By: Massive Monster
For: PC, Mac, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X
Rating: ★★★★+
Playing as a cult leader feels so wrong ... but is ever rewarding.
Cult of the Lamb starts off with you being forced to walk to your execution. Lovely. After the axe swings down, the scene cuts and you’re left floating in a bright void, with a chained god claiming he rescued you and can bring you back, provided you start a cult in his name. Of course, you accept and, with some help from the previous cult starter, begin your new cult leader life.
There are two parts to this game; the hack ‘n’ slash rogue-like where you obtain resources and continue the story, and the base-building/cult management simulator, where you use those resources to grow and sustain your cult. At your base, you collect resources from your followers to grow stronger in the rogue-like, a clear gameplay loop where you are encouraged to engage with both parts of the game for the benefit of the other.
The rogue-like sections are very The Binding of Issac style — a bunch of randomly generated rooms and enemies, featuring random power-ups and bosses. At the end of each stage, you can choose where you want to go next; another battle, or to collect resources or followers. At the end of each run you can decide to keep going or head back to your cult. Don’t be gone too long though. Your flock is easily swayed and fickle, and will lose faith in you over-time.
The base-building section involves building structures, which can increase the number of ways you have to extort resources from your followers. You also have to manage resources, such as your follower’s faith in you, and collect their devotion to increase your power. You can also hold sermons to further increase your power, or partake in strange rituals for various beneficial effects. There’s a lot to the base-building side, and that’s where I suspect I’ve spent most of my time.
The dichotomy of something cute turning out to be horrifying is such an overplayed theme, especially in video games, but here it feels ... right. It’s well integrated, with cutesy art and music contrasting beautifully with events.
At one point I had just finished a sermon to my flock when one of them came up to me with the ‘‘I have a quest’’ icon above their head. I thought it was just a normal gathering quest or something, but when I talked to them, they said that they ‘‘just wanted to tell you that I love you’’. This ... kinda stunned me for a bit. There’s something so abnormally heartwarming about hearing this when at any moment I could extort them out of their money, or worse.
The only real down side to this game is some of the pacing. You earn upgrades very slowly in the beginning. Other times, it can feel like the game is stuck in the base-building mode if you massively mess up, as you have to remain with your cult so you can get everything back to normal.
Cult of the Lamb is such a strange concept but it’s done so well that I’m surprised it’s not been done before (the closest I can think of is Recettear). The art, music and gameplay are top notch and I cannot wait to see where Massive Monster go from here. This is a clear game of the year contender, and I highly recommend it to all.
- Another PC remake of a game from the PS4 era, Spiderman (2018) was so vast and expansive that going back to it four years later doesn’t feel like a retread. The PC has now received the Remastered version that was released on the PS5. There is a graphical upgrade from the original PS4 release, with different lighting, higher quality textures, and ray tracing.
I had some major issues with the cutscenes and voice acting. Often characters would stop talking and lines would overlap when they restarted. Sometimes Spiderman would turn into a plant pot, stretch out into grotesque formations or just vanish entirely. Thankfully, I played the original game so I do remember the story, but you may have some issues following the story if you have similar issues.
That is at odds with the gameplay, which is still just as good as it was four years back. Keyboard and mouse controls are fine, although a controller works best for this game. Performance was a solid 60fps throughout and the game has various PC-specific features to take advantage of for lower-spec computers.
All-in-all, it’s another fine PC release with a lot of decent features. If you didn’t play the original, this is a fine version to jump into one of the best games from the PS4 era. The PC version of the spin-off Miles Morales is set to come out late this year, so keep an eye out for that as well as that Bloodborne PC release which is surely just around the corner!
Review by Michael Robertson
