As the name suggests, “Cult of the Lamb” is a game inspired by cults. The rogue-like game was developed by Massive Monster, an indie team composed of only three people.
“Cult of the Lamb” was released on Aug. 11 and is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, MacOS, and Windows computers. It can be purchased for $24.99 on all platforms.
Despite being made by such a small team, Massive Monster sold over one million copies of “Cult of the Lamb” within the first week. The game is insanely popular, and for a good reason.
In “Cult of the Lamb,” you play as a lamb, saved from being sacrificed by an ominous stranger named The One Who Waits. To repay the stranger, you must build a following of adorable woodland creatures.
“Cult of the Lamb” combines aspects from management games and rogue-like exploration games.
When at your cult’s village, you must cook, clean up after, and build things for your followers. If your followers have unmet needs, they may act out and leave the cult.
Additionally, you can hold sermons and rituals to strengthen your followers’ allegiance to you.
Players can also enact various doctrines, which will dictate how their followers will react to specific events, such as the death of another follower.
Once the debris and materials have been cleared from the village, the player must venture out into the Lands of the Old Faith to gather more material.
Players will encounter the more rogue-like elements of the game while in the Lands of the Old Faith. The levels play like classic dungeon crawlers – you go through different rooms until you encounter a boss. Once you’ve beaten the boss, you can return to your village with your loot from the adventure.
The combat is smooth and has no major issues. At the start of each level, you will receive a random weapon and spell. Throughout the level, there are opportunities to upgrade or switch your gear to something else, which keeps the player from being boxed into one combat style.
While there are some grinding aspects to “Cult of the Lamb,” the juxtaposition between managing everything in your village to fighting and exploring in the Lands of the Old Faith keeps the game from getting stale.
For streamers on Twitch, “Cult of the Lamb” also offers Twitch integrations to the game. Those that are part of the Twitch Affiliate and Partner programs will be able to let their audience impact their game directly.
Streamers can select audience members to create an avatar that will be one of their cult followers. However if you are not selected for this, Twitch viewers can still impact their favorite streamers’ gameplay through voting to either help or hinder them.
Once the voting has finished, another vote will pop up to decide how you will help or hinder the streamer, depending on which choice won. Whatever choice wins will take place in-game.
One of the areas where “Cult of the Lamb” truly shines is with its visuals. While it might seem like a pretty dark game based on the name, “Cult of the Lamb” has a cute art style with darker aspects to it.
All the character designs are adorable, and the main character seems to be a particular favorite among fans, spawning lots of fan art within the community.
“Cult of the Lamb” didn’t bind itself to one genre, and it paid off. While it easily could have been just a management simulator or just a rogue-like, Massive Monster opted to combine the two, creating an experience unique to “Cult of the Lamb.”
Whether it is for the unique game play experience or the adorable art style, “Cult of the Lamb” is definitely worth picking up.