I first caught sight of Cult of the Lamb at the 2022 WASD event down in London. I remember that promotional materials for Massive Monster’s delightfully occult roguelike dominated the Devolver Digital presentation space, and I was immediately drawn in by the dichotomy of the macabre backdrops and the cutesy characters. Sadly, we had a very full slate of reviews after WASD and didn’t get a chance to give Cult of the Lamb the attention it deserved, but I certainly wasn’t going to miss out on the chance of buying it for myself as a birthday gift in early 2023. Fast forward two years, and Cult of the Lamb finally booted up on my machine – my shiny Switch 2, to be precise.
And boy, was it worth the wait.
The game tells the tale of the last of his kind – an adorable little lamb who’s been snatched up by some psychotic cultists and is sentenced to death to avoid an ancient prophecy from coming true. The prophecy tells of a lamb who would overthrow the four ruling gods, and keen to ensure that can’t happen, they’ve scoured the land and put the entire race to the sword. But as the executioner’s axe falls, a devilish benefactor known as ‘The One Who Waits’ steps in and offers you a deal you can’t refuse. He offers to save your soul and send you back to the land of the living, but in return you must raise a cult in his name and oppose his jealous rivals. The premise is absolutely phenomenal and pulled me in from the get-go. Adding to the entertainment of it all is the fact that, largely, the cast of characters is made up of adorably goofy forest animals who stand in stark contrast to their grimdark story!
And mirroring the dark plotline are some truly sinister motifs. The four reigning gods are delightfully grim on the eyes. The hooded, dagger-wielding henchmen are suitably menacing, and the environments are littered with skulls, tiki torches and summoning circles – all adding to the macabre tone. Enemies explode in showers of blood, guts, and bones, and dark ichor pours from the eyes of the unholy. This is a game that understands its source material and executes it to perfection.
Of course, it’s not lost on me that standing in stark contrast to all the grimdark occult references is the fact that all the characters are absolutely adorable forest animals! In truth, that contrast is part of what makes Cult of the Lamb so much fun. All of the brainwashings, forced starvations and blood sacrifices would be a little too bleak if they weren’t so hilariously offset by the derpy and adorable villagers.
This duality of the visuals is perfectly matched by the twin styles of gameplay. Cult of the Lamb is what you’d get if the residents of Silent Hill got together and created a mashup of Animal Crossing and The Binding of Isaac – part sickening roguelike-dungeon crawler and part saccharine sweet village builder.
The dungeon-crawling adventure sections have a simple formula but are incredibly fun. You navigate a series of procedurally generated rooms and have to slay all the enemies in your path before moving on. Each dungeon is made up of a slate of level options separated by branching paths; some levels offer simple, run-of-the-mill battles with enemies, but some offer shops, mystery events or specific rewards, like cash, resources, or even new cultists! Balancing risk versus reward is a key part to progressing, and it’s important not to overdo it if you’re running short on health – if you’re defeated on a run, you lose a huge portion of the loot you’ve worked hard to accumulate.
On each run, you’ll collect upgraded weapons, special attacks, and stat buffs that help you purge the heretics looking to thwart your reign, and you’ll meet all manner of weird and wonderful folk who can offer assistance in return for a favour or coin. These NPCs introduce some of the roguelike elements to adventuring, as some will bestow occult artefacts or blessings that become unlocked for use in future runs. I love the Tarot cards, which offer a huge variety of bonuses and adjustments and are perfect for the game’s aesthetic. They also offer an excellent collectable for completionists to root out. My only issue is that the upgrades aren’t especially well-balanced (especially the weapons), and you’ll find yourself having a very different experience depending on whether you get a decent drop or a poor one at the start of the run.
After working your way through multiple rooms, you’ll eventually slay some giant gribbly boss monster and head home with all your loot. Overcoming a dungeon multiple times will draw the ire of its reigning deity, drawing them out of their lair and into a showdown, where you’ll take up your sword in the name of The One Who Waits. Stealing the crowns of the heretic gods progresses the story, teaching you more about the history of the bleak world, the nature of the gods and hinting at the sinister motivations bubbling under the surface. The dungeon crawling risks becoming a little formulaic later on, but you’ll have no problem charging through waves of iconoclasts to get more juicy morsels of lore!
Of course, between runs is when the gameplay takes a hard left turn – leaving the roguelike dungeon crawling behind and charging headlong into town builder sim territory.
As you slice your way through the dungeons, you’ll free several sweet little animals who pledge their allegiance to you in thanks for saving their lives. It’s up to you to create an idyllic compound for these little suckers to live in, keeping them happy and content so that they worship the ground you walk on, making them susceptible to your manipulation.
Doing so allows you to gather Devotion points from small shrines, sermons and even their dreams, and once you gain enough, you’ll be blessed with Divine Inspiration – a resource you can spend to unlock new buildings for your compound. As you rack up more Divine Inspiration, you’ll gain access to higher-level structures, expanding how you generate resources, interact with your flock and ultimately bend them to your will. It follows a tried and true RTS upgrade format, which always gives things to aim for and plenty to manage along the way.
There are plenty of methods to keep your followers in line, and it’s up to you if you want to be a benevolent ruler, a cult of personality, or rule with an iron fist. The idea is that you inspire the faith (or fear) of your followers so that they pray to The One Who Waits, building the strength of your patron. As his strength grows, so too does his trust in you, and he’ll bless you with all manner of sinister rituals that you can use to make use of your followers’ pliable minds. But you have to be careful – if you go against your word or leave the camp in a dreadful state, it will soon be rife with whispers that you are a false idol and their faith will dry up.
Obviously, as you’re out and about slaying heretics, overcoming bosses and collecting materials for upgrades, your followers go about their own business back home… and it’s safe to say that they aren’t the brightest bunch! Without the Lamb to guide them (aka run around after their every whim), your followers will do absolutely nothing productive or even necessary for their own survival! And, it goes without saying that the longer you’re away from the camp, the more opportunity there is for them to create a mess, get sick or even starve to death, so you’ll want to keep an eye on how long you’re gone. This clip from Mashed’s TREMENDOUS Cult of the Lamb animation sums up the return to camp experience perfectly.
I actually found the early game a pretty awkward experience to balance. On one hand, you want to complete your run and come away with story progression and the maximum amount of loot to help you expand as much as possible, but on the other hand, the risk of dead or mutinous followers is a very real concern! Once you get into the mid-game and can prep lots of food, have adequate toileting facilities, and enough followers that you can quickly catch up on chores, this becomes less of a problem – but I found the juggling pretty tricky early on.
While my backlog demanded I move onto something else, the extensive lore is definitely intriguing enough to carry the weight of hours and hours of post-game grinding that’s on offer once the credits have rolled. And for the more aesthetic amongst you, there are many DLC packs too, offering all new cultist forms, outfits and decorations for your camp – not to mention the PIlgrim Pack, which even offers an additional story and quests. Honestly, if I didn’t have a million games to churn through, I would gladly have spent three times as long with Cult of the Lamb, and not a minute of that would have been wasted. That said, with news that the next DLC instalment, Woolhaven, is due to release on 22/01/2026 – I’m excited to pull the ceremonial robes on again after soon.
It’s been a long time since a game so effortlessly ate up my time – I simply could not put Cult of the Lamb down. I may have initially been pulled in by the visuals, which are equal parts adorable and grisly, but it was ultimately the simple dungeon-crawling combat and addictive town-building cycle that kept me hooked. Occult and macabre references ooze from every pore of the game, highlighted by some incredibly memorable characters, enemies and mechanics. Despite some performance issues on Switch, I will forever worship at the altar of Massive Monster for unleashing Cult of the Lamb on the world.
Thanks for taking the time to read our review, If you’d like to support us further, please consider buying us a coffee!
