There are management sims about running cities, businesses, and entire civilizations. Join Us takes a different route by asking a question few games dare to ask: what if you were responsible for leading a doomsday cult through the end of the world?
During a hands-on demo, I got my first look at Join Us, an upcoming open-world sandbox that mixes survival mechanics, cult management, base building, and squad-based combat. While the premise sounds provocative, the game quickly establishes itself as a satire inspired by grindhouse cinema and absurd comedy. By the end of the demo, the thing I remembered most wasn’t the shooting or the management systems. It was how funny the entire experience was.
Creating a Leader Worth Following
The demo began with character creation, allowing me to build my own cult leader from scratch. The customization options immediately set the tone, letting me combine goofy colors, loud clothing patterns, and personalized cult imagery.
I could also choose the cult’s symbol and decide how followers would be named, giving me a small taste of the freedom that Join Us promises for the rest of the game. According to the developers, players will eventually be able to create their own belief systems, convincing followers to embrace everything from UFO conspiracies to drum circles and stranger ideologies in between.
The game clearly wants players to create cults that reflect their own sense of humor.
The Leader Has a Lot to Say
After character creation, I was dropped into a tutorial covering movement, shooting, and basic interactions. The entire sequence was narrated by a character known simply as The Leader.
His commentary quickly revealed the game’s approach to its subject matter. Join Us treats cults as a vehicle for comedy rather than something serious. The Leader’s instructions constantly walked the line between helpful tutorial guidance and ridiculous cult propaganda, making what could have been a routine introduction one of the most memorable parts of the demo.
The writing felt self-aware and consistently funny, which goes a long way toward making the game’s unusual premise work.
Once the tutorial ended, I arrived in Bedford County and was given access to a pre-built compound.
Followers Are the Real Resource
One of Join Us’ core ideas is that people are your most valuable resource. Every civilian, enemy, or potential recruit in the world can eventually become part of your growing cult.
While the demo didn’t fully explore the deeper management systems, it did showcase one of the game’s most interesting mechanics: the ability to switch control between followers.
At nearly any time, I could swap into another cult member through a menu or by approaching them directly. The transition felt smooth and easy to manage, and I quickly found myself using different followers for tactical reasons.
The full game plans to expand this system significantly. Followers will possess different strengths and weaknesses, allowing players to assign jobs and responsibilities throughout the compound. Some may be better farmers, doctors, negotiators, or fighters. Keeping followers happy will also be important, as unhappy members can leave the cult entirely.
As the game itself reminds players, a cult leader without followers is just a lonely weirdo.
Building an Army for the Apocalypse
Before I had much time to inspect the compound, a local militia launched an attack.
Combat became the primary focus of the demo from that point forward. Join Us features a variety of weapons, and during my session, I used pistols, machine guns, and machetes while fighting hostile militia forces.
The mission eventually sent me to a nearby ranch to eliminate enemy fighters. I brought several followers along for support, turning the encounter into a small squad-based assault. The ability to swap between cult members during combat added flexibility, allowing me to reposition fighters and take advantage of different weapons.
The full game appears to lean even harder into its absurdity. Beyond conventional firearms, players will eventually gain access to increasingly ridiculous weapons, including snake launchers—a weapon that literally fires live snakes at enemies.
That’s exactly the kind of sentence that tells you what kind of game Join Us wants to be.
Combat carries some weight as well. Join Us uses a permadeath system, meaning that characters who die stay dead. At least, mostly permanently. The developers hint that becoming a ghost is still on the table, though the demo didn’t explore that mechanic.
A World Built for Chaos
Outside of combat, I spent some time exploring Bedford County. Driving the vehicles felt a bit clunky during my brief time behind the wheel, though it wasn’t frustrating.
I eventually visited a nearby town and successfully recruited a new follower, offering a glimpse into how players will expand their cult over time. Recruitment, propaganda, territory expansion, and managing your growing infamy all appear to be major parts of the overall experience.
The compound-building systems were largely outside the scope of the demo, but they’re positioned as a major pillar of the game. Players will be able to build and customize their headquarters, assign followers to jobs, establish defenses, and gradually create a self-sustaining community capable of surviving the coming apocalypse.
Four-Player Co-Op Could Be the Wild Card
Although my demo was entirely single-player, Join Us supports up to four-player cooperative play.
Given how much was already happening with follower management, recruitment, and combat in a relatively short demo, I’m particularly curious to see how the game’s systems adapt when multiple people are working together. Coordinating compound construction, managing followers, and launching attacks on rival factions could create some memorable chaos.
Humor Is Join Us’ Greatest Strength
The biggest surprise from my time with Join Us wasn’t its management systems or combat mechanics. It was the confidence of its comedic tone.
Everything from The Leader’s narration to the game’s ridiculous premise feels designed to make players laugh. Even mechanics that sound dark on paper are framed through satire and absurdity rather than shock value.
There’s still plenty I haven’t seen. The deeper survival systems, base-building mechanics, follower management, and co-op features remain largely unexplored. But after this first look, Join Us already has a strong identity.
Plenty of games offer open-world survival, base building, and crafting. Few let you prepare for the apocalypse by building a cult, recruiting an army of followers, and firing snakes at your enemies. That alone makes Join Us one of the more memorable sandbox games I’ve played this year.
