This city builder swaps traffic jams with human sacrifice, because you're the mayor of a huge Cthulhu cult

A city filled with Cthulhu worshippers — (Image credit: Crazy Goat Games)

"I am not a harbinger of destruction; but a herald of cosmic rebirth. My purpose is not to sow chaos, but to embrace the inevitable evolution that awaits us all. Humanity is insignificant, pitiful in its smallness. Our existence is a fleeting whisper in the cosmic winds, and only by awakening Cthulhu can we transcend our feeble existence."

Just imagine that as a speech given by someone running for mayor of your city. Would you vote for them? I guess you probably wouldn't, unless they followed it up with a promise to build reliable public transportation, but at the very least it's a refreshing departure from politics as usual.

Worshippers of Cthulhu is a city builder with a twist, and that twist is the mass of 100-foot-long tentacles writhing around in a pit in the middle of town. You're not just the mayor and city planner, you're the leader of a cult attempting to awaken the Old One who, apparently, needs a well-organized and maintained city before he'll bother making an appearance.

"Only a formidable cult can achieve the extraordinary feat of awakening the Old One, and Cthulhu tolerates only the strong," sayeth the city builder's Steam page. "Establish and expand cities across multiple islands, ensuring they not only sustain your followers but flourish, intimately connected to the awakened deity. Skillfully oversee production chains, manage your workforce, and navigate perilous ruins that occupy valuable space."

So, yeah, standard city builder stuff, but instead of solving traffic snarls you'll sacrifice unbelievers, and rather than tornados you'll deal with scaly horrors from the deep. That big book on your desk isn't filled with zoning regulations and budget sheets: it's the Necronomicon. A look at the tech tree shows buildings like corn plantations and sheet farms, but also "blood drainers" and "summoning ritual sites."

Here's the gameplay trailer revealed at the Future Games Show this week during Gamescom.

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If all that sounds like your cup of ~~tea~~ blood, you can play a free demo of Worshippers of Cthulhu on Steam. Its full release is planned for October 21. The developer, Crazy Goat Games has another unusual city builder out now—Republic of Pirates—filled with swashbucklers instead of shoggoths.

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.