Now I have been a fan of massive monster and their games for a while now. I played The Adventure Pals and Never Give Up, and enjoyed them both decently, plus I'm really into their art style, its just so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ CUTE man. so when I saw this was happening, it got me really excited. it seems like a wonderful blend of 2 genres I was a pretty sizeable fan of, and I waited in anticipation for its release. I have seen a lot of mixed reviews on this game, saying its shallow, buggy, and all-round not so great. I have 100% completed the game, and I think I can give a full proper opinion.

first of all, I think this game is both good and bad in a few ways. first of all, I agree with the gameplay being shallow and basic. both the town building and roguelike aspects are very simple, you have a few weapon variations, a few curse variations, you can do a dodge roll, there are a bunch of tarot cards that slightly buff you, its very basic stuff. with the town building side, there are 3 meters to keep track of, which in tandem keep your cultists happy; faith, hunger, and sickness. problem is, these 3 meters are piss-easy to keep on top of. in comparison to something like don't starve, it makes COTL look like a game for infants. on the occasion, a follower will ask you to do something like get them a special item, or cast a ritual, or eat faeces (don't ask), these are interesting the first time you get them, but there aren't a whole lot of them, and they don't get MORE interesting in any way. both sides of this game, mechanic wise, feel rather half baked, it feels like there is so much more that could've been done with the idea, so much potential. I've heard that the devs might be adding stuff in the future, which im excited for, but i cant be sure

now what I DO think this game does well, is everything else. making a cult itself is a lot of fun. cultists have to do tasks for you to help gather resources while praying to a big statue to give you divine faith, which is basically xp currency to level up your cult. and unlocking new buildings, and follower skins, and decorating everything, it all just works, it works really well, and its satisfying once you've got the cult looking the way you envisioned it. and the art style man, it blends the dark and morbid aspect of the sacrifices and the evil twisted monsters, with a lighthearted tone that feels more 'for everyone' and that's ok. while I do think the roguelike aspect is shallow, another thing I've heard complaints about is that its too easy. and yes, it is easy. but to me, that's ok. a big part of keeping your cult running is, while you go on these 'crusades' to fight monsters and kill the 4 bishops, you also need to collect resources out in the cold unforgiving world. when you are killed while on your crusades, however, you will lose around 30% of all the items you picked up, obviously giving you incentive to 'git gud'. Now I think its ok how average COTL's difficulty is, because see, if the game wiped the floor with you, it would be really difficult to get the resources you need to expand your cult, and without those, everything would fall apart. While roguelike connoisseurs may be able to make their way through the game just fine, newcomers to the genre, or people who enjoy the genre, but aren't the best at it, will have trouble properly enjoying the games town building aspects if they cant even get the resources needed to expand it.

the last thing I must address is the bugs. I've come a cropper to a fair few of these bugs, things like the camera staying focused on something it shouldn't, or buttons on both my controller and keyboard just straight up not working. at the time of this review, the game is not the most stable and you're bound to see some odd happenings at least once during a playthrough. now none of my bugs were exactly world-ending, but I cannot fault the people who left negative reviews because a terrible bug soft-locked their game, impeding their progress. so because of my (albeit mildly frustrating) bug encounters, I cannot say they are annoying enough to turn one away from the game itself.

in conclusion, I think this game is definitely flawed, yet its flaws do not completely take away from the fact that is a solid game to the end, that I enjoyed playing the whole way through. and for that, it gets a thumbs up from me.