Cult of the Lamb PC Review

Cult of the Lamb from Massive Monster and Devolver Digital is a game that will quite plain and simply, consume you. “Yes, yesssssssss, join us! Join us! Hahahaha!”. Jokes aside though, this is a ridiculously good game and I’m going to get right into why without wasting any more time.

Players in Cult of the Lamb will take on the role of a cult leader. How on Earth do you suddenly become a cult leader? Well, it gets a bit complicated. Playing as the Lamb, you are sacrificed in front of the four heretic prophets. Upon dying, you encounter a strange deity known as “The One Who Waits”. “The One Who Waits” tasks you with starting a cult in their name. You are then promptly revived and eventually end up at the ruins of an old temple. It is from here that you will establish your cult and take on each of the four heretic prophets from the intro sequence.

Cult of… Revenge?

So it’s all about revenge then huh? Cool, we can live with that. And so will your followers since Cult of the Lamb gets quite intense with its gameplay. Speaking of gameplay, players will have to alternate between two major gameplay aspects. This being the roguelike exploration and the town management survival simulation. Players will venture forth into a dungeon, equipped with a weapon and magic curse at your disposal.

In the dungeon, you will face off against waves of enemies and travel across a randomly generated map. Players can dodge, slash and do some massive damage to foes but will have to play it safe in the early game. As you venture through the dungeons, you’ll come across a Tarot card reader. Conversing with him will net you some perks which are very useful for your runs through the dungeons.

When travelling through the dungeons, players will also encounter resources such as berry bushes, grass and new weaponry. You’ll also encounter new followers which you’ll want to recruit into your cult for the town management survival simulation aspect of the game. Back at your cult’s base of operations, players will build up their cult by placing buildings for their followers to construct. Basic amenities and more are required to keep your cultists happy but their main purpose is to funnel “Devotion” to you. By having your followers worship you at a shrine, they will generate devotion. With devotion you’ll be able to unlock a point of “Divine Inspiration” which can then be used to unlock new buildings for your cult.

Loop Mechanics

Cult of the Lamb therefore works itself into a fairly straightforward gameplay loop. Players will venture out into the dungeons, defeat enemies, gather resources and followers and return back to their temple and continue with construction. You’ll be able to level up the loyalty of your followers and impose new doctrines upon them as well as preach sermons to them. The gameplay loop is incredibly addictive and the addition of new mechanics over time comes in at a steady pace to keep things fresh.

Once you’re powerful enough, you can take a chance at facing off against one of the heretic prophets. The boss battles here are quite challenging so you’d best be prepared before venturing out against them. This too plays into the gameplay loop effectively since upon defeating a boss, you’ll unlock a brand new region to explore and loot.

Cult of the Lamb also features some mini-games for players to enjoy. You can play a dice-based mini-game known as Knucklebones and there’s the tried and trusted staple of most adventure games, fishing. Fishing in Cult of the Lamb is quite useful because it will net you ingredients which you can then use for cooking fish dishes.

Back at your temple, you’ll be able to instruct followers to do a number of tasks when it comes to the mid to late game and there is some micro-management required to keep things running smoothly. Thankfully, the game’s systems feed into each other quite well with dungeon runs netting you resources which you can then use back at your temple. There might be some downtime if you want to wait for resources to be gathered by your followers but if you’re constantly heading out into dungeons, there isn’t too much to worry about between runs. Players can also customize their followers from a range of options and it truly makes them feel as if they are your cultists. Just don’t get too attached to them because they can, and will die.

Cult of the Lamb looks amazing with the cartoony aesthetic being visually pleasing throughout. Even though there’s some dark and gruesome imagery here, the cartoon-esque vibes helps mitigate the seriousness of the game somewhat. For the most part, the game ran incredibly smoothly on PC but it did crash to desktop during a battle once and also black screen crashed our PC while building some farms around our temple. The game has since received a number of patches and has been running fine at the time of posting this review.

The soundtrack of Cult of the Lamb features a mixture of some Lo-fi beats with some chanting in the background. It’s rather catchy to be honest and really gets you into the rhythm of the game. There’s unfortunately the bare minimum voice acting here and it’s in an indecipherable language which plays right into the game of the game.

Final Verdict

Overall, Cult of the Lamb gets a “Highly Recommended” rating. This is a game that will consume hours of your life since it’s ridiculously addictive and fun. Venturing out into dungeons and hacking and slashing your way through foes is really enjoyable. So too are the town management aspects of the game and you’ll really start bonding with your followers. It feels bad when they die and you’ll want to keep them as happy and devoted to you as possible while you progress throughout the game. Cult of the Lamb seamlessly blends a number of great gameplay mechanics into one amazing package and we can wholeheartedly recommend grabbing this title.

Publisher: Devolver Digital
Developer: Massive Monster
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, MORE

Grab your copy here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1313140/Cult_of_the_Lamb/

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