If you're a FPS fan and haven't played Cultic yet, you should. Where most retro-shooters take Doom or Quake or Duke Nukem as their primary inspiration, Cultic wades from the primordial pool of Monolith's 1997 classic Blood. Cultic's grungy, lusciously lo-fi action sees you blowing away crazed hooded monks with double barrelled shotguns and fistfuls of dynamite, set within ambitious, semi-open levels that are a delight to explore.
You'd be forgiven for forgetting about Cultic, however, given it's only released one of its planned three episodes, and that was almost three years ago. But developer Jasozz Studios is about to pour another pint of Blood-based action, as episode two of Cultic arrives later this month.
Cultic: Chapter Two swaps out the rural setting of the first chapter for the fictional city of New Grandewel, which has more than a hint of Resi 2-era Racoon City about it. According to a recent Steam announcement, Chapter Two is substantially larger than Chapter One, hence why it's taken so long to develop:
"Chapter Two may have started out with the goal of matching Chapter One's length, but it sure didn't end that way!" Jazoss Games writes. "Chapter Two contains 12 total maps, all being larger and more detailed than Chapter One." For context, Chapter One featured 10 levels, so Chapter Two is a fair bit bigger even before taking into the account the size of individual levels.
Alongside the new maps, Chapter 2 introduces a couple of new "temporary weapons", including a mounted machinegun and a bazooka. Naturally, all the weapons from Chapter One return, as do the revolver and semi-automatic shotgun from Cultic: Interlude, an extra map that bridges the gap between the two chapters, released for free back in 2023.
Chapter 2 also brings improvements to several core systems, including a revamped dash mechanic that makes dodging faster, more powerful, and capable of triggering a shoulder tackle that will knock enemies back and interrupt attacks. Meanwhile, tower shields have been reworked to make them easier to pick up and/or boot into an enemy's face. You can also "plant" shields into the ground to use as temporary cover, which is a clever idea.
Chapter 2 launches on September 18. When it does, it'll take the form of a paid expansion, though the price hasn't yet been specified. The launch will coincide with a free 2.0 update that folds Chapter Two's mechanical tweaks into Chapter One, while also introducing various bugfixes and optimisations.
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