When I play Cult of the Lamb I feel all of these other games inside it. I feel Hades, I feel Undermine (an underrated gem), I feel Slay the Spire, the Binding of Isaac. Maybe I even feel Animal Crossing, if Tom Nook were the devil and the whole island locked in a cult – oh so it is Animal Crossing! But even with all of that swirling around, Cult of the Lamb manages to emerge as itself, feeling unforgettably and irrepressibly unique. Whisper it but this could be great.
Cult of the LambDeveloper: Massive MonsterPublisher: DevolverPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Releases 11th August on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch
It’s a Roguelite action RPG, in essence. You’ve got one shot at fighting through a series of rooms, many with enemies, until eventually you reach a boss to complete the mission. There’s a lot of slashing and dodge-rolling, and the pace is fast.
But the different bit is the in-between, which is where the theme of the game really comes through. You’re a lamb saved by the devil as a blade hits your neck to sacrifice you. In return, though, the devil wants you to create a cult for them.
You do this by converting other cute little animal people like you to your cult. Your eyes glow red and they’re whisked away on a demonic portal to your base, a small cutesy forest. Soon, though, that forest is cleared for resources to build your temples and shrines and other culty buildings with, and from these, you access upgrade-trees.
There’s nothing particularly new about any of this, but what makes Cult of the Lamb so exciting is the way it goes about doing it. The whole thing is dripping in demonic cult chic. In many ways it couldn’t look more adorable: cute little woodland animals hop enthusiastically around a bubbly-edged world. But at the same time everything is discordant and cursed. Incomprehensible demonic voices (that sound a lot like Jabba the Hutt…) play in your ear and encourage you to do horrible things to your followers. It’s a wonderful juxtaposition.