The Epsilon Program - Grand Theft Auto V
Grand Theft Auto had to appear somewhere on this list, if any video game series were going to come up with a completely bizarre/ridiculous parody cult it would be the hugely popular Rockstar series. The Epsilon Program is first indirectly referred to in San Andreas with very frequent mentions on the various radio stations and in small talk by a number of people on the street. However, in GTA 5, the cult appears for the first time and the leader Cris Formage, as well as a few other members, can be met in person.
The cult's main religious deity is Kifflom and all members willingly follow his twelve tenets in order to live a life of happiness and a life free from financial woe - which is ironic as regular large donations are demanded. The tenets themselves are typical of GTA in that they are random in the extreme as they range from the belief that the Earth is 157 years old and never ages to the belief that aliens are real.
Michael De Santa, one of the game's three playable characters, can even join the cult by completing its online questionnaire and start a sequence of optional missions called "The Truth". To trigger the next mission in the sequence, Michael has to donate an increasingly extortionate amount of money to the cult. However, the player can reward themselves at the end with a huge payout. Formage asks Michael to deliver over $2 million to a helicopter bound for the Cayman Islands. At this point the player can either obey, and complete their path to enlightenment, or wait until the helicopter arrives before killing everyone and taking the money for themselves.
Rockstar even thought of creating a website and a Twitter account (@EpsilonismToday) for their fictional cult, with the latter appearing to supersede the former in the months leading up to GTA V's release.
Grand Theft Auto had to appear somewhere on this list, if any video game series were going to come up with a completely bizarre/ridiculous parody cult it would be the hugely popular Rockstar series. The Epsilon Program is first indirectly referred to in San Andreas with very frequent mentions on the various radio stations and in small talk by a number of people on the street. However, in GTA 5, the cult appears for the first time and the leader Cris Formage, as well as a few other members, can be met in person.
The cult's main religious deity is Kifflom and all members willingly follow his twelve tenets in order to live a life of happiness and a life free from financial woe - which is ironic as regular large donations are demanded. The tenets themselves are typical of GTA in that they are random in the extreme as they range from the belief that the Earth is 157 years old and never ages to the belief that aliens are real.
Michael De Santa, one of the game's three playable characters, can even join the cult by completing its online questionnaire and start a sequence of optional missions called "The Truth". To trigger the next mission in the sequence, Michael has to donate an increasingly extortionate amount of money to the cult. However, the player can reward themselves at the end with a huge payout. Formage asks Michael to deliver over $2 million to a helicopter bound for the Cayman Islands. At this point the player can either obey, and complete their path to enlightenment, or wait until the helicopter arrives before killing everyone and taking the money for themselves.
Rockstar even thought of creating a website and a Twitter account (@EpsilonismToday) for their fictional cult, with the latter appearing to supersede the former in the months leading up to GTA V's release.
Unitology - Dead Space series
Set in a world of overly advanced and futuristic technology, the messages conveyed by the religious movement of Unitology in Dead Space are rather more simplistic - providing hope and unity which the people are looking for. It came into being following the discovery of the Marker by Michael Altman. The marker is an ancient and sacred device which is believed to bring about an afterlife. Although Altman wasn't a huge believer in the power of the Marker himself, he was killed soon after in what the Unitologists believed was an assassination by the Earth Government - as they didn't want knowledge of the Marker to be leaked to the public. Unitologists then began to become even more passionate about the significance of the Marker and they also started worshipping Altman as a martyr. |
Unitologists began to worship Michael Altman after he encountered the Marker.
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The Marker has a mysterious inscription on it and Unitologists have been constantly trying to decipher its meaning. Some followers have believed it to be a code which will bring about eternal life and a physically real paradise. The religion grew very quickly but this could be due to the fact that many of its members were brainwashed into joining them. They are also seen as quite peaceful as they certainly don't carry out any violent acts but they do have a death ritual which involves preserving dead bodies of loved ones on their ships rather than having them buried or cremated. They do this in the hope that one day the bodies will be reborn.
Two of The Covenant's main prophets. The Prophet of Truth (top) and the Prophet of Regret (bottom).
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The Covenant - Halo series
The Covenant, whilst most widely known amongst gamers and Halo fans as an alien empire, is actually a religion and their beliefs are what the entire Halo series revolves around as they are the trigger for the entire Human-Covenant War. The familiar foe of the humans worship a highly advanced species known as the Forerunners - who existed prior to the start of the series. The Forerunners were seen as guardian figures for the galaxy and a series of Halos were a vital part of this as they were used to protect the world from The Flood, a deadly parasitic species. The ultimate aim for The Covenant is to locate and activate the Halos and, in doing so, trigger what they called "The Great Journey" in which they would follow in the footsteps of the Forerunners into a paradise known as the "Divine Beyond". However, just before they became extinct, the Forerunners named humanity as their successors and even some of the sought after Forerunner relics were indeed humans. Either that or they may have been surviving Forerunner. As a result, the Covenant saw humanity as a huge threat to their goal of embarking on "The Great Journey" and therefore they declared war on them with the intent of totally wiping out the human race. Due to their more advanced weaponry (made from Forerunner technology), the Covenant held the upper hand for most of the war and the humans' only realistic hopes of overall victory relied upon numerical advantage and the strength of the Spartans - a group of very powerful super soldiers. One of whom is the legendary John-117, more commonly known as Master Chief, who is the main playable character of the original Halo trilogy. |
Ironheade, Tainted Coil & Drowning Doom - Brütal Legend
Back when music games were in their prime, Brutal Legend was created to offer a heavier alternative to the diverse packages that the hugely popular Guitar Hero and Rock Band offered. Brutal Legend's soundtrack is far less eclectic - it's entirely Metal. It also differs in that the game isn't about playing the music with plastic instruments, it's actually an action-adventure game with strategy elements added in with Metal music as the theme and the basis of a storyline - a wonderfully original concept. Even though focusing on Metal may seem one-dimensional, the genre is in itself very wide-ranging as it has many different sub-genres which vary greatly in their sound. All parts of the Heavy Metal spectrum feature in this game through their own dedicated "factions" led by in-game characters. These factions are very cult-like in that each of them worships a god-like figure called Ormagӧden. However, that is their one and only similarity as each has its own set of customs. |
A playlist of all the songs in Brutal Legend, created by Spotify user Jan Milandt Sogaard Petersen.
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Ironheade is led by the game's main protagonist and playable character, Eddie Riggs (voiced by Jack Black), and it represents the least heavy/extreme sub-genres such as Thrash and Speed Metal. Tainted Coil is led by main antagonist Emperor Doviculus and represents Industrial, Death and Doom Metal. Drowning Doom is led by Drowned Ophelia which flies the flag for Black Metal and the more gothic side of the genre.
Catholicism - Dante's Inferno
It seems fitting that the tenth and final video game cult of this feature should be from a game that is based entirely on religious themes. Dante's Inferno invites the player to journey deep into the depths of Hell, witnessing gloriously disturbing imagery and battling incredibly ferocious monsters, whilst also experiencing a phenomenally scary and extreme depiction of Catholicism.
Whilst exploring it all through the eyes of Dante, you will encounter and fight, amongst other things, a horde of prostitutes and unbaptized babies (yes you did read that right) who have all been condemned to Hell - for one reason or another. The babies are particularly horrific as their arms have been replaced with razor sharp, sword-like claws, their umbilical cords are wrapped around their bodies, they're covered in scars, their eyes glow red and their skin is grey. Of course, the belief that unbaptized babies were sent to Hell is not too far from the truth. During the Middle Ages, it was believed in Catholic faith that babies who had not been baptized (and therefore cleansed of sin) but hadn't committed sin were sent to Limbo - and it is indeed the Limbo area of the game in which they appear.
It seems fitting that the tenth and final video game cult of this feature should be from a game that is based entirely on religious themes. Dante's Inferno invites the player to journey deep into the depths of Hell, witnessing gloriously disturbing imagery and battling incredibly ferocious monsters, whilst also experiencing a phenomenally scary and extreme depiction of Catholicism.
Whilst exploring it all through the eyes of Dante, you will encounter and fight, amongst other things, a horde of prostitutes and unbaptized babies (yes you did read that right) who have all been condemned to Hell - for one reason or another. The babies are particularly horrific as their arms have been replaced with razor sharp, sword-like claws, their umbilical cords are wrapped around their bodies, they're covered in scars, their eyes glow red and their skin is grey. Of course, the belief that unbaptized babies were sent to Hell is not too far from the truth. During the Middle Ages, it was believed in Catholic faith that babies who had not been baptized (and therefore cleansed of sin) but hadn't committed sin were sent to Limbo - and it is indeed the Limbo area of the game in which they appear.