No, You Don’t Need To Play Cultist Simulator to Play Book of Hours. Just Play Book of Hours. It’s Way Better.
I expect this to be my most heavily referenced blog post so I’m writing it as my first post. I’m keeping this pretty spoiler-free. The only spoilers have to do with gameplay mechanics.
The title basically says it all.
No. You don’t need to play Cultist Simulator to play Book of Hours. Just play Book of Hours. It’s way better.
Cultist Simulator is a good game. Play it after playing Book of Hours. Cultist Simulator has a higher learning curve than Book of Hours. Playing Cultist Simulator first won’t give you a significant edge when playing Book of Hours second.
What is Cultist Simulator?
Cultist Simulator is the first video game released by Weather Factory as part of their Secret Histories fictional universe. The game features eleven ‘Legacies’ (essentially game modes) in which you engage in occult activities that usually involve establishing a cult. The game is a roguelike with a single save slot that autosaves regularly. The game tends to be difficult to learn and unforgiving. Expect to die a lot.
What is Book of Hours?
Book of Hours is the second video game released by Weather Factory as part of the Secret Histories fictional universe. In the game, you take the role of the librarian of Hush House, an occultist library. The game features one game mode with ten different starting ‘Origins’ (essentially starting builds.) The game features a single save slot and regular autosaves. However, the game is a bit easier to learn than Cultist Simulator and more forgiving. Don’t expect to die very often.
Why do people think you need to play Cultist Simulator before playing Book of Hours?
Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours are part of the same fictional universe.
Cultist Simulator came out before Book of Hours.
Ergo, people think Book of Hours is the direct sequel to Cultist Simulator.
Why don’t I need to play Cultist Simulator before playing Book of Hours?
Cultist Simulator is not a prequel to Book of Hours. Book of Hours is not a sequel to Cultist Simulator. They can be played in any order.
You don’t need to play Cultist Simulator before playing Book of Hours because Book of Hours is just set in the same universe as Cultist Simulator. The games have a lateral (side to side) relationship, rather than a vertical (hierarchical) relationship.
While it may be rewarding to play Cultist Simulator first, given there are characters that appear in Book of Hours that also were in Cultist Simulator, it is by no means mandatory. It doesn’t give you much, if any, of a gameplay edge.
I would also argue that just as playing Cultist Simulator before Book of Hours can provide an edge, the inverse is true as well. Playing Book of Hours gives you lore that may be helpful when playing Cultist Simulator.
Why should I just play Book of Hours?
Book of Hours is way better than Cultist Simulator. I don’t think it’s worth slogging through Cultist Simulator just to play Book of Hours.
Why is Book of Hours ‘way better'?’
Book of Hours has:
Lower learning curve with a slower pace
Less punishing gameplay
A better user interface, in my opinion, because rather than have the play area represented by a blank tabletop, it adopts skeuomorphic design
More consistent mechanics
More books to read (fact)
Should I play Cultist Simulator after playing Book of Hours?
Yes.
Playing Cultist Simulator will give you more information about the Secret Histories universe and thus, Book of Hours
Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours share mechanics: the verb/card system acts as workstations in both games
Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours share a fictional universe
Cultist Simulator gives you a view of what’s happening for different character archetypes in the same fictional universe
Cultist Simulator has more playstyles and ‘classes,’ essentially. While Book of Hours has 10 possible character origins, their ‘classes’ all play the same way with flavor differences. The different Legacies in Cultist Simulator are like different character classes and play very differently
What if I want to play Cultist Simulator first? Is there a benefit to doing that?
Do what you’re going to do. There are some good reasons to play Cultist Simulator first.
Cultist Simulator is available on mobile platforms, whereas of this writing (January 2025,) Book of Hours is not.
Cultist Simulator did come out first and some people just like to play games in release order.
Cultist Simulator does have some storylines that are further explored in Book of Hours.
Cultist Simulator is played (at least in some Legacies) from the perspective of somebody new to the occult world of the Secret Histories, whereas the player character in Book of Hours is somebody more experienced in the occult. If you want to place yourself in the role of someone who, like you, is learning about the occult world for the first time, maybe going with Cultist Simulator first makes sense.
It sounds like you just dislike Cultist Simulator.
I love Cultist Simulator. I played it since launch. I have 24% of the achievements unlocked for Cultist Simulator. I have over 120 hours logged in Cultist Simulator on Steam. That doesn’t account for the amount of time I’ve played on mobile or on my Nintendo Switch. I love the game so much that I’ve bought it three times for myself, and bought at least three copies for other people. That’s why it pains me to admit that Cultist Simulator is frankly not as fun or as good as Book of Hours.
I just really love Book of Hours. I’ve played it since launch. I have almost 33% of the achievements unlocked for Book of Hours. I have almost 300 hours logged in Book of Hours on Steam.
Is this just a Maddox post about the Secret Histories games?
I mean, basically, except unlike me, Maddox has readers.
Why did you bother writing this all out?
Book of Hours is my favorite game that’s currently available on PC (all-time favorite is The Sims: The Complete Collection)
I will be playing a lot of Book of Hours
I’ll get asked about whether it’s good (it is) and whether someone should play Cultist Simulator first (they shouldn’t) and why (this post)
It’s basically my rat speech. Hannibal Buress went to New Orleans, went to a restaurant, complains about seeing rats to a waiter. The waiter had a speech they’d obviously had to give a thousand times about why there were rats at the restaurant. That’s why this is my rat speech. It’s the speech I’ve given dozens of times already to both friends and Internet posters alike.
tl;dr
Cultist Simulator isn’t a prequel to Book of Hours
Book of Hours isn’t a sequel to Cultist Simulator
They just share a universe (and your Steam library)
Play the fun game (Book of Hours) first and you’ll be better at playing the punishing game (Cultist Simulator)
