When you think of survival games, you probably think of the recently released Palworld, Valheim, Rust or even Grounded. All of these are very similar in that they throw the player into crazy circumstances, but ones that feel good to overcome and build upon. That’s what Wolf Haus Games are looking to do with Join Us.
Wolf Haus is a small developer started in Montreal, Canada who are looking to create a survival game like no other, and they certainly have our attention. Creating and running a cult isn’t something we’ve seen before, at least not directly, but somehow, it’s exactly what we need. In a world of overly serious AAA video games, it’s fun to sit back and play something a bit more goofy.
Join Us has the comedic chops we had hoped for. This is a game about creating a cult, and it’s not taken at all seriously. It would be worrying if it did. Players will start off their game by creating a template cult, which involves creating an emblem for the cult – we had to go with a spiritual alien – and then we had to name our cult, and give our followers an attire they can be proud of.
Picking a character, you are then thrown into the world of a fully-fledged cult and its leader, all of which you are given a job as a new recruit: business. Here, players will be taken through the basics of the gameplay, specifically how combat works and some of the basic controls such as running and crouching. There’s not much to this otherwise, other than tossing a grenade at Jellybean the pig.
With all of that out of the way, you are sent into the magical open world of Beford County, where the residents will believe anything, you tell them, essentially. This is where the game really picks up, as you have to establish a base of operations, something some locals have tried to take for themselves.
After dealing with the riffraff, it’s a matter of setting things up so not only can your followers survive, but you as well. This involves building beds, building campfires to make food and even making workstations to distribute fliers for your good cause.
This is the survival aspect of Join Us, as it’s all about managing your relationship and following to ensure they’re kept in line and happy. Not everyone is immediately welcome to the idea of joining the cause, but there are ways of convincing them. Influence is a big component to this. And that’s more or less the core structure of Join Us. It’s all about building and expanding upon a cult as their leader, while micromanaging all the resources and emotions followers have.
In terms of gameplay, Join Us feels a little rough around the edges. This is developed by a small team, so there is some leeway given, but driving, for example, is not the easiest of tasks to do. It is incredibly swirly and not super responsive. On top of that, gunplay feels a bit stilted, never feeling overly satisfying but not necessarily bad. It definitely feels like a budgeted game somewhat akin to how Deadly Premonition was back in the day, and it certainly helps that Join Us has a very similar charm.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://hardcoregamer.com/gamescom-2026-preview-join-us/
