Cult of the Lamb

Cult of the Lamb is centered around a lamb who is tasked with forming a cult to appease the ominous deity who saved the player character's life. The player must launch roguelike-style crusades and venture out into the game's five regions to defeat enemies and grow their following.[3][4] The world, which is randomly generated and contains roguelike elements, contains resources to gather, perks and weapons to collect, enemies in the form of rival cultists and non-believers to fight, and other animals to rescue; these animals can be indoctrinated into the player's cult. They have appearances that can be changed and both positive and negative traits, which can affect how they act in the cult or how they react to the player's actions regarding the cult.[5]

The player can manage their followers in their cult's village. Followers can be assigned tasks at the base such as gathering resources, building structures, worshipping, performing rituals, sending them to assist the player in battle, or sacrificing them, which can affect the player's abilities and the cult itself.[5] The player must ensure their followers' needs are met by performing sermons and rituals to reinforce their faith, cooking food for them to survive, providing them with shelter, and ensuring the village is clean and sanitary.[6] Otherwise, the followers can turn against the player, spread dissent, and eventually leave the cult with other followers; to prevent this, the player can provide for them, give them gifts, reeducate them, or detain them in a pillory until they stop dissenting.[7][8]

In a land of false prophets, a Lamb (nicknamed Lambert), supposedly the last of their kind, is brought before The Four Bishops of the Old Faith, and is sacrificed before them. Upon dying, The Lamb is brought before "The One Who Waits", a strange deity who is imprisoned in chains. The One Who Waits tasks The Lamb with starting a cult in its name, gives The Lamb a demonic crown, then resurrects them.[10]

Assisted by Ratau, The Lamb's precursor, The Lamb then settles at the ruins of a temple and begins establishing a cult on behalf of The One Who Waits, in order to defeat the four other Bishops – Leshy, Heket, Kallamar, and Shamura – and free it. After settling down into their cult, The Lamb adventures off on crusades, defeating each of the Four Bishops while simultaneously expanding the cult with followers, increasing its influence and The Lamb's powers. With the death of each Bishop, one of the four chains holding The One Who Waits breaks, ultimately freeing the deity. While crusading, the Four Bishops and The One Who Waits speak to The Lamb in different encounters.

As The Lamb progressively gets closer to their ultimate goal, The One Who Waits informs The Lamb that the Four Bishops had betrayed and imprisoned him, and that he intends to ultimately rule the cult and the world while remaking them in his image. However, during The Lamb's crusade against Shamura, Shamura reveals the identity of The One Who Waits: "Narinder". Shamura also informs The Lamb that not only was Narinder the Fifth Bishop of the Old Faith, but was also their brother and equal, having ruled over the realm of Death. Shamura laments to The Lamb, confessing that millennia before, Narinder had grown ambitious and was discontent with his role as a Bishop. Shamura, blinded by their love for Narinder, had tried to help him by teaching him ideas of change, although Shamura's teachings were "most unnatural" for Narinder, as Shamura stated. Ultimately, Narinder betrayed the Bishops, which forced Shamura and the others to imprison him. Before the final battle, Shamura warns The Lamb that Narinder will come for them when all of the Bishops are dead.

After Shamura is defeated, The One Who Waits instructs The Lamb to visit him in his realm to return the demonic crown and to be sacrificed in his name. With the help of their followers, The Lamb opens the final gateway and goes before The One Who Waits. The Lamb is then instructed to kneel and be sacrificed in front of their followers, so that The One Who Waits can retake his crown and obtain his place as god of the world. The player is then given the option to sacrifice themselves to fulfill the prophecy or reject doing so. If the player accepts, The One Who Waits is freed, and subsequently tortures The Lamb before killing it, ending the game.

If the player refuses, a final battle ensues between The Lamb and The One Who Waits's followers, Baal and Aym. Once the followers are defeated, The One Who Waits attempts to kill The Lamb himself. After the first defeat, The One Who Waits taunts The Lamb and transforms while pulling The Lamb into a hellscape, attempting to kill them in front of their followers a second time. If The Lamb defeats The One Who Waits again, it is stripped of its powers and transforms into a follower-like creature named Narinder. Narinder then admits defeat and begrudges The Lamb, and the player is given the option to spare Narinder or murder him. If the player chooses to kill Narinder, Narinder claims that The Lamb is no different than he was before he is subsequently killed. However, if the player chooses to spare Narinder, Narinder can be indoctrinated into the cult as an immortal follower, and insults The Lamb for being weak. Either option results in The Lamb's followers being rescued and The Lamb returning to their cult, and the game ends.

Cult of the Lamb is developed by Massive Monster, an Australian independent game development studio that has also created The Adventure Pals,[11] Never Give Up, and Unicycle Giraffe. Additional funding for development was provided through VicScreen's Victorian Production Fund.[12] Cult of the Lamb was officially announced at Gamescom in August 2021 and was released on 11 August 2022.[13][14]

The first post-release limited event, Blood Moon Festival, lasted from 24 October to 10 November 2022.[15]

Two waves of free major post-release content updates to the game are set to release in 2023.[16] The first wave, titled Relics of the Old Faith, was released on 24 April 2023 and added a new post-game storyline with a new crusade campaign, a photo-mode, and additions and enhancements to the game's combat and cult management mechanics.[17]

In August 2023, the game made a crossover with Klei Entertainment's Don't Starve Together.[18]

• Official website