There are not a few titles that, despite a lower budget and consequently a reduced target of users compared to large productions, know how to be appreciated thanks to their peculiarities and potential. Publishers like Devolver Digital they often have the opportunity to finance games of this type, identifying in advance titles ready to have their say in a market that is saturated in many ways, with a touch of irony and irreverence that undoubtedly never hurts, and indeed has the opportunity to point out this type of titles in a boundless ocean. We want to learn more in this review Cult of the Lambwork on which we have put our hands for a long time on PC, and which apart from a lack of translation into Italian has adapted to the platform better (although it is best usable with a controller and not with a mouse and keyboard).
A cult divided between two games
The concept of Cult of the Lamb is certainly as strange as its gameplay and all the other components that make up the experience, which are constantly ready to blend a facade of extreme tenderness of characters – and protagonist – with blasphemy and brutality, in a winning and never predictable pairing in terms of game mechanics. Seeing the sweet eyes of a protagonist ready in a few minutes to eat the corpses of his faithful and exterminate hordes of enemies, is for sure an unusual type of experience to say the least.
Selling to the real storyline, we are dealing with a lamb who is about to be sacrificed by a dark cult as the last member of its kind, in a dark fantasy world full of irony and quotes, and who instead finds himself resurrected and served “The One Who Waits”(He Who Awaits), an unspecified God ready to give him back his life… but on one condition. The latter is that of found a cult in his namesecond objective that will continue to follow the player in his adventure while he will find himself having to advance in history in order to defeat those who sacrificed him.
In the many hours of play you are therefore faced with a gameplay dualism undoubtedly interestingconsidering that users are called to experience exploration phases from roguelite shades (or roguelikeif you prefer), which share many mechanics with various titles of this type but which at the same time have a lot to tell.
We have noticed that in some phases the roguelite exploration and the management of one’s own cult are not mixed in the best way, but fortunately in most cases this does not happen, and consequently it is possible to always find the best solution in order to to balance the two.
Variety in spades
With her duration anything but to be neglected, Cult of the Lamb has a way to offer a lot of variety for users. This applies to rituals, constructions and activities that take place without taking up weapons, with therefore exploration and management systems ready to continually reinvent themselves by adding new mechanics, fortunately without ever making everything too difficult and without excessively penalizing users who neglect the aforementioned mechanics. . Whether it is, however, to have fun with these activities, or not, in order to enhance your character and continue in the course of the adventure it is not possible to totally ignore what is proposed outside the fightingand consequently users less accustomed to this type of genre, who prefer the hack and slash system more, may not appreciate the duality of this gameplay.
Your cult, between a laugh and a decision, also allows you to enhance the character significantly, thanks to real sermons that allow this to level up and unlock new skills, consequently making the fights easier, and more. Whether it’s finding new resources, weapons or rescuing new cult members to bring them into your ranks, the skill tree which is accessed is very essential, and completing the adventure without focusing on it could be really difficult. Unfortunately, in fact, the real negative point of Cult of the Lamb, which best enhances two different experiences by blending them with an excellent result, is its combat system.
Those who have never played a roguelike may find it difficult to adapt to this, given the accuracy often required and a control system that certainly does not scream a miracle, while those used to the genre will notice the lack of sufficient content for the fights. A staple and a loaded shot that generally hits from a distance, plus a few hearts to find around to ward off death and a tarot system (upgrades valid only for the current run): a series of opportunities that are all too limited , in short, that even proceeding with the hours of play do not give the idea of changing the cards on the table. The controls, then, as anticipated, while offering excellent feedback of the shots, make the fights often unnecessarily confusing and do not give the exact idea of which enemies it will be possible to hit while unleashing a combo, an activity that without dozens of dodges in between. woody enough to take hits.
Review
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Cult of the Lamb (Tested on PC)
8.6Total Score
Cult of the Lamb is a roguelite-colored title with city building mechanics that makes resource management fun and (almost) never stressful, interspersing pure management phases with missions, exploration and dialogues with NPCs, in a world that always knows say something new until the end credits. The combat system has not been able to excite us as much as the other game mechanics, but this certainly does not make the work of little validity, and indeed, we can confirm that this falls by right into the Olympus of small pearls.
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