Join Us Preview: The End Days Have Never Been So Strange

You've heard of cult classic games, but Join Us is shaping up to be a classic cult game. As in, this game might set a new standard for survival games with sandbox and crafting elements. There's so much happening in Join Us that it's difficult to figure out where to begin explaining it, and since it's not set to be released until March 2027, the content has the potential to grow even more wild between now and then.

Join Us is an action-survival RPG with base building and farming elements set in an open world, but that description doesn't do the idea of the game the justice it deserves. This game is a satirical take on doomsday cults that's being created by a team at Wolf Haus Games that appears to believe that if you want to do something ridiculous in-game, you should be able to do that ridiculous thing, like riding pigs.

I didn't have Join Us on my radar before, but after getting our hands on it at Summer Game Fest, I can't wait until it releases in 2027. It has the vibes of other survival games I love, such as 7 Days to Die and Project Zomboid, but those vibes are mixed with the absurd gameplay that reminds me of titles like Saints Row and Goat Simulator. Honestly, I need a new game that comes with just pure, simple entertainment in my life, and I think this is going to fill that void.

Join Us Brings Humor to Doomsday Cults

Cults in real life can be terrifying and deadly, but video games let you explore the core of the concept through a satirical lens that makes doomsday cults in particular become far less threatening. Join Us puts you in the middle of cult activities.

You play as the cultist given the important task of spreading your cult's doctrine in a new location, which is Bedford County. Bedford County is a rural area, which gives you plenty of space for building and expanding your base as you recruit new cultists to help run your compound and prepare for the doomsday event you've chosen to have your cult believe is inevitable.

A lot of the humor in Join Us comes from how you can design and customize your cult. You're able to choose what you worship and convince your followers of that belief. My favorite right now is the ancient alien cult, but part of that is simply from how many memes exist regarding aliens, so leading an alien cult is highly amusing.

The Gameplay Is More Active than You'd Expect

As you might expect, the residents of Bedford aren't thrilled by the appearance of a cult in their home, and that's largely where the survival element of Join Us comes into play. While your goal is to recruit followers in Bedford, a number of residents will be resistant to this event to the point of open hostility that could even include trying to hit you with their cars.

Residents aren't the only threat, as the local police force and even the government can come after your cult, and they show up with weapons that they are ready to use. Luckily, you can prepare for these firefights ahead of time with the help of your followers, as you're able to assign them tasks that range from managing resources to crafting military-grade weapons.

It's possible to die, and Join Us has a permadeath system that's similar to Project Zomboid. The character you're playing as becomes unplayable, but you can essentially jump into the body of another cultist and control them as your new character. This accomplishes the task of adding consequences for picking a fight unprepared, but also avoids being too punishing to the point that the game becomes unenjoyable, since you aren't forced to start over entirely with each death.

Looking Forward to Join Us' Release

As you might expect, information and content regarding Join Us is quite slim at this point. I would love to see more details about the different gameplay systems before it's released, and I want to know if there's any kind of endgame content in the works, or if the focus will stay on running the cult and exploring the sandbox elements in combination with the open world.

I think it would be a shame if there wasn't future expansions or DLC that makes the endgame content into going beyond Bedford County. With the in-game location being rural, maybe the next step would be attempting to spread your cult in other types of locations, such as suburban and urban, and facing the unique challenges that each place would bring.

From what's currently available to explore, Join Us looks perfectly fun as a satirical option. It's not the kind of game that you want to go into with the assumption that it's going to be serious, especially when one of the weapons you can have is a launcher that fires live snakes. I'm particularly excited about the co-op element, and I'm pretty sure there's a saying about friends who start a cult together staying together. Plus, Wolf Haus Games has months before release to use to keep adding features and polishing what already exists in Join Us, and I can't wait to see what the end result looks like.