Cult of the Lamb game

Hello friends!! Welcome to Monday Mini’s, where today I will be talking about the video game, Cult of the Lamb!!

If you aren’t aware, I’ve been reviewing a bunch of COZY GAMES that I play. Cozy Games are low-stress games that have little to no combat, and really don’t require any gaming expertise or knowledge. Button mash all you like. The games themselves are predominantly story driven, and are just generally cute. Cult of the Lamb doesn’t really fit into this game category as there is a lot of combat, but it’s a good pick for anyone who is looking at moving into harder games. However, if you’re looking for actual cosy games, check out my other reviews here: Gaming reviews.

So, let’s go take a look at the game, Cult of the Lamb!!

Mini game review: Cult of the Lamb

Title: Cult of the Lamb
Developer: Massive Monster
Release date: August 2022
Players: 1 (single player only)
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Windows, MacOS
Genre: Roguelike, Role-playing, Adventure, Indie
Steam link

Cult of the Lamb:

Cult of the Lamb casts players in the role of a possessed lamb saved from annihilation by an ominous stranger, and must repay their debt by building a loyal following in his name. Start your own cult in a land of false prophets, venturing out into diverse and mysterious regions to build a loyal community of woodland Followers and spread your Word to become the one true cult.

So, I didn’t really realise that I have a video game TYPE, but I definitely do. If it’s sad, a bit macabre, or there are bears or spirits, and in some cases spirit bears, then I am all in. Cult of the Lamb really only ticks the macabre box in this list, but there are cute farmland creatures.

Jokes aside, this is probably not a game for the faint of heart. There are two sides to the game: half of the game is very much a cosy game, and the other half is a ‘rogue-like’, but I’ll get to that later. The cosy-game side is good for anyone who enjoyed games like Graveyard Keeper where you can dismember and embalm bodies.

The Cult aspect of the game is gory-cute. I keep saying cute because the art style and the animations are all adorable. But the game is quite dark — in a joking way. You, the last lamb in existence, are part of a prophecy where you could save the world from god-type characters. They’re all named after Slavic folklore demons and monsters, so that was another tick for me. Essentially, you have been saved by a god that wants to be freed from the chains that the other gods have bound them in. And to do so, you will raise a cult of followers from those you have saved to worship this bound god.

There’s a bit more to it than that. You have to feed and house your followers. You have to pray with them a LOT. There are other opportunities for you to make them increase their faith, such as making them fast or feast, sacrificing or resurrecting them, and other rituals. (Yes, you can sacrifice them and then resurrect them. This game is a TIME.) You will have dissenters pop up, and you can deal with them by putting them in stocks, or you can sacrifice them too. You will have to make choices as to what sort of a cult you want to run, but I did like that it wasn’t too prescriptive. CotL is, in its most basic form, a colony game.

The flip side to the game is the rogue-like, which is the fighting aspect. A rogue-like, if you’re not aware, is essentially a randomised dungeon-crawl. Each room you go through is randomly generated (you rarely get the same room twice, and never in the same order), and you start each level — or every time you enter the monster section in CotL — with a different weapon and ability. You need to be conscious of things like bombs, bullets and fireballs, as well as the enemies you are fighting. Each room is part of a mini-map, and you can gain different weapons and abilities as you make your way through it. In CotL you play a map of about 6-10 rooms before you can go back to the cult.

You do have to do both parts of the game to get to the end. In order to do collect the things you need for rituals you have to do the rogue-likes. In order to open the doors to the monsters and collect things (including more followers), you have to have a certain number of followers. You need to spend time away fighting and collecting things, but the more time you spend away, the more dissent arises in camp. It can be a catch-22 but it’s a good balance. There are also side quests to open up new areas, and mini games where you can gamble for additional money.

Overall, I think the game is fun and well-rounded. There’s enough variety there to suit everyone, and the game has 4 levels of difficulty. Personally, I started on the second easiest, and then dropped to the easiest as I progressed through the monster worlds. The combat isn’t difficult, but I’m definitely more of a ‘run in and attack’ so I lost hearts quickly. But that’s just my style.

If you’ve played games like The Binding of Isaac before and you want to try an inventory management (or cosy game) this is probably the best of both worlds. And if you’re a cosy gamer who doesn’t mind the macabre and wants to try something a bit harder, this is also your gateway game to the world of fighting.

Have you played the game, Cult of the Lamb?