Screenshot: Honey, I Joined a Cult
Okay, so there are a lot of colony sims, base management and ‘tycoon’ games out there covering every theme from prisons to drug cartels. I think this is the first one I’ve seen that has you running a cult. I mean, while I can see the draw of some of these other ones, like, “gee, it would be fun to run an amusement park” or even “I don’t want to run drugs in real life, but in a video game figuring out the logistics of criminal activity is neat.” But I don’t think I ever saw the draw in being a cult leader—that is, until now.
Honey, I joined a Cult is a satirical, borderline slapstick game about building your own cult.
Honey, I Joined a Cult is a colony management sim. In it, you play as a cult leader, trying to build up their flock. To do this, you’ll need a compound with all of the amenities any healthy cultist would need: food, a bed to sleep in, shelter, entertainment, and lots of brain washing propaganda to make sure they’re following your lead. While cults can be a touchy subject,
Honey, I Joined a Cult tackles the subject matter with silliness. My cult were called Flumpers, and my leader was addressed as The Grand Peanut or something similar.
Screenshot: Honey, I Joined a Cult
As with most management games, your goal is to build up your organization while trying to be as successful as possible. You would think there would be a metric for spiritual enlightenment or achieving some sort of religious goal, but
Honey, I Joined a Cult is mostly about making money. I don’t know if that’s an intentional commentary or a fluke, but it feels appropriate.
Things break pretty frequently in
Honey, I Joined a Cult. As your cult gets bigger, you’ll spend more and more time maintaining it. While it’s not a big deal at first, I eventually started to feel like I was spending more time assigning tasks than working on the overall cult. Also, I think I pressed every button I could find, but I’m not finding an option for a detailed cult overview. Sure, there is a series of gauges on the bottom of the screen that inform me of my cult’s status, but there isn’t a screen that gives me meaty details, charts, and other in-depth analysis. If I missed it, please let me know in the comments!
Screenshot: Honey, I Joined a Cult
While
Honey, I Joined a Cult has a pretty good first impression, after about five or six hours, it starts to feel content-lite. That’s okay, because it’s still in development—and like I said, it gives a good first impression with its art and humor. Since
Honey, I Joined a Cult is still in Early Access, that manes it has a while until it’s going to be considered “finished.” There is currently no planned window for its completion in the store page’s Early Access information. You can expect “more” as the game is developed, with “more” coming in the form of “content, themes, characters and interesting nuances” as stated in the Early Access information on the game’s Steam Store page.
Honey, I Joined a Cult is a silly look at cult life. It seems like, so far, it’s a pretty standard modern colony management game that looks a bit like
Prison Architect and the like. If this is up your alley,
Honey, I Joined a Cult should be on your radar—but unless you’re eager to start your own religion, I’d let this one bake in development for a little longer before trying it out. Though if you jump in now, it’s pretty solid as-is for the first few hours.
Honey, I Joined a Cult is available now on
Steam Early Access.
A Steam key was provided to us for the purposes of this preview.
If you like the video game, tabletop, or other technology content that Third Coast Review has to offer, consider donating to our Patreon. We are the only publication in Chicago that regularly reviews video games, and we cover lots of local Chicago-based events and more. If you want to contribute to our coverage of Chicago’s video game scene (and more) please consider becoming a patron. Your support enables us to continue to provide this type of content. Patreon.com/3CR
You can also catch us streaming games we’re reviewing and staff favorites on our Twitch channel.