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A global catastrophe, known as the 'Burn' has created a race of Tuners - people with psi powers who are utterly hated by Normals. To avoid annihilation the Turners have set up a psi network to control the Normals.

Raven and his busty young girlfriend Sci Fi are young Tuners who one day stumble across a massacre of Normals. The alien Zorq, who's worshipped as a god, has returned to the Temple of the Flying Saucer (!) and instructed his followers to kill everyone nearby, except young men who are to be bought into the temple. His followers are called Protozorqs and the two young turners are soon in bloody battle with a Protozorq unit. Raven ultimately defeats it, but Sci Fi is captured...

Your quest to find Sci Fi, and kill Zorq, begins with the Ordeals of Deilos. There are five skulls to be found and presented to the Changer in an hour of real-time. The skulls are concealed in five Ordeals - interlinked rooms containing puzzles of varying toughness. To help you a priest gives you one helpful object to start off with, and after that skulls can be used to get other helpful objects. There's also a way of breaking out of the Ordeal rooms to sneak into the Second Level, where the priestesses pray and bathe. Clearly, if you're to rescue Sci Fi these's much more to be done than simply following the Ordeal rules.

Thankfully gameplay matches the imagination of the scenario. You interact with the landscape via a cursor which changes shape according to what it touches. Crossed arrows in a circle suggest there's something to be examined, and a brain icon comes with nodes representing various actions such as 'grab object', 'attack' or 'kiss' - the options vary depending on the circumstance. You also have special spi powers such as Solar Eyes (see in the dark), Sticky Fingers (Superman mode) and Know Mind (read someone's mind). There are a lot more powers and options, all easy to understand and use - but few of the puzzles are simple. Fortunately, there's a sort of psychic 'help' psi power, with clues delivered distinctly garbled - 'Pay Shunts' means patience.

While Purple Day Saturn was one of my favourite Amiga games, I found Captain Blood a touch irksome and was wary of another adventure-orientated Exxos release. I needn't have worried. The slick presentation mirrors gameplay, which is original and innovative. The Ordeals I've solved so far were logical but far from obvious, giving a real feeling of satisfaction once completed. Kult is a highly enjoyable and unique game which deserves to achieve much more than 'cult' success.

Wow, what a weird plot and if that wasn't surreal enough the wonderfully detailed graphics add even more to the superb atmosphere as do the creaking sound effects and simulated speech (and no, it isn't Welsh!).

Some of the characters encountered are truly bizarre - ever tried making love to a spider woman? The puzzles themselves are very cryptic indeed but there's much more to the game with underground caverns to explore and your girlfriend to rescue while you avoid being chopped up on the sacrificial altar!

The icon system is exxtremely easy to use and an extra tactical element is introduced in using the useful psi powers.

A brilliantly implemented science-fiction adventure with wide-ranging appeal.

This is the weirdest game I've seen since Captain Blood, also by Exxos. They sure come up with some strange ideas - selecting options by pointing at your brain at certainly original!

The presentation is incredibly stylish with many humorous animated sequences and good sound effects to create a surreal atmosphere.

The characters encountered talk hilarious gibberish (although it's easier to comprehend than Randy's accent!) and some of the females sound remarkably like a shrieking Hattie Jacques!

This injection of humour lightens the otherwise serious business of solving the cryptic puzzles. These are challenging although never frustrating as you can always leave the present puzzle and try another.

Although definitely not one for arcade freaks, Kult is highly original, thought-provoking entertainment.

Presentation 90%
First class, with lots of weird background detail, but there's only one save allowed per disk.

Graphics 94%
Atmospheric and stylish with some good animated sequence.

Sound 93%
Weird and atmospheric intro tune, with great in-game tune.

Hookability 92%
High, you can attempt the ordeals in whichever order you like.

Lastability 85%
Not quite in the Infocom league, but still very respectable.

Overall 90%
A first-class game which will appeal to non-adventurers as much as Millennium 2.2.