Cult of the Lamb Review

Massive Monster's Cult of the Lamb might, arguably, be the best game ever developed in Australia...

One of the most enjoyable aspects, I’ve found, when playing Cult of the Lamb is explaining to people just how deep it all goes. I mean, on the surface the game is cute and accessible and thematically on-the-nose; you’re a lamb who’s escaped a sacrificial rite. Now, free of your bondage, it’s time to enact upon some cutely-presented revenge by subjugating even cuter animals than you, into your burgeoning cult. How you escaped your fate is doubly cute, because it appears you were set to be the last act in defying an old god, according to some other old gods -- each as monstrously cute as the last.

Naw.

Cult of the Lamb, however, is actually really very dark. It is also a densely layered experience whose local developer, Massive Monster, has crafted a game clearly as gamers first. It’s an experience where the “what if I did this…?”  gauntlet not only runs its course on the reg, but presents even further opportunities than you might have initially thought. And then even more again.

Cult of the Lamb

Genre: Roguelite
Developer: Massive Monster
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Release Date: June 10, 2022
Classification: M15+
Author: Stephen Farrelly
Date: June 06, 2024

It’s here where the developer side of things takes over from that “gamers first” base I also mentioned and what we wind up with is a thoughtful experience, exquisitely written, that could take your soul for as few as a handful of hours to as many as weeks upon weeks worth. There’s just so much to learn and find and unlock in your first playthrough, and I’m not sure I even want to get into the prospect of follow-on sessions, armed with the knowledge that wood is your earliest friend and that you really shouldn’t build with a hodgepodge sense of whatever, wherever, because I guarantee you it’ll come back to bite you in your cute little lamb ass later.

"As the game’s titular lamb, now in charge of amassing followers to build a cult, you essentially take ownership of a rundown site that once belonged to another cult leader...”

To get the mechanics out of the way first, Cult of the Lamb is perhaps best described as both a farming sim and a roguelike dungeon-crawler, with tangential sim components and just a smidge of deck-building. But it’s also so much more than that. As the game’s titular lamb, now in charge of amassing followers to build a cult, you essentially take ownership of a rundown site that once belonged to another cult leader, who was also in the employ of the same god now commanding you. For reasons not fully revealed, he’s a bit washed up but hands over his overgrown estate to you and leaves you with enough parting words to make for a handy Tutorial. Then from there on out, the floor is essentially yours and Cult of the Lamb dishes up an on-the-fly learning experience where trial and error, sacrifice and hard work go a long way to making you the best darn farmer cult leader around.

To the Slaughter

The game is essentially split up into two components: Crusades (combat) and your Cult (sim). Each Crusade takes the form of a tried and tested dungeon run from any roguelike or lite out there -- take your pick. Rewards and resources gathered from said runs, as well as new abilities and other elements found with each jaunt, go towards growing out the Cult aspect of the game. The combat side of things is challenging but not complicated, serving up a heady dose of hack, slash, evade, and ability as you navigate rooms filled with a veritable Rogue’s Gallery of enemy types, each coming with their own tactics and more often than not ganging up on you and generally causing chaos in number.

"Throughout each trek you’ll come across a friendly few characters, such as Clauneck the tarot dealer or Kudaai the blacksmith...”

At the beginning of each run you’re given a melee weapon and a ranged ability which can potentially be swapped out or powered up depending on the procedural build at that time, and throughout each trek you’ll come across a friendly few characters, such as Clauneck the tarot dealer or Kudaai the blacksmith, who can offer you up physical and passive items to make your attempt that much more successful. But all of this is managed by the dreaded RNG gods, and each time I was served up a set of gauntlets as my starting weapon, I immediately Escaped the Crusade to start over again.

Still, it becomes fairly layered in how it’s all optioned to you, and I found myself dying often, which isn’t good (you lose -5 Faith each time you fail because your Followers see you as weak), but I also found the short and snappy nature of each run enjoyable and never too grindy. And while death is annoying, you gain enough tools back at your Cult to rebuild the Faith among your Followers and to consider your next move.

From the Mound

During my review period with the game (I played some 45 hours prior to publishing here), I reached 110 days with my key Cult, "In Gamma We Trust”, and had, on average, 14 - 16 Followers in my flock. Your Followers will die and when they die, you can bury them or carve them up for their meat. If you leave them out to rot, you risk making your other Followers sick. If you use the harvested flesh from your fallen disciple, you can cook a risky meal that might instantly kill the Follower that eats it, or they could drop valuable resources. If you bury them, they take up room on your Cult grounds. Over the journey a lot of them will die. However, as you progress you can also gain the ability to perform a Ritual to raise one from the dead, which I did very often with Hulk III, my favourite Follower.

"This means early on in the game they poo wherever they please, so you need to build a toilet...”

You can gift Followers jewellery, and some jewellery can double their life span. Others offer up different types of buffs, while bribes and other management tools will keep them on side spreading the good word. But they do dissent. To deal with this you can make an example of them, or just chuck them in jail where you re-educate them every day until they no longer dissent -- this worked best for how I ran proceedings, but there’s scope to manage your Cult the way you want; benevolent, rewarding, caring or just plain greedy -- the choice is yours.

Remember how I said I liked explaining the game to people? Here’s one for you: your Followers eat whatever you cook for them, and as in real life if you eat, you gotta poop. So you need to clean the poop, which can be used as fertiliser for your crops. If you don’t, you’ll make your Followers sick, both literally (they’ll vomit) and physically (they become impaired, though they still try and work, the little troopers). This means early on in the game they poo wherever they please, so you need to build a toilet, which will then eventually require a Janitor Station and these can then eventually be upgraded. But early on in the game, you’re cleaning their poop with your own hands. Know what else you can do with their poop?You can cook it and make them eat it.

Sheering Up Numbers

And that’s the level. That’s the depth we’re talking about here. That you can scoop up one of your devoted Followers’ steaming soft-serves and feed it right back to them speaks to both the layers of choice and depth on hand, and also to the level of depravity and darkness available to you. It’s almost a metaphor for the design principle of the game, a game made by gamers first, remember? And it doesn’t let up. One design aspect will feed into another, and then another. And it’s all done to strive for automation, growth and devotion. It’s a bustling economy of multifaceted expenditures where resources aren’t devoted to a single cause, where you can be the sort of Cult leader you want to be.

Cult of the Lamb is a rare piece of art in gaming. It’s probably the best game ever made in Australia at this point and is so because it’s infinitely rewarding. I couldn’t stop worrying about my Followers, or thinking about what they needed next, but I also couldn’t stop abusing my power and letting myself drift into dark places. And I honestly haven’t covered even close to everything. The game is just so full of character and charm and wit and depth. And I can’t recommend it enough -- trust me, I’m a Cult leader.

What’s Boss?

  • An incredibly dense game experience across all of its key parts
  • Stunningly presented and developed
  • Dark and exquisitely written
  • Though still funny, quirky and cute (just to balance it out)
  • An amazing soundtrack
  • Wonderfully paced with very little hand-holding
  • Just so much to do and discover
  • You'll become hooked, fast

Not Boss Enough?

  • There can be lulls and troughs in proceedings depending on the makeup of your experience
  • The ability to alter items at the beginning of a Crusade from the outset would have been better

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...

About the Author

Written By Stephen Farrelly
Stephen Farrelly is a veteran journalist and editor with more than two decades experience in the worlds of gaming, entertainment and sports under his belt. He is a proud pug owner, loves art in all forms, but particularly street and tattoo culture, and is the director of Swear Jar Editorial...
More from this Author
  • + Kill Knight Review
  • + Undisputed Review
  • + Play the House of Tesla Demo Now and Check Out this New Teaser Trailer
  • + "War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2." is an Eye-Opening Documentary

    • Explore More in Gaming

    Arguably one of the most challenging games of this type in some time, Kill Knight is an unrelenting experience through a multi-layered hellscape where you, a "Kill Knight", must reach the final layer to unlock the next, and so on. But where everything within each layer simply wants you dead...

    With 10 years between rounds, Undisputed is set to scratch that boxing videogame itch many of us have been waiting to ease. It's not without its flaws and mishandlings in terms of development and presentation priorities, but it's still decidedly fun and engaging...

    After 14 years of roaming the plains, Red Dead Redemption is finally making its way to PC on October 29, alongside its heralded and decidedly-at-the-time unexpected horror and supernatural expansion, Undead Nightmare!

    Grab the demo and Wishlist House of Tesla now on Steam, and get ready to check out the developers' live streaming the game during Steam Next Fest, taking place from October 14 - 21. Oh, and clickthrough to watch the new teaser trailer and check out a handful of screens!

    This incredible documentary is an almost retro-real-time account of one studio and its employees' resolve in the face of Russia's invasion of its Ukraine homeland and how everyone involved reacted, adapted and continued to work to build and release its game in a pure act of defiance to the aggressors.

    If you're heading to PAX Aus this year, from October 11 - 13, maybe make some time to see some physical action taking place between content creators and their teams, and face to face, not screen to screen!

    Close inspection of the Ghost of Yōtei trailer reveals a few things, particularly in tone. And while there's already been some conjecture online, we take a deeper look under our own lens as die hard fans of the two genres this next entry is clearly building from...

    Another Aussie slice of purely creative game-design and outside-the-box thinking. Plus, cool art and an amazing vibe... boy, we know how to cook 'em Down Under!

    Skulk through a zombie outbreak in a fictional town in Texas in the 80s, while avoiding the terrifying undead, recruiting others to yours and their survival and just try not to make any noise...

    With new government incentives and a country bursting with creative people and world class talent, we welcome another fresh studio in Australia's growing game and technology development landscape!

    Comment

    Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.