Cult of the Lamb Review
Feb 20 2025
I bought Cult of the Lamb after finishing Elden Ring in search of a quick and relaxing experience. It definitely delivered on both of those fronts, and was a very enjoyable experience overall, but I can't honestly say its a great game due to a couple of issues I think it has.
If you haven't heard of Cult of the Lamb, it's an adorable roguelike base-building game. You play as a vessel for some kind of demon or god who is tasked to build up a cult full of devoted followers and go on crusades to kill four bosses. It's a bit similar to Animal Crossing or Dragon Quest Builders 2 in the base management sense, and it's just kind of a generic roguelike when it comes to the crusades.
If there's one thing I think really stands out about this game, it's definitely the graphics. When you first open the game, it plops you straight in this absolutely gorgeous platform. My first thought was, 'there's no way this game is going to be this beautiful all the time.' I'm glad to say I was very wrong - every area, even the most mundane, looks amazing. Other areas of praise include the dialogue, which was charming but also scarce. The combat is simple but great. The game has three main weapon types: the basic weapon, which can range from swords to guns; a "curse", which is typically a strong melee or projectile attack but also sometimes a defensive spell, which consumes fevor (basically your mana); and a 'talisman', which is a strong attack or defensive spell you can sometimes find on crusades. The game is constantly giving you new types of weapons, curses, and talismen, which kept the simple combat somewhat engaging throughout the endgame. The game seems to be popular among 'cozy gamers' (those who are more in it for the base management rather than the combat) so the game has provided a lot of accessibility options including unlimited health, so that's a huge plus if you're that type of player.
My main critisism of this game it its long playtime despite the lack of substance. Cult of the Lamb requires you to go on a total of 16 crusades - which doesn't sound a lot, but you also have to spend a lot of time progressing your cult in order to level weapons, gain strength, and unlock certain combat abilities. If you're not too keen on doing the crusades and would rather spend time progressing your cult, you're out of luck, because you also need to complete at least 12 of these crusades if you want to unlock all of the main buildings and game mechanics. You're basically forced to spend at least 10 to 15 hours to complete the main quest and unlock all of the cult mechanics, but the complete lack of variation in gameplay makes the last couple of hours feel like a complete bore, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people just put the game down.
Overall, it's pretty good. If you're not someone who has a compulsive need to complete every game as fast as possible (me!) you'll probably have a great time.
Overall rating: 6.5/10