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0 Get ready to embark on a new, dark journey into the occult in Worship, the new cultist-themed roguelite game by Chasing Rats Games. Originally set for a 2022 release, the game makes its Early Access debut on July 16th on Steam!
A potential “Cult” Classic?
From the title alone, I came here expecting a game along the lines of Cult of the Lamb, I left playing… Pikmin? To be fair, there are noticeable differences between Pikmin and Worship. In one of them, you can have your minions fight to the death for you and your cause, often dying brutally and unnecessarily due to preventable situations that you have put them in, and in Worship you can draw pretty shapes! All jokes aside, I’ve had a great time playing so far. It is even more fun than I expected it to be! I think we already have a great base here. I am really looking forward to what the game has in store.
I’d love to hear your opinions on this game, so let me know in the comments below!
Gameplay
To kick things off, you are free to dive straight into the game, but I really suggest checking out the tutorial first. I always appreciate a good tutorial, and this one really does a great job at teaching you all the important gameplay elements and controls, especially since some mechanics might not be immediately clear to new players.
Once you do begin your playthrough, either in single-player or multi-player with up to 4 people, you will have to pick which god to pledge your faith to. Each god you can worship will bestow you with different abilities, perks, and even different starting structures for your base! At the time of writing this, there are only two different deities to worship. Though, taking a quick look at the Kickstarter page’s The Old Gods section reveals that there will be more added down the line!
With your god selected, your main goal will now be to expand your cult and prove your devotion.
The Cult
Growing your cult is as easy as drawing a circle! No, really. Currently, you can “convince” any godless person you come across to join your cause by performing a totally casual ritual, which involves drawing a blood circle around the people who you want to add to your following. Once joined, your newly converted fanatics are ready to follow your every command in order to spread your cult’s influence, even if it kills them. Once you have amassed a sizeable following, you will be more than ready to tackle the challenges related to gathering enough devotion to please your god.
Earning devotion is not as difficult as it sounds. As you are out exploring, you will discover plenty of landmarks, many of which require you to solve a puzzle or defeat an onslaught of enemies, consisting of beasts, creatures derived straight from your worst nightmares, and worst of all: The Church. If you face these challenges successfully, you will often be able to snag some sweet trinkets, or even a strange catalyst that lets you gain new abilities! Any slain enemies (or allies) bodies can also be offered to your god through a tribute ritual, earning you some nice rewards as well. The trinkets that you find can be delivered to the Old One to boost your progression. Of course, if you just so happen to run into any of the Church’s statues or shrines, make sure to smash them to gain some extra devotion points.
Combat
While you do start out with a couple of rituals, it is vital to expand your horizon. If you do happen to come across one of the aforementioned catalysts, you should absolutely take it back to your base. There, you can socket the catalysts into special spots in the ground in order to unlock new abilities, spells, and rituals. While abilities are mostly passive buffs to certain aspects of your cultist or follower, or even cool things like being able to drain blood out of living foes, spells and rituals are a bit more tricky.
In order to cast spells and perform these rituals, you will have to draw specific symbols on the ground using your own blood. But watch out, your blood meter is also your health bar! Makes sense: You don’t want to bleed out entirely after all. This makes it rather risky to perform bigger rituals while in combat, as one big hit can knock you out really fast. But don’t worry, if you make a mistake while drawing, you can just absorb the blood again! Though I’m not sure how sanitary it is to absorb blood that has already been on the ground. Does the 5-second rule apply to that? You can also replenish your blood from special plants, fountains, and the bodies of the slain. No need to worry about running out!
Rituals
There are two types of rituals that you are able to perform:
Alterable Rituals are a lot faster to draw and often provide you with spells to cast upon your enemies. You can have four Alterable Rituals equipped at the same time. Just assign them to one of the four predetermined shapes, draw said shape onto the ground, and activate it! Simple as that. If the ritual provides you with a spell, you will see its charges in the bottom right corner of your screen. Each spell has multiple charges, so you can cast it several times before you have to perform the ritual again. The larger you draw the symbol, the more charges you get. Spells are often your best option for ranged combat. Well, apart from just straight-up throwing your followers at your opponents. You can squish your opponents, choke the life out of them, or even set your own blood on fire!
Cryptic Rituals are a bit more complex. They have a set shape to them that will always stay the same, so you are not limited to equipping only four at a time. More complex symbols mean more blood has to be spilled, so keep an eye on your health meter! These types of rituals are usually very strong and are a great help in any playthrough, typically summoning strong creatures to fight for you or even the ghosts of your fallen followers!
After you finish a run, you will need to test your faith and fight a boss! Unfortunately, there are currently only two bosses in the game, and you are only able to chain two runs together before needing to start over, meaning you can’t really grow your base just yet.
What’s to come?
While not all the game’s content is ready to go yet, the Kickstarter page shows off a ton of features that I’m really excited to see!
Since you are currently only able to complete two rotations before the Early Access content ends, you unfortunately don’t get to see your little base grow very much. However, in the future, you will be able to build monuments and structures around your altar, which will provide you with important buffs, perks, new rituals, and other impactful effects!
Another thing that will be added is something called “Eldritch Prophecies”, a feature that will offer up a vast array of optional tasks to complete in order to unlock new gameplay elements! Those could be new random events, rituals, and even new gods, as well as cosmetics. Who doesn’t love skins for their characters? You will be able to customize the look of your cultist, followers, and even the blood that you spill.
The developers are also firm believers in the importance of streaming in the current landscape of the video game industry. For that reason, they are planning to add a customizable Streamer Mode that enables interactions between streamers and viewers! A couple of things that they have in mind for this include: followers named after viewers, monuments reacting to chat chanting their inscriptions, viewers voting for which faction will appear in the next event, and more!
Kickstarter Stretch Goals
Like a lot of games on Kickstarter, Worship has set, and reached, several Stretch Goals! They all sound very interesting and, in my opinion, will really add a lot of extra replayability to the gameplay.
My personal favourite of the Stretch Goals would be Explorable Subzones. You will be able to visit crypts, ruins, caves, and more, to uncover powerful relics, adding a whole new layer of exploration to the game! Other goals include a Possession Ritual, which will let you possess and take over the bodies of both friends and foes, Secret Alternate Endings, which will add more mysterious and hidden ways to win the game, and even Playable Followers, so you can join a cult yourself if you don’t want to bother with all the work that goes into being a cult leader.
There will also be cool animated cinematics to depict the Old Gods being summoned into the mortal realm. If you achieve this feat, that is. Another goal is a brand-new difficulty called “Sacrificial Lamb” in which even deadlier eldritch horrors roam the realm of man. But beware, absolutely everything will try to end you.
Graphics & Audio
Worship‘s graphics are truly outstanding, having a really cool 2D black and white style with only special elements having colour. Some UI elements and enemies will pop with yellow or pink-ish colours, and, of course, the blood is red. Big surprise there, I know. These rare splashes of colour really make things pop and make the art style feel even more unique. I’m personally a big fan of the hand-drawn vibe that the game has to it. All the elements fit well together, and the character and enemy designs are just so darn cool.
If you are not a fan of burning your retinas out at 4am, the game also has a dark mode! It can either switch the white and black colours around, or change the white to have a more yellow sepia tone, making it a lot easier on the eyes.
The game runs fairly well, but it does really start to lag quite a bit if you amass a lot of followers. Though some issues like that can be expected from an Early Access game. It will likely be optimized quite a lot down the line.
The background music feels right in tune with the whole cult thing that the game’s got going on. If I had to imagine what the soundtrack for a cult would be, this would be pretty much spot on. The sound effects also fit the style like a glove. Your followers make very cute sounds, which also shows a bit more of Worship’s Pikmin inspiration. It almost makes me feel bad for sending all of my followers to their certain death. Almost.
Longevity
I think that it’s very hard for me to comment on the longevity at this point in time, as there’s not a whole lot of content in the game yet, but the gameplay that is there is quite enjoyable. A lot of the map currently feels a little empty, so you are just kind of walking around, hoping to randomly bump into something interesting, but looking at the Kickstarter page and what has been promised there, I am hopeful for the future.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I think that Worship has a great concept and a nice foundation for an Early Access game. While the game doesn’t feel like it’s been in development for years, that doesn’t mean that it is not fun to play! While I do have my complaints, I am positive that they will be resolved in future updates. For example, some aspects of the game are still a bit buggy, though it’s nothing game-breaking. Sometimes menus can be a bit clunky, certain things can not be targeted or some of your followers will get stuck forever. Some hiccups can always be expected, and it doesn’t really take away from the general experience of the game.
In one of their latest Dev Diary entries, the developers have announced that they are working on a roadmap for the game, so keep an eye on their socials or the Steam page!
Looking for a more fleshed-out experience? I would probably wait for a couple updates before I’d jump into the game. But if you are interested in the gameplay and want to be there for the whole ride, I’d recommend you hop aboard!
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
If you enjoyed this review, why not check out my previous article about the idle fishing game Cornerpond?
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