| Worship | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Worship is a roguelike RPG adventure where you and your cult followers pledge your devotion to your god, the Old Ones. Read on to learn everything we know, our review of the early access, and more.
Everything We Know About Worship
Worship Plot
You play as a devoted cultist, handpicked by your god to lead the charge toward world domination. Your mission: draw your own blood, perform dark rituals, and command an ever-growing horde of loyal followers. As you explore a grim, fractured world, you’ll clash with rival factions—from tribal warbands to zealous members of the Church—each determined to stop your unholy crusade.
This is a world torn apart by conflicting beliefs, where every corner resists your god’s influence. But with every ritual performed and every soul converted, you inch closer to your divine purpose: total annihilation.
Worship Gameplay
Worship is a dark and chaotic blend of action RTS, adventure, and roguelike mechanics that places you in the bloodstained robes of a devoted cultist. In this top-down, Pikmin-inspired game, you choose which ancient god to worship as you lead a growing flock of followers, spread your cult's influence, and perform gruesome blood rituals to claim new territory in the name of your unholy deity.
The gameplay revolves around commanding your cultists—recruiting more through ritual sacrifice—and managing your lifeblood resource: blood itself. Blood fuels both your magic and your health, so every spell or ritual comes at a cost. Managing that balance is key to survival, especially as you carve arcane symbols into the ground with your ceremonial dagger to cast powerful spells.
The world is teeming with rival factions, strange lands, and deadly encounters. Up to four players can join the chaos in co-op multiplayer, combining their dark powers to conquer and convert everything in their path. As your devotion deepens, both you and your cultists grow stronger—until you’re powerful enough to summon your chosen god and bring about the end of the world.
But beware: death is permanent. If you fall, you’ll have to start your dark crusade all over again.
Worship Release Date
Worship is set to launch in Early Access on July 17, with active development being handled by Chasing Rats Games.
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| Price | $19.99 | ||||
Worship Review [Early Access]: Sacrilegiously Satisfying
Pikmin x Cult of the Lamb? Sign Me Up for This Cult!
Pikmin meets Cult of the Lamb? Sign me up. That premise alone had me excited, and thankfully, Worship absolutely delivers on it. With its blend of real-time follower management, roguelike structure, and ritual-heavy strategy, this game is a chaotic and challenging experience that keeps you constantly adapting—and dying—in the best ways.
Each run begins by selecting which dark deity you’ll devote yourself to. Once chosen, you’re dropped into a procedurally generated map with one task: spread your god’s influence, grow your cult, and survive the world’s many threats. And you do all of this with blood. Literally.
Your dagger allows you to draw symbols on the ground using your own blood, casting spells and performing rituals. The first one you'll likely use turns nearby people into loyal cult followers—but not everyone is so easily converted. Rival factions, from tribal groups to zealous religious enemies, won’t hesitate to fight back. Many enemies hit hard, and death in Worship is permanent, so survival requires strategy.
The gameplay was heavily inspired by Pikim—you command your followers to attack enemies, carry objects, or interact with important landmarks like Chrysalises (crystallized larvae that can unlock new spells). You can even throw your followers, and each one becomes a valuable asset in battle or base-building. Managing them well is crucial; they can revive once if knocked out, but die twice and they’re gone for good.
Your blood also acts as both health and mana, so every spell you cast comes at a cost. Rituals must be drawn accurately—too messy or off-target, and they fail to activate. Fortunately, you can use a blood recall ability to erase or clean up misdrawn glyphs. As you progress, you’ll unlock more spells through exploration and devotion, gaining access to fun and wild effects: turning followers into berserkers, transforming spilled blood into black flames, or driving enemies insane.
The world is a clever mix of handcrafted puzzles and procedural design. I loved using my blood to solve environmental challenges, activate relics, or link power through ancient conduits. The map constantly surprises you with faction events, secrets, and lore, and no two runs feel exactly the same. Exploration is genuinely rewarding and atmospheric.
Combat is hectic in all the right ways. You'll need to manage your cultists in real time while dodging telegraphed enemy attacks, activating rituals, and trying to keep your team alive. Whether it’s a landmark battle or a base defense scenario, Worship demands quick thinking and resourceful play.
Base-building is another unexpected highlight. Structures provide tangible benefits—like increasing your max follower count or accelerating blood regeneration. As you gather rare materials, you can unlock stronger buildings that offer buffs, new rituals, and powerful upgrades. Lose a building, and its effects vanish, so protecting your base becomes just as important as expanding it.
Ultimately, your goal is to build enough devotion to manifest your god. This unlocks blessings tied to the deity you worship—passive bonuses, ritual upgrades, and even world-altering effects. Devotion is earned by converting followers, solving puzzles, completing objectives, and bringing relics back to your altar. Each god has a unique agenda—take An-Ànsgaidh, for example, the Herald of Annihilation, who simply wants to watch the world burn.
While I mostly played solo, Worship really shines in multiplayer. With up to four players coordinating together, the game becomes a chaotic symphony of cult coordination, ritual casting, and blood-soaked base-building. It’s incredibly fun, but also intense—you’ll need to communicate and strategize to survive. That said, I do wish there were public lobbies or matchmaking options. Currently, you can only join via invite or by hosting a private game.
Worship the Morbidly Cute Art Style
Visually, Worship is absolutely stunning. Its black-and-white, hand-drawn aesthetic oozes personality, giving the entire world a distinct, grim fairy-tale vibe. What’s most impressive is how the game balances its unsettling themes with an oddly charming presentation. For a game soaked in blood, eldritch horrors, and cosmic dread, it's also... weirdly cute.
There’s something endearing about your cultist leader and their band of followers—tiny, squeaky-voiced creatures reminiscent of Pikmin. They’re adorable in design and animation, bouncing around and squealing as they follow your commands. Even some of the enemies, like the devout religious guards, lean into this stylized, almost toy-like visual style that makes the horror feel both whimsical and disturbing.
That contrast is what makes Worship stand out. Take the An-Ànsgaidh, for example—a terrifying deity known as the Herald of Annihilation. This faceless, blood-soaked being is both grotesque and strangely poetic, with hands made of smaller black limbs and a white, blood-covered diamond in place of a face. Its presence feels like a symbol—a god who pities humanity so much that it offers death as a form of mercy. It’s chilling, yet fascinating.
And that’s the magic of Worship: the game blends unsettling cosmic horror with cute, almost childlike visuals in a way that feels fresh and completely its own. The exaggerated splashes of red blood against the stark black-and-white backdrop highlight the violence without making it overwhelming. It’s stylish, eerie, and bursting with atmosphere—making exploration a joy, even when the world is trying to kill you at every turn.
A Cult of Personality and Problems
Now, here’s where I ran into the most serious issues with Worship. Since the game is launching in Early Access, some level of jank is expected. Bugs and technical hiccups are part of the process, and players should approach it with the understanding that the game is still a work in progress. However, the problems I encountered went far beyond typical early access quirks—many of them were outright game-breaking.
The most frustrating problem lies with the spell menu. There were frequent instances where I simply couldn’t interact with it properly. Often, I’d have to open and close the menu repeatedly just to select or edit a spell. Sometimes, the UI would become unresponsive entirely—I could still move my character, but couldn’t click or navigate the spell interface at all. It’s inconsistent and frustrating, often disrupting the flow of gameplay to the point where I’ve had to restart entire runs simply because the spell menu refused to open or function properly.
Even more confusing is the presence of gamepad button prompts (A and B) while playing on keyboard. These buttons serve no function in the menu when using a keyboard and mouse, which only adds to the confusion and clutter. This really needs to be addressed quickly, as it makes one of the core systems of the game—customizing and assigning spells—feel like a chore.
Other bugs include UI elements not loading properly in single-player mode, forcing me to restart the game, and even a few sudden crashes during gameplay. These issues stack up quickly, and while I understand Early Access comes with growing pains, these particular problems are severe enough to disrupt the entire experience.
There are also some frustrating gameplay issues that go beyond bugs. One of the most persistent problems is with recalling your followers. There were countless times when they simply wouldn’t respond to commands, forcing me to manually pick them up one by one. In a game where follower management is central to the experience, this quickly becomes tedious and breaks the flow of gameplay.
On top of that, the load times feel unusually long for a game of this scale—something that definitely needs to be optimized. Altogether, these bugs and performance issues become major roadblocks to enjoyment. Worship has a lot of potential, but to truly thrive in Early Access, Chasing Rats Games will need to prioritize polish and stability in upcoming updates.
Join the Cult!
Despite its current bugs and rough edges, I still recommend keeping an eye on Worship. The core gameplay is engaging, challenging, and especially fun with friends. Its unique blend of Pikmin-style follower management, resource gathering, base building, and ritual-based combat gives it a strong foundation that already shows a lot of promise. If the developers at Chasing Rats Games can iron out the technical issues and continue expanding the game’s systems, this could become something truly special.
One suggestion I’d love to see implemented in the future is a versus multiplayer mode—where rival cults compete against one another to fulfill their apocalyptic goals. The current co-op mechanics are already enjoyable, but PvP could take the strategic gameplay and chaotic fun to a whole new level.
At its heart, Worship is a creative, stylish, and ambitious take on the roguelike genre—one that offers plenty of dark charm, challenge, and personality. With more polish and time, it could absolutely become a cult hit in every sense of the word.
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Worship Product Information
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| Title | Worship |
|---|---|
| Release Date | July 17, 2025 (Early Access) |
| Developer | Chasing Rats Games s |
| Publisher | Chasing Rats Games |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Roguelike, Adventure/td> |
| Number of Players | 1-4 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | Worship Website |
