Cult of the Lamb – PS5 Version, Reviewed on PS5 – Hack-n-Slash, Builder, Manager
“Praise the Lamb, conduit to great power, promised liberator of the One Who Waits below.”
As silly and amazing as it sounds, Cult of the Lamb is a lot of fun, seamlessly bringing together elements of a couple of other popular game series.
Story:
There you are, just a scared wee lil lamb, wandering through the dark woods, ready to be sacrificed by monsters, having hunted down all others. You, a final sacrifice, to preserve their Old Faith. The executioners blade comes down…
And then you are elsewhere. A little goofy lamb given the power of starting a cult in the One Who Waits’ name and image. He instills you with unholy power. You are BACK! Armed with a sword, you slay the cultist fiends and make your way to a nice clearing, where your cult shall begin. Prepare to build, manage, and keep your followers satiated.
From there, the minor story evolves as you hunt down the monsters that were ready to sacrifice you, and give them some due payback. Use your followers to boost your powers, and become the ultimate master of the Cult of the Lamb!!
Gameplay:
The gameplay mixes together a lot of fun elements. It is all top-down and from the same point of view, and there is no screen rotation.
First is combat, and the presentation is fairly simple. Wander through multiple randomly generating rooms, fighting monsters and collecting loot. You can dodge, slash, and get some nice powerups for spells, so mostly you just manage staying alive and not getting hit. You don’t regenerate health, so pickups must be found, and avoiding any hits what-so-ever is always the main goal. This leads to frenetic combat at times, especially with many enemies coming from many directions, or the bosses are spewing large sweeping attacks.
The enemy and stage variety are enough that the game does not feel stale even when trudging through the same environments again. The game always generates a new dungeon for every playthrough as well, so that keeps it fresh also. Additionally, there is a whole other portion of the game to balance as well, and that makes the combat seem exciting every time you trudge back out into the monster fields.
When not slicing and dicing, players will spend time at the cult home base itself. Here the player builds the literal cult buildings, managing resources and followers alike to complete tasks and provide materials, as well as build up your cult devotion.
You can run sermons, and instill all sorts of doctrines to help all of this. As your followers get old and die, you can even decide to resurrect them if you see fit via a ritual. Will you be a nice cult leader, or demanding and heartless? Up to you!
Balancing your followers and resources is mostly always fun. Your cultists get hungry and need shelter and if they get too rambunctious, they need to be stuffed in the prison for re-education. Resources are harvested either manually or from buildings constructed or from the field in combat by your lamb leader. Followers are rescued from combat or come to join as your devotion grows and word spreads.
Overall, it’s simple enough, but deep enough to keep it all quite fun and giving the player many unlocks to look forward to.
Graphics:
The cartoony and cute graphics are perfect for this game. There are no complaints and the simple style is bright, vibrant and fantastic. Character designs are great, and it all enhances the silly fun vibes of the game.
Fun-level:
This is a great game to toss on when your brain is running low on fumes and you just want good relaxed times. The management side of the game is complimentary to the combat, and both remain fun despite repeated game actions. There are plenty of unlocks, rituals, doctrines and resources, which all give player freedom and choice.
Downloadable Content (DLC) Review:
When I played this game, there was no DLC available for PS5, and I just played the base game. Since then, there have been four packs released, including the addition of a local Co-Op mode which I am sure is a total blast. I thiiiink that the Co-Op content is free for all, but haven’t checked my version of the game to verify. Paid DLC packs are:
- Cultist Pack: This DLC offers 5 new follower forms, 2 outfits and 7 decorations.
- Heretic Pack: This DLC offers 5 new follower forms, 2 outfits and 8 decorations.
- Sinful Pack: This DLC offers 5 new follower forms, 6 outfits and 6 decorations.
- Pilgrim Pack: This DLC offers 1 unique quest, 5 new follower forms, 2 outfits and 5 decorations.
Final Score: 8.0
DLC Score: N/A