Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition

Cult is a simple, yet enjoyable top-down -viewed adventure game.

Zack Bon, a special operations officer, must solve a situation involving a strange cult who have barricaded themselves in a villa, and the police suspect they have guns and ammunition with them. Zack is allowed in, under the condition he carries no weapons. The game is indeed laudable for despite the background story, the problem solving includes no violence.

On the other hand, the gameplay part is rather gamish, so to speak, as it involves a lot of walking around in the huge villa, pushing buttons to open doors on some other part of the game area. Every here and there some hazardous chemicals lie on the ground, and when Zack walks over them, he loses health. Thankfully, many medikits have been scattered around. But even if this hunting for buttons and medikits is quite unrealistic, it does not get boring. The villa is one well designed level for a game. The player must also talk to the people in the villa. Most of them are just doing their cultish business, and do not want to be bothered by Zack. Thankfully the important characters stand out in the graphics - which are nothing too fancy, but very clear and nice.

The interaction with the characters is limited to uncontrollable dialogue and trading of items, which is executed automatically. In fact, the controls are limited to walking around (a bit jerky) and examining your inventory. Everything is simple and easy. Some might say the game is too short, but I found it to be just the right length for this kind of game, finishable in one session. And as the game relies heavily on the plot department, it's just perfect for a quick dose of computer entertainment. Great for kids too, I believe.

Not to go unnoticed, the game also has a multi-lingual support for a respectable number of thirteen different languages.

Review By HOTUD