Cult of the Lamb (Computer)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): August 11, 2022
- Release Date (EU): August 11, 2022
- Publisher: Devolver Digital
- Developer: Massive Monster
- Genres: Rogue-like, strategy, action, adventure
- Also For: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Game Features:
A lamb, last of its kind, has been sacrificed on the altar before four heretic prophets to cull the fulfilment of a prophecy and maintain the Old Faith. Unbeknownst to these Bishops of the Old Faith is that the lamb’s sacrifice plays right into The One Waits’ plans. The latter grants the titular lamb life again in exchange of building a loyal following in his name and defeating the Bishops to assert the one true faith. Are you up to the task, lamb?
Despite being a Rogue-like with management mechanics, a genre where the plot mostly serves a placeholder, Cult of the Lamb’s narrative is original, well presented and developed enough to keep the intrigue going. Don’t expect a heavily-narrative driven title but this title’s story feels fresh with enough details to bring its universe to life. As you crusade across the land of the Old Faith, recruit followers and defeat heretics, you’ll come across some intriguing NPCs that will invite you to visit them in their place of dwelling (which further opens up the overworld map) to take on challenges and mini-games ranging from a game of knucklebones to fishing to fetch quests.
Side quests are also occasionally thrown at you by the followers you recruit in your cult and these are also quite varied. Some might ask you to build specific structures in your cult’s abode, others might request for a specific meal to be prepared, while some might ask you to find a follower lost in the woods. These add a distinct flair to the game’s universe that help bring it to life.
As for the main quest - besting the Bishops of the Old Faith in this land of false prophets - you’ll have to clear “dungeons” where each resides. This is where the Rogue-like mechanics kick in. As you enter an area, you’ll get to pick up a randomly generated weapon, each with a set of specific attributes. This will help you progress through the rooms, which are also randomly generated, and take on the waves of the enemies and underlings of the rival cult leaders.
You’ll have fairly simple controls at your disposal for taking on the enemies. The lamb can attack, dodge and even conjure curses (temporary spell abilities that are limited by a gauge). This mix of offence manoeuvres helps keep the combat fresh as you mash buttons to clear rooms in the fast-paced fashion they unfold.
Clearing each room will reward you with a chest that can contain items such as coins or even Tarot cards to boost your stats while in the dungeon. Your stats and those of your weapons can also be modified if you encounter certain friendly NPCs within the dungeon. Kudaai the weapons dealer will allow you to swap your weapons while the fortuneteller Clauneck will grant you stats boost based on the Tarot cards you pick.
While each dungeon progresses in a similar fashion, they are each different in the setting, the enemy type as well as in difficulty level. They get progressively more challenging as you encounter new foes with new attack types/patterns. Each dungeon concludes with a mini-boss fight and they need to be cleared four times to unlock the main boss fight against a prophet of the Old Faith.
A single dungeon run is fairly fast, ranging anywhere between 5-10 minutes (or slightly more). I found this fast-paced, bite-sized approach to be a very welcome design choice as it makes the game more approachable and even addictive at times. It also helps you pace your non-Crusade duties for the maintenance of your cult.
Indeed, Cult of the Lamb is equal parts Rogue-like dungeon-clearing and equal parts cult management simulator. In between dungeon runs, you’ll need to monitor the hunger of your Cult and prepare enough meals for your followers; clean their poop which you can use as fertilisers for your crop; reap your harvest that will in turn help you prepare meals to sate the hunger of your cult.
On top of that, you’ll need to build new structures to house your followers; task them to collect resources or perform worship; indoctrinate new recruits from your crusades and re-educate (or imprison) dissenters. And don’t forget to perform Sermons to maintain the good faith of your followers and boost your stats.
Through such management mechanics, Cult of the Lamb’s cultists inspirations are baked into the gameplay. While it can feel overwhelming at first, these cult leader tasks are eased upon you and make the management side quite fun and interesting. This is supplemented by the adorable, cartoon-like graphics and catchy tunes.
If you've reached up to this point in this review, thank you and congrats for making it this far! My take might read like Cult of the Lamb is a well-rounded indie darling and it would be, had it not been for the multiple bugs that I encountered during my playthrough. Despite getting into this game well after launch, bugs seem to persist that can even hinder progress. For instance, right at the beginning, after getting sacrificed, the game was stuck during the segment with The One Waits. This persisted even after reboots and I had to start fresh from a new save file.
In another case, I couldn’t find the NPC to recruit and in yet another case, I couldn’t proceed with the indoctrination of a follower. Bugs persisted well after the starting segment as in the boss fight against the second Bishop, I could not attack but could still move and dodge. I initially thought the inability to attack was due to a spell from the boss but figured out this wasn’t the case.
While I managed to resolve most of the bugs by one or more restarts, their occurrence has been testing and felt surprising in a post-launch state as I haven’t seen many reviews pointing out such technical issues.
That said, if you can look past the bugs, you’ll find a (mostly) enjoyable experience and unique take on the Rogue-like genre in Cult of the Lamb.
Cult of the Lamb | Launch Trailer
Verdict
- Cultist inspiration baked into gameplay
- Fun bite-sized, fast-paced dungeon runs
- Adorable graphics and catchy tunes
- Persisting bugs post-launch
- Management aspect can feel overwhelming
