First Impressions | Cult of the Lamb

Cult of the Lamb Official Art

Thanks to Steam Next Fest we have our first hands on experience with Supermassive Games' new title, Cult of the Lamb. This adorably creepy game, developed by games studio Massive Monster, is a Binding of Isaac style roguelite dungeon crawler, with some town building elements thrown in for good measure to break up the action, involving recruiting members to your cult and creating a settlement for them. These cultists will likely play a vital role as you progress through the game but only the basics of the system are shown during the demo. 

Demo Gameplay Breakdown

Spoiler warning ahead for those who have not played the demo or plan on playing the game on release and don't want to know anything in advance.

I played through the demo in around half an hour, which was packed with content and comprised what is likely the tutorial section of the game. It's far from hand holdy but does take some time to explain mechanics to you as you come across them. The story takes place in the land of the Old Faith, a religion centered around four god-like (or more accurately demon-like) beings that are hunting down all of the lambs so that they cannot fulfil a secret prophecy. You play as the last of these lambs, who I will refer to as the Lamb, and the beginning of the game has you walking chained to your execution. Just as the headsman seemingly chops your head off, you are transported to another realm where a being known as The One Who Waits is... appropriately... waiting. It is chained up in this realm by the other gods and offers you your life back in return for leading it's cult in order to free it.

The Lamb with their newfound powers

With demonic sword in hand and a stylish flaming hat on your head, you return to the sacrificial alter and battle the cultists surrounding you. Here we learn the basics of dodging and attacking, with both of these mechanics being staples of roguelites they require little introduction but it's worth noting that they feel remeniscent of Hyper Light Drifter's floaty movement and meaty attacks. You battle your way out of the dark forest and destroy every enemy, rock and blade of grass in your way. Upon reaching the exit to the zone a menu comes up that will take you to the next area. Here your meet the first friendly face in your new life as a cult leader, Ratau. A former champion of The One Who Waits and a current follower, the one-eyed acts as your guide and teaches you how to fulfil your new role.

From here you continue your journey out of the woods and fight through some more areas with cultists. You get a chest with some gold whenever you complete a room although it's unclear what this will be used for as of yet. After clearing all of the rooms you come across another sacrificial altar where a lost soul is about to be sacrificed. By killing all of the cultists you get to choose the option of saving the poor creature... by throwing it through a dark portal and indoctrinating it into your cult. Certainly one way of making friends I guess. This completes the initial combat portion of the game and brings you to your new base where you can alter your new follower's name, appearance and even what animal they are, although you cannot change their innate traits. These traits provide various buffs and debuffs to the follower such as making them vulnerable to disease or giving them the ability to ignore other cultists who are spreading heresy.

The Lamb with their newfound follower

Now we get into the town building aspect of the game. You first choose what role your new cultist is going to fulfil, in my case I set them to collect wood. There are only two materials that are usable in the game at the moment; wood and stone. You can gather these resources yourself too from the various trees and ruins around your base. Once you gather some of each you can go to the crafting station to place and build a cooking fire. The cooking fire is used to turn raw items into meals for your followers and you can immediately put it to use by collecting berries from the bushes nearby and creating a basic berry bowl. This even lowers the chance of pooping for whichever follower eats it by 15%! One simple minigame where you have to stop a moving bar in a green zone while avoiding a red zone and voila, you have your first meal.

Ratau returns and tells you that your next step is to build a shrine, but to do so you will need more gold and followers. This is where we find out how the combat factors in as each of the four gods, called the Bishops of the Old Faith, guards a chain that binds The One Who Waits. By taking the portals to the north of your base you can travel to the realms of these Bishops and defeat their followers, champions and (presumably) eventually the Bishops themselves. Doing this will award you with gold and followers, as well as a multitude of other resources to improve your base and eventually free The One Who Waits. Only one portal is open in the demo and it's unclear whether you will need to do each realm one at a time, in any order or whether you can do parts of each at a time, returning to your base in between runs.

For now, you enter the Darkwood and get access to your first new weapon, first curse and the rest of the combat mechanics. The weapon is called the Vampiric Dagger I and provides increased damage, speed and a chance to heal the player when killing an enemy. The curse is called Ichor Thrown I and allows the player to throw a projectile that leaves a black puddle of Ichor that damages enemies who stand in it. Two new combat mechanics are introduced here, health and Fervour. Health is the number of hearts you have and constitutes how many hits you can take, with most hits reducing your health by half a heart. Fervour allows you to cast curses by using one of three charges and can be replenished by slaying enemies.

The Lamb with their newfound powers

Time for more fighting! The next section of the game is more of the same; travelling through rooms, defeating enemies and collecting gold and materials. There are also a new room to find, as well as a friendly character to meet who offers more ways to grow stronger. Clauneck is a tarot reader that is able to provide powers to the Lamb based on what cards they draw from the deck and can be found in their own special room. These cards grant powerful abilities such as extra hearts and a pulse of damage to all enemies when the Lamb takes damage. Upon completing the area you can leave through a room with a pool, chest and portal in it. This takes you to the dungeoneering aspect of the run. Here you get to choose which path you will take to the boss. I am unsure whether it is randomised in the demo but it is likely to be in the full release of the game. For now, you are presented with four paths; once leading to a shop and then a combat zone, one to a forest where you can collect wood and a combat zone, and two that are just combat zones. The other paths are fairly straightforward but the shop path has some noteworthy inclusions. You meet a new character named Rakshasa who is a cook and will give you the choice of a selection of food items to take. The area also includes a giant snail that makes noises when you bump into it and little worms in party hats that cry when you "accidentally" hit them... sorry.

The most adorable bug cafe I've ever seen

Moving on, during the next combat zone you are confronted by one of the Bishops, Leshy, who raises up from a pool of darkness. It tells you to turn and run but seems angry at your nice hat since Leshy knows who must have given it to you. Leshy sinks back into the abyss after reminding you that it is still stronger than The One Who Waits. After some more combat you find a room with a blacksmith named Kudaii and a choice of three new weapons. These weapons each have different stats and effects including the ability to deal critical hits and letting you summon a ghost to attack enemies upon slaying a foe. Once you reach the second to last room and defeat the enemies you also get to choose between two new curses to further power you up. All of this and another chance to visit Clauneck in the next area are useful as you move on to the final zone and the fight against Amdusias. Amdusias is the final boss of this part of the realm, a follower of Leshy who is transformed into a hideous blob monster. It is much tankier than previous enemies and can summon enemies to fight you as well as launching green fireballs and charging at you. New arsenal of weapons and tools in hand though, Amdusias is no match for the Lamb. Defeating him allows you to convert them, now in fluffy adorable form, into one of your followers and gives you a choice of items and a chest of gold as a reward. Progressing on leads you to the end portal and an ominous door with a circle that fills a quarter of the way upon entering. This will likely be the door to progress deeper into the realm but it is locked in the demo and exiting through the portal only shows you a screen with the stats of your run and a demo complete screen.

Amdusias after being transformed

First Impressions Summary

With that, we reach the end of the demo. While it was only half an hour in length there was so much content packed into that short space of time that it only left me wanting more, in the best way possible. The game is a lot of fun with its stylish art design, music that is creepy in parts and comforting in others, and combat that seasoned rogue-lite fans and new players alike will be able to enjoy. When a game manages to remind you simultaneously of the Binding of Isaac, Hyper Light Drifer and even Hollow Knight and Gravity Falls, you know there is something special there. The full game releases in August but we will have plenty of news and updates to keep us busy until then. For my full playthrough of the demo check out the Critical Win YouTube channel and be sure to follow the blog for more Cult of the Lamb information as we head towards the release date.

Cult of the Lamb Full Demo Playthrough