Synopsis:
Start your own cult in a land of false prophets, venturing out into diverse and mysterious regions to build a loyal community of woodland Followers and spread your Word to become the one true cult.

Publisher: Devolver Digital
Reviewed on: PC (Ryzen 7 5800X, 32GB RAM, RTX 3070)
Also available for: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

Developer: Massive Monster
Creative Director: Julian Wilton
Story: Johanna Williams, Jay Armstrong
Design Director: Jay Armstrong
Art Director: James Pearmain
Music: Narayana Johnson

Cast: Will Mesilane, Julian Wilton, Narayana Johnson, Jay Armstrong, Jayde Fletcher, Eleska Boyd, Ali Dale, Paulina Samy, Emma Barrett

Cult of the Lamb opens wild. Your avatar—a small lamb and the last of its kind—is marched to an altar and sacrificed by the New Faith to prevent a prophecy. In death, you meet a chained deity known as He Who Waits, strike a deal, and are resurrected to found a cult in their name. With a blade in hoof, you cut down the apostles of the New Faith and begin building your flock.

Your new home—mine was charmingly dubbed “Spagerholden” (I was hungry)—starts as a clearing with rocks and trees, a shrine for devotion, a temple for sermons, and a portal to indoctrinate rescued creatures. A brisk tutorial gets you assigning jobs, building beds, and planting farms to keep Followers fed and faithful.

Cult of the Lamb stitches together cozy-town management with roguelike dungeon runs. Between crusades you’ll fish, farm, craft, sermonize and more, gradually meeting other villages that make the world feel less lonely.

Daily tasks include:

• Assigning Followers to gather lumber and stone.
• Cultivating crops and cooking meals.
• Holding sermons and rituals to boost faith.
• Declaring doctrines that shape your cult’s beliefs.

There’s always something to do: cleaning to prevent illness, re-educating dissenters, or…sacrificing heretics if your doctrine allows it. Devotion fuels a tech tree that unlocks buildings and upgrades. Your choices shape a distinct doctrine set, ensuring no two cults look the same.

Crusades are fast, fun, and varied. Each region features fresh enemy types and a roll of weapons and curses with real trade-offs: hammers hit hard but swing slow; daggers are quick but risky; claws and axes sit in the middle. Curses range from poison bombs to homing missiles and can turn a run around if used smartly.

The push-and-pull between cozy caretaking and spooky crusading works because the systems constantly feed one another. Devotion unlocks buildings, buildings improve lives, better lives yield more devotion—which powers up future runs against the Old Faith. Dissenters can be re-educated, jailed, or offered up as sacrifices (my doctrine leaned…decisive). Elderly Followers can be memorialised, and their passing turned into teachable moments during sermons.

Visually, it’s gorgeous—paper-cut 2D characters on lush 3D-ish dioramas. Think Binding of Isaac meets Stardew Valley, but with a distinct, dark-cute aesthetic all its own. New animal skins and boss-themed forms keep your flock looking fresh, and you can fully customise each convert you indoctrinate.

The music leans gospel-chant and shifts with the action; boss fights swell, while village life hums. Sound design sells the eerie-cute vibe.

Like most roguelikes, the loop is repetitive—but here it’s pleasantly addictive, with base-building breaks that keep things fresh. Tarot cards add run-specific modifiers, and each region must be cleared multiple times before you topple its Bishop and sever another chain binding He Who Waits.

Accessibility is solid: scalable text, full button remapping across inputs, and more options that make the experience broadly approachable.

I’ve been keen on this one—Melbourne’s Massive Monster also made the delightful Adventure Pals—and Cult of the Lamb didn’t disappoint. Striking art, a bouncy score, and a satisfying management-meets-roguelike loop kept me hooked. I can’t wait to see what the team conjures next.

(Cult of the Lamb code provided for review)