Deception games have boomed in the last years. Between Among Us, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, and The Chameleon, we have seen a plethora of different approaches to games about lying, getting away with stuff, and defending oneself. While Cult of the Deep has a bit less of the discussion that you get with other deception games, it still stands as a fun experience to have with a slightly larger party.
The basic idea of the Cult Of The Deep is that a group of cultists is trying to weed out evil-doers, while the “bad guys” are trying to kill off the high priest. Players are given a hidden role, a character, and a hidden, one-time-use spell at the beginning of the game. Then players will roll dice and assign them to do damage, heal or add to powerful rituals. It ends when a player/s reach/es his or her end goal stated on their role card. The overall gameplay is fun, fast, and makes each turn feel impactful. There are a few issues with the “hidden dice” formula and deception parts of it, but it stands as a cool, more involved game of hidden agendas.
Let’s talk about the good parts first. Each turn a player takes can make a difference. Their rolls, the damage they deal, the health they heal, and the rituals they contribute to can turn the tides of the game if they want. It is also nice to have special powers and other ways to be involved in other people’s turns so that players aren’t just sitting there doing nothing. Most turns are incremental levels of damage/healing/ritual building, but it is up to the player and situation to do more or be discreet. Also, the art is beautiful, and the various coins, cards, and materials are great, even for the demo version I played. However, one of the best parts of the game is that when a person is killed off, they aren’t totally kicked out. They come back as a wraith with a new way to help or hurt others. This allows players to still enjoy the game even after they are killed off, unlike other games that just force dead players to watch in silence. The different roles, characters, one-time-use spells, rituals, and wraiths add a huge amount of replayability because of the randomness and combinations that can come from those things passed out to each player and when they come up in the game.
There are a few issues that might be addressed or changed before release, but here is what we saw as of now. The hidden roles mechanic isn’t as hidden as we would’ve hoped or expected. After a few rounds of attacking certain people (the first fifteen minutes of the game), it can be pretty clear who has which role and what their goals are. Once that is established, it becomes a complex and more involved version of Yahtzee, trying for the best rolls or sabotaging enemy rolls. It is still a fun game, but the mystery of who is playing which role can fade pretty quickly unless people are purposely deceptive in who they are attacking and defending from the beginning. We also found the number of ritual cards was somewhat low; we cycled through them very quickly, and it felt a lot less interesting to try and fulfill the same rituals every playthrough. The last issue we found was that the players were often gaining health faster than taking damage. If characters started with more health from the start but could regain less throughout the game, it may run a bit more naturally and become less of a tug of war, especially in the final rounds.
Cult Of The Deep is a well-produced and far more involved version of Mafia and Werewolf. It allows and calls for planning, surprise attacks, and trust between players. Giving out different roles and unique character powers make each turn feel impactful and allow for a lot of variety on repeat playthroughs. But the levels of deception between players can be peeled back very quickly and very easily, and the health/damage systems could be tuned a bit better. With all that said, Cult Of The Deep is an interesting and slightly less mysterious way to approach classic deception games that still has good moment-to-moment gameplay for each player from beginning to end with a good amount of variety and great aesthetics. Cult Of The Deep is currently on Kickstarter, and its campaign is ending soon! If you want more information, check out their Kickstarter to learn more about the game.