At the Opening Night Live of gamescom 2021, 42 new trailers were showcased. One of them stands out for MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski: In Cult of the Lamb, you play as a cute, possessed lamb that establishes a not-so-cute, bloodthirsty cult – and there can only be one cult.
If Don’t Starve, Binding of Isaac, and the Happy Tree Friends had a child on a mythical night, Cult of the Lamb would likely be the result. That was my first thought about the game’s trailer, and my next was: ‘Wow, this looks crazy!’
The content of Cult of the Lamb could definitely cause an uproar in conservative circles and be seen as questionable. After all, you play as a small, cute lamb that first gets its skull crushed. But you’re lucky and are saved by a mysterious stranger! (Whether luck is really the right term here will surely be revealed.)
All he wants in return is a modest favor from you: You must go out into the world possessed, create a sect in his name, build a loyal following, and go down in history as the one true cult in the land of false prophets! For this, apparently, a lot of blood flows within your own followers, so that the sect can continue to grow and thrive. But well … a little loss is always present.
Check out the obscure trailer for Cult of the Lamb here:
Interesting Mix of Survival and Roguelike
Let’s talk about the gameplay. At first glance, Cult of the Lamb looks like a classic roguelike:
- you explore a procedurally generated world, meaning it’s randomly assembled
- you fight against hordes of various enemies
- rival sect leaders seem to be the bosses
- you meet them in dungeons, a dungeon crawler indeed
What’s exciting here is that you have a fixed place for your forest community, which continuously grows. To achieve this, you collect resources, build buildings, and worship an idol. To ensure that your sheep can develop into good community members, you send them to school to learn and spread the one true word – your word!
When is Cult of the Lamb releasing? The game is set to be released in early 2022 for consoles and PC. Behind Cult of the Lamb is publisher Devolver Digital, known for focusing on some crazy, lovable indie games. The roguelike is being developed by the studio Massive Monster, which seems to lean towards cute monstrosities when looking at their portfolio. Here’s the Steam page for Cult of the Lamb.
A little warning: I wrote this article solely based on the trailer. I have not played Cult of the Lamb and cannot judge whether the game will really be worth recommending. However, I have a certain trust in the publisher Devolver Digital.
But if you have as questionable taste as I do, you’re probably always on the lookout for new obscure games. Therefore, I wanted to give you a hint for your watchlist. Cult of the Lamb is now on mine.
Another game that captivated me during the Opening Night Live is DokeV. The new open-world adventure is made for Pokémon fans and boasts strikingly good graphics. You are in a world inhabited by creatures called Dokebi, with whom you make friends.
