2022 has been yet another great year for Indie games. From bigger budget titles like Stray, Tunic and Sifu, to smaller experiences like Bear and Breakfast, this year has been packed with stellar Indie titles, each one more unique and imaginative than the last. A publisher that's become known for their high quality Indie offerings, Devolver Digital has once again knocked it out of the park with Cult of the Lamb, a beautifully dark, charming roguelike/city builder developed by Massive Monster.
Released just a few weeks ago, Cult of the Lamb sees players assume the role of a possessed lamb, who has been resurrected for one purpose: to form a cult, kill heretics, and bring back their demonic master. In the process, players will be meeting new animal friends, indoctrinating them into the cult, using their devotion to level up, and go hunting for heretics in a series of procedurally-generated dungeons. There's a lot to do in Cult of the Lamb, but its intuitive and fun little minigames shouldn't be ignored in the process.
Cult of the Lamb's Minigames Shouldn't Be Ignored
The start of Cult of the Lamb can be a tad overwhelming for newcomers, especially to those fairly new to city-builders or roguelikes. Within just an hour, about three different currency types will be explained, along with a slew of meters to keep track of and a range of different abilities that all feed into one another and need to be managed. With so much going on at all times, it's easy to pass over Cult of the Lamb's handful of really fun minigames.
The first minigame players unlock is Knucklebones, which can be found in Ratau's shack within the first few hours of the game. As far as games within games go, Knucklebones deserves to be regarded as highly as the likes of The Witcher 3's Gwent, or Red Dead Redemption's poker. Knucklebones is an incredibly intuitive game of dice, where players simply need to place dice in three columns, attempting to gain the highest number. The trick is, any dice in the same column that have the same number are multiplied together, paving the way for massive score additions. However, if an opponent puts a dice of the same value in their own corresponding column, the player's dice get removed.
Knucklebones is an incredibly simple game, but its simplicity is what makes it so addictive. Within the first 10 seconds of joining their first Knucklebones match, players will know exactly what to do, and that level of intuitiveness isn't often present minigames like these. Over the course of Cult of the Lamb, players will find new Knucklebones opponents while exploring, and can return to the shack to challenge them. Each new opponent offers a higher level of challenge, but also offers more gold as a reward for beating them, keeping Knucklebones a worthwhile venture throughout the entirety of Cult of the Lamb's 20-hour campaign.
The second of Cult of the Lamb's minigames is even more simplistic, but it's just as addictive and just as worthwhile. Throughout Cult of the Lamb, players are constantly reminded to find as many sources of food as possible, in order to keep their growing cult fed. Eventually, players will discover a lighthouse on the map, and next to it is a little fishing pier. Requiring no extra materials at all, players can simply cast a rod into the sea, and catch all the fish present. In gameplay that's extremely similar to Stardew Valley's fishing mechanic, players simply need to tap the "X" button to keep the fish within the green bar of the meter. Fishing in Cult of the Lamb is extremely easy, and with higher tier food being such a rarity in the game, fishing is always a worthwhile activity.
Cult of the Lamb is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
