Cult of the Lamb Review — Cute, Dark, and Brilliant
Behind the adorable art style lies one of the smartest gameplay loops you’ll find in an Indie game
REVIEWS
Woody Wood
7/12/20264 min read
Cult of the Lamb first caught my attention because of its unique visual style. The contrast of cutesy animals with demonic monsters and religious imagery stood out from the sea of trailers on Steam.
I was hoping for something special when I bought it, and that’s exactly what I got.
On the surface, it looks like a standard action roguelike game with a light city building feature bolted on. But underneath that is a surprisingly deep cult management simulator where the actions you take directly affect your chances of surviving your next run.
After spending roughly 20 hours with the PC version, I’m hard pressed to think of another game quite like this. The fighting and building aren’t revolutionary, but the way they fit together creates something that’s hard to put down.
Solid, Yet Familiar, Combat
The roguelike half of Cult of the Lamb felt awfully familiar as a fan of the genre, but it was good to entertain me through the main campaign.
It reminded me a lot of Slay the Spire.
A single run had me progressing through a map of branching nodes. Each node featured a different type of encounter that ranged from recruiting new followers to fighting my way through instanced dungeons. Unlike STS, choosing a path was driven by my cult’s needs rather than my character’s build.
Combat seemed fairly simple. I started each mini-dungeon with a random weapon and special ability. Most of my time was spent dodging incoming attacks until I saw an opening. Occasionally, I would find relics that allowed me to cast powerful spells, and I would collect several tarot cards that provided me powerful bonuses during a run.
All of this is standard roguelike fare, and I actually thought the game was a little too easy at first before it picked up in the second half.
Levels were eventually filled with more enemies, obstacles, and traps that made it harder to avoid getting hit. Bosses started summoning waves of minions that made it impossible to spam attacks.
The result was fun and challenging while I was still progressing through the game, but the formula got predictable once I mastered it. By the end, I was stringing together long dungeon runs without having to worry about dying.
On its own, Cult of the Lamb’s roguelike gameplay wouldn’t be enough to stand out in the genre. Fortunately, that’s only half of what makes the game so compelling.
Your Cult is the Beating Heart
What truly sets Cult of the Lamb apart is managing your cult.
As the cult leader, you’re essentially responsible for a small village filled with followers who have needs of their own. You have to provide them somewhere to sleep, food to eat, and regular blessings to maintain their faith.
If you leave them unattended for too long, things begin to fall apart quickly. Followers get sick, rebel against you, die of old age (or murder), and even leave your cult.
That creates an interesting balancing act that I really enjoyed.
Every time I ventured into a dungeon to move the story forward, I knew I was racing against time to make it back to my village. The longer the run, the more problems I’d have waiting for me when I returned.
What makes this system work so well is that your cult directly improves your effectiveness in combat.
By harvesting your cult’s faith, you can unlock stronger weapons and abilities, improve your health, and perform more rituals. Some combat abilities scale on your cult’s size. One in particular lets you sacrifice a follower to revive yourself when your health drops to 0. You can even demonically possess followers to fight alongside you in dungeons.
Collecting your flock’s devotion also lets you move up the tech tree, which in turn gives you access to buildings that make your cult self-sufficient for longer periods. Eventually, your cult starts running itself, letting you concentrate on deep dungeon crawls.
So, the better you are at providing for your followers, the better you perform in runs. That in turn lets you recruit more followers and gather extra resources to build a stronger cult.
I’ve played plenty of action roguelikes and city builders this year, but never one that blends the two styles so well.
One of a Kind
I opened this review by talking about Cult of the Lamb’s captivating visual style, but it goes beyond that.
Massive Monster, the game’s developer, put a lot of care into crafting its game’s unmistakably unique identity.
One minute you’re delivering sermons to your loyal followers. The next, you’re sacrificing one of them for power or turning their corpse into dinner. The game constantly walks the line between charming and disturbing in a way that feels right for a demonic cult.
The world itself does a great job selling the fantasy.
For example, the story revolves around an exiled deity who resurrects you to overthrow the four bishops that imprisoned him. Every boss fight starts with that bishop’s followers sacrificing themselves to evolve its form. You establish doctrines for your cult using commandment tablets and build idols for your followers to worship.
That same attention to detail carries over into the presentation as a whole. The environments are packed with imaginative enemy designs, and beautifully detailed maps. The light-hearted art style and cartoonish sound effects help keep things from sinking too deep into the game’s dark undertones.
Conceptually, Cult of the Lamb truly is a one-of-a-kind experience.
Great for Collectors and Completionists
Cult of the Lamb took me roughly 20 hours to finish, and there was still plenty left to do afterward.
Unfortunately, that mainly involved collecting new decorations and follower forms, finishing a side quest or two, and completing the various progression paths.
Completionists who love customization and achievements could easily double their playtime, but otherwise, I didn’t feel much incentive to keep playing after I finished the main story.
Luckily, the price offsets the game’s short-ish duration. The digital version retails for $25 US on Steam, and it regularly goes on sale for as little as $14 US. At those prices, Cult of the Lamb provides incredible value.
The game is also available on PS5, Switch, and Xbox — if you’re willing to pay a premium of course. Physical copies are also available for each console. However, you can expect to pay around $60 US for a new one.
Verdict
Cult of the Lamb is an experience that stays with you long after you finish it. Its roguelike roots feel familiar, but they’re intertwined with an amazing cult management system and a carefully crafted world.
Building a successful cult and persuading your followers to do all sorts of depraved things is satisfying and memorable. The dungeon crawling is solid and fun. The art direction and sound are spot on.
Whether you enjoy action roguelikes, city builders, or simply want to play something genuinely different, Cult of the Lamb is an easy recommendation.
