Going from roguelike to roguelike, I’ve got another OMGluie game review, and this time we’re talking about Massive Monster’s Cult of the Lamb!
Published by Devolver Digital, Cult of the Lamb offers snack-sized roguelike gameplay combined with base-building and resource management features. So, if that’s something that sounds appealing to you, you might be charmed by the cute yet sometimes horrifying features of this title!
Cult of the Lamb – Story
Cult of the Lamb’s main plot is pretty straightforward. You start off as the “sacrificial lamb” who ends up as an offering to four scary-looking deities called the “Bishops of the Old Faith.” After death, the lamb is resurrected by the imprisoned “The One Who Waits” who then lends the powerful Red Crown to the lamb.
The Red Crown gives the lamb the power and influence to build their own cult and recruit members to live and work in the cult base. Doing so will increase the lamb’s strength so they could take down the four gods and release The One Who Waits from imprisonment.
Though the whole plotline of the game’s story is quite disturbing, DUH, it’s about building a cult, LOL, it didn’t feel that heavy to me at all. I liked how the devs kept it generally lighthearted even if the overtones are extremely dark.
I think my biggest disappointment with the story is how abruptly it ends. I think I would have liked a bit more closure after you get to the end of the plot. But yeah, you’d have to play and finish the game to see what I mean, haha!
Gameplay & Features
As someone who has added roguelikes to my list of favorite game genres, I can say that the gameplay and base-building combination of Cult of the Lamb is satisfying enough.
The battle system is literally the same with any other dungeon-crawling roguelike title. The four gods are separated into four biomes, each with around four levels that generate a random number of rooms containing enemies, resources, vendors, followers, gear, etc.
These rooms can also contain Tarot Cards, which gives the lamb certain passives in battle that will only last as long as the current run. There is also a limited number of weapons that you can equip and use in each run. Every time you start a run, you are given a random weapon and curse, which is basically a special skill. You can encounter new weapons or curses on your run, but then, that too can also be random.
You get a random choice of weapon and curse at the start of every run.
You’ll encounter random rooms with Tarot Cards, resources, vendors, and more, too!
How Cult of the Lamb differentiates itself from other roguelikes is through its base-building and resource management features. Sounds complicated but this can be made simple once you get your own rhythm on how to manage your cult base.
You need to recruit cult members, build housing for them, assign them resource gathering or base maintenance tasks, feed them, and keep up their Faith and Devotion. You also have to ensure that your base is kept spic and span. If you don’t, you can end up with extremely sick followers that will just poop and vomit everywhere, hahahaha!
You need to build your cult base and keep your followers happy!
Keeping followers happy will unlock powerful Red Crown features, buildings, rituals, and more!
Keeping up with your cult by growing your followers’ Faith and Devotion will unlock powerful skill trees for the Red Crown, new buildings or structural improvements for the cult base, and even a variety of doctrines and rituals that can further manipulate the cult’s living situation. Going good or evil is somewhat up to you as long as you ensure that your cult members are satisfied with life in the cult base. XD
There are also a lot of tiny details in Cult of the Lamb that can make managing it quite interesting. Member recruitment can sometimes be a gamble. Sometimes followers come with traits that will negatively influence Faith or Devotion levels. Members sometimes ask you for help with certain side quests, too. So, it’s really up to you to determine what you want to do when you sit down and play Cult of the Lamb, haha!
Cult of the Lamb – Visuals & Audio
I would have to commend Massive Monster for developing such a good-looking game! Though I’m not that fond of the art itself, the cuteness contrasts very well with the dark tones of the title! I also think it’s a fun and smart choice to have the lamb as the main hero because it really ties into the whole point of the story! XD
I have to note that there are some triggering moments in the game, especially the screen flashes, but you do have the option to turn those off via the settings. 🙂
I don’t really have much to say about the soundtrack of Cult of the Lamb since it would never take more than 20 minutes to complete a run on any of the game’s dungeons. I guess I’d have to say that the background music isn’t quite memorable for me, sorry. D:
Experience & Impressions
When I played the game’s demo around a month before it launched, I instantly knew that Cult of the Lamb was right up my alley. I was intrigued by the story, the roguelike gameplay, and of course, the base building and customization.
After playing for around 21 hours, I’m putting the game down and probably not going back to it until new story content is released by the developers. The Cult of the Lamb experience is short and sweet, but how the story ended really left me hanging.
Just to be clear, in that timeframe, I was able to unlock all the cult doctrines and rituals, the Red Crown’s available perks, all possible Tarot Cards you can pick up during a run, and even have all the buildable structures unlocked on my base. I kept a following of around 20-23 members, all of whom can be left alone for a couple of days while I do dungeon runs! XD
IDK, it makes me wonder if I actually sped through the game in fear of burning out and not finishing it that I actually finished it super-fast? Or is this really what the developers intended? I can’t really say, haha!
I played the game at launch, too, so I experienced a lot of bugs and glitches that dampened the whole experience. The team was quick to address the bugs but I still have some issues with my save file. Like I can’t get my base’s hygiene bar to go to 100% even if there’s no poop, vomit, or dead bodies around. It’s very frustrating. HAHAHA.
I think the endgame for Cult of the Lamb lies in cult base personalization and optimization. But that really doesn’t cut it as replayability for me. Of course, this is only my opinion! Other players would rather spend hours fixing up their base to make it look good, and that’s 100% fine! However, I came for the dungeon-crawling and room-running, so not having anything else to pursue in runs except achievements and resources is not my kind of thing.
So. I am rating Cult of the Lamb a 7/10! I thoroughly enjoyed the mix of features when I was playing through the game. Taking breaks in between runs to maintain your base was refreshing but overall, I would have liked to have more depth to the roguelike gameplay during endgame, haha!
Like I said, Cult of the Lamb is short, sweet, has really cute yet very dark tones. Just don’t expect it to be as replayable as other popular roguelikes out in the market today. 🙂
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