With a name darker than the actual gameplay really presents, Devolver Digital is publishing a cute game with a dark premise by the Massive Monster team. Cult of the Lamb is a mixture of a dungeon crawler and a management simulator as you must succeed at both aspects of this game in order to proceed through it. While I was able to get an early look at the game before they released their free demo on Steam, I can gladly say I look forward to the game’s full release on August 11th!

Gameplay

The game starts off with a lore bit that shows your character being sacrificed and then being revived by a malevolent being under the clause that you will start up your own cult, gain a following, and release him from his binding chains. To do this, you will head into various parts of the lands, fight your way past enemies, and rescue various little creatures that you can turn to your cult once saved.

After you leave the lands you will enter a clearing that you will eventually call home. Here you can bring the rescued ones, convert them to your cult, and give them a task to help manage your clearing. As there are rocks, grass, and trees everywhere, not to mention the cult-management tasks such as praising a deity statue, cooking food, and farming ingredients that all have to be managed. The larger your cult grows, the more members you’ll have to handle various tasks.

Each item and aspect of your cult’s clearing will require you to set it up to be built. There is basically a big open area to work with once you remove some rocks and trees, so feel free to set up camp in any style you want to. Personally, I set up the cooking on the left side, along with the farming section, then put the chapel on the right side near the front, and the sleeping area south of the initial settlement area. This was just a first placement setup, so it is likely not optimal either.

After you manage the cult camp to the best of your abilities and complete the various tasks that are given to you by the game, it will be time to head back out into the world. Each section of the world is presented in a dungeon-style format where you will go room-to-room, clearing enemies, finding supplies, collecting treasures, and more. As you complete a segment of the dungeon, you have a path choice to make that will ultimately lead you to the end of the dungeon where you have to beat a boss. Every successful dungeon trek will give you at least one new cult member and plenty of supplies to bring back.

Combat in the game is similar to the classic dungeon-crawler of the top-down variety. You will be given a random weapon, be it a battleaxe, sword, or whatever, and then sent out to start clearing each room. You can dodge roll, attack, and eventually use a secondary attack. This honestly felt like an introduction to the combat, so I am excited to see how advanced these can get.

Expectations

With a bit of time and effort, the cult clearing is sure to reach a point where you won’t have to actually do any of the management yourself. While you will have to do plenty in the beginning, I can see the cult getting big enough that there is at least one person to handle every task that the game presents. That would give you more time to focus on finding upgrade gifts, handle sermons, power up your character, and complete more dungeon runs.

As for the dungeons themselves, the setup for them is very well done! The easy difficulty really makes the game available for all players while the medium difficulty alone makes it more of a challenge for the moderate player. I can see player’s looking to push themselves once they get upgraded equipment, so it is good that they have the ability to change the difficulty without having to make a whole new save file.

The introduction to the magic attacks felt really brief, so I can say that I am excited to see how diverse and expansive they end up taking that aspect of the combat. I do enjoy the melee as well, but I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea of adding a crossbow or bow and arrow option as well in the game. Plus, the randomization aspect of being given a weapon at the start is neat, but I do hope they end up letting players pick their gear before heading into a dungeon if they prefer.

Verdict

Cult of the Lamb is already proving to be a very entertaining game! The demo itself was fun and I was disappointed to reach the block point that didn’t let me proceed any further. I am looking forward to the finished version of this game and building up my own little cult. While I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the premise, it has just the right amount of cartoonistic aspects that make it more entertaining than it is disturbing.

Cult of the Lamb will be released on August 11th for PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.