Kult
for Amiga (OCS/ECS)

kult-box.jpg
Mr Creosote:
Alternate Titles: Kult: The Temple of Flying Saucers
Company: Exxos
Year: 1989
Genre: Adventure
Theme: Misc. Fantasy / Humour / Science Fiction
Language: Francais, English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
Views: 36968
Review by Mr Creosote (2002-11-30)
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In the far future. After a nuclear war, part of the human race has mutated and now form two new races: the Tuners who look human, but have PSI powers (reading other people's thoughts, telekinetic powers,...), and the Protozorqs, humans with lizardlike heads. The latter live in huge temples which inspire fear into passers-by. There are rumors about humans and Tuners disappearing into these without leaving a trace.

The young Tuner Raven is convinced the Protozorqs have kidnapped his girlfriend and are holding her prisoner in one of the temples. To gain access to it, Raven pretends to apply as a servant there.

This is where the game begins. Raven has to fulfill five trials set by the priests to be accepted. Only then he'll get deeper into the temple. Each trial involves strange bio-mechanical monsters from which you have to retrieve a skull to give the priest. In the inner sanctum of the temple, the real fun starts...

Kult presents itself in 1st person point & click style. The cursor reacts to the touch of important objects at the location, a click on them opens a context menu of fitting verbs. Not all of them are of course needed or even positive, but they are imaginable alternatives. That is a very good concept because it proposes ways without giving aways too much.

In addition, you have a sidebar with your inventory and a menu for your PSI abilities which you can use at any time provided your telekinetic powers haven't been drained by permanent use too much.

The puzzles are mostly ok and logical, sometimes they depend on trying everything out. The graphics are technically mediocre. The main window is too small, sprites are quite tiny. Yet, the graphics are the strongest side of the game! The whole game is made in a weird style which I already tried to hint at before. It is a bit hard to describe, if I said 'Giger' now, I'm sure some purists would jump at me in a not-so-desirable way. Maybe it is better if I describe the whole setting as inspired by H.G. Wells' Time Machine, but in a weirder, twisted way.

The aestetics of the graphics and settings are supported by an extra dose of weirdness from a fetus-like creature in the upper left corner of the screen who comments on your progress in a phonetical way - sometimes hard to decypher, but also sometimes very helpful.

Last but not least, I should add that the game is not fully linear. There are two ways of solving it: playing along with the Protozorqs' rules and fulfill the trials or cheat them to sneak in. So you can at least replay it once.

Kult may be a short game, but at least what's there is good. Being a French production by a then relatively unknown team, it never got as popular as some games of similar quality. So now is your chance if you missed it first round!

Comments (12) [Post comment]

T-Pow:

Will be done tomorrow. First I have to find my scanner. We moved not long ago. And until now. I didn´t needed it.

Just uploading the Boxshots from the PC version. PNG Format is a little bit to big so I send the JPG´s.

Mr Creosote:
I usually scan boxes at 300dpi and save them in a lossless format (png), but then resize them to about 1000 pixels width and jpeg format for display on the site. That way, I always have a better version at hand if the standards of the Internet should allow for higher resolutions file-size-wise.
T-Pow:
Prefered format and resolution?
T-Pow:

Only the cover of the Manual is different. It shows the same picture like the box itself which is extremely differnt from the Amiga version.
Interrested in Scans?

Mr Creosote:
Go ahead - the scans on the site are from my own box and my own pages, made with my own scanner, so in this case, I can guarantee they're as close to the originals as it can get. Nothing left out, nothing added ;)
T-Pow:
Thanks. I wanted to check if it´s identical with the PC Versions Manual because the Box Artwork is complettely different.
Mr Creosote:
Ah, yes, the alternate download server... the one thing that's still not automatically supervised. Should be ok now.
T-Pow:
I wanted to download the Manual but the Link seems to be broken.
Gast:
Das Game war gar nicht übel, das hatte irgendwie was. Und humorvoll war es auch. Ich geb zu ich konnte es nie sein lassen die Protzorq Typen mit PSI Kräften zu vermöbeln nur um dann in Stücke gehackt zu werden :-)
Wandrell:

The game box, in the european version only, has been drawn by the french comic author Caza. Right now I can recall four of his comics, but only the name of two of them, Arhk, about the creation of the last planet of the universe, wich may be part of a series; and the stories of the Hom, about the end of a world inhabited by degenerated humans, which is brought by their forgotten myths.

He published in Metal Hurlant (a french comic magazine, which only changed the name in America for Heavy Metal), but it may be hard to find nowadays.

Using comic drawers for the boxes was not too infrecuent in the eighties, I think it was Cadaver the game that had a Simon Bisley draw, and in "Beneath a Steel Sky" worked Dave Gibbons, known for Rogue Trooper and Watchmen. Another example I know for proximity was Opera, that had many covers, and even designs, of Azpiri, and some of the south american Juan Gimenez, which where very popular in the country.

Well, it ended pretty big for just a comment.

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