Quartermain and the Cult of Cthulhu

Nazis, cultists, and Lovecraftian horror on a budget

Quartermain and the Cult of Cthulhu, released 22 May 2025 by developer ThePrinceOfMars and publisher DOSMan Games, casts players as Aloysius Quartermain, a pulp adventurer tasked with sneaking a 12,000-year-old Artefact out of Nazi Germany while gunning down Cultists, Nazis, Robots, and Lovecraftian monsters along the way. Built on the retro Easy FPS Editor engine, it's explicitly styled as a throwback to early-90s shooters like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, complete with sprite-based enemies and a deliberately campy, pulp-adventure tone that one reviewer describes as "Indiana Jones plus HP Lovecraft Boomer Shooter."

Despite starting from a budget, low-cost engine with a reputation for interchangeable games, reviewers consistently single this specific release out as an exceptional achievement within its niche. One reviewer states plainly, "This is now the gold standard for EFPS games and the crown jewel of the DOSMan collection," specifically listing achievements, reliable quicksaving between levels, full voice acting, and "tons of massive levels with varied enemies" as reasons for the praise. Another reviewer frames the same sentiment more simply: "by far the best title published by DOSman Games so far. Well worth the money asked."

Skepticism turned into genuine enthusiasm

A recurring, notable pattern across the positive review sample involves reviewers who approached the game with real skepticism about the underlying Easy FPS Editor engine, only to come away genuinely impressed by what this specific team accomplished with it. One reviewer admits candidly, "I used to stick my nose up at Easy FPS engine games. I figured they'd all play the same and there was no room for innovation or true expression. This game has proven me wrong," specifically praising the starting revolver as "hefty and impactful" and noting constant, satisfying weapon-switching throughout. Another reviewer, despite an admittedly "amateurish" first impression, notes the game "improved as it went along, especially in terms of level designs which I often found surprisingly well done."

That craftsmanship extends to presentation details several reviewers specifically call out as unusually thoughtful for the genre and price point. One reviewer highlights authentic localisation effort, noting they were "particularly happy that the German voice lines were done by an actual German," while praising level design as "thoughtfully designed" throughout. Another reviewer praises the game's distinctive personal flourishes, describing "the Dev's obvious obsession with Easter Eggs, 00's memes, and occasionally insulting the player" as combining into "the perfect recipe for a nostalgic game that comes with a modern Lovecraftian twist."

Real bugs undercut an otherwise polished package

That widespread goodwill has real limits, and the review sample converges on a specific, heavily corroborated set of technical problems that go beyond typical indie jank. One reviewer reports a serious, progression-breaking bug: "losing all my weapons & ammo when respawning after death on one of the last levels," while separately noting game options like weapon recoil would randomly reset, forcing a full restart to fix. A second reviewer corroborates far more severe instability, reporting "my savefile got corrupted during the final boss," on top of repeatedly getting "stuck in the environment" and encountering "weapons disappeared on me" across multiple levels, ultimately concluding "the game is quite buggy sadly" despite praising its setting and presentation.

A second, widely corroborated complaint concerns weapon balance specifically, an issue that undercuts the satisfying gunplay several reviewers otherwise praise. One reviewer notes plainly "the starting revolver is one of the two strongest weapons while the machine gun which is one of the last weapons you find is quite underpowered," a specific imbalance independently confirmed by a separate reviewer who calls the starting revolver "way overtuned considering" how early it's acquired relative to later, weaker alternatives.

No mid-level saves turn deaths into punishing setbacks

A third significant, corroborated complaint concerns the complete absence of mid-level checkpoints, a structural decision that several reviewers say actively soured their overall impression despite enjoying the moment-to-moment shooting. One reviewer reports bluntly, "you can't save during a level which means you gotta replay the whole... slog again if you died near the end because a... hitscanner got you," directly citing this alongside balance issues as reasons they "cannot really recommend" the game despite praising its "setting, wacky voice acting and pixelart." A separate reviewer echoes the same structural frustration, noting that as "the levels were getting longer without checkpoints, the health powerups were getting stingier, the enemies were getting more reliant on hitscan attacks," they eventually felt they were simply "done with it."

A smaller number of reviewers also flag a decline in quality during the game's final chapters specifically, with one noting the experience "starts off fun, but gets boring and super repetitive in the last few chapters," specifically disappointed that levels themed around the game's central Lovecraftian and Nazi-base premises "are actually the worst levels in the whole thing" rather than the anticipated highlights.

Verdict

Quartermain and the Cult of Cthulhu is a genuinely impressive achievement within its scrappy, budget retro-shooter niche, earning consistent praise as the strongest release yet from a publisher known for interchangeable Easy FPS Editor titles, thanks to strong spritework, satisfying gunplay, and unusually ambitious level design. But real, corroborated bugs including save corruption and disappearing weapons, awkward weapon balance that undercuts steady progression, and a total lack of mid-level checkpoints that turns late deaths into punishing full replays leave a meaningful share of its review sample frustrated despite genuine affection for its pulp premise. Fans of retro boomer shooters willing to tolerate real technical rough edges at a bargain price should find plenty to enjoy here; anyone wanting a polished, bug-free experience should wait for further patches.