Cult of the Lamb
First published in GRIND II, pages 34–37.
Join our cult!
We have everything you could ever wish for…, When was the last time you had clarity in life? When did you know, exactly, that what you were doing was good for you, and that you were achieving your purpose on this Earth? If the answer doesn't come easily to mind, I have the solution for you. Join our cult! We have everything you could ever wish for: membership of a tight-knit community, authentic food and lodging out in nature, group activities that forge friendships for life and, last but not least, a purpose.
He is our purpose. We will follow Him into the dark depths to carry His glory as far as it will go. The Lamb!
Oh… the life of an acolyte!
That's more or less what the life of an ordinary acolyte in Cult of the Lamb sounds like.
Lost souls adrift in the murk of a war waged between false prophets and demons held in chains. Innocent spirits that our protagonist can still save.
The Lamb at the centre of the action was, in turn, a poor slave due to be executed. The four rulers of the kingdom, the four Bishops, tried their utmost to maintain the order they had imposed. By sacrificing the creatures that rose up against them, they managed to stay on the throne. Until now!
The lamb led to slaughter has a guardian angel up there… or down below, more like. The chained demon mentioned earlier is the one ceaselessly searching for a trustworthy acolyte to bear his crown. His answer arrives in the shape of this hoofed little creature with white, fluffy wool, whom the player gets to control throughout the whole adventure. Blessed by this lord of darkness, the lamb will in turn gather acolytes, create a cult and fight the power-hungry bishops.
Happy Tree Lambs The premise of Cult of the Lamb is utterly delicious, full of black humour served up in an authentic form – Happy Tree Friends style, which I used to watch as a kid. You control a lamb endowed with divine graces, equally capable of leading a community and fighting when the need arises.
The aim of the game is to expand your cult, lay down strict laws, look after your members' well-being, but also to spend your meal breaks butchering wild animals in one of the 4 dungeons on offer: one for each Bishop.
From that angle, the game strikes a balance between fighting and management, tastefully combining bits and pieces found in plenty of other titles. The action plays out over several days, so there's a day–night cycle and you have to pick what matters most. Your acolytes are hungry, need rest, and can even relieve themselves wherever they happen to be when there isn't so much as a toilet out the back. Above all, the cultists are here for you, their leader, the one who saved them from the clutches of death.
Their faith can be called into question, though, if you're not a true leader: a few wrong decisions and the ungrateful wretches will change their minds and start rebelling against you. The needs meter for your cult members lets you work out what the priorities are. At least early in the game it's a tightrope walk – because you have neither the resources nor the time to answer all the demands that come up efficiently.
Leaving management aside for a moment, I think it's important to get your head around how the combat system works. It dovetails perfectly with the management side, because time passes even while you're in a dungeon. As a result, your acolytes can starve to death if you take too long fighting worms and other creepy-crawlies. Even so, you come back from the dungeon with money, building materials, talismans, new recruits and, if you find the right path, you'll end up fighting the Bishops too.
Heartache and diversity…
Cult of the Lamb is thus a roguelike with a dose of time management, especially in the first part. Combat takes place across a series of two-dimensional maps that remind me of The Binding of Isaac, with a relatively wide variety of enemies.
What makes the action more interesting is that at the start of every dungeon you're given a weapon and a special ability.
All told there are 5 main weapons, each feeling different depending on which quality you prefer: speed or damage. Special abilities are far more numerous, and the more hours you put in, the more new attributes and powers you unlock.
The combination of the two, plus the variety the game offers, means every new run plays out a little differently from the last. My soul ached every time I started a fight with a knife, but I always hoped I'd find a proper weapon along the way.
I got on best with the axe or the hammer, in those moments when the impact of every attack registers even in the pixels kicked up from the ground with each hit.
It's important I don't forget to mention the bosses, most of whom I found hard to beat on first contact. But once you learn the routine of moves they repeat, they become more reasonable. The exception is one single boss, who cut me down countless times… but I'll let you discover who that is for yourselves. The salt and pepper of these adventures are the tarot cards you find along the way, which work as a passive ability active only for that particular run. They, too, abound in variety and create situations where you genuinely feel like a god among mortals. As well you should be, in your capacity as cult leader!
So much for the fighting, but I've just had a message that one of my slaves… urghhh, I mean my dear acolytes, is starving to death while another has caught pneumonia from too much exhibitionism. It's time to get back to them, make them food, scoop up the crap from every corner of the map… because, yeah, when you have a dog you have to carry the little bag round with you. Above all, I summon them to a new sermon. That keeps everyone's faith high and lets me, in time, promulgate laws carved into stone tablets.
What's interesting is that you're always offered a choice between two laws, and that's what generates the personalised cult. For example, you can encourage polygamy, the sacrifice of members, fundraising drives and fishing marathons among your acolytes. Once you keep their faith at a high level, the acolytes also offer you a bit of divine inspiration that helps you unlock new buildings for your cult. I'm tired of scooping your crap myself, so I'll build you a storehouse and hire an acolyte to do it in my place. In time the work automates itself, through members labouring in your stead so that your will be done. And you, like a true leader, enjoy it all from the top of your pile of gold coins.
We've got mushrooms!
What binds the whole experience together even better is the presence of secondary characters who interact with you and hand you quests. Like any self-respecting cult, you have to go through the mass mushroom-consumption experience too: sometimes you enjoy the beneficial effects, other times you discover adverse reactions. This information is dished out by a secondary character who slots in perfectly with the rest of the story.
I also want to mention two minigames that added a bit of flavour to the game.
On the one hand there's classic fishing, which in this case is a copy of the system found in Stardew Valley.
That's not a complaint; for me, fishing in Stardew Valley is one of the most relaxing experiences there is.
Cult of the Grind!
On the other hand there's a dice gambling game that takes a bit of strategy if you want to secure significant winnings over the long run. Like fishing, it was a minigame I thoroughly enjoyed and which rounded out the game and the world it builds.
With graphics perfectly chosen for the story it tells, with smooth animations for every activity and fight in the game, and with hitboxes that are sometimes annoying (though mostly functional), Cult of the Lamb manages to offer many good hours of entertainment. It pinned me to my chair for a few days, every free moment devoted to confronting the forces of evil (or of good?), as well as to expanding my prolific cult. I recommend it wholeheartedly to every fan of the roguelike genre, and to Stardew Valley fans too.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to carry on dancing with my acolytes… because faith in the leader is only maintained through direct interaction with my dear disciples. That and sacrifices, of course.
Mihai Dimache
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