![]() ![]() It’s safe to say that for all the DNA Cult of the Lamb shares with a game like Dead Cells, it’s just as closely related to a management game like Oxygen Not Included. Those short outings aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but they did mean I spent most of the 13 hours it took me to reach the credits building out my base and completing little quests for NPCs rather than swinging a weapon. ![]() ![]() You even pick between one of four disconnected areas to fight through at the start of every run, with a boss waiting to be beaten at the end of each one in order to complete the story, which means Cult of the Lamb lacks that familiar roguelike tension of seeing how deep into the gauntlet you can manage to make it every time. Each crusade is randomized and repeatable in the same way, but they are also far shorter – most take around just 10 minutes total. The game feels large but not unwieldy, and almost troublingly compelling.While Cult of the Lamb is a roguelite dungeon crawler that randomizes level layouts and the items you come across each run as you become progressively more powerful between them, comparing it directly to similar games like Hades or Rogue Legacy would be a bit misleading. You can’t spend too long in the labyrinth of Darkwood or the grimy depths of Anchordeep you have to emerge from these wars to ensure that the bodies of the dead are buried and prayers are offered, spend a little time fishing or playing dice with your followers, or they will lose faith. The pressure of growing and keeping a thriving cult offers a perfect counterpoint to the winding, high-intensity dungeon portions of the game. There’s an urgency, a need to keep an eye on utilities as well as infrastructure, rather than the need to foster relationships or decorate anybody’s lawn. This management is more reminiscent of Theme Park than of other society-building games such as Animal Crossing, or even resource management games like Stardew Valley. However, if their faith wanes there is risk of illness, starvation, or dissent among your believers. There is an in-game clock that the cult operates by, and every day you have the opportunity to deliver a sermon or perform rituals – from feasts and weddings all the way up to blood sacrifices – which increase their loyalty. They need jobs to do, graves to be buried in – and in return they feed you prayer, which makes you physically stronger as you go out on conquests to violently cleanse nonbelievers. Your worshippers need to be fed, cleaned, housed and preached to. Some you rescue, some you purchase from menacing spiders, some you acquire when horrifying level bosses dissolve into very sweet, small creatures and willingly join your flock. Your cult is composed of followers that you pick up throughout the four realms. The other half of the game is a cult-management simulator. This surrender of choice means no two runs are ever the same, hearkening back to the structure of 2018’s critical darling Hades, and 2020’s tech-world satire Going Under. Your weapons are chosen for you at the start of each run, and your power-ups are determined by equally randomly selected tarot cards that you can uncover on your way. You, the Lamb, move through each of the bishops’ winding realms towards its leader, whom you need to defeat to free your own god from his chains. But the tables turn quickly in your favour, and soon you are the one wielding the blade and performing the rituals.Ĭult of the Lamb is a game of two distinct parts that operate in sync. It’s no small ask for a tiny sheep who has already been slaughtered. Your job, as this titular lamb, is clear: gather devotees to worship the eldritch being, and murder the four heretic bishops who oppose him. In the first few moments of runaway summer hit Cult of the Lamb, the protagonist is sacrificed and summoned back to life as an emissary of an imprisoned elder-god. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |