Test – Cult of the Lamb: The adorable cult simulator

Released recently, Cult of the Lamb has already made a little noise. The title proposes to immerse us in the skin of a very cute lamb who must manage a sect devoted to a demonic being.

Since its announcement, it has caught the eye of many fans of indie games, Cult of the Lamb is now available on all platforms. We owe its publishing to Devolver Digital, always there to find games that have potential, and its development to a studio called Massive Monster. It’s an ingenious mix of management mechanics and rogue-lite inspired by a certain The Binding of Isaac.

In Cult of the Lamb we embody a little lamb who, from the first moments, is sacrificed by four demons for their ritual. His story does not end there, since despite his death, he is invoked by “the one who waits”, an evil deity who offers him a resurrection in exchange for a small service. Our lamb must dedicate its new life to running a cult in honor of this entity. He then offers us the red crown which grants us many useful powers. Our mission is therefore to manage our new activity while taking the time to take revenge on the four demons who took our lives.

We are the new leader of this sect.

The title is divided into two major game phases. The first are the exploration phases in dungeons. It is possible to access several environments that generate a dungeon procedurally. With each entry, we randomly obtain a weapon as well as a secondary power. Cult of the Lamb then turns into an action game, with attack buttons and a roll, where you have to defeat the enemies of the different rooms. Some rooms allow you to choose from several active bonuses only during our current run. Going to the end of these small dungeons several times will confront us with different bosses, and then allow us to face one of the four demons in order to progress in the scenario. Completing a dungeon usually takes regarding ten minutes, before returning to our little village.

The other great activity of the title is that of managing our worship and our small plot of land. Exploring dungeons allows us to enlist lost souls, also randomly generated, and send them to our brotherhood. This is located on a small green space that we will develop over the course of the game. The plot is wild at first but, thanks to the many materials collected in the dungeons, it will be possible to develop what to cook, to build structures related to worship, or even simply to decorate our space. We have the power to assign different tasks to our followers who will then work for the development of the cult, but we must also ensure that their level of hunger and faith does not reach a critical level.

There are several resources to manage to improve the lives of our followers.

Our recruits can also pray to earn us faith points. Once reached a certain stage, divine inspiration allows us to learn how to build new things. Many mechanics are added to it and offer a real feeling of constant progression. Every day, we can also perform a sermon or rituals of different kinds with the aim of increasing the faith of our followers. The concept turns out to be quite advanced thanks to many ideas and allows you to play the benevolent leader or the tyrant who sacrifices his followers. The title also gives the possibility to explore other places and to carry out small quests, even to take part in some small mini-games.

So we alternate between running our cult and exploring dungeons. The mixture of the two genres works particularly well, the alternation allows you to vary the pleasures while keeping an addictive side. It is all the same a shame to see that the action phases, if they are very pleasant to take in hand, still suffer from some problems of readability. You should also not expect as much depth as in other rogue-likes concerning the possibilities of combat, the title does not offer a ton of diversity. Note also that the days unfold in real time, and that time continues to flow even when we are in the dungeons. This produces constant pressure since leaving our followers too long without our presence might cause them to starve or lose their faith.

Enemies are sometimes tough.

It is necessary to underline the effectiveness of the artistic direction of Cult of the Lamb. The title is entirely done in a rather cute and colorful style, effectively blending 2D and 3D. The visual rendering is very elaborate, the characters are very expressive and the universe, both cute and disturbing, offers a memorable contrast. The game still evokes violent themes and sometimes shows slightly graphic scenes. Despite its cute appearance, the game is therefore not to be put in front of all eyes. This contrasting universe is also characterized by the very sympathetic music of the title.

If yours truly has only encountered very slight graphical bugs while browsing Cult of the Lamb, the latest title update unfortunately produces many problems on the various supports. The developers have however announced that they are working on the subject. In the meantime, we can deliver a positive verdict on Massive Monster’s latest game. With several levels of difficulty and its lifespan which oscillates between 10 and 25 hours depending on your desire to finish the game from top to bottom, the title offers an original adventure with a well-used concept. Its addictive mechanics and its striking universe counterbalance its somewhat messy gameplay and its slight lack of diversity.

Conclusion

Indie game enthusiasts may have already heard of the latest title released by Devolver Digital. Developed by Massive Monster, Cult of the Lamb is an ingenious mix of Dungeon Crawler and management game, with a Rogue-lite edge to go with it all. We embody a little lamb who is sacrificed by demons for their ritual. Despite his death, he is invoked by an evil deity called “he who waits”. This being offers him a resurrection in exchange for his loyalty. Our character will then devote himself to creating a cult in his honor. The title is divided into two phases of play, exploration of procedurally generated dungeons as well as the management of our worship and our followers. Many mechanics make it possible to personalize our camp as well as to gain in power and possibilities. The fights are a bit messy, but the mix remains addictive and very effective. Various bugs can occur, despite this the game still offers a memorable universe and artistic direction. Its original adventure and its well-exploited concept make it a very nice title.

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Cult of the Lamb

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