Have you ever said to yourself, “man this job sucks; it’s literally sucking the life out of me.”? Have you ever felt that your coworkers were soulless drones who sold their souls for their job? Final question: Have you ever wanted to fight your coworkers or take down your boss for their incompetence or laziness?
If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, then you might have a case of “F This Job.” Now, in real life, you can’t slaughter your coworkers or corporate overlords, but in CYBRLICH and the Death Cult of Labor, you can.
At PAX East 2025, we met with Cybrlich Studios at the PAX Rising booth to preview their upcoming game CYBRLICH and the Death Cult of Labor.
For PAX guests waiting in line, they had the chance to try out the game’s horde-like mode, where they could see how long they could last against undead enemies. Instead of playing the Horde mode, we got a glimpse of the game’s story mode.
As a chaotic neutral barbarian with only a G.E.D., where can you turn when a majority of the world is controlled by one organization? Sometimes you have to cave in and get a soul sucking job. That’s where the story’s protagonist finds himself.
Upon arriving at the corporation, Lich Corp, we are greeted by a friendly wizard who seems to be over everything.
He welcomes you to your first day of work and walks you through standard HR procedures. While finishing up the onboarding process a blood sucking manager poofs into the room and tells you to stop by his office for a bite.
With the contract signed and your annoying coworkers out of your hair, you set out on your career, responding to corporate energy sucking emails. The first email asks you to respond with a happy response.
The second email asks you to respond with an annoyed response. The third and final email asks you to respond with an angry message. After sending the last message, your energy is drained, and you crash out from anger.
Upon waking up, you find yourself back in the HR office. A sword glistens in the corner of the room. You are greeted by the HR wizard once again and asked to sign the contract.
At this point, you must make a decision: “resign the contract and follow the same routine as before, or grab the sword and take out your corporate overlords.”
At this point, we had decided to take on the man and liberate our peers from the Lich King’s clutches. Slice and dice through skeletons until you find the blood shooting gun and soda grenade.
Sanity running a bit low, take a hit from your drag, and feel good. Health running a bit low, eat a cheeseburger or three.
CYBRLICH and the Death Cult of Labor falls under the boomer shooter style genre, where you are taking on waves of enemies, killing bosses, and taking down overlords.
The combat can be a ton of fun, but managing resources can take a bit to get used to, especially if using a mouse and keyboard when you normally play with a controller. Having to use your own blood for bullets lowers your sanity, so you will need to get high.
As someone who doesn’t agree with smoking weed to cope with life’s problems, the weed mechanic was a bit off-putting, but it is still a better idea than the player popping pills or something worse to cope with everyday stresses.
The combat is smooth, and killing enemies feels rather fulfilling. Between the combat and music, CYBRLICH and the Death Cult of Labor gives an early 90s/2000s Quake/Doom feeling.
Each enemy you chop or gun down gives you a surge of power, and you feel like you could take down anything that gets in your way. Once you do come up against a big enemy or a boss, you will have to think differently compared to when you were facing grunts.
Prepare to backpedal and dodge attacks like your life depends on it. Fail to take down a manager? You’ll end up in an office thinking about the consequences of your actions. CYBRLICH and the Death Cult of Labor is in development for Windows PC (via Steam).