![]() ![]() Cult of the Lamb respects the player’s time by providing many of the thrills of the genres it houses in a more digestible package. Moving between farming, holding demonic sermons, building out the camp, fishing, dungeon crawling, and the like so quickly means that no one aspect can get repetitive. ![]() Dungeon crawls are brisk enough to not overstay their welcome, but that also means they don’t have the time or space to fully develop.Ĭombat is passable and the town management aspects are pretty solid, but the whole package is a cohesive unit that stands tall because of how it fittingly shepherds the player between its many systems. Since the ways to customize each run are so limited, battles hardly get more involved than simple slashing and dodging. Players can’t choose what weapons they get and there’s no way to create a synergetic build because the game doesn’t offer the means to do so. Slashes have a heft to them and the evasive roll is incredibly forgiving, but it’s not deep enough to withstand more than the 10 minutes each run takes. A city-building game that encourages a hostile relationship with those inhabiting it in a unique flourish that matches the game’s unhinged tone and makes it stick out among its saccharine, wholesome peers.Ĭult of the Lamb’s hack-and-slash half is a little more typical of the genre, but it doesn’t live up to the lofty standards set by games like Hades or Dead Cells. Rituals can also further exploit them in more demented ways by brainwashing them through mushrooms to accept literally anything for a limited time, forcing them to work for two days straight, or convincing them not to eat for a bit. These hapless saps can be used as literal sacrificial lambs to upgrade the church, fleeced for money, and treated as pawns for all types of personal gain. Harvesting devotion from loyal followers is an inventive idea for a currency, which also extends to harvesting the followers themselves. That wrapper also gives way for more interesting gameplay mechanics for its management portion. The charming, kid-friendly art style and infectious soundtrack also reinforce this tone as they bounce between horror and cutesy at a moment’s notice, but never do so in a jarring way. The outer wrapper of seeing adorable animals get mutilated, hold a demonic séance, and bow down to a damned lamb is inherently appealing because of the disconnect those two styles have when they’re pushed so violently against each other. The broad strokes of managing a small city aren’t particularly innovative, but zooming into the finer details shows where it breaks from established traditions and excels because of its personality and premise. Chaos breeds procedural tales and excitement and it’s unfortunate the game doesn’t have more random events that would lead to more of those player-driven stories. ![]() As long as players do a passable job of maintaining everything, it rarely gets too chaotic. Cult of the Lamb has some pressures that keep players moving - rebelling cultists, decaying corpses, and lots of stray poop - but there’s never too much to the point of being overwhelming. It’s easy to take pride in it because it’s also fairly easy in general on the default difficulty. Optimizing as the resources roll in and setting up more facilities lends it a natural sense of progression that is easy to see and take pride in, especially as more and more gets automated and it evolves into an elaborate and well-oiled machine powered by sweat, blood, and arcane ceremonies. Doing chores is also satisfying since they feed into the well-tuned RPG loop that constantly doles out rewards. Checking on everything may sound tedious, but days are only about 10 minutes long so it’s never overbearing and each task is incredibly straightforward. Juggling everything is the meat of the experience since there are various meters to watch and things to attend to that a good, well-functioning cult depends on. More followers mean more potential workers to mine stone and chop down trees, but with every damned soul comes a new mouth to feed and body to clean up after. ![]() Players are dropped onto a plot of empty land meant to house a cult, which applies to various unlockable structures and the personnel required to run them. ![]()
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