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Cult of the Lamb Preview: Bend to my will

Hands-on (or is that hooves-on?) can make all the difference.

I was unsure how some hands-on time with the Aussie-made Cult of the Lamb would go. I was all for half of the game — its dungeon crawling side, specifically — but wasn’t really feeling its base-building sim elements based on what I’d seen to date. That’s more of a personal thing, if I’m being honest — happiness gauges and the like really just make me anxious.

Thankfully, getting down and dirty with my cultists has made all the difference and I can’t wait to keep playing past the preview time I’ve just spent with it.

I got to start Cult of the Lamb right from the very start, filling the shoes of a sacrificial lamb that becomes a servant of the devil. Or a devlish person. Or thing. Anyway, it’s likely the entity you serve is evil. Armed with a powerful red crown, you’re able to amass cultists and build a following that will in turn provide you with bigger and more fantastical powers. The title’s subject matter is super dark, involving sacrifices and indoctrinations, but this is balanced by a beautiful, thriving art aesthetic that looks like Nintendo could have been behind it. It’s a great mixture of tone.

I knew the dungeon crawling aspect was going to be right up my alley, and I’m happy to report that it was. You’ll depart from your base of operations into a roguelike subset of levels — maybe 5-15 rooms, at least at the beginning of the game — where you’ll dispatch enemies, take on sub-bosses, save sacrificial woodland creatures from their fates (to of course then fold into your cult) and find resources like grass, meat and more. You’ll usually run into a new weapon or two on your journey — easily comparible to the one you have in your hand in terms of both speed and power — and simply attack and dodge your way to victory.

It’s not that simple, of course; you’ll occasionally run into allies on your journey and one provides the option to choose between two tarot cards to buff something attached to you, be it attack speed or power, extra health (for that run and that run only) or the like. In my hour with Cult of the Lamb, that friendly (?!) tarot merchant was sometimes key to surviving; if I didn’t snag an extra bit of health, or turn on a buff that dealt damage to opponents as I took some myself, I would have been lost. As is standard with a dungeon crawler, you’ll be able to choose between multiple paths at times — sometimes known, others not — to be able to gather whatever items you need at the time. There’s also a lot of room to upgrade your character, both in abilities that come from faithful worshippers and other unlockables that I’m sure will be introduced at a steady clip as you delve further into the narrative.

While there’s nothing really new to the dungeon crawling aspects of Cult of the Lamb, that’s absolutely fine with me — so far, the gameplay loop is rich, polished and satisfying. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The base-building side was something that I wasn’t embracing initially, but a slow-and-steady drip feed of information and mechanics changed that relatively quickly in the time I spent with it. Back at base camp, you’ll use your cultists to build your power. It starts with a temple to provide stat-building points and deliver sermons for more buffs, and extends into systems to gather supplies in order to build new facilities or tend to your flock. Your cultists need food, places to sleep and generally need to be managed like little children; you can also get them back into line with gifts you find on your crusades. While that last group of mechanics isn’t something I enjoy doing in games I play, it seems managable so far… though like with the dungeon crawling side, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface in terms of mechanics that still need to be introduced.

Is it wrong to wish for a right-hand cultist that could deal with the monotonous aspects of building my little religious empire?

By the end of my preview, I was going through quite a few base menus, building sleeping bags for my cultists to rest in, planting seeds to then make into food so they were nourished, and digging holes in the ground in case they carked it from being worked too hard. You can auto-assign cultists to collect supplies, build items or pray for stat-building points, and thankfully it wasn’t as anxiety-building as other simulation games end up making me feel. It’s not all perfect, though — in the image above, you can see an upgrade tree that (as far as I can tell) doesn’t tell you the requirements needed to unlock items. In the same vein, I stumbled onto a character upgrade menu the one time and now can’t figure out how to get back into it.

These qualms aside, I’m very excited about the dungeon crawling bits and no longer worried about the base-building bits of Cult of the Lamb; if the automations I’m hoping for aren’t in the finished product when it comes to the latter gameplay loop, I guess I’ll just have to quest and request for fresh followers after neglicting those I’ve already collected. That seems on theme.

Partially funded by Film Victoria and developed by the locals at Massive Monster, Cult of the Lamb heads to Windows PC via Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5 and Switch on 11 August. We spoke to Massive Monster about the title last year.

Cult of the Lamb

12 August 2022
PC PS4 PS5 Xbox One Xbox Series S & X
 

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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.