When it comes to city builders, I often find myself disappointed in the lack of tentacles and otherworldly truths. Luckily for us seekers of the Eldritch Truth, the developers at Crazy Goat Games bring us what I can only describe as Banished and Cultist Simulator fused together in the unholiest of ceremonies.

All the standard fare for city builders you expect is here: you build housing and buildings for your cultists to live and work in, manage the needs of your cultists by exploiting resources, and expand your settlements (you can have multiple on one map) to meet the needs of your growing population. This also means that it falls into the same pitfalls as other city builders, waiting for projects to finish and resources to refine can very easily feel like a grind to anyone unfamiliar with the genre.

Now the real fun stuff comes in the form of all the cult activities and mischief (read: villainy) you can get into. Using resources and making sacrifices to perform rituals gains favor with the Great One that can be used for researching new buildings and gaining boons. Meeting the needs of your flock does more than increasing some arbitrary happiness stat. Instead, they have a stat called “Zeal” and increasing the zeal of your cultists makes them work faster. To save my personal favorite for last, cult leaders can summon Eldritch monstrosities using special resources and “willing participants” to raid nearby settlements in the name of expansion and roaming boats to gain resources and captives you can sacrifice or… Reeducate.

If you’re looking for a city builder that sates your need to seek the Eldritch Truth and has enough fresh mechanics to stand out from the crowd, then I’d say keep at least one of your many eyes on Worshippers of Cthulu.

Check the game out in early access here.

Disclaimer: This review is based off the build released for Steam Next Fest and is not based on a final product.