Kult: Heretic Kingdoms (formerly Cult) is a combat-oriented third-person isometric role-playing game which combines accessible hack & slash gameplay with an adventure storyline, set in a fantasy medieval kingdom where god has been slain and religion outlawed. Following the death of the despotic religious leader the Theocrat some time ago, the Inquisition mercilessly hunts and destroys any sign of religious activity, leaving a scarred and bleak collection of lands known as The Heretic Kingdoms. The theft of the infamous "Godslayer" sword raises the spectre of a secret religious cult and you are tasked with recovering the artifact and exposing the cult...

At the beginning of the game, you have to create your character. You will always play as a female Inquisitor, but there are four primary stats: Melee, Ranged, Magic and Speed and attunements (Kult's equivalent of skills). These are a sort of abilities you can unlock by using specific weapons/armaments. By changing your set-up of attunements (there're four basic elements - Fire, Water, Air, Earth), you can be what you want to be. Attunements are gained from all items, weapons, armor, etc. within the game. As a user of magic, your character can attune yourself to the essential spirit of any object, and gain powers by doing so. For instance, if you use a given sword for long enough, you will become attune to it, and gain its power. In order to learn all the attunements, you will need to use all the items you find. This makes it important to actually use everything you find rather than sticking to a single weapon/armor combination. Needless to say, it gives a strong variability to the gameplay experience.

Combat is actually very simple/straightforward, but as I mentioned above, the attunement system gives it all great depth. You can set up your character and go off to fight - if the fight doesn't go well, you can reconsider your set-up. And different circumstances may require different tactics. There's also a healing system - you are equipped with an unlimited herb pouch that represents some basic trail medicine such as bandages and simple medicinal herbs. As you use your healing items, you lose Blood Points, and gradually your maximum hit points fall. Resting at a campfire restores all hit points.

There're plenty of maps, ranging from small to large, and there's plenty to explore. Every location can be explored in its real world and Dreamworld incarnations, so that adds to the variety. Dreamworld is basically the same environment as the real world but populated with ghosts and other non-corporeal enemies. This alternate world can only be accessed for short periods of time (unless you are using the Dreamform attunement).

Overall, Kult: Heretic Kingdoms is a typical isometric RPG, but with many features not seen in other games of this genre. The core fighting is "hack and slash", but it has an innovative attunement system which allows you to customise your character to a high degree using over 100 different abilities. If you like action-RPGs with a strong story line, you will enjoy this game.

Related links: homepage, demo (190MB), patch 1.1 (fixes memory crashes and problems with container) , trainer.

System requirements:
Minimum: 1.2 GHz CPU or faster, 256 MB RAM (512 MB on XP), 3D Graphic card with 32 MB RAM, 2GB free HDD space, Win2k/XP SP1
Recommended: 1.8 GHz CPU or faster, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0 compatible 3D-Graphic card with 64 MB RAM, 2GB free HDD space, Win2k/XP SP1.

Note: Kult: Heretic Kingdoms was released in a nearly unplayable state, and those who played the game as soon as it was available experienced major difficulties. But after two weeks the fist patch have fixed some of the issues (especially memory issues). This review takes a look at the game with the first patch (1.1) installed.