Should I Play Cult of the Lamb? The Cutest Way to Start a Cult

What It Is

Cult of the Lamb is an action roguelike and base management sim developed by Massive Monster and published by Devolver Digital. It launched on August 11, 2022 on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. It costs $24.99 on Steam.

You play as a possessed lamb saved from annihilation by a strange deity called The One Who Waits. In return, you must build a cult in his name. The game splits into two halves. You venture into procedurally generated dungeons to fight heretics, gather resources, and rescue new followers. Then you return to your camp to build structures, perform rituals, preach sermons, and keep your flock happy and faithful.

The game holds an 82 on Metacritic and an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam with over 104,000 reviews. Since launch, Massive Monster has shipped multiple free updates and a paid expansion that have dramatically expanded the experience.

Why You Should Play It

The art style sells the entire concept. Cult of the Lamb looks like a children’s cartoon about woodland creatures. Then you sacrifice one of those woodland creatures to appease an eldritch god and things get interesting fast. The contrast between the cute exterior and the dark mechanics underneath is the game’s signature move. It never stops being funny.

Two games in one, and both are good. The roguelike dungeon runs give you fast, snappy combat with a variety of weapons and curses (magic abilities). The base building gives you a village sim where you feed, house, and indoctrinate your followers. Resources flow between both halves. Followers you rescue in dungeons join your cult. Upgrades from your cult make you stronger in dungeons. Neither side feels like filler for the other.

The updates since launch transformed it. The January 2024 Sins of the Flesh update added follower reproduction, a sin system, new buildings, new weapons, and a tailor shop for crafting outfits. The August 2024 Unholy Alliance update added full local co-op, letting a second player join as a goat companion through the entire campaign. And the January 2026 Woolhaven paid DLC added a massive winter expansion with new dungeons, a ranch, animal breeding, and hours of additional story content. Woolhaven alone scored an 86 on Metacritic. The game you play today is substantially bigger and better than what launched in 2022.

It is hilarious. The writing walks a tightrope between wholesome and unsettling. Your followers worship you, confess their sins to you, and occasionally ask to be sacrificed. You can choose to be a benevolent leader or a tyrant. The game never judges you either way. It just presents the options and lets you be as righteous or deranged as you want.

The soundtrack is exceptional. River Boy’s score ranges from pastoral folk to intense battle music. It adapts to what you are doing, shifting seamlessly between the calm of your cult camp and the chaos of dungeon runs.

Why You Might Not

Combat is good, not great. If you are coming from dedicated roguelikes like Hades or Dead Cells, the dungeon runs will feel simpler. There are fewer weapon types, fewer build options, and less mechanical depth. The combat serves the overall experience well, but it is not the standout component.

Base management gets repetitive. Feeding followers, cleaning up after them, and managing their needs follows a daily loop that can feel like busywork after 15 or 20 hours. The updates have added more variety, but the core chores remain.

Runs are short and can feel samey. Individual dungeon runs last about 10 to 15 minutes. The room layouts and enemy encounters repeat frequently. You will see the same biome configurations many times before you finish the campaign.

The dark humor is not for everyone. Despite the cute art, the game involves ritual sacrifice, cannibalism, brainwashing, and other cult activities played for laughs. If that premise makes you uncomfortable rather than amused, the tone will not win you over.

My Take

I put off playing Cult of the Lamb for years because I assumed the cute art style was carrying a shallow game underneath. I was wrong. The loop of diving into dungeons, bringing back new followers, expanding the cult, and then heading out again is genuinely compelling. It scratches the same “one more run” itch that the best roguelikes do, while the base building gives you a reason to care about the results.

The co-op update made it even better. Playing through the campaign with a friend on the couch adds chaos in the best possible way. And Woolhaven is one of the most generous DLC expansions I have played in recent memory, adding real depth to the late game.

Is the combat as deep as Hades? No. Is the base building as complex as a dedicated colony sim? No. But the combination of both, wrapped in one of the most distinctive art styles in gaming, makes something that feels completely its own. Cult of the Lamb does not need to be the best at either half. It just needs to be good enough at both while being utterly charming, and it is.

If you enjoy roguelikes, base builders, or games with a twisted sense of humor, Cult of the Lamb belongs on your list. Three and a half years of updates have turned a very good game into an excellent one.