Cult of the Lamb Review
A title like Cult of the Lamb can easily live or die on the aesthetic it puts front and center. So, making sure to nail both the first look and the smaller artistic details is a must for making sure the game can stand out amongst the Indie market. Thankfully, developer Massive Monster has not only captured the aesthetic of Cult of the Lamb, but the gameplay doesn’t suffer for that success either. The unique combination of Roguelite dungeon crawling and Town-Building Simulator comes together in a much more satisfying way than the concept might initially appear. However, for all of Massive Monster’s successes, there are still some points where Cult of the Lamb stumbles, though it rarely fails. From many of the games before it, Cult of the Lamb’s gameplay loop sends players through procedurally generated dungeons where no two runs will be exactly the same. It is divided into two types of traversal, the individual dungeon maps reminiscent of the Zelda style of moving from static room to static room, along with the larger path that leads from map to map. It’s a layered traversal system that allows players to fight as long as they want, and pick materials to take back to their hometown.
However, more important than the level design is the combat, which will likely be the focus of most players when Cult of the Lamb launches. Mixing and matching different melee weapons and magical curses leads to each run adopting a new game style every time the player jumps into one of the four main dungeons. The combat is fluid, and the rhythm of each weapon manages to keep the overall gameplay consistent, even if the attacks and combos are completely different. That’s not even mentioning the dodge mechanic, which is incredibly enjoyable if slightly unbalanced in the player’s favor. Of course, the lightning fast dodge roll is just one of the few advantages the player gets when enemies start throwing attacks all over the map. Combat complexity is something that grows throughout Cult of the Lamb, first starting players off against some easier cultists with limited attack patterns, before quickly adding enemies that attack from range with arrows and light orbs. Towards the end of the game, the combat takes notes from the genre by mixing Roguelite elements with Bullet Hell combat. Some boss fights, and even random rooms, turn into absolute chaos, requiring players to track attack patterns from several sources at once. All that said, the battle isn’t perfect. For example, Cult of the Lamb doesn’t have as many weapons as other Roguelikes like Dead Cells. Additionally, even the limited number of weapons have some lackluster options. It’s specifically the knife and claws that fail to balance for combat speed, aiming to offer faster attack speed for lower damage per hit. More than anything else, claws are quite short, as they require the player to get to the end of a combo before doing real damage. Considering that enemies in the later game don’t last long enough for a full combo, this particular weapon becomes its own hard mode.
Alongside the Roguelite elements, the game also doubles as a Town-Building Simulator, where managing the Cult of the Lamb’s titular cult directly improves their chances for success in the dungeons. While the art design is in stellar form in the dungeons, between the combat animations and boss designs, back in the cult is where it truly excels. Not only does the resource harvesting and follower management work well with the playful, cartoon aesthetic, but the dark, cult horror aspect also leads to some incredible animations. RELATED: 8 Great Roguelike Games On Steam That Deserve More Attention When it comes to gameplay for these cult segments, the pace of managing followers can be intense. This is mostly due to how the three main management components in Cult of the Lamb continue to operate in the background while the player is in the dungeon. Leaving for too long, will result in cult members starving to death, getting sick if the dirt and corpses aren’t cleaned up, or leaving if their faith isn’t kept high. It all comes together by requiring players to attend to the individual needs of various followers, even going so far as to complete quests for them. Of course, cult members can also be sacrificed in many ways if their particular needs become too pressing.
While the Roguelite elements and the Town-Building elements succeed on their own, it’s the ways in which the two genres are mixed that help Cult of the Lamb stand out. On the more obvious side of this synergy, improving the cult can unlock new weapons and abilities that bring dungeons and make progression easier and more varied. However, both work in the opposite direction, as dungeons are where players will find most of their followers, and double as a source for materials to improve the cult. The ability to go on paths to collect wood, stone, or food can not only avoid dangerous fights, but can also be the key to gathering enough materials to construct some earlier buildings. All in all, Cult of the Lamb is an awesome title that leans more towards the Roguelite genre than anything else, while still pulling everything it needs from other genres that separate the games from the Indie crowd . Not every feature or mechanic is perfect, and the story is more interesting as lore than it is as a narrative, but that doesn’t seem to be the developer’s main focus. With that in mind, Cult of the Lamb succeeds where it counts, from the Roguelite dungeons to the dark cartoon aesthetic. Cult of the Lamb is set to release on August 11, 2022 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Today Technology was provided a PC code for this review. MORE: From Rogue to Returnal: How Games Like Hades and Spelunky 2 Prove Fans Are Not Sick of Roguelikes