In a year filled with delays from AAA publishers, 2022 has given smaller indie titles like Cult of the Lamb the time to shine. I must admit, when I heard there was a game that combined a roguelike structure with base building elements, I initially dismissed it. Animal Crossing wasn’t really my cup of tea, and a roguelike has to be truly special for me to buy into it (looking at you, Hades). But Cult of the Lamb is different.
It starts in the midst of a sacrificial ritual. After the main character “The Lamb” is sacrificed to four mysterious deities known as The Bishops, he wakes up in a sort of underworld and is saved by “The One Who Waits.” The One Who Waits has been chained there by the Bishops and asks you to defeat them and set him free, offering you his crown in return for starting a cult in his name.
After a short tutorial, you are offered your first follower and begin growing your cult from there. You are then asked to travel to four different realms and take out each of the Bishops who reigns over it. Each trip to one of these realms consists of a series of procedurally generated rooms and combat arenas, which after successfully clearing all of them culminates in a boss battle. On your fourth successful clear of the realm, you will face the final boss of the area and take out one of the four Bishops.
Cult of the Lamb is built on two core philosophies — combat and the base building. The combat is serviceable and enjoyable enough but the true highlight of Cult of the Lamb, and the thing that makes it really stand out from other roguelikes, is the excellent base building and town sim mechanics.
Unholy Crusades
Cult of the Lamb takes you to four different biomes, each with multiple unique bosses. Runs only take around 10 minutes, and at the end you face a boss which upon successfully defeating, partially unlocks the door to the final boss of that area. On your fourth successful clear of the area, and in each subsequent clear, you’re able to face one of the Bishops and clear that area for good.
In true roguelike fashion, dying means you’ll have to restart that run from the beginning. But thankfully, this doesn’t reset all of your progress towards the final boss door. This means that Cult of the Lamb has a much more linear “main campaign,” despite being a roguelike.
Part of my issue with this genre is that a wipe often means losing an hour or more of progress, sometimes for little to no gain. Some roguelikes try to remedy this by giving you permanent perks and buffs to unlock with more and more successful clears. But in the end, dying near the end of a lengthy run was frustrating and could make you want to put down the game altogether.
Cult of the Lamb remedies this in a couple of ways. First, the runs are short. So even if you do die, at most you’ve only wasted about 10 minutes, which is great. Second, since the game has a more linear structure, clearing a biome once or twice but dying on the third run doesn’t necessarily mean you’re starting all over from scratch. You’ve still made progress on that final boss door. Finally, the resources you’ve earned stay with you upon death, so even though you died, you’ve still come out with loads of wood, stone, new followers, and other materials to take back to your cult.
In this way, it feels like you’re always progressing in Cult of the Lamb. There’s always a very clear goal in sight. The game can safely be cleared in about 10-15 hours regardless of your skill level and in my opinion, Cult of the Lamb does away with some of the randomness and RNG found in other roguelikes.
Overall, the combat mechanics are fairly basic, but functional. There are several weapons to choose from, ranging from fast striking daggers to heavy hitting hammers. Weapons can also have perks on them, which offer minor buffs but overall don’t really change your playstyle too much.
However, some weapon types are clearly better than others. In the end I found that harder hitting weapons like hammers and axes were most ideal, particularly for bosses. Daggers have this weird knockback effect, which pushes enemies just out of reach after a hit or two, making it so you constantly have to reposition to get good damage in. It feels like Cult of the Lamb wants every weapon to be viable (and to be fair they can be) but there are definitely some clear standouts. It feels like there’s some work to be done in terms of weapon balance.
Thankfully, that wasn’t the case for the other core combat mechanic, the Curses, which basically function as spells and longer range magic attacks. These can also vary, but for the most part they deal some type of projectile or knockback effect against enemies. You can hold one curse at a time and they have a limited amount of ammo, which can be refilled by gathering “Fervour” upon defeating enemies. There’s a good variety of Curses and it adds some depth to the combat, giving you a hard hitting long range option to use against enemies in the process.
During your crusades you can also unlock tarot cards which function like perks in other games. Tarot cards can greatly improve and modify your abilities and stats to add some light build-crafting potential to the game’s combat. It’s definitely not as deep as something like Hades but it does make it so no two runs feel exactly the same. Tarot card dealers can be found throughout the map, each offering you one of two tarot cards, and they can also be found in chests and in other sources. They can do everything from healing you to offering you bonus combat abilities like more attack power, more ammo for your Curses, or making it so you drop an explosive bomb when you dodge roll.
Cult of the Lamb offers several different difficulty options to choose from. Unlike other titles, the difficulty is locked to each save file and can’t be changed in the middle of the game. I played on the Normal difficulty, and found it to be a pretty easy game overall, but there were a couple of bosses and mini-bosses that gave me problems. Overall, while the combat is certainly nothing to write home about, it works and is enjoyable enough to facilitate what is in my opinion, the real draw of this game.
A Town of Sinners
The other core building block in Cult of the Lamb is the fantastic base building and town simulator mechanics found in your cult. Over the course of the game, you recruit followers, and can build and unlock more facilities for them to use. Of course, this isn’t just a regular town though. This is a true cult. Your followers worship you, praying at your shrine and generating “devotion” which can then be used to unlock more base facilities.
Building new facilities requires resources like wood and stone, which can be earned by chopping down trees, mining rocks, or as a reward during your dungeon runs. In this way, the combat and base building elements are very much interconnected. Clearing runs earns you more resources and followers, which can then be used to upgrade your cult, which can then earn you improved combat abilities and perks for your crusades. It’s all done masterfully, and it leads to a truly addicting and fun gameplay loop. There are too many mechanics to list, but it’s all done very well and drew in even someone like me who is normally not a fan of the sim genre.
There’s also a “faith” meter to maintain. If this gets too low, your followers can dissent and spread discord throughout the cult. Faith can be restored in a number of ways, such as periodically giving sermons, partaking in rituals, and completing side quests. Low faith in their leader can also affect other things like how fast they gather resources, so it’s important to keep it topped up.
As the cult’s leader, you will of course have to take care of your followers. The game runs on a day/night cycle and your followers need their rest. They can sleep on the floor, or you can build them sleeping bags and eventually other shelters which keeps them happier. They also have a hunger bar, which you can refill by cooking them food. The higher quality the food, the more benefits it can have. And of course, what goes in must come out, so you’ll have to clean up their poop after them as well (yes, really). This can be done automatically once you unlock and build an outhouse but it’s hilarious, nonetheless. On the bright side, it makes for great fertilizer.
There are a ton of different facilities available; from farm plots, to lumber yards and mines, to prison cells for your naughty followers to stay locked up in and away from the cult’s faithful. You can assign each follower to any facility you’ve built, as well as give them gifts and interact with them in other various ways. The whole thing is super charming and not too technical so as to scare people away. One of the most enjoyable things about the game is keeping tabs on a follower’s journey throughout the game. Followers can also age, get sick, and eventually die – so don’t get too attached.
Bow Down to the King
Cult of the Lamb is a brilliant fusion of Binding of Isaac and Animal Crossing, with an evil twist, and a charming artstyle. The combat is tight, although somewhat limited, and the rewarding base building system is a joy to play with. While it may not top many Game of the Year lists, the 10-15 hour journey is still absolutely worth experiencing, especially considering the low price. It also features unique visuals and an excellent soundtrack which makes it that much more fun to play. Simply put – don’t miss out on this one.
Final Score: 9/10
Pros:
- Tight Combat
- Fantastic base building and town sim elements
- Unique artstyle
- Great soundtrack
Cons
- Combat is somewhat limited
- Light on buildcrafting
- Some bugs and performance issues on Steam Deck, Switch, and other platforms
A review code for Cult of the Lamb was provided by the publisher and played on the PC. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
