Masters of Madness Review

Cult of Cthulhu

Overlooking an ocean sits a statue of famous horror figure Cthulhu, waiting to feed on souls. As his cult leader, it’s your job to make sure he gets them. AntiWay Studios pixel art game Masters of Madness makes you a soul harvester for H.P. Lovecraft’s most popular creation. Gather more cultists and even other monsters to keep the tentacle-faced God satiated.

Monster Soul Reaper

Masters of Madness starts off slow as you tap the Cthulhu statue to gain souls, which appear to come from thin air. The more souls you earn, the more minions you can recruit to help you. The first type of minion is, of course, Cultists. After reaching a certain amount of souls, Cultists are unlocked and the more there are, the more souls earned per tap. For example, 15 Cultists earn 16 souls. Eventually the next type of minion, the Rat-Thing, automates soul collecting so you don’t need to tap. Things get a bit boring after that, unfortunately. The only thing left to do is increase the number of Minions; more Minions means more souls, per second this time. Other types of Minions include Deep Ones, Ghouls, and others. They’re all gathered in a list you can look at by tapping a skull with a cult symbol on its forehead.

Blood Sacrifice

Beyond soul collecting, Masters of Madness also offers blood rewards, found under Offerings. By swiping left, you’ll come to the Journal. The Journal is divided into three sections: Almanac, Offerings, and Powers. The Almanac provides statistics on your gameplay but is ultimately unimportant. Offerings are basically quests also divided into three sections: Minions, Overall, and Secret. Minions involve reaching milestones with your different followers, such as Cultmaster (Cultists) and Plagueworker (Rat-Things). Overall centers around reaching soul milestones, like Soulreaper (collecting x amount of souls in one game). I have yet to figure out Secret. The rewards for completed quests are drops of Elder Blood, usually three and above. Elder Blood is used to buy boosts that help with soul collecting. By swiping right, you see the Sanguinarium, divided into Blood Sorcery and Obtain Elder Blood. Boosts include Raven (a bird that taps for you) and Antidote (a cure for madness).

The price of boosts ranges from 25 to 600 drops of Elder Blood. If you want to get more, you’ll have to pay real money in the Obtain Elder Blood section. There are three different Elder Blood Packs: Small, Medium, and Large. A Small pack has 100 drops, a Medium has 350, and a Large has 1,250. The prices range from $4.99 to $54.99, which is rather expensive, though not the most expensive I’ve seen games offer. Lastly, Powers are unlocked after collecting specific amounts of souls, and further help with soul collecting. For example, after earning 6k souls, Cultists earn two times more souls per second. Like your Minions, there’s a list for Powers, represented by a chalice filled with blood.

Lose Your Mind

Masters of Madness is an idle pixel art game that has you sacrifice souls to Cthulhu. Gather many different minions and earn Elder Blood, all to please your God. Gameplay turns stale after soul collection becomes automated, however, and Elder Blood isn’t cheap. Despite this, I’m curious to know how many minions there are and where exactly this game is going.