All it takes is a dedicated lamb
It is dark and gloomy when you, a lamb, walk a long distance. Hooded characters close behind you, poking and attacking with weapons to help you move towards the circle of sacrifices. Elder gods appear and claim your life in exchange for stopping some prophecy. And that’s the way Cult of the Lamb its demo start: your death.
Well, your near death. At the last moment, the lamb was transported to another world. A creature, capable of evil, makes it an offer it simply cannot refuse: save your life, by dedicating it to them. Return to the world and form a cult under the name The One Who Waits. So you come back, with a nifty new hat, sword and demonic power, and wreak havoc.
Lamb chops, slices and dice
I’m not sure what to do Cult of the Lamb when I first saw it. It’s a top-down action game, with a bit of a roguelite feel. When a former patron of your current employer shows up to explain, you’ll need to go out and share some kind words. This means bringing down other elderly gods and converting new followers into your cult.
At the base level, there’s dodging and slashing. You can get special moves and upgraded weapons as you progress through each room. It feels familiar, and not in a bad way. The battle feels solid and keeps me engaged. Enemy types also come in handy, as soon as the different variations start to change things up. Bats and vermin-like creatures begin to hunt you down, not just angry ravings.
It’s also important to note how well the art style developer Massive Monster has created the crafting pieces as well. The almost paper, 2D-responsive-3D tool looks great, in screenshots and motion. Cult of the Lamb just the right mix of cute and ferocious. It has both a dark nature and a cheerful spirit. It’s very Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandybut with animals that participate in ritual sacrifice and indoctrination.
Pull the wool over their eyes
The teaching is actually quite important and leads to the field Cult of the Lamb I like the most. Between out-of-the-world adventures, after finding more sassy souls to join your cult, you can head back to your “base” and start putting it all to work. It all started out simple: bring a follower and tell them to collect some wood.
But the followers needed food, so I had to build a cooking pit to feed them. This is where the management side, the base building, starts to take shape and it really captures that.
Now, when I venture down the roads, I’m not just looking for personal gain. A button can give me some food or an item that can increase the ability of my followers. At one point, I received a necklace that could make a follower never sleep. Finally, no more dull rest. The follower will be a machine that gives 100% uptime.
My quick demo at PAX East took me from curious to very interested Cult of the Lamb. The art style and atmosphere are obvious appeals, and the action is solid. Even so, the base building and follower management adds a layer of real intrigue, one that forces me to make some interesting choices I’m not always used to making in a single day. roguelite. I can’t just wipe out the heretics and be eager to build my following. I needed to build a lasting, stable, effective cult to really keep going up in the world.
Cult of the Lamb maybe like other games of its kind you’ve played before, like a vagrant game ZeldaRoguelite style action adventure. But it’s a scam. Dig a little deeper and its art, dark humor, and management meta system make for a pretty neat combination. Stay tuned as it prepares to launch sometime around 2022 in computerPlayStation, Xbox and Switch.
