Almost every day leads to fun announcements for gamers, no matter how small. With the current news of Steam Deck compatibility being a hot topic in the community, as well as celebrations for the Pokemon franchise's 26th anniversary, there's plenty for gamers to talk about as of late. Indie developer team Massive Monster has decided to include itself as part of the conversation by announcing that its next game, Cult of the Lamb, is coming to consoles this year.
Massive Monster is a more recent indie game studio that works with famous indie publisher Devolver Digital. The small studio is known for two previous titles, Never Give Up, and Adventure Pals. The studio is known for colorful, hand-drawn 2D titles, and is unique in that its team works remotely across the UK and Australia.
Despite its background in 2D titles, Massive Monster is making the jump to 3D with its latest game, Cult of the Lamb. It sees players as the titular lamb who is possessed by an occult power who "saved them from annihilation." This leads to fans owing the entity a debt that can only be repaid by making a cult in the being's likeness, which serves as the player's goal. For those interested, the game has been announced to be coming on all major console platforms this year alongside the previously announced PC release.
Despite being 3D, the game still uses hand-drawn animation, using cute animals as the main characters and NPCs. Critics upon the game's initial announcement during Gamescom: Opening Night Live described it as "what would happen if an Animal Crossing villager started a cult." It seems to be a rather fair comparison to make as Cult of the Lamb sees itself as a procedurally-generated roguelike that lets players grow stronger by strengthening their following, or "flock" as they develop their own society.
Its playfully adorable art style serves as a great tongue-in-cheek juxtaposition to the usual horror atmosphere found with the occult, with cute animals being surrounded and sacrificed to demons with razor-sharp teeth and bloody tentacles. The trailers for the game even show the cute critters enjoying being sacrificed, being dragged into the underworld with a smile on their face.
While there's no release date announced for the title just yet, Massive Monster has said that the game is coming sometime in 2022, which should make those looking forward to the game rather excited as they can now play it on their console of choice when it releases.
Cult of the Lamb is scheduled to release in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.