Recent reviews by ♥♦Cross The Line♣♠

A thoroughly good game that isn't even done with development yet.

Back to the Dawn is an interesting example of an early-access game releasing in a state that feels functionally complete regardless, but after completing my first, blind run successfully, I felt compelled to speak my mind on this game, especially with how active and interactive the developers are.

Broadly speaking, perhaps it's due to the implementation of the recent save system but a lot of the complaints about the time limit may be a little exaggerated. I beat my first blind playthrough with 5 days to spare, with generally low amounts of savescumming. If anything, I was surprised by the relative generosity of the save slots. Perhaps in future, there could be a bonus 'iron man' mode that removes the manual saves for players wishing to experience the difficulty and challenge of the earliest form of this game, where savescumming isn't a possibility?

The core gameplay loop is an engaging resource-accumulation, pseudo-immersive-simlike experience where I often found myself really optimizing how I made use of various equippables, resources and skills in order to maximize my odds of survival. There's some roughness around the edges, and a complaint I'm sure players will have in later playthroughs or when the Panther's campaign is released is the amount of walking and backtracking present if you're looking to optimize your schedule. This gets a little unwieldy late-game where you're often running back and forth from your cell, getting one or two items out because your inventory and storage space is so limited. Given that walking and moving between locations does not take time, I'd recommend giving the players an option of increasing their movement speed from the menu, similar to how Enter the Gungeon drastically speeds up the player outside of combat.
Another mechanical improvement that could be made is a way to track & highlight items needed for recipes or gifting yourself. A mechanic like this already exists for quest items and components, but I would like to see it broadened to manual highlights, as I found myself running around & checking dozens of inmates in hopes for specific crafting materials very often.

As for the writing, I found myself quite engaged with the overall character writing, conversations between the inmates and the relationships that panned out in the cast. The best term I'd use for it is 'heartfelt' or 'earnest', as many of the character storylines have a degree of grounded truth to them that make you care about and feel something for the people present and their wellbeing.
It's quite well done, though I must admit that a few character names took me out of the game's immersion due to being prominent pop culture references or expected animal name puns (Alex the Lion coincidentally sharing a name with the Madagascar lion, Perry the Platypus, a Pangolin called... Lin, etc). There's some traces of wackier supernatural elements in this otherwise grounded world and I found those encounters quite enjoyable as a change of pace from the grounded issues the majority of characters are dealing with in the plotline.
If I were to make another mechanical request, I would like an additional tab in the Relationships page for the player's relationship/rapport with the guards and other non-inmate characters, which can otherwise only be seen when physically present, if I didn't miss it.

While I'll refrain from discussing the ending too much to avoid spoilers in this narrative driven game, I think one thing that the game could have benefitted from is a bit of an epilogue reel to show what happens to the inmates and guards you've grown familiar with. Even quick snippets discussing the outcomes/fates of their characters based off of how much you've helped them in the game would be pleasant.
Maybe the ending I accomplished the first time wasn't 'the best ending', or maybe I accidentally clicked past the final showcase of their fates or something, but I don't believe there is something like this in-game yet.

What I was impressed by though was that this game seems to have been crafted by a tiny devteam, yet has quality and attention to detail that many triple A games cannot hope to accomplish. I can only hope that when I eventually found my own game studio, that my efforts and tenacity can live up to the same degree of success that these developers have experienced, rightfully so. Even now, the developer is actively engaging with and responding to reviews, feedback and systems present in the game, seemingly without compromising their core visions.

I hope that the next character campaign, and the one after that (from the photo on the character select wall) goes well, considering that this game is already seeing a good amount of success from its early-access state.

Cult of the Lamb is a perfectly serviceable indie roguelike in this day and age of gaming. Featuring dodge mechanics and skill-based gameplay, a decently polished combat system with engaging enough bosses... serviceable is genuinely the best way to describe it. It's aesthetic presentation is great and works for the game it sets out to make.

That being said, it is simple - and if you've played much other roguelikes within the last five years of the industry, you'll find a very familiar taste to everything, like the fourtieth chain restaurant saving you the same kind of cheeseburger on a fancy platter. It's all so familiar that things start blending together.

Ultimately, outside of the surface level appeal, it currently comes off a bit dry and I hope future content expansions do more to make Cult of the Lamb feel more in-depth, akin to how Enter the Gungeon's add-ons drastically improve upon the core gameplay systems introduced in the base game.
That being said, I can at least still recommend this game - even though it's not especially inventive on it's own, with the cult and management-sim aspects of gameplay being more of an add-on progression loop than something deeper on its own, it's certainly not bad. Granted, I'd say that this recommendation is only particularly helpful to people who haven't played many roguelikes before, because to those who have, it can come off as much more stale.

Good stuff.