Cult of the Lamb Switch Review – Death is the Greatest Form of Love

Cult of the Lamb is one of the most anticipated indie games for 2022. This incredible-looking and dark roguelite action adventure by Massive Monster is about a land of false prophets and an attempt to prevent a prophesy that will ultimately be their demise. Well, you are the last lamb, and although things aren’t looking very good for you, a massive opportunity is presented to give you another chance.

So is Cult of the Lamb the revenge story we desperately need? Or do these cultists and false prophets need to find work elsewhere? Let’s find out!

Cult of the Lamb is a fascinating game with a story that is both dark and captivating. You play as the last lamb, and you are presented to some cultists who believe that slaying you will prevent a prophecy from taking place. Well, unfortunately for them, you are given a second chance from an unlikely source to come back with a vengeance and begin your own cult. You are now dawned with a red crown that gives you incredible power, and it is up to you to find followers to worship you.

However, doing such is not an easy task, as those evil cultists are still hot on your tail and doing whatever they can to prevent you from fulfilling the aforementioned prophecy, but as you establish your cult by recruiting, you will gain more and more strength and notoriety en route to taking out those evil cultists once and for all…

Honestly, I didn’t know what exactly I was getting into with Cult of the Lamb, but the clear inspiration from The Binding of Isaac grabbed my attention heavily. The theme of cults is an interesting one, as it sets the tone to be dark, manipulative, and questionable, no matter what cult you belong to or lead. This makes the eeriness constantly ooze as you are tasked with killing members of one cult while saving people and recruiting them into your cult, possibly even killing or sacrificing them. It is a game that is heavy in its religious tones and iconography, and I just can’t stop playing it.

Cult of the Lamb is a very interesting take on the roguelite genre, too. In regards to its gameplay, this is a bit more complicated with its requirements than others in the genre due to you being a cult leader and needing to manage your followers as well as venturing into The Lands of the Old Faith to fight off the evil ones trying to prevent your uprise. Because of this, I want to split the gameplay into two sections for the review in order to judge things fairly.

The Cult of Cult of the Lamb

The cult side of the game is fascinating, as this is more of a life simulator/management section in some ways. As you play the game and rescue and convert people, they will join your cult, and you can assign them roles like worshiping, building, and searching and gathering materials, for example. The customization options you have for your followers and your combine is pretty awesome, as you are able to customize your people with various designs and colors, and you also can unlock and build various structures, buildings, and decorations to continue increasing the faith of your followers and strengthening your cult.

Since this is a cult, building an alter and a temple are essential, and these are brought to your attention rather quickly. Gathering faith droplets from your worshipers at the alter will ultimately grant you Divine Inspiration that can be used to purchase upgrades for your combine, like shelters, new establishments, and more, while the temple is a place for you to give sermons, enact doctrines, perform rituals, and more as you try your best to improve the faith of your followers. This is all a lot to handle, but these extra layers to the game provide an experience like no other.

I absolutely love serving and manipulating my cult, and I think this gives Cult of the Lamb an edge because this is genuinely a solid piece of management where you need to continue to raise morale and faith as you indoctrinate, feed, and provide safe places for them to work and sleep. Otherwise, they may defect and cause trouble for you and your other followers. You are also able to perform individual tasks for followers, and some times they are absolutely hilarious. Earning lots of trust from individuals will also net you tons of faith droplets, so staying on top of building, beautifying, and cooking, among other things, is insanely important.

A couple things of note, though, are the things you need to pay a lot of attention to. For example: followers get hungry, sick, poop everywhere, and other things quite frequently, so managing all of them can get frustrating. Also, dissenters occasionally happen, and when that is the case, other followers’ faiths may be in danger. How you resolve such dissension is varied, but it is never an easy decision, as you can kill them, let them starve, re-indoctrinate them, or let them run rampant before they decide to leave. This does make the cult management side of Cult of the Lamb rather difficult and even annoying at times, but it is semi-realistic, which is cool.

The Combat of Cult of the Lamb

The way combat works in Cult of the Lamb is similar to other roguelites and roguelikes out there. Essentially you go through a series of rooms fighting enemies as you make your way towards the boss. In Cult of the Lamb, you go up branching paths that you ultimately get to choose that can assist you better on the way to your final destination. It is a nice system that keeps The Lands of the Old Faith (The playing area) interesting as no two rounds are ever quite the same, but Cult of the Lamb also does things a bit different in regards to powerups and story advancement.

You see, the branching paths in Cult of the Lamb offer different areas to do different things. You can go to a place that offers a new recruit for your cult, or you can choose to go a different path that takes you to an area that offers more items to enhance your character before the inevitable boss fight. This makes the gameplay here feel almost as customizable as your combine, and speaking of the combine, you can unlock lots of new stuff for The Lands of the Old Faith by completing certain tasks at the combine, which will grant you things like extra health, elemental weapons, and more. Simply put, it makes your excursions a bit more doable.

There are five main bosses locked behind different doors in The Lands of the Old Faith, but you have to play a few rounds behind each door before you unlock the main boss. That means you will be facing mini-bosses prior to, and unlike The Binding of Isaac, you always return to your combine after a relatively short excursion, which means this is not a nonstop venture from start to finish fighting numerous bosses in one run. Instead, Cult of the Lamb feels like it provides stages before the main boss stages, and you repeat this cycle until you ultimately beat all five main bosses.

I found the action roguelite side of Cult of the Lamb to be thoroughly satisfying, and although the combat can seem simple, choosing the right weapons and powerups as well as timing your attacks and dodging are key, especially when facing the bigger baddies. Understanding the importance of both The Lands of the Old Faith and your cult’s combine and their relationship is key to a successful run, and I honestly love how this is designed and how it makes you think.

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Something to praise indefinitely is the wonderful, beautiful, and brooding art style. I find extra pleasure when you can find some way to make something look cute and terrifying at the same time, so it is no wonder why I love a game like The Binding of Isaac so much. Well, Cult of the Lamb similarly brings forth such a dark yet stimulating art style that is both full of color and somehow absent at the same time. Your lamb is adorable beyond measure, but when it is giving sermons, punishing converts, or performing rituals, that adorable nature quickly turns scary.

Each of the different biomes within The Lands of the Old Faith are so expressive, and each of them bring their own set of decorations, colors, enemies, and more. You unlock these by increasing your cult member count, so outside of recruiting, there isn’t a whole lot preventing you from skipping ahead without defeating the bosses. Well, you cannot access the 5th area without defeating the previous 4 main bosses, but I digress.

In addition to the stunning visuals, Cult of the Lamb boasts some of the best music in roguelite history. It carries with it religious tones that are familiar yet haunting, and the soundtrack evolves so well with each new area discovered around your combine as well as in The Lands of the Old Faith. Equally, the sound effects are perfect for this type of adventure, and I am especially fond of the mini-bosses and the main bosses and how they sound while battling them. As is the theme of the overall game, the music is dark and sinister in all the right ways.

Cult of the Lamb is a phenomenal roguelite title with some strong management implemented. It does not matter which side of the coin you are participating in, because the cult management and the action area of The Lands of the Old Faith are both spectacular in how they are designed and presented.

I do not say this lightly, but this is one of the best games of 2022 so far. It knocks everything out of the park and provides a title that will entertain for hundreds and hundreds of hours. This is clearly going to be one of the most streamed titles on social media moving forward, and I honestly cannot wait to see what some players will manage to do.

Cults may be a terrifying theme for any entertainment medium, but Massive Monster has taken the concept and given us something truly magical.

Cult of the Lamb Switch Review provided by Nintendo Link
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Developer: Massive Monster
Release Date: August 11th, 2022
Price: $24.99, £22.49, €24,99
Game Size: 789 MB