*The following review is spoiler free*
Cult of the Lamb was made free to play for Nintendo Switch Online users during the week of Halloween and we took that chance to play the game. Here are our thoughts and some tips for the overall gameplay.
Background
Cult of the Lamb follows the story of a sacrificed lamb who is resurrected by “The One Who Waits”. The terms of the resurrection? To create a cult and avenge “The Heretics” that have imprisoned “The One Who Waits”. Indoctrinate followers, create doctrines for your cult, go on crusades to collect tarot cards, resources and more while slaying enemies. You can build and decorate a village for your cult for all your cultist needs.
Cost
We were initially able to play/test the game for free prior to purchasing thanks to an exclusive offer for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. This gave users a maximum of one week to play the game. After Halloween you lost access, but your data was saved and would be restored if you were to purchase the game.
The game is available physically for $25 and digitally for $25 from the Nintendo E-Store. There is also DLC for the game, “The Cultist Pack” and “The Heretics Pack”, which are an additional $6-$7 on the E-Store. However, both DLCs only offer additional decorations and follower forms for your cult so they may not be worth it for all players.
Kat’s Review:
Cult of the Lamb is unlike any game I’ve played before.
There is a perfect balance. On one end, you are managing your cult through faith (overall level of your cult’s loyalty to you given how you manage and control them), loyalty (each follower’s specific level of commitment towards you), and overall management of your plot of land. Then there is everything outside of your cult which mainly consists of ‘crusades’ but does include some NPCs and other in-game locations.
Faith can be gained through sermons, rituals, and through doctrines which are basically the choices you make within the game for managing your cult. Faith can be lost through certain rituals, having a dirty plot of land, and not taking care of your cult like not feeding them, for example.
Loyalty can be gained through direct contact with your followers by inspiring, bribing, or intimidating them. They will also give you tasks that you can choose to accept and gain a reward upon completion or deny and immediately lose faith.
You spend a significant amount of time on crusades where you’re going into one of four worlds/realms where you’ll slay enemies (AKA the non-believers), gain new followers, collect resources, meet NPCs, and face bosses. You also get choices of tarot cards, weapons, curses, and relics during your crusades.
I would play this game for hours on end without getting bored. Even the repetition of tasks is made fun and doesn’t feel like you’re grinding for resources. Every time I would pick it back up I would be just as enticed by the game.
It is weird how my overall perspective changes throughout the game. Initially, I was distraught at the idea of sacrificing my followers, but at the end it was a typical encounter. Even so, you still start to have your favorites that you can continue to resurrect over and over again.
The game also progresses really well. You have to take the time to build up your cult, but after you’ve done that, your followers are able to do most of the work for you. You just need to feed them and keep up their faith. This keeps you invested initially without being a bore once you start hitting tens of hours into the game.
The crusades will get increasingly difficult, but in a way that matches your increasing levels and the resources available for you on your crusades.
Even post game, I’m still enjoying playing on my initial save file and trying to complete all the tasks and find all of the secrets within Cult of the Lamb. You’re never without tasks, but most tasks aren’t pressing either; so you have time to get to them and you also get the decision on what tasks to tackle head on first. The exclusion to this are tasks from your followers which you only get a limited time to complete before your cult loses faith.
I can’t say I was clever enough to give my cult a name, but I can say I am very passionate about both my cult and of course the overall game.
Bennett’s Tips:
Early in the game, you are faced with making decisions that will affect your cult. One of them being the ability to enact doctrines into your cult that can alter the way your cult functions or give you access to powerful rituals. It is important to strike a balance between positive and negative doctrine to keep your cult happy but still give you, the cult leader, all the power you need.
Playing around with the settings can also change your gameplay experience. Not only can you change the difficulty (personally I set it to easy as the combat can be difficult), you can enable auto fishing and cooking so you don’t need to experience the agony of losing a fish or burning a meal. You can also pause time progression in your cult when you leave, which prevents your cult members from starving, however, it does prevent them from collecting useful resources. One way to have both the health meter frozen and having your cultists slave away is to enact Ritual Fast, as it will prevent your cult members from eating but it locks their hunger. This effect lasts for three days, so it is perfect to use when you go on a crusade. This is also a useful way to save on ingredients for food.
Going fishing is a good way to get food and money. Some fish sell for 20 gold, so be sure to go to the docks every day to stock up. Gold is useful for building and for getting more tarot cards when crusading, so it is important to stock up on it and sell the things you don’t need.
Fleeces are what your lamb wears when walking around and going into battle. Not only are they stylish, they provide benefits when on a crusade. I personally like the golden fleece as it allows you to increase your damage after every kill, but be careful as your damage boost will go to 0% when you get hit. This makes it easy to smash through enemies and beat bosses. For this fleece I would recommend getting weapons with high attack speeds as you will quickly get to the point of one hitting most enemies.
Going on crusades is very important, as this is the best way to gather lots of resources including bones which are used for conducting rituals. Bone can be collected on crusades by breaking the skeletons of slain enemies so be sure to smash them and collect the resources they drop. You can also get other resources such as grass and stone on crusades by breaking rocks and tall grass with your weapon. Grass is particularly useful if your cult members are grass eaters. In addition to looking for resources on crusades, look for hanging stars or weapons over entrances to areas when crusading. This is how you can tell what a room will lead to. Stars will lead to tarot cards and weapons will lead to a room that gives you the option to pick up a better weapon.
Final Thoughts/Ratings
Kat’s Final Rating: 10/10
Hours put into the game: 45 hours
I think this game is worth the cost and fun for Switch users mature enough for the content. It’s definitely worth picking it up and checking it out. The game offers replayability, but ultimately there is enough content and post game content to keep you engaged for up to 50+ hours. Replayability consists of the same storyline and overall progression but you can make different choices in cult management and make better choices when it comes to progression early on since you know what you need and when. You are also given a few choices to make the game more difficult for your next play through.
Bennett’s Final Rating: 8.5/10
Hours put into the game: 40
Lots of variation in gameplay keeps me coming back. Being able to spend time improving my village for my cult and go on crusades gives a good balance between combat and village building. I love the art style and the music and how it all comes together to set a light tone for an otherwise dark game. It can feel like a bit of a grind at times, but it still is enjoyable to level up members or go on deep crusade runs.