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Cult of the Lamb is a dungeon crawler style game where you create your own cult (including cultivating members.) This gives the game a twist as you must grow your cult to progress further in the story. Progress in the game can be done through decorating the cult and finding other cult members through dungeon crawling or even other cult members bringing in new members.
The dungeons randomise both the layouts and items you come across each run as you become progressively more powerful in between. Each dungeon crusade is randomised and repeatable in the same way, but they are shorter (most take around just 10 minutes total.) You even pick one of four disconnected areas to fight through at the start of every run with a boss fight at the end of each one to complete the dungeon. Doing this can help you acquire new resources and grow the faith your cult has in your teachings.
Growing The Cult
Some of the large enemies you defeat in Cult of the Lamb can turn into your adorable friends (who are your size) upon being defeated and can be recruited to your cult back home. Dungeon crawls are important however growing and progressing your cult is the only way to truly grow stronger. Your cult members can gather resources such as wood and stone, they can worship your statue and gather a resource called devotion and clean up the poop they leave after eating. At the beginning, a lot of this is being done by yourself however, slowly you watch your base grow by unlocking other structures that can do this for you and is also why gathering more cult members is vital. This means that later, your cult members can water your farm and you can even send your recruits on crusades for you where they can gather resources and even turn momentarily into demons to fight for you. The cult members are mortal and can die and many times, I found my cult numbers dwindling so drastically I started going on dungeon crawls just to get more members. The cult is important because you can upgrade your abilities and improve the weapons you find and make dungeon crawling far easier.
Hack & Slash
The combat in this game isn’t overly complex with having only a single attack button, a special “curse” power, and a dodge-roll to use. The dodge allows you to dodge the enemy attacks quickly whilst you continue to fight rooms full of cultists and monsters. The different types of weapons, curses and tarot card buffs can be found along the way within the dungeons which helps shake up each new outing.
One weakness is that you’re given a random weapon and curse at the start of each dungeon, but unfortunately you have no control over which ones will be there for you and some weapons are obviously stronger and faster than other weapons. For example, I found the hammer is far too slow for me to use, and I found myself getting frustrated when trying to use this weapon as the enemies are quick. Similarly, some curses can be extra useful in comparison to others for example one can drop ineffective goo. With the dungeon runs being short, it means you won’t get a chance to find a replacement before the end of the boss fight and this was my downfall many times playing this game.
The tarot card buffs within these runs make up for these unlucky pickings at the beginning as you get to choose which tarot card you want out of three. Some of the cards are also better than others for example giving you an extra heart whilst another can give you a 20% weapon strength increase. Although, sometimes picking an extra good card makes the boss fight too easy to complete and makes you question whether the chosen difficulty is strong enough.
Final Thoughts
Cult of the Lamb is both cute and creepy, mixing different styles and themes seamlessly. While its combat delivers a highly satisfying experience, the short duration of the runs and the limited variety may not provide long-lasting appeal however tending to a flock of followers was just as fun as swinging the axe.
