Doomsday cult sim Join Us, developed by Wolf Haus Games, presents players with the unique challenge of establishing and leading a cult with the impending apocalypse as a backdrop. Available for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X in March 2027, the game aims to explore nuanced questions about leadership and survival.
The core premise places players in the role of a newly appointed cult leader tasked with establishing a basecamp and recruiting followers to survive a genuine apocalypse. While a corporate entity oversees the operation and provides basic blueprints and guidance, the player is largely left to their own devices to shape the cult's policies and practices. This freedom extends to early gameplay decisions, such as whether to follow aggressive directives during combat training or to opt for more passive approaches.
Customization is a key element, allowing players to design their cult's appearance, including robes and masks, and establish a unique name and logo for branding. The game world is set in Bedford County, a run-down American small town where residents exhibit varying degrees of loyalty or a desire to leave, influencing their susceptibility to recruitment. Early gameplay can involve defending the base from local thieves, signaling an underlying distrust from the community.
Resource management and crafting are central to survival. Players can gather, grow, and harvest resources to build essential structures like meeting tables, sleeping rolls, and a fire pit. A propaganda station allows for the dissemination of leaflets to influence the local populace and attract new members. These recruited cult members become playable characters, enabling players to manage different aspects of the compound and eventually traverse the entire map.
Wolf Haus Games CEO Joe Dietsch elaborated on the game's design philosophy, emphasizing the concept of 'human beings as a resource.' He explained that while followers can handle classic survival tasks like resource gathering and defense, the player is freed up to focus on the 'spiritual journey,' including teachings and branding. This allows players to immerse themselves in the narrative and high-level decision-making as the apocalypse approaches.
Join Us offers significant differentiation in cult types. Players can choose to lead a hyper-violent cult, a druid sect focused on nature and animals, or even an alien cult. Dietsch noted that regardless of the chosen belief system, the core campaign narrative remains consistent. The nature path might involve cultivating better gardens and befriending animals, while other paths could involve more direct intervention from supernatural or alien forces. The game intends to leverage the player's inherent interest in survival mechanics to tell a story and allow for diverse cult expressions within its framework. 
