Picture this. You are a cute little lamb taken by an evil organized religion as a sacrifice to their God. You are quickly killed and sent to the afterlife to find another God, bound in chains, who makes a deal with you. Start a cult in his name, and he will revive you to stop the religion that sent you to your unjust death.
Sounds wild, right? But that’s the start of ten minutes of Cult of the Lamb. Developed by Massive Monster, the game is half rogue, half cult management simulator. No, you read it right. Sounds like an idea no major studio would venture. Fortunately, Devolver Digital likes to take risks and has picked up the game for publication.
But how do these concepts work together? Do the deceptive elements do anything unique to the genre? How the hell do you make gameplay around cult leading? Is the game meant to say something profound about the positives and negatives of organized religion? There is a lot to unpack with this game. That makes it an unforgettable experience.
As you are thrown back from the afterlife into the world, the combat and deceitful elements of Cult of the Lamb are introduced first. Immediately, the paper art design captures your attention in its stunning details. It reminded me of when I saw Paper Mario & The Thousand Year Door For the first time. It is expertly well made and everything stands on its own. Some examples are from your controlled player to weapons to enemies and allies. You can deduce where everything is on the map and whether it is helpful or hurtful.
It may take a while to get your bearings from room to room. Like most rogue-style games, you traverse each level by jumping areas that are randomly generated. It takes some getting used to detecting hits on enemies and on yourself due to the paper style design. But after a while you start to adapt to it.
As expected for a rogue-like game, Cult of the Lamb has elements that you can control and some that are based on luck. You can decide for yourself how strong your character is and with which weapons you go into battle. You have no control over specific buffs or new weapons you find. These are randomly generated from world to world for you to discover and use.
An important one are the tarot cards. Each area has rooms with a tarot card dealer that changes when you find it. You may choose one of the two each time, but you will never get the same two. While you can find all 36 cards in the deck, it takes time and luck. It’s a refreshing change to see that it’s at least possible to get every buff. But I can confirm that it will take a lot of patience.
Apart from that, the gameplay is routinely similar to skilled rogue explorers. If you like rogue-style games, you’ll love what you find here. If you’ve never learned with the genre, you might be more interested in the other half of the game.
Now let’s start breaking down the most intriguing and unique element of Cult of the Lamb: managing said cult! While you’ve played as a God in games before, I’ve never personally come across one where you were tasked with keeping individuals indoctrinated like this game does. It’s a fascinating concept that is fully exploited in the game with a deep system to explore.
As you explore dungeons, rescue other potential animals that will be sacrificed as you were. Defeat the enemies in the room and you will recruit them for your cult. The cult campsite is where all the management of your people is done.
Once rescued, you can have each new devotee work on a task such as collecting resources, constructing new buildings such as churches or farms, or worshiping in your name. Each job has its own benefits for you and the cult. Building creates new areas to help the members. Worship gives you “dive inspiration” points that give you upgrades to use in battle. So making sure they are all done by your new devoted followers is paramount to success.
However, this is not as easy as it sounds. Every new follower has improvements and drawbacks. A follower can be great at praying, but terrible at gathering resources. Paying attention to each new member’s strengths and weaknesses later becomes a critical factor in decisions as more elements are introduced.
There is also the fact that you must continue to believe in all your members. You can’t let them all live in misery with poo and puke all over the campground without food or interaction. You have to show them that you care about them and that you are a leader who cares for them. This is beautifully displayed via the hunger and faith meters at the top left of the screen.
When you are at your campsite, those meters must be kept full by actions that you do across the cult site. Make food, talk to your followers, clean up clutter, preach your word and confirm that they are all sleeping well. All of these factors come into play in keeping the cult happy and willing to do whatever you ask to help you succeed in your journey. And the more they believe, the more benefits you unlock.
Cult of the Lamb has many upgrade systems. It can be a bit overwhelming at times. But the more you play, the more everything becomes easier to understand. Take cult management, for example. One element that I did not mention above is the rituals. As you progress through the rogue states and cult management, you will unlock rituals. These will boost your followers’ trust and unlock more benefits for you. Things like a higher attack power or getting worship points faster.
Using every element of both aspects of the game will give you more upgrades. And to make it with your followers, you need the most. It does feel rewarding that each upgrade will help you in the long run. Too many games have buffs that feel like padding. This isn’t one of them as each power-up is instantly noticeable once you’ve won it.
Throughout all the battles and all the cult escapades, there was one subtle aspect of it: Cult of the Lamb that I couldn’t get out of my head. In the beginning, you are encouraged by the deity who saved you to make your followers love you as much as possible. After this speech, you will be introduced to the mechanic of sacrificing their lives to empower yourself. In particular, he reiterates that the more your follower loves you, the more you benefit from their sacrifice.
It is a shocking moment that can surprise a player. But the game is not kidding. As you do more for your followers, their level of faith grows. The higher that belief level, the more buffs and benefits you get if you decide to sacrifice them. And if you do, they’re happy to join the cult. You saved most of them from sacrifice, only to take their own lives for your gain.
It’s a dark and subtle way of showing how organized cults and religions can operate in sinister ways. The game passes these moments without thinking, just like cult leaders do. But as a player, it’s hard to have compassion. It’s hard to feel good about the benefits to your character, knowing that you sent someone who believed in you to death.
But any study of sects or the evils of organized religions gone wrong knows that this is common. Leaders will do anything to gain more power. Even at the expense of devoted followers to do so. There is something powerful about a game that evokes these concepts and thoughts when you play as a lamb of all things. It doesn’t overlook the message like other games would to take the easy route. It stings harder to know you did it and then to think about the fact that you did it. That is an impactful and subtle storytelling through gameplay.
Cult of the Lamb juggles multiple concepts, elements, and gameplay ideas to largely succeed in its goals. While I wish the rogue-esque gameplay had a little more unique variety, the cult manager more than makes up for those shortcomings. Not only is it exciting to grow and manage your cult, but it also hits you in the stomach when you’re forced to make devastating decisions to move forward.
It’s the rare game that has something impressive to say, but doesn’t feel the need to punch you in the head. While some titles have a villain monologue on the theme again and again. It is an experience I will not soon forget. Even with my problems, it’s still a must-play title for 2022. Blessed be the lamb.
Cult of the Lamb is now available for PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
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