Em geral, não tenho muita paciência pra roguelike, por achar muito repetitivo (entra na dungeon, explora o máximo que conseguir, morre, renasce, upa tudo o que puder, entra na dungeon e repita o processo infinitamente) então tinha um pé atras em relação a começar o jogo, mas resolvi dar uma chance e para minha surpresa, o jogo é muito melhor e mais divertido do que eu imaginava. Acho que o aspecto simulação de “crie e administre seu culto” ajuda bastante nisso, principalmente no início do jogo, mas foi inevitável que o jogo ficasse repetitivo. A única diferença é que demorou muito mais, acontecendo só lá mais para o fim do jogo, na última dungeon.

Os visuais são muito bonitinhos, e o combate é bem satisfatório com quase todas as armas apesar de achar a faca e o machado bem desbalanceados. (com certeza é culpa minha, mas tive muitas dificuldades com a manopla), uma boa variação de inimigos e batalhas com chefes e minichefes de certa forma divertidos. Achei também a dificuldade do jogo um pouco baixa demais, com uma curva de aprendizagem bem curta. Como mencionado anteriormente, o aspecto simulação de “crie e administre seu culto” e os locais desbloqueáveis com missões secundárias ajudaram bastante para o jogo não se tornar repetitivo para mim, não dando um senso de urgência para que eu volte para a dungeon imediatamente.

Um dos principais problemas que tive com o jogo foi mais para o final, porque nem tinha entrado na última dungeon e desbloqueado e aprimorado tudo o que tinha com relação a melhorias tanto da própria ovelha em combate quanto do culto, além de ter terminado praticamente todas as missões secundárias. Isso acabou tornando a gameplay bem repetitiva e entediante, tendo que fazer uma coisa só até eventualmente fechar o jogo (entra na dungeon, explora o máximo que conseguir, morre ou mata o chefe, entra na dungeon de novo etc.).

Por fim, Cult of the Lamb é mais um jogo indie que é publicado pela Devolver que consegue me arrancar boas horas de diversão. Não me apaixonei pelo jogo, como foi com Hotline Miami e The Messenger, mas aparentemente essa combinação é sucesso não tem conseguido me decepcionar, muito pelo contrário.

Roguelites are now a field so crowded that you need something special to make it genuinely captivating to repeat dangerous dungeons over and over and over again while accruing incremental changes. Cult of the Lamb’s answer to this is to lace the game with irreverent cult humour, add a light city builder/social manager layer to break the monotony and to make every character into a whimsically cute cartoon animal. And what do you know - it’s the most fun I’ve had with a roguelite since Dungeons of Dredmor and stands head and shoulders above most entries into the genre.

I was going to leave the review there but I do have to elaborate slightly on the actual cult simulation side of the game and simply compliment how much fun it is to manage your little flock of faithful followers, controlling their daily lives according to your whims as they spend their days toiling and worshipping (and with the latest content patch, happily sinning) for you. While the action sequences are great, I found the cult simulator sections in-between so engaging that often I found myself more excited to spend more time with my little guys when logging on. The micromanagement isn’t burdensome and can be relaxed to cater to the player’s needs (and I do recommend toggling on the setting to stop time in the village whenever you go into a dungeon) so it never overstays its welcome - and in fact, I could imagine enjoying an alternative version of this game that fully focuses on this aspect in greater detail over the 50/50 split is now. It’s a lot of great fun and nicely breaks the tension between the more intense dungeon running.

A lot of the appeal of this game to me is the vibe, I really like the art and the concept is really up my alley. In practice though it’s a bit of a mixed back even though I did like the game. It is split into two parts: managing the cult and a pretty standard rogue like action section. The mix is pretty good, with things from each part feeding into the other to make you feel like you are always making progress, but neither of them really blew me away on their own. If I had to choose I think I like the cult management part a bit more, it was just complex enough to be enjoyable but I felt like there were so many mechanics in it that you really didn’t need so it felt a bit bloated. The action combat rogue like part was fine but didn’t blow me away, I ended up just going to easy because I didn’t find it enjoyable enough to want to play long enough to really master it. A good interesting game that I liked but was never really in love with, great concept though.

Cult of the Lamb is if you took Animal Crossing and combined it with Binding of Isaac. You are a reborn lamb who under the watchful eye of your god, create a cult that you can sacrifice, marry and make eat bowls of poop.
The gameplay is where this game thrives however the plot is really simple and does a good job as a background piece for your dungeon crawling adventures.
There's nothing special here in terms of it's story and it doesn't really need one. All you know is to kill 4 archbishops to free your god. Along the way you meet NPC's who are either gentle or crazy and help you along your journey. Though the plot may be lacking, as mentioned, the gameplay is why we are here and with the gameplay comes your own sense of who you make your lamb.
Essentially you gain followers via buying them off a spider, rescuing them or convincing them to leave their cult for yours. As you explore in the dungeons, you gain resources that help you in your cult camp. With your followers and resources, you construct buildings to help you in your journey and create rituals that will serve you well against the forces of the archbishops.
It's an awesome set up. You go off on your dungeons, come back to your camp and lead your cult. This is where all the fun is. You can customise and name your followers which gives a sense of twisted moments if you name them after your cats or partner. They can die of old age, eat poop, be killed or sacrificed. It's the best part of the game. Seeing how your followers live their lives and all the whacky things you can do to them.
The camp was my favourite part. Who was friends with who? Is there a rebellion in the midst? Should I make them eat another follower?
In terms of dungeons, it is the most simple of rougelites. You go in, do a few rooms, get some upgrades for the run, kill the boss or die. I think if the game didn't have the striking artstyle it does and the cult camp, this would be nothing special but thankfully the two go hand in hand and it does make the dungeons worth it. Getting followers and new rescourses for your buildings is why it's so important and it aids each part of the game well.
There's a lot to talk about and there's so much more you can do with your followers and little hidden gems that makes this game so worthwhile to play even if I find the dungeons way too simple.
It's a fun video game and if you've never played a rougelite and like Animal Crossing, I'd recommend this entirely.