Death is only the beginning. An odd line, but in Cult of the Lamb it actually sums the start of the game up perfectly.
Aussie and UK based developer Massive Monster’s latest title sees you starting out as a happy-go-lucky lamb, supposedly the last of your kind. However, you’re cut down in your prime just seconds into the game by four bishops.
Lamb of Vengeance
As it happens, you’re in luck today. Following your apparent demise, your chops are saved by a demon god called The One Who Waits. In exchange for saving you, The One Who Waits tasks you with a grand mission – to build a cult in his name and, ultimately, release him from his prison.
Cult of the Lamb kick initially sees you travel to four different areas, hunting down each of the bishops that wronged you as you seek your revenge. Along the way, you pick up a few new followers that help you achieve that god-given task.
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Gameplay sits somewhere between a roguelike and an action-adventure game with a dash of a management sim too. This sees you battling through randomly generated areas, slaying foes, as well as gathering resources to build your cult.
Combat has you bounce between wielding a sword or an axe. You can also avail of curses which act as ranged-style secondary weapons. At this point, we should mention that Cult of the Lamb is not an easy game and you will be tested more often than not.
But death isn’t the end. Failing a run may actually help you, as you are often also doing side quests for members of the cult. So even if you’re not pushing the game forward on the main path, the side quests help keep things going.
Cult Leadership
Growing and maintaining your cult introduces some light management gameplay. Once you’ve named your own village, you choose how your flock will look – from clothes to even what species they are. You also build, upgrade and maintain your village.
Growing the group is key to getting stronger, as each cultist that joins you; adds a new trait to you – like earning more faith. Although you should beware that some will impact you in a negative way too.
You’ll also have to look after the needs of the group like hunger and health and depending on where these are sitting it will reflect how much faith they have in you. The more faith you have, the more XP you bank – meaning you get access to better upgrades for your village and yourself.
Cult a Fine Figure
As the leader you’ll also have to make some choices, which can make you stronger but will impact the group. You can sacrifice members to earn extra lives or if they’re weak in faith, send them to be re-educated in your ways or just throw them in prison. And as the group grows the options you have become more and more extreme.
The graphics are colourful and bold, offering high-contrast and incredible detail to suck you in by the eyeballs. The game is mostly drawn in graphic-novel pencil-and-fill and chibi-like characters with some fire and glow effects to make it pop all the more.
The game sits in a wonderfully weird space in terms of its visual style. At times it’s cute and charming, at many others it’s horrific and dark. It’s the sort of style and vibe seen in Edmund McMillen titles like Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac.
Cult of the Lamb has an incredible soundtrack underneath it all. Created by Melbourne composer River Boy (Narayana Johnson), the score hits all the right beats, being playful, but also foreboding in equal measures.
Cult Classic
Cult of the Lamb is mechanically satisfying with its abundant challenge matched by its swift and intuitive control. The extra incentive to keep going as the deaths rack up only adds to the addictive loop of the game.
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Massive Monster’s latest will see you lose hours to it when it gets its demonic claws into you. Especially since you’ll split your lost days between main runs and village management. While extremely dark at times, it’s an unmissable title in the genre.