which doesn't seem to fit the game.

Even better than the first chapter. A bit more elaborated and complicated. But sooooo nice!

What a fantastic shooter, picked this up for £6 on sale and the amount of content us staggering. Really great gunplay and fantastically designed levels. There is a section in a shopping mall, that was obviously lifted from the Barts Department Store level in Condemned, that is genuinely terrifying. Well worth a go, highly recommended.

[h1]Half-assed[/h1] I made it half-way until I got bored. The maps are kind of open, think the forest from Cultic 1, but the reliance on waves and waves of enemies makes it feel more like quake arena/modern doom than what it is supposed to be, which is a boomer shooter like the first. Shame, because the first 2 levels are golden with jump scares and eerie moments, then it just gets lazy and expects you to put up with its ♥♥♥♥.

I'm totally blown away by this game and it was done by mostly one man too, what inspires me! The shooting feels excellent, the movement allows depth (slide and longjump), the weapons have the right amount of bang and good sound effects (except the normal Shotgun, it sounds like a typewriter hitting tinfoil or something :D ). But where this game really shines is the atmosphere, OMG the atmosphere! The horror in here is perfect to balance the action. Not too creepy for most (but I wouldn't mind as a horror nerd) and fits into the story that's not bad either. Only nitpick is optimization, but it still runs fine on my RX 9070 XT @4K with 120fps most of the time though. Buying a game like this at this price feels like stealing, can't understand any complaint about the separate chapters at all. This is a masterclass in solo game development!

I would call Cultic: Episode 2 a win-win kind of scenario. For us players, it means more Cultic. For the developer, it was a chance to experiment with a few new ideas. It's very obvious that the developer used Episode 2 as a bit of a playground, trying out mechanics and level design ideas—possibly with their next game in mind. The maps are much bigger. Take the train station level, for example: you start at a station, clear it out, hop onto a moving train, have a shootout with cultists while it's racing down the tracks, arrive at the next station, switch trains, survive another firefight, then the game suddenly lets you play as a different character to rescue the main one. Only then does the level end. We're talking about a boomer shooter where a single level can last around 50 minutes, throw 300 enemies at you, and constantly change scenery. The base game took me roughly five hours to finish, while Episode 2 lasted almost ten. Of course, bigger isn't always better—some levels drag a bit more than they should. But hey, blowing cultists' heads off is still as fun as ever. The weapons remain incredibly satisfying to use (well... maybe except the standard shotgun—the double-barrel is simply better). The gameplay loop is essentially the same as in the original Cultic, and honestly, that's all I needed to have a great time. The level design is excellent, the environmental details are fantastic, and the atmosphere is just as strong as before. Oh, and yes—you can still kill enemies with a bar of soap.

[b]Rating:[/b] ★★★★ - Great [b]Time Played:[/b] 10 hours [b]Difficulty:[/b] Normal [b]DLC Comparisons[/b] - The arsenal expansion is smartly done. New weapons like the magnum revolver and SASG shotgun share ammo pools with existing guns, which forces real loadout decisions rather than just handing you more firepower with no tradeoff. - Level variety is a genuine leap over Chapter 1. A shopping mall, a swamp compound, a Renaissance fair, a train, a haunted manor. Each feels like its own short story rather than another variation of "dilapidated building in the dark." - The new shield mechanic (grab enemy shields, block shots, bash back) is a small addition that changes the rhythm of encounters in ways that feel natural rather than grafted on. - Horror atmosphere is meaningfully thicker than Chapter 1. Environmental storytelling via scattered notes and world details rewards curiosity without ever forcing it. - The bosses are legitimately well-designed. Formidable, readable, no gimmicks. A rare thing. - Map size works against the game in too many levels. Chapter 1 managed to feel enormous while staying tight. Chapter 2 frequently loses that discipline, turning exploration into aimless key hunts. - In-game map included in update but doesn't always fix directionlessness, and the muddy brown palette makes areas blend into each other. In Chapter 1 this was charming. Across 13 larger levels it becomes fatiguing. - The final boss demands mastery of the dodge ability that the game never clearly teaches. If you missed it organically, it reads as a difficulty wall, not a skill test. - Chapter 1 is the tighter, more confident game. Every level had a clear identity and never overstayed its welcome. Chapter 2 trades some of that discipline for ambition, which is a reasonable trade that doesn't always pay off. - The developer's level design skill has genuinely grown. Chapter 1's levels could feel samey in setting. Chapter 2 commits to specific, memorable locations that each tell their own story. The ambition is real even when execution falters. - Chapter 2 is longer (13 levels vs 10) and costs $14.50 AUD as DLC. On pure value it wins. On pure moment-to-moment quality, Chapter 1 still beats it. - As a complete package, Cultic now stands as one of the best games of its type, an extraordinary achievement for a solo developer. Chapter 2 earns that verdict despite its rough edges.