I'm not sure that there is enough interest in Kult nowadays to warrant an official retrospective, so I'll write one up here instead. If a moderator decides it should be an article, feel free to take it and do what you want.
Story
Kult: Heretic Kingdoms has you playing the role of Alita. Alita was born a prisoner of the Theocrat, a man who had possession of an artifact known as the Godslayer sword. You are of the bloodline of Arkor and the sword hungers for this blood. The Theocrat sacrifices all females of the line of Arkor to the sword in return for an immortal life span. You were to be sacrificed as soon as you reach puberty but instead the Theocrat gets killed and you are rescued by the Inquisitor Valkarin. Valkarin apprentices you as an Inquisitor, those assigned to eliminate any form of religion. You are of Arkor's line and thus able to master magic along with other forms of combat.
Skills
Alita improves her skills in two ways. The most common way is through combat with other creatures. This will allow her to level up and gain hit points, proficiency in combat, ranged weapon skills, melee skills, etc. The other way is through attunements. Nearly every weapon, armor, necklace, ring, etc, has an attunement that can be unlocked by using the item. Attunements take the place of skills in most games and can be almost anything. There are attunements that make you faster, more agile, better use of armor, make your foci (think magic staves) more powerful, etc. There are over 100 attunements to unlock in all and because Alita is of Arkorian bloodlines, she can learn them all.
Magic
Many weapons and items will be attuned to a certain element and will unlock only if you pay someone to change their element to match the attunement. Let's say you find a bow. It will work fine as a ranged weapon, but if you attune it to earth it will do poison damage on every hit.
All magic use is done through the use of a focus. Foci work in a similar manner. If you find a fire focus and use it for a little while, it can start firing off fireballs every 8seconds. A stronger fire focus will shoot out flames in a 180 degree radius, etc. There are 4 special attacks that can be learned and once unlocked, any attuned focus can use all 4 attacks. You will need to attune a focus for water, air, earth and fire. Different staves will have different firing speeds. A heavy focus may only fire a basic attack every 1.5 seconds while a fast focus will do less damage but fire every .5 seconds.
Gameplay
The game is fairly typical of a good arpg. Alita gets quests by talking to the townspeople and friendly beings throughout the land. Some quests require rescuing hostages, competing in the Gladiator arena, and choosing the head of a thieves guild and most contain combat somewhere along the way. All maps have a small chance of respawns but they'll never fill back up, you might find 5 creatures in a map that had 30 originally, for example. There are choices and consequences and a few of them can change the end game. Alita will be rated on how she was perceived by the land at the end of the game. She can be known as anything from a savior and benevolent to the opposite, depending on how she solved certain quests.
Conclusion
Kult is a very solid arpg and it is one of my favorites. There is a ton of loot to be had and the game doesn't punish you by making you refight whole maps if you're just going back to pick up loot. You'll need a lot of money towards the end of the game and you'll always be buying items that have attunements you can unlock. Inventory starts out small but will grow very large by the end of the game, as you will find packs that take one slot but can carry many items. This game can be short if you want to focus on one type of attunements and very long if you want to unlock everything. I'm a completionist and probably unlocked 90% of the attunements in my game. For those who like that type of thing, you can download a nude texture file for Alita and she'll run around in the buff if you're using a defensive aura attunement
I'd rate this 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.
Story
Kult: Heretic Kingdoms has you playing the role of Alita. Alita was born a prisoner of the Theocrat, a man who had possession of an artifact known as the Godslayer sword. You are of the bloodline of Arkor and the sword hungers for this blood. The Theocrat sacrifices all females of the line of Arkor to the sword in return for an immortal life span. You were to be sacrificed as soon as you reach puberty but instead the Theocrat gets killed and you are rescued by the Inquisitor Valkarin. Valkarin apprentices you as an Inquisitor, those assigned to eliminate any form of religion. You are of Arkor's line and thus able to master magic along with other forms of combat.
Skills
Alita improves her skills in two ways. The most common way is through combat with other creatures. This will allow her to level up and gain hit points, proficiency in combat, ranged weapon skills, melee skills, etc. The other way is through attunements. Nearly every weapon, armor, necklace, ring, etc, has an attunement that can be unlocked by using the item. Attunements take the place of skills in most games and can be almost anything. There are attunements that make you faster, more agile, better use of armor, make your foci (think magic staves) more powerful, etc. There are over 100 attunements to unlock in all and because Alita is of Arkorian bloodlines, she can learn them all.
Magic
Many weapons and items will be attuned to a certain element and will unlock only if you pay someone to change their element to match the attunement. Let's say you find a bow. It will work fine as a ranged weapon, but if you attune it to earth it will do poison damage on every hit.
All magic use is done through the use of a focus. Foci work in a similar manner. If you find a fire focus and use it for a little while, it can start firing off fireballs every 8seconds. A stronger fire focus will shoot out flames in a 180 degree radius, etc. There are 4 special attacks that can be learned and once unlocked, any attuned focus can use all 4 attacks. You will need to attune a focus for water, air, earth and fire. Different staves will have different firing speeds. A heavy focus may only fire a basic attack every 1.5 seconds while a fast focus will do less damage but fire every .5 seconds.
Gameplay
The game is fairly typical of a good arpg. Alita gets quests by talking to the townspeople and friendly beings throughout the land. Some quests require rescuing hostages, competing in the Gladiator arena, and choosing the head of a thieves guild and most contain combat somewhere along the way. All maps have a small chance of respawns but they'll never fill back up, you might find 5 creatures in a map that had 30 originally, for example. There are choices and consequences and a few of them can change the end game. Alita will be rated on how she was perceived by the land at the end of the game. She can be known as anything from a savior and benevolent to the opposite, depending on how she solved certain quests.
Conclusion
Kult is a very solid arpg and it is one of my favorites. There is a ton of loot to be had and the game doesn't punish you by making you refight whole maps if you're just going back to pick up loot. You'll need a lot of money towards the end of the game and you'll always be buying items that have attunements you can unlock. Inventory starts out small but will grow very large by the end of the game, as you will find packs that take one slot but can carry many items. This game can be short if you want to focus on one type of attunements and very long if you want to unlock everything. I'm a completionist and probably unlocked 90% of the attunements in my game. For those who like that type of thing, you can download a nude texture file for Alita and she'll run around in the buff if you're using a defensive aura attunement
I'd rate this 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2006
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