All Hail The Orb Review: A Cult Worth Clicking For

All Hail The Orb is a quirky little indie game that takes the idea of worshipping a mysterious orb and turns it into a surprisingly entertaining adventure. Developed and graciously gifted to me by Bag Of Ducks Studio, this pixel-art incremental game is all about building a cult, gathering resources, exploring a dungeon, and slowly automating your way toward becoming the ultimate devotee. And yes, there are ducks. A lot of ducks.

I’ll be honest, incremental games aren’t always my thing. Watching numbers go up and waiting for resources to accumulate isn’t necessarily what I look for when I’m gaming. But there’s something about All Hail The Orb that managed to pull me in, and before I knew it, I was pretty invested in making sure my little cult was running as efficiently as possible.

What is it?

You begin with a mysterious orb that needs power, and it’s your job to make sure it gets plenty of it. You start by clicking to generate resources, recruiting cultists to help with the workload, and gradually expanding your operation as you unlock new rooms and systems.

What begins as a fairly simple clicker slowly develops into something more involved. You’re managing workers, upgrading production, unlocking new mechanics, and finding ways to automate the process so you don’t have to do everything yourself.

There’s no combat or real threat of failure here. The satisfaction comes from progression, discovering new systems, and watching your little operation grow from practically nothing into a full-blown orb-worshipping machine.

And honestly, there’s something inherently funny about how seriously the game takes this completely ridiculous premise.

A cult worth managing

The biggest strength of All Hail The Orb is how it keeps giving you new things to work toward. Every time you think you’ve got a system figured out, there’s another room to unlock, another resource to manage, or another upgrade that makes your operation a little more efficient.

The automation is particularly satisfying. You begin by doing most of the work yourself, but eventually you’re assigning cultists, improving production, and building a system that practically runs itself. There’s a nice sense of progression as you go from constantly clicking buttons to managing a much larger operation.

The game also mixes things up with different activities and minigames, so you’re not just staring at one resource counter for the entire experience. The Mushroom Grotto, in particular, introduces another layer of resource management, giving you something new to figure out as your cult continues to expand.

It’s a simple gameplay loop, but it works. Even for someone who doesn’t always gravitate toward incremental games, there’s enough variety here to keep things interesting.

A charming little world

Visually, All Hail The Orb has that charming pixel-art style that fits its ridiculous premise perfectly. The dungeon gives you a collection of different rooms and systems to explore, and there’s a certain satisfaction in seeing everything gradually come together as your operation expands.

The humor is another big part of the appeal. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, and its strange little world gives the whole experience a personality that helps it stand out from a typical clicker.

And then there are the ducks. I don’t want to spoil all the surprises, but let’s just say that ducks become a pretty memorable part of the experience. It’s one of those wonderfully bizarre additions that makes you wonder what exactly was happening in the developer’s head when they came up with this idea.

That’s part of the charm, though. All Hail The Orb understands that a silly premise can carry a game a long way when the mechanics supporting it are enjoyable.

Where the pacing stumbles

My biggest gripe with All Hail The Orb is how the pacing slows down when you reach the Mushroom Grotto.

Up until that point, the game does a good job of introducing new mechanics and giving you reasons to keep progressing. There’s a satisfying rhythm to unlocking something new, figuring out how it works, and then using it to improve your operation.

The Mushroom Grotto interrupts that rhythm a little. Its introduction feels like the game is asking you to slow down and spend more time with a system that doesn’t immediately have the same momentum as what came before. Instead of feeling like the next exciting step in your progression, it can feel like you’re being held up while you get through another layer of resource management.

It’s not a dealbreaker, and the game still has plenty to offer beyond that point, but it’s the section where I felt the pacing lose some of its momentum.

The one area where I wish the game did a little more is the music. The soundtrack is fine for what it is, and it fits the game’s quirky, laid-back atmosphere, but as far as I can tell, you’re essentially listening to the same loop throughout the experience. And when you’re spending a decent amount of time managing resources, clicking through menus, and watching your cult grow, that repetition starts to become noticeable. I don’t need a massive soundtrack for a game like this, but a few different tracks for different areas or milestones would have gone a long way toward keeping things fresh.

The last caveat is a little more personal incremental games just aren’t always my thing. I enjoy seeing progression and unlocking new systems, but there’s a limit to how much time I want to spend managing resources and waiting for numbers to increase. If you’re someone who loves idle games, automation, and optimizing every little system, you’ll probably get even more out of this than I did.

The verdict

All Hail The Orb is a charming, funny, and surprisingly engaging little indie game. Its combination of automation, resource management, exploration, and ridiculous humor makes it an easy game to get invested in, even if incremental games aren’t normally your preferred genre.

I really appreciate how it keeps expanding its mechanics rather than relying entirely on the same basic clicker loop. There’s a genuine sense of progression here, and watching your cult grow into a self-sustaining operation is satisfying in a way that’s difficult to explain until you’re actually playing it.

The Mushroom Grotto does slow things down more than I’d like, and I don’t think the incremental gameplay will appeal to everyone. But those issues don’t outweigh the charm and the fun I had with the experience overall.

I’m giving All Hail The Orb an 8 out of 10. It’s a great little indie for anyone looking for something quirky, relaxing, and satisfying to chip away at. Even if you’re not usually the type to worship an orb, this one might just convert you.