Editor’s Note: Sultan’s Game features strong themes that will be referenced in this review, such as murder and depravity. Reader Discretion is advised.

After reviewing games for over 10 years, sometimes things begin to feel a little bland. Sultan’s Game is one of the few instances where something that should feel bland becomes enthralling instead. It isn’t for the faint of heart, however, and definitely gives itself a strong identity, telling a tale of hedonistic corruption and madness.

Sultan’s Game is an adaptation of One Thousand and One Nights (also known as 1001 Arabian Nights in some places) that does its best to keep itself as “location-neutral” as possible. With that said, a lot of its content reflects the moral and ideological concepts of some Eastern countries. I’ll get into that in a second.

Sultan’s Game puts you in the role of a protagonist (that you name) who is a member of the Sultan’s court. The Sultan is a greedy, depraved man whose only goals are conquest, bloodshed, lust, and utter depravity. He is visited by a mystical woman who offers a game of sorts, with magical cards that can only be broken through acts of depravity.

The Sultan completes the game, and while still being bored, wants to play again. His courtiers protest, as if he continues, their nation will easily be utterly consumed by the Sultan’s wicked desires. Thus, it is decided that your protagonist will play the game as the Sultan’s “avatar,” of sorts. If you complete the Sultan’s Game, you will become the new ruler.

This leads to the overarching gameplay loop. Each week, you draw a card from the deck and must do whatever you can to fulfill that card’s requirements before the seven-day deadline, or your run will end. Each card has one of four rarities: Stone, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. These rarities determine how difficult the card will be to satisfy, and there are some that you’ll need to plan ahead for if you want to succeed.

This is where Sultan’s Game dives into a plethora of branching choices and plot threads. You can find plenty of allies, gather them together and play things “the good guy way”, or you can betray allies and fight your way to the top, being the worst person imaginable. There are all sorts of storylines involved, and sometimes you may have to do things you don’t want to do in order to break a card on time.

Luckily, Sultan’s Game’s plot is intriguing, and while it plays similarly to things like Cultist Simulator, somehow it feels way more compelling. However, due to the context of being created by a Chinese developer, as well as the historical context in which the game is played, there are a few less-than-savory elements.

For example, men sleeping with men is allowed, but it is looked at as deviant or distasteful in a lot of cases. Never mind the fact that you can kill prostitutes to satisfy the bloodshed cards here. I played around with the concept during the tutorial, and when I tried to get the Sultan to seduce his guard, it worked. However, it only served to be followed by more text on how deviant the Sultan was.

Do I think the developers are intentionally harmful here? That’s up for debate based on cultural background, and it’s part of a wider conversation. However, Sultan’s Game has Steam Workshop support, and while all the mods are currently in Chinese, there is room for people to add mods that could change or adjust things. Even without speaking (or reading) Chinese, I have already seen a few mods (thanks to Google Translate) that seem to add homosexual romantic options.

With this issue aside, Sultan’s Game is a lot of fun. There is a meta progression/achievement system that allows you to enhance further runs each time you play. So, even though you are reading some of the same text and dialogue, your stats may change, and you may be able to see different storylines each time. Some people may be annoyed by the repetitive nature of the game, however.

If you like deep, sprawling, choice-based narrative games, then I think Sultan’s Game is a great one for anybody. The morality-based gameplay really lets you dig into just how dark you’d allow yourself to go in order to survive. Seeing the way different characters react to your actions warrants multiple playthroughs as well. Overall, Sultan’s Game is a great narrative experience I would recommend to lovers of text-based games.

A PC Review Copy of Sultan’s Game was provided by 2P Games for the purposes of this review.

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Sultan's Game

$24.99 USD

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Fun Morality-based Gameplay
• Large amounts of replay value
• Gorgeous artwork
• Engaging story

Cons

• Somewhat Repetitive Gameplay
• Cultural views on homosexuality that may be offensive.