The recently releasedCult of the Lambwas one of the most highly anticipated roguelike titles in recent memory leading up to its release, and it is no secret as to why. With its unique and seamless blend betweenclassic roguelike gameplayand city-building simulator mechanics, the title instantly captivated fans due to the depth and intrigue that the core gameplay fosters.
Seeing players build and maintain their own sinister cult comprised of woodland animals, the different possibilities and avenues available to the player are practically endless. James Pearmain, the Art Director forCult of the Lamb, recently spoke with Game Rant to highlight the different ways in which players can choose to lead their cult, both good and evil, and how these choices directly impact gameplay.
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Good Versus Evil in Cult of the Lamb
Despite the consistently sinister themes and aesthetics thatrun throughoutCult of the Lamb, the gameplay is not limited to leading your flock through fear and intimidation. James Pearmain stressed the importance that the developers placed on ensuring the game had this variety of approaches, with the ethos in which a player chooses to lead altering how a cult develops and how followers regard the player.
We definitely wanted to give players the choice to be good or evil. If you want to treat your followers well and be a kind and respected leader - you can totally do that. If you want to be a tyrannical maniac that sacrifices any follower that doubts you and then makes the others eat poop - you can do that too!
As you progress through the game you will set new doctrines for your cult, and be given a choice between 2 different doctrine unlocks. Will you choose the wedding ritual and marry a follower, or the ritualistic fight pit and have 2 followers battle to the death? Will you choose the ability to inspire your followers and have them generate more faith, or the intimidate ability and scare them into working harder? The decisions that you make will help determine what kind of cult leader you become.
Dealing With Wayward Cult Members in Cult of the Lamb
With how a player’s choice to instill fear or hope within their cult directly impacts how the cult advances, certain approaches are predictably not going to sit well with every single cult member. As the core tenets of the cult shift and adapt with the player’s decisions, some followers may become disgruntled and begin following “false prophets.” While not having to be identified via aTown of Salem-esque mechanic of social deduction, how the player deals with these led-astray cult members will have great influence on the cult as a whole.
It will be clear when one of your followers has lost faith in you. Unhappy followers will eventually dissent against you, and will loudly try to persuade others to leave your cult. It’s up to you how to deal with this situation - will you calmly speak to them and reeducate them in the way of the Lamb? Will you throw them in prison for your other followers to laugh at? Will you sacrifice them to the gods in front of your other followers, or murder them at night when no one is watching, and then serve them up for breakfast? These are the decisions a leader must make.
The range of gameplay that these unique mechanics foster is one of the mostattractive elements ofCult of the Lamb, and one of the core features that set the title apart from other roguelikes. With how bold the merging of two relatively far-apart genres already is, the sheer level of craftsmanship and detail that has been put into both of them withinCult of the Lambhas predictably made the game extremely popular among roguelike fans.
Cult of the Lambis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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