At first, this is going to be a remarkably short game. Things begin with you as a cowering little lamb, led to your death as a sacrifice. Within ten minutes, however, you have already exacted fierce revenge on your would-be killers and sworn adorable allegiance to the enigmatic entity that has returned you to the land of the living. You start your own cult. Every member of the cult is a super cute creature.

This is Animal Crossing, if Tom Nook craved power instead of money. Animal Crossing, like soccer, is a two-part game. The first half involves raising, caring for, and of course indoctrinating a cult. But before we get too ambitious, we need to take care of the basics. Cute cultists need food to eat, a place to sleep, and a place to poop. Do not give them the last one. Then they will do as they please, wherever they please in the field you are developing. After all, they are animals.

The second half of the game is linked to the first and is a good example of how every aspect of the game is carefully interwoven: there are four dungeons that must be completed for both the story (the quest to free those who have resurrected you) and to maintain the cult (finding new followers and resources). This part is basically a roguelike, with random weapons and rooms, and perks to unlock. The combat is solid, but sometimes a little hard to press the buttons when given a fast but weak weapon. The default difficulty is nicely balanced, but you can always change the difficulty if you feel the need to increase (or decrease) it.

However, there is a feedback loop whereby your actions in the settlements directly affect your progress in the dungeon. The leveling system is, frankly, genius. The basic idea is that the bigger and happier the cult is, the faster their devotion can be harvested (mainly by preaching once a day), which works as XP. As a result, weapons, perks and abilities used in dungeons, as well as blueprints for the cult's decorations and functional buildings, are unlocked, either directly or indirectly.

Developing and maintaining everyone's loyalty and faith is more complicated than expected, but never overwhelming. It can also be great fun. When the overall faith of my cult first dropped to the level of heretics preaching against me to others, I was prepared with the perfect way to deal with them. At this point, I was going to indoctrinate the cult to celebrate sacrifices and immediately convert them to cannibalism (hey, no need to waste good meat). From then on, whenever heretics appeared, I "rewarded" them by sacrificing them. They were no longer a problem, my cult's faith grew, and I had something to eat for dinner. Everyone is happy.

Part of the progression system involves developing the cult's doctrine. This is a fun way to decide how reasonable or wicked I want to be while gaining new perks in the process, although it is an either/or choice each time. For example, I wanted my followers to respect the elderly, so every time a follower reached a certain age, their faith would increase. This more than made up for the cannibalism, right?

Cult strongholds are not the only non-combat locations to explore. There are other (equally small) places with side quests, resources, and shopping. There are also dice games (knuckle bones) and very basic fishing to distract you. It is a small world, but it is also a world that practically demands that you explore every nook and cranny.

But there is more to Cult of the Lamb. With the story over, the dungeons have really opened up and no longer end when you hit what used to be a boss room. You can continue on as far as you dare, risking death and losing part of what you have collected. However, it is not necessarily up to you to decide how long you want to play. There is an enemy that can never be defeated. Time.

There is a gentle yet constant pressure in the game in the form of the day and night cycle. Whether you are in a settlement, in other places that you discover little by little, or while adventuring in a dungeon, time passes slowly. In other words, the cultists slowly go hungry, poop somewhere, get sick, or die. This, in turn, means that the cult's loyalty begins to wane, and if left unchecked, it will require a great deal of work to restore it. It is not difficult to avoid a situation where the cult turns against you and you suddenly find yourself struggling to harvest Devotion, but to keep on top of things, you need to strike a good balance between maintaining the settlement and dungeon adventures. That's not a bad thing, but if one is so inclined, one could choose to place more emphasis on one or the other.

Still, Cult of the Lamb is clever, well designed, and the script is sharp and entertaining. The great atmosphere is helped in no small part by the instantly familiar art. Speaking of which, making all the followers adorable little animals was a wise choice. Intentionally or not, it makes brainwashing and opaque morals amusing rather than disturbing.

Occasionally, I thought, "This really does sound like a cult." For example, when they gleefully told me that I could marry as many of their followers as I wanted. However, please don't misunderstand me to think that this game is anything but wonderful. I love this game and that is most definitely my own opinion, uninfluenced by evil influences.