Cult of the Lamb is an indie game with rogue-like elements and resource management. As a great fan of these characteristics in video games, I am pleased to have the opportunity to try this title first-hand and express my most sincere opinion in the following analysis of Cult of the Lamb, the game that is about setting up a cult as a possessed little lamb by an evil demon at the same time that we devastated all our enemies without mercy.
Analysis from Cult of the Lamb
As I mentioned before, we will be a cute little lamb that was possessed by an evil entity known as “He Who Waits”. He gives us a second life since we were sacrificed for the subjects of the “Bishops of the Old Faith”, as a thank you we will have to mount a cult in his name to finally free him from his prison. We will also be given a crown that will give us demonic power and will make it easier to recruit followers for our sect.
At the beginning of our journey we will meet “Ratau”, an old rat who will give us a small piece of land on which we will found our little town with the aim of bringing our followers there to later assign them different tasks. Ratau will also invite us to his cabin to play Matatena, a very fun and ingenious simple dice game in which we must take risks to win; in the Matatena we can bet coins that each game will be doubled when we win. This curious rat will provide us with advice to improve our people, our skills and the faith of our followers.
the dungeons
After obtaining the town we will continue with our task of liberalizing “The One Who Waits” and expanding our sect. Our main duty will be to search for the Bishops of the Old Faith, leaders of the enemy sect, to put an end to any threat. This journey occurs as we explore 4 large dungeons, which we must repeat at least four times to finally face one of the leaders of the enemy sect, but before moving on to face said leaders, the boss in each “run” It will be one of the strongest adepts every time we finish the dungeons. To unlock the other dungeons we will have a goal to meet such as having a minimum number of followers.
At the start of each dungeon they will give us a weapon and a skill that consumes Fervor (Mana). Weapons are based on damage and speed, although some also have a chance to inflict secondary effects on enemies such as poisoning. The skills are very varied, so it is very easy to find one that suits your style of play, however, we will not be able to choose our preferred team at the beginning of each level, but we will be able to get objects and other custom equipment items that we went through each room of the dungeon.
On the other hand, the levels of the dungeons are not empty, each room can be full of enemies that, when defeated, leave us a juicy reward in gold and resources. It will be relatively common to find ourselves in one of the special rooms where we can choose a tarot card to acquire advantages during the run, these character advantages will be eliminated when leaving the dungeon in which we obtained them. From time to time we will find empty rooms that will only give us a very valuable chest full of resources. It will also be recurring to find characters that offer us to change the equipment in the middle run, many times it is a better team, but this will depend on your style of play.
One of the most interesting features of the rooms are the random encounters with special characters that can unlock new areas on the game’s world map or reveal information about what happened in the past. On rare occasions we will come across a large statue that will offer us to exchange our hearts (HP) for other temporary hearts that while we have them will give us some benefits when it comes to combat and reduce the damage received.
To finish with the dungeons, the system with which they work is quite curious, it is a Rogue-Like element raised to two, since not only is each level of the dungeons procedurally generated, but also each level is connected to others in the form of branches, making you explore different levels before stepping on the final boss room. In the dungeon level viewer you can select the level that suits you best to continue, since not all are the same. Some levels are just a room for collecting resources, others are a complete level with a challenge imposed from the beginning that gives you a good reward if you complete it and on the other hand there are the levels that have some possible follower for our precious sect .
The village
One of the most important features for our progress in Cult of the Lamb is the town. That town that we founded in the name of our sect, where we will receive each new follower, we convince them to leave all their Faith for the cause, and then without remorse we use them for our own benefit by assigning them a job and then sacrificing them to obtain improvements for combat . However, this act of cruelty cannot be committed without more, since the others could lose the Faith in you. So our task will be to raise the loyalty of our followers by giving them gifts and fulfilling their requests until their final hour comes and they don’t question being used.
Adepts will regularly express their needs, you as a leader must make the decision to fulfill their wishes or not, depending on what is most convenient at the time. Not complying with their requests could diminish the Faith, but nothing that a few days in jail won’t fix. Yes, all the resources that we will collect are used to build one or another useful thing in the town, one of the first and most important structures will be the altar in the center. On the altar the adepts perch to generate ‘divine inspiration‘, every so many points we will have the opportunity to unlock a new construction recipe for the town. Unlocking these buildings is important as many adept requests require them, and most structures have a productive goal.
As if that were not enough, every time we recruit a lost individual in the dungeons, or also every time we defeat a mini boss, a new follower will join to support our cause. The most interesting thing about adepts is that you can customize them to your liking with the options that the game gives you, give them a name and their own style. For his part, each individual brings advantages and disadvantages that could be reflected in the Faith of the people. As if that were not enough, you can assign them jobs such as cutting down trees, going to the mine for minerals, expedition missions, harvesting, and others.
The temple
Ok, now let’s get a little bit into one of the most important buildings for the power increase of our devilish little lamb. The Temple is the most important building in our small town, it is here where our followers will carry out a good part of the activities that will help us throughout the game, both when we are in it and when we are fighting inside a dungeon. We will use it mainly to strengthen our weapons and magic and we will invoke rituals and doctrines to benefit from our followers and equip new abilities. The activities that will take place in the temple are the following: Sermons to collect ‘divine inspiration‘, Rituals, Indoctrination of the adepts and upgrading the crown of power.
We can only do one Sermon a day, but we shouldn’t miss the opportunity to do it, as we will gain power and increase our followers’ faith and loyalty to a lesser extent. Rituals require Bones acquired during our journeys through the dungeons, and usually have a long cooldown. The more types of Rituals we have, the more we can toggle, and the more options we have to remedy specific problems. The Doctrines will force us to choose between maintaining the Faith based on resources or performing sinister acts that help us solve problems at the cost of Faith. It is not necessary to align 100% with benevolence or evil, but many doctrines work in the same way. synergistic way other.
conclusion
Cult of the Lamb is a game that offers you several ways to deal with it, and it goes without saying that the variety of resources and activities that will take us one or two game sessions to understand and master. Although it is an indie title, Cult of the Lamb is a game that has nothing to envy to other games of a “triple A” nature in terms of the number of tasks, objectives and gameplay. The fusion of iconic genres such as life simulator and resource management type Animal Crossing Along with the characteristics of an Action RPG or Rogue-Like like Hades, it gives the game of Massive Monsters a complexity that is easy to learn but difficult to master like a true master.