Hey, kids! Ever wanted to start your own cult but weren’t sure which undying elder god to devote your existence to? We can help!
When developer Massive Monster summoned Cult of the Lamb from the depths of the netherworld in 2022, they quickly found a large flock of devotees singing the praises of this fun and unique genre mash-up. Its innovative blend of base management sim and real-time roguelike dungeon crawler attracts a diverse range of gamers… but how does this unearthly demi-game balance these radically different elements to become the ultimate cult simulator?
With visuals as fluffy as its pastoral protagonist, a quick glance at Cult of the Lamb’s gorgeous storybook art style belies its absurdly dark content. This is the uncanny dichotomy at the heart of its popularity.
The game follows the path trod by its genre predecessors, Nuclear Throne and particularly The Binding of Isaac, contrasting bleak horrors with charming—and in this case, downright adorable—graphics. The cutesy cartoon visuals can help make the game's vile situations more palatable, playable, and even a little funny in a dark sort of way.
But this contrast can also make its horrors all the more horrific and discomforting.
Cult of the Lamb | Courtesy of Massive Monster
After all, you play as the Lamb, recently resurrected by the shadowy deity “The One Who Waits,” to lead a cult devoted to him. You gather and nurture lovable cartoon animal followers, feeding off their devotion, and look them right in their big, smiling, whole-hearted cartoon animal eyes as you lead them to the slaughter.
This spectrum of experiences and striking interpersonal dynamics tug on players’ emotions and add weight to their choices for their cult. Players often become pretty invested in their followers and their camp as they work to grow a cult worthy of the Bishop of Death.
Anyone who told you running a cult is easy has clearly never run one before.
Successful cult administration requires navigating Cult of the Lamb’s perfectly crafted seesaw of gameplay, which teeters between a distinct base management sim and a roguelike dungeon crawler.
In order to manage resources at your cult base, you’ll need to acquire the necessary resources—and for that, you’ll need to embark on crusades.
Crusading is where the game’s most traditionally roguelike elements come into play. The rooms are randomized and contain procedurally generated resources, perks, and weapons. At the start of a run, players are offered a random choice of weapons, each with its strengths and weaknesses, and a random choice of curse abilities, such as summoning tentacle attacks or spewing poison.
Cult of the Lamb | Courtesy of Massive Monster
Runs are also augmented by Tarot cards, which offer randomly offered special effects that can be stacked across a run. These include abilities like harvesting bonus resources or spawning offensive tentacles whenever an enemy strikes them.
Where Cult of the Lamb diverges from many of its fellow roguelikes is that its dungeon-crawling aspects exist within a broader game, meaning that there’s no permadeath. Instead, you’re just faced with a failed resource-gathering run while your world and character keep on going.
Crusaders choose their way through randomized, branching dungeon paths that vaguely indicate what they hold in store: resources, shops, better weapons or health, or new followers to indoctrinate. Having even this amount of choice gives an increased sense of control and purpose to the quests amid the general uncertainty.
Cult of the Lamb | Courtesy of Massive Monster
We love this dynamic, and it’s one we’ve incorporated into our bullet heaven roguelite Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood. As you slash through waves of enemies, you must choose between paths with terrifying trade-offs… spare the innocents and receive more rewards. Or take a shorter and safer route to sacrifice civilians to Nicolas Cage’s Dracula? Choices are powerful, and that power rests with you!
As with any other roguelike, the wide array of random systems—assorted traps, environmental obstacles, new offensive options, and a variety of enemies requiring various strategies to combat them—keeps these holy moral missions fresh and lively. But this random variety can be especially effective in Cult of the Lamb since it’s all delivered in relatively short runs!
Cult of the Lamb | Courtesy of Massive Monster
As the dungeons are only a portion of what the game is about, they’re significantly smaller than those of most other roguelikes like, say, The Binding of Isaac, lasting closer to ten minutes each.
And that’s good news because back at camp, your followers are absolutely lost without you, living in their own waste and wondering what happens if they stick silverware in the electrical socket.
You’ll want to get the resources you’ve acquired back to home sweet compound ASAP, where you can indoctrinate the friendly converts you met along your crusades and guide them toward being good and productive members of a brainwashed society.
In our next installment, we’ll explore the home base side of the game’s unholy alchemical equation and see how that side supports the roguelite elements.
Game over for now -- be sure to progress through all the entries in Mega Cat Studios’ Roguelike Meta Series!
