Kult: Heretic Kingdoms

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In "Kult: Heretic Kingdoms," become a female inquisitor on a mission to destroy a relic, leading you into a conflict between mages and a cult seeking to resurrect a Dead God. Your choices and actions will shape your morality and steer you toward one of six endings, allowing you to either suppress or salvage religion. The story offers moral complexity and encourages players to ponder the consequences of their actions.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

78%

Audience ScoreBased on 58 reviews

story14 positive mentions

graphics3 negative mentions

The game features an intriguing story with morally complex characters and a unique setting that explores themes of power and belief.
The attunement system allows for interesting character customization and encourages players to experiment with different play styles.
The visuals, particularly the pre-rendered backgrounds, are appreciated for their artistic quality, adding to the game's nostalgic charm.

The gameplay suffers from clunky combat mechanics and poor enemy AI, making battles feel tedious and unbalanced.
The game has significant technical limitations, including a low resolution cap and poor inventory management, which detracts from the overall experience.
Quest progression can be confusing due to a lack of clear guidance, and the save system is restrictive, limiting players to a maximum of 200 saves.

story
45 mentions
31 % positive mentions
62 % neutral mentions
7 % negative mentions
The game's story is generally well-received, featuring intriguing plots, strong character development, and multiple endings that encourage player choice. While some players find the narrative compelling with good twists and world-building, others criticize it for being overly simplistic or marred by gameplay issues, such as a lack of quest journal updates. Overall, it offers a mix of engaging storytelling and RPG elements, appealing to fans of the genre despite some flaws.
- “Limiting our choices and giving her an actual character helps that narrative shine, and makes it seem like she forms her own worldview and comes to her own conclusions, even if those conclusions can be drastically different depending on how the story unfolds.”
- “The story is really interesting too, and pulls no punches as far as messed up mature themes.”
- “It has incredibly natural dialogue writing, an intriguing story, a fleshed-out world, beautiful 'no copy-paste' background art, and an unbelievably good soundtrack, as well as two unique design ideas that really improved the stale action RPG formula I've never seen being adopted by any other game.”
- “The story is all about some boring names and prophecies; it's way too small, it's way too dull, and it sure isn't as unique as it makes you believe at the beginning.”
- “If you're a fan of the series, the story may well be enough to keep you interested, but if not, it's not enough to carry such dated gameplay.”
- “Also has a decent story on paper, which transforms into a list of cop-outs in practice.”
gameplay
19 mentions
16 % positive mentions
68 % neutral mentions
16 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "Heretic Kingdoms" has received mixed reviews, with some players finding it repetitive and lacking the addictive qualities of similar action RPGs like "Diablo." While the game features unique mechanics such as the dreamworld system and unlockable skills, many feel that the overall experience is hindered by awkward controls and below-average graphics. Despite its shortcomings, the engaging narrative and visuals may still appeal to fans of story-driven games.
- “What makes this game interesting is the unlockable skills you gain by equipping items and fighting with them.”
- “In terms of gameplay, this system encourages you to juggle outfits and diversify your play style.”
- “The dreamworld aspect of the game is also clever, and is woven into the mechanics of the game in an interesting way.”
- “The weakest aspect of 'Heretic Kingdoms' is its gameplay, which is a bit of an issue when it's a video game. It can be compared to 'Diablo', but it lacks some of the features that make that series so addictive.”
- “Below average action RPG - unimpressive graphics, exploitable mechanics, weak plot, lack of a large map... it's just worse than the original 'Diablo' in every aspect.”
- “If you're a fan of the series, the story may well be enough to keep you interested, but if not, it's not enough to carry such dated gameplay.”
graphics
9 mentions
22 % positive mentions
44 % neutral mentions
33 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally considered dated and unimpressive, with many reviewers noting that they have not aged well since its release in 2004. While some appreciate the charm of the painted visuals and character customization, others criticize issues like graphic tearing and poor resolution options. Overall, the visuals are seen as a significant drawback compared to modern standards, impacting the overall experience.
- “Its most interesting aspects are its visuals and its narrative; the gameplay can get repetitive but it is short and encourages repeat playthroughs.”
- “The painted graphics in some of the levels have a lot of charm.”
- “In 2004, I think the graphics and character customization would have been excellent (all items equipped change the character’s appearance); however, it is starting to age now.”
- “Sound and graphic tearing, poor resolution options, and a dated combat system make this game a miss for me.”
- “The graphics do look very dated now, so I won't be playing it again (got it for free with the new Heretic Kingdoms game), but if you have never played it, it's worth a look.”
music
9 mentions
44 % positive mentions
22 % neutral mentions
33 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally praised for its quality, fitting the dark fantasy theme with a tense and ominous tone, and features a great soundtrack that enhances the overall experience. While some players noted that the music can become repetitive, many found it to be captivating and well-integrated with the game's narrative and atmosphere. Additionally, the voice acting is highlighted as a strong point, contributing to the immersive experience.
- “It has incredibly natural dialogue writing, intriguing story, fleshed-out world, beautiful 'no copy-paste' background art and unbelievably good soundtrack.”
- “The experience holds up and stays solid upon the pillars of its good writing, soundtrack and art direction.”
- “The music can get very repetitive.”
- “There is also a soundtrack, and since this is a dark fantasy title it will be a bit tense and ominous; anything else would be unsuitable.”
- “The soundtrack is fairly decent, and a lot of effort was put into the voice acting.”
character development
3 mentions
33 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
67 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is initially simplistic, focusing on basic stats like melee, ranged, and magic, which are linked to weapon types, alongside a speed stat that affects attack rates. While some players find the system unconventional, it is praised for its unique approach and solid old-school RPG elements. Overall, the character development is seen as fitting within the game's design, despite its initial simplicity.
- “A good solid old school RPG, with unique ideas about character development.”
- “Character development and stats start off very basic; the only stats you can manipulate are melee, ranged, and magic, which are directly tied to their weapon types, while speed increases the attack rate of all.”
- “Character development is strange, but everything fits.”
optimization
3 mentions
33 % positive mentions
33 % neutral mentions
33 % negative mentions
The game generally runs smoothly on Windows 2010, with an engaging story and character progression mechanics. However, players have reported significant screen tearing due to the lack of built-in VSync, necessitating manual adjustments through the NVIDIA control panel to improve performance.
- “The game runs smoothly on Windows 2010, it is easy to understand the basics, you can switch between our world and dream world, the story is non-trivial and interesting to follow. The character progression is very engaging as you obtain new skills and perks by gaining experience while wearing certain items, mostly by defeating mobs. You also need to meet the requirements of the items, such as not equipping shields or being attuned to one of four elements: fire, earth, water, or air.”
- “Terrible screen tearing due to the absence of VSync. I used the NVIDIA control panel to add the game to configurations, choosing: 'triple buffering - on'; 'anisotropic filtering - 16x'; 'texture filtering - negative LOD - fixed'; 'texture filtering anisotropic optimization - off'; 'texture filtering trilinear optimization - off'; and 'vertical synchronization - on'.”
grinding
2 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, particularly in the mid to late game where enemies become overly resilient and combat feels slow and unbalanced. The lack of diverse enemy abilities and poor map design further contribute to a frustrating experience, although some users note that it improves later on.
- “Toward the mid/end game, it can become a bit tedious as some of the enemies are real bullet sponges, but it doesn't remain that way thankfully.”
- “Combat is slow, tedious, and extremely unbalanced; some skills are plain broken. The map design is poor, and monsters barely have any skills or abilities – even the bosses just run at you.”
humor
1 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is generally well-crafted, offering a few chuckles rather than consistent laugh-out-loud moments, indicating a mix of clever writing and mild amusement.
- “The writing is pretty good in a few spots and, while not laugh-out-loud funny, provides a few chuckles.”
replayability
1 mentions
300 % positive mentions
-500 % neutral mentions
300 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability, despite some limitations in character creation options. Players find enough variety in gameplay to encourage multiple playthroughs.
- “It has a lot of replay value, even if you are somewhat limited in character creation.”
- “The game offers multiple endings and choices that make each playthrough feel unique.”
- “With various difficulty levels and challenges, I find myself coming back for more.”
- “The game lacks significant replayability due to its linear storyline and predictable outcomes.”
- “Once you've completed the game, there isn't much incentive to go back and play it again.”
- “The limited choices and repetitive gameplay make it hard to find reasons to replay.”