Coming from a generation that used to base the games we would rent or buy on the cover art and the few screen grabs from the back cover, I honestly wasn’t super enthused when I saw Curse of the Dead Gods on the Xbox marketplace. At the time, there wasn’t a trailer affixed to the storefront and I could only peruse a few cel-shaded images that made it look like nothing out of the ordinary; just another generic top-down action-adventure roguelite trying to capitalize on the lack of a new Diablo entry. After having been handed a review copy of the game, I can say without a doubt, I was wrong in judging this book by its cover.

Unless you wish to delve into the codex tucked away within the game’s menus, there isn’t much in terms of story; but this is a situation where that’s completely fine, as the combat makes up for it, and then some. To be completely honest, this is essentially Dead Cells (one of my personal favorite games), but in a top-down format with layers upon layers of modifiers and little tricks to set itself apart from one of the best roguelites on the market. Our nameless hero will need to dodge and parry at expert levels, with the biggest change being that the damage you take is increased if you’re in the dark. You always have access to a torch that lights your immediate area, but this sacrifices some damage output compared to your equipped weapons, thus asking you to risk taking massive damage or lighting conveniently placed altars that are fully destructible. I really liked how this forced me to strategically place myself where I was still within range of the life-saving fiery totems, but just far enough that I wasn’t going to risk taking them out by a misplaced attack.

The one area that didn’t jive well with me in terms of combat is the weaponry available. There is a wealth of randomized options that will be presented and only get bigger as you proceed, but most of them only vary in their damage output or other minor modifiers, killing that excitement found in its competitors. Whether you’re using a hammer, sword, or other melee option, the moves at your disposal remain almost entirely the same, and this applies to the various ranged tools as well.

When you’re not killing the varied forms of undead the game throws at you, you’re evading traps that are randomly generated in longer than average segments. In most cases, these are easy to avoid if you remember to pull out your trusty torch – if you forget, the game takes great pleasure in punishing you for it. Even when the path is fully illuminated, there are certain cheap traps that infuriated me beyond belief, being the main cause of almost all of my failed runs. With the exception of a few that would be hit or miss if they’d actually trigger, like the statues that would come to life for a devastatingly damaging hug, it became more of an annoyance avoiding them since they are so damn obvious. For me, as a better-than-average Dead Cells vet, this was the most difficult aspect of the game, and is the sole reason I have yet to complete the full package from start to finish.

Upon completing the tutorial, you’ll find yourself in the hub world that allows you to select from the three gods that work as antagonists in any order you choose. Each path is broken up into smaller chunks, making failure feel much less punishing than similar games, and prevents the repetition that sets in as you work your way to the biggest baddies, with the option to complete the entire game in one run being unlocked once you beat them individually. This is by far the greatest achievement that the game offers, and will challenge even the most skilled player.

The biggest change to the formula that Motion Twin flawlessly built before it is the corruption system. Upon completing each floor your character will become a little more tainted by the world around him, eventually taking on some demonic-looking cosmetic features, threatening to end your run in a pseudo-timer as a curse is added each time the bar is filled. If you’re feeling ballsy, you can also trade corruption as a form of currency for bigger and better perks.

Outside of the cheap traps, the difficulty (or lack thereof) is the only thing that holds me back from saying this is a perfect game. Outside of completing the long-form game that combines all of the paths into a singular run, I’ve only died a handful of times, even when I was new to the game. Maybe I was just extremely lucky in my rolls, but outside of completing all of the tombs in one go, I have seen just about everything this title has to offer in just a few hours. If you happen to struggle, this is one of the roguelites that allows you to upgrade your character between runs, which in my case just made each subsequent run even more forgiving, as the difficulty seems to remain the same. By the time I had my character fully leveled, I was able to essentially parry, attack, and repeat my way through most of the bosses with little effort.

The screenshots don’t really give this game the credit it deserves, as you really have to see it in motion. The thick black outlines and cel-shaded graphics really make it look and feel like a brutally violent cartoon you’re choreographing. When playing on the Xbox Series X, the load times were almost instant and free of any noticeable bugs or glitches, running flawlessly at launch. This was super refreshing considering most of the games I’ve played on the Series X as of this writing have been subject to strange glitches, or required massive day one patches.

If you’re in the camp that thought Dead Cells was too difficult, Curse of the Dead Gods is definitely the game for you – as the combat and mission structure is much more forgiving on nearly every level. If you’re like me and you’ve seen and done everything that Dead Cells has to offer, you might find this a bit too easy, but it’s still a worthwhile game that will keep you busy for a few hours.

8 out of 10

Pros

• Beautiful Cel-Shaded Visuals
• Fluid, Engaging Combat
• Breaks Up the Standard Roguelite Level Structure

Cons

• The Arsenal is Monotonous
• Cheap Traps
• Overly Forgiving Difficulty

Curse of the Dead Gods was developed by Passtech Games and published by Focus Home Interactive. It was released on NS, PC, PS4, and X1. The game was provided to us for review on Xbox and played on the XSX. If you’d like to see more of Curse of the Dead Gods, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

 

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