REVIEW: Cult of the Lamb (Original Release)
Developer: Massive Monster
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Released: 2022
Platforms: Steam | PS4 & PS5 | Switch | Xbox One & Series X/S
Combining roguelike dungeon delving with a casual village sim works surprisingly well. I’m continuously intrigued by this evolving genre.
At first, I thought Lamb’s sim portion “wasn’t that deep,” until I noticed 21 hours of playtime on my save. There are lots of smaller intertwined tasks to keep yourself busy and your cultists comfy. Meal planning, construction, farming, and cleaning up their messes are a few examples. It’s also important to boost their faith with sermons, rituals, successful delves (“crusades”), and simple gossip, as it pays off with immense strength in following crusades. It’s an interesting approach to help the player “break” a roguelike.
A benefit of Lamb’s sim half is that it helps unwind after the roguelike half. The frustration of a botched crusade quickly melted away as I socialized with my woodland animals.
The hack-and-slash combat is simple and engaging. There are multiple weapon types (e.g. axes & gauntlets), a handful of spells, and a few status effects (e.g. freezing or leeching health from enemies). Tarot cards (usually) give tremendous boons to unlock your full potential in each crusade. A highly reliable dodge roll rounds out the toolkit.
Admittedly, I have one critique with crusades: I’d like their upgrades to be expanded upon. It doesn’t need to be overhauled to Binding of Isaac levels; I’d simply like to see more than the same 10 or so weapons and spells but with ice or poison applied to them.
I foolishly bought the crusty Switch version of Lamb (portable roguelikes are awesome), but I have no regrets. That being said, I strongly recommend avoiding this version until/if a future patch fixes its glaring problems.
For 1.0.3, Switch Lamb randomly stuttered to the point that controller inputs were ignored. The lag was most influenced by the number of cultists in my village. Anywhere above 9 or 10 would lead to slideshow levels of FPS, especially during boss fights. In that build’s state, I couldn’t feasibly gather the 20 cultists required to summon the final boss.
I suppose I gained bragging rights for defeating the Bishops on “slideshow difficulty.” I can spin this into a positive somehow!
So long as it’s a stable copy, Cult of the Lamb is worth looking into. I’m happy to have played even after an incomplete and stuttery experience.
Two Thumbs Up
