Cult of the Lamb - Ishvii Reviews

Cult of the Lamb is an unusual mix between "roguelike" (well, run-based) combat and settlement building. Both sides of gameplay are very highly polished, but overall very simplistic. There are 5 gods, and 4 of them imprisoned the 5th. You get sacrificed, and the 5th god brings you back to life in exchange for starting a cult and killing the other 4. The combat part of the game is roguelike runs at the bosses where you go from room to room killing baddies. In between that you grow a cult, gather resources and build things so they can worship you and generate devotion, which is used to buy combat and cult upgrades. It's an interesting balance, but ultimately a bit shallow in both halves.

Pros

The production value of the overall art and sound style is really high
The combination of all the little animations and sound effects is almost hypnotic
The combat feels very impactful, and dodging is responsive

Cons

Both the combat and the cult building side are very simplistic - almost what I imagine Animal Crossing is like. You just fill up all the bars in between runs - feed people, do a sermon, water crops, sacrifice someone then go back out there
Aside from being the primary way to get combat upgrades through devotion, the cult doesn't really have any impact on the combat runs. I'd completed all the research and all the upgrades before killing the second boss, making it literally pointless to bother feeding or looking after the cult anymore
In the cult, trying to place anything on the diagonal grid with either controller or mouse is just really horrible
There are inconsistencies in the UI. Sometimes you press A to accept an item, sometimes B to go back
In theory I'd love to decorate my grounds with all the buildings and decorations you unlock - but because the building controls are horrible, I never bothered
All the menus you have to click "accept" on when you buy anything new. A to pickup. A to confirm you picked it up. A to accept it's now in your list of buildings.
Gameplay loop is very repetitive
Very few variations in builds for the combat part of the game. It's basically just slow weapon or fast weapon, and you get given a random one at the start of each run

Bugs

When an item is passed anywhere - like between me and a follower, or followers donating, or buying from a shop, the item spins around the receiver extremely quickly for anywhere betwen 5-20 seconds before it gets picked up
I came back from fishing, and none of my cult members were moving around. I did a sermon to try and force them into the church, but I did the sermon to an emtpy church, and they were all still standing around outside

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