Cult of the Lamb is a Bloody Good Time

It’s fair to say I’ve been an early adopter of Cult of the Lamb. I was overwhelmed by the epic art style meshed with a truly twisted concept when it was revealed at Gamescom last year. So when I was offered the opportunity to demo the build showcased at PAX East 2022, I had to try it. After all, Massive Monster has put out some really delightfully weird games in the past, and I’m an established fanboy of Devolver Digital. The real question is, how was the demo? The answer is – keep on reading!

The demo starts with your poor, lost lamb marching to inevitable slaughter. It seems you’ve been found by the hideous four Bishops. They’re afraid of some prophecy, so they’ve killed all the other lambs in the world. As the last one, it seems you’re about to meet your end on the edge of a executioner’s axe. Then something weird happens. You wake up in a world of blinding white light, and hear a voice. Turns out, you have a god on your side called The One Who Waits. They were imprisoned by the gods of the Bishops, and you’re their ticket out. All you have to do is agree to work at their direction and gather a cult in their name, and they’ll return you to life. Who could say no to such a bargain?

Once you agree to help out the deity, you’re returned to where you were executed, much to the surprise of a group of heretics. I made quick work of them with a sword, and rampaged through their headquarters on a bloody quest of vengeance. Then I met a nice man named Ratau, who was also forsaken by the gods. Ratau becomes your advisor of sorts, and gives you the direction you need to start building your following.

The demo then introduces the management section of the game, which I was most concerned with. Not because I thought it would be bad, but because I’m quickly bored with most sim and management games. Luckily, this portion of the game was easy to learn and fast to implement. After giving my first follower a job, I ran around chopping wood, mining stone and gathering berries. After all, you can’t keep your followers if you don’t feed them! So I made a quick berry dish before Ratau set me on my next quest – to infiltrate the realm of one of the Bishops.

The cards you pick will determine temporary buffs in dungeons.

Since Cult of the Lamb is a rogue-lite, each run will be a little different. It also looks like the weapons you begin with are randomly decided at the start of each dungeon. I’m sure there’s more you can do in the full build to gain some measure of control over this process, but I had no real complaints here. I started with a sword and then traded it for a wicked looking dagger. Luckily I also gained a sweeping slash attack which was pretty competent for destroying anything in my path.

The combat in Cult of the Lamb is fast paced with tight controls. You have a primary attack, a dodge roll and special moves, all mapped to different buttons. Once I made my way to the boss fight, it was against a follower of one of the Bishops that was transformed into a giant worm beast. He spit acid all over and charged me, but was really no match for my little lamb.

The worm I faced was slightly smaller than this, but no less hideous.

All in all, I was really impressed by the Cult of the Lamb PAX demo, and am eager to see more of the upcoming game. All we know is it’s coming sometime this year to PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Series X|S. So if you enjoy rogue-lites and twisted tales, I’d definitely put it on your wishlist. And stay tuned to HPP for more promising madness from Devolver Digital.