In Animal Crossing, a picky neighbor can be somewhat annoying and difficult to get rid of. In Cult of the Lamb, that kind of talk can take that same anthropomorphic form fed directly to eldritch gods before noon. While the two games have different ways of dealing with pests, Cult of the Lamb has some aspects in common with Nintendo’s popular franchise, also fusing it with hack-and-slash roguelike gameplay. It’s an odd mix of hues and styles, but developer Massive Monster has elegantly combined it all to create one great, memorable game.
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Cult of the Lamb consists of two parts, but is much more of a management simulator. While a game like Hades is about 80% combat and 20% city RPG mechanics, Cult of the Lamb is about 35% combat and 65% management sim. This unexpected split puts a lot of pressure on those less flashy, action-free elements, but they’re made well enough to withstand that weight.
Players are dropped on a piece of empty land intended to house a cult, which applies to various unlockable structures and the personnel needed to run them. More followers means more potential workers to mine rocks and cut down trees, but with every damned soul comes a new mouth to feed and a body to clean up afterwards.
Juggling everything is the meat of the experience, as there are several meters to watch and things to attend on which a good, functioning cult depends. Checking everything may sound tedious, but days are only about 10 minutes long, so it’s never overbearing and every task is incredibly easy. Doing chores is also satisfying, as they add to the well-tuned RPG loop that constantly hands out rewards. Optimizing as resources pour in and set up more facilities gives a natural sense of progress that is easy to see and proud of, especially as it becomes more and more automated and evolves into a comprehensive and well-oiled machine powered by sweat, blood and mysterious ceremonies.
It’s easy to be proud of, as it’s generally pretty easy on the standard difficulty as well. Cult of the Lamb has some pressure that keeps players moving – rebellious cultists, rotting corpses, and lots of stray poop – but there’s never too much that gets overwhelming. As long as players maintain everything well, it rarely gets too chaotic. Chaos breeds procedural storytelling and excitement and it’s a shame the game doesn’t have more random events that would lead to more of those player-driven stories.
The broad strokes of running a small town aren’t particularly innovative, but zooming into the finer details shows where it breaks with established traditions and excels for its personality and premise. The outer sheath of seeing cute animals mutilated, having a demonic seance, and bowing down to a damn lamb is inherently alluring because of the disconnect those two styles have when pushed so violently against each other. The charming kid-friendly art style and catchy soundtrack also bolster this tone, as they bounce between horror and cuteness in the blink of an eye, but never in a jarring way.
That wrapper also gives way to more interesting gameplay mechanics for the management part. Harvesting devotion from loyal followers is an inventive idea for a currency, which also extends to harvesting the followers themselves. These unfortunate juices can be used as literal sacrificial lambs to upgrade the church, looted for money, and treated as pawns for all kinds of personal gain. They can also exploit rituals in more demented ways by brainwashing them with mushrooms to accept literally anything for a limited time, forcing them to work two days in a row, or convincing them not to eat for a while. A city-building game that encourages adversarial relationship with those who inhabit it in a unique flourish that matches the game’s unhinged tone and makes it stand out among its sweet-smelling healthy peers.
Cult of the Lamb‘s hack-and-slash half is a bit more typical of the genre, but it doesn’t live up to the high standards set by games like Hades or Dead cells. Slashes have a weight to them and the dodge roll is incredibly forgiving, but it’s not deep enough to withstand more than 10 minutes per run. Players can’t choose which weapons to get and there’s no way to create a synergistic build because the game doesn’t provide the resources to do so. Because the ways to customize each run are so limited, combat is hardly more involved than simple chop and dodge. Dungeon crawls are sturdy enough that their welcome won’t last too long, but that also means they don’t have the time or space to fully develop.
The combat is decent and the city management aspects are pretty solid, but the whole package is a cohesive unit that ranks high for the appropriate way it guides the player between its many systems. Moving between farming, preaching demonic sermons, building camp, fishing, dungeon crawling and the like means so fast that no aspect can get repetitive. Cult of the Lamb respects the player’s time by providing much of the thrills of the genres it houses in a more digestible package. It currently lacks much of an endgame (something Massive Monster will reportedly address in future updates) and then much of the replayability of roguelites and sim games, but all the extra wool has been shaved off this well-maintained sheep.
Cult of the Lamb is a twisted and successful balancing act. While the combat lacks some nuance, the game balances its roguelite dungeon crawler and management sim halves pretty well. The tone is also similarly composed of two parts, as the game jumps from gruesome cultic rituals to merry joy in just seconds. A less game would have mismanaged these drastic shifts, but Cult of the Lamb handles both wonderfully in ways that make it a more diverse experience and a cult worth joining.
SCORE: 8.5/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8.5 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means the art succeeds in its goal and leaves a memorable impression.
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