Many believe that faith can get you through anything and in this game, faith is the main thing driving you to get things done. Devolver Digital and Massive Monster are releasing a game that, on its surface, looks a bit blasphemous. In reality, Cult of the Lamb is a cute-styled version of a cult trying to make a life for themselves on their own little stretch of land. From religious upholding to cultist management and of course the rogue-like action of dungeon crawling, this game is fun and challenging in all the right ways!

If you want to see some gameplay for the game, check out our gameplay First Look video on Youtube (spoiler free)!

Story

After being the sacrificial lamb to the gods of another cult, you appear before The Chained One who gives you a second chance at life. The only catch is, you will have to form a cult under him and seek out vengeance on the gods you were sacrificed to. After agreeing to this deal, you will spawn at the start of your own patch of land where your cult can live and culminate. And so the journey to release The Chained One begins…

Gameplay

The gameplay is broken up into two parts; action rogue-like dungeon crawling and do-it-yourself city-building simulation. The best part is, you don’t actually have to do it all yourself because as you grow your cult you will be able to assign tasks to your various members who will then help you with the city-building part. As for the roguelike aspects, that’s all on you so keep your skills sharp!

Focusing on the city-building side of the game, you will have a lot of things to manage. You will have a farm to place and grow crops, a statue to collect praise, wood and stone to destroy then reservoirs to place to collect more, a church to hold your sermons, outhouses, a janitor closet, a place to bury your dead, places for cultists to sleep, and so much more! Worst of all, you have access to very few things when you start out. You will have to get some cultists to praise the statue so that you can collect and level up. Every time you level up with praise, you can pick another aspect of your little village to make. Even then, you have to gather enough of one tier of items before you can unlock the next tier and the higher the tier you go, the better the stuff you will have to manage the village.

You will also end up unlocking nearby areas to venture to that will each have their own benefits. While each section does end up selling their own cards, village items, and cultist designs, they each serve their own purpose. The fishing area will let you go fishing which can be used to cook meals, the mushroom area will have a guy that gives off missions to complete - which I learned you want to do sooner rather than later as it unlocks very valuable assets for your cultists, and so on. I’ll let you find some of these areas yourself and do the exploring to enjoy some unknown territory, but the fishing and mushroom areas are definitely major to the game’s core elements.

Your cultists, along with characters in these nearby areas, can give you missions to complete as well. Completing missions is a way to gain faith from your cultists as well as other rewards. Other than completing missions, you can gain faith in your followers by getting with them individually for praise, giving them a gift, allowing them to chat with each other, and some interesting actions in the church via rituals.

Speaking of the church, you will be able to host one sermon a day. Depending on how many cultists come to your sermon will depend on how many sermon points you will earn. These points are used to upgrade your dungeon crawling aspect where you can get better weapons, a wider expansion of magic attack options, and many other things. Other than the sermon points, you will end up getting various other things through the dungeon crawling side of the game that will let you upgrade different aspects through the church area. The main thing is more doctrines that attest to the things your followers believe. This is where you can decide whether to lead a positive, loving cult or a chaotic, fearful cult.

Now, the rogue-like section was saved for last as it is pretty straightforward. You have four different dungeons and a fifth boss to defeat. Each dungeon requires you to complete it a total of four times before you can reach the final boss in the dungeon. Every time you start a dungeon, you will be given a random weapon and a random magic attack (given you have unlocked this part of the game). As you go through the dungeon, you will have to clear each room before proceeding, but you can come across some nice characters as well.

There is the card giver who will let you pick from two randomly drawn tarot cards and the effect of your chosen card will take place through the rest of the dungeon. Then there are various new characters to find that will usually introduce you to a new section for the city-building side of the game or a merchant hut that you can access in the middle of your current dungeon crawl. Best of all, you can come across lost cultists that will join your cult if you save them - which they will either be lost, captured and need to be freed, or have a question for you to answer in order to join. Of course, at the end of the dungeon, you will always have a boss fight, but if it is not the main boss then it is a poor cultist turned into a monster that you can save once defeated.

Each dungeon is designed differently based on which of the gods you are currently approaching. Once you beat their dungeon a fourth time, the final boss will be that god themselves and it will be the hardest fight you have had so far. Each new dungeon will be harder than the last but the overall idea of how to approach and defeat the dungeon is the same. The good news is, if you find the dungeons are a bit too hard for you, you can just adjust the difficulty. This game on Easy mode is WAY different than it is on Normal, let alone Hard.

Audio and Visual

Giving this game a single perspective and a 3D world means that everything you see on the game is likely designed as a 2D asset. I do enjoy games that are styled like this as they seem so full while not actually taking up a lot of space. Plus, given the dark overall tone of the game, it is good to see that they kept everything pretty lighthearted in design and a friendly art style.

Sound effects and musically speaking, this game has all of the aspects in a very fitting nature. When you are in the calm, city-building style area everything is toned to give off a relaxing, altruistic atmosphere. While you are in the dangerous dungeons, everything is toned to give off the exciting action atmosphere, but without the usual aspects that make things seem like you are a hero. They even lean into the fact that you aren’t exactly acting on good nature, but a survival one instead, which is a nice touch.

Replayability

I would definitely say this game has replayability seeing how you can always adjust the difficulty to make it more challenging or easier, the dungeons can be replayed as many times as you want and are full of randomization from the overall layout to the weapons you are given, and even the village you are creating can be rearranged and adjusted as you want. Most of all, through the choices you make in the church growth you can have a loving lead cult or a fear lead cult, which in my opinion are vastly different.

What It Could Have Done Better

Honestly, every time I thought of something I wished this game offered, I kept finding it in a higher tier of the level-up system. With how different the difficulty settings make this game, it is really well designed to be perfect for those looking for more challenging rogue-like options and for those looking for a more relaxed experience with a focus on the village’s growth.

Verdict

Cult of the Lamb is a perfect blend of an action rogue-like and a city-building simulator! You really can design everything however you want, they manage to keep such a dark theme to a friendly tone, and the difficulty of the game is manageably set for players of all kinds to enjoy. It has been a while since I played a game that I had no real complaints about and I am glad to see that it is one that was designed in a very well-balanced way. Easily a title I would recommend to pretty much anybody!

Cult of the Lamb will release tomorrow, August 11th, for PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.