Curse Of The Dead Gods is a roguelike dungeon that I’ve been looking at for a while now. It has a similar aesthetic to Darkest Dungeon, but rather than turn-based battles, it throws players into a Hades-like, top-down cap and a slash action – a combination I’m very keen to try. It was just less than a year early access and was fully launched today. It looks dark and punishing and indeed very good.
In Curse Of The Dead Gods you play as a guy exploring a horrible and deadly temple for exactly the reasons you would expect – money, power and eternal life. Like many roguelikes, you will collect relics and weapons to help you sweep through hordes of enemies and eventually kill some gods. All in a day’s work.
One of the most important gimmicks in the game (which is very similar to Darkest Dungeon) is that you will have a much nicer time fighting monsters while in the light. You have a torch that you can use to light a room to locate traps and enemies, as well as light braziers around the pit. You will want to do this too, because you will not only do more damage in the dark, but also increase your corruption level, this is where the “curse” part of the title comes in.
Fill in your corruption bar, then you get a curse. However, this is not bad – curses usually give one downside and one upside down (like opening chests gives you more gold, but it also increases your corruption), so it’s not the end of the time in the dark. world.
Honestly, the only reason I did not pick it up earlier is because I know how many hours I’ve obsessed with Hades and Darkest Dungeon. But do you know what? I think I’m a lifelong roguelike now.
The game was developed by Passtech Games, which you can recognize as the makers of Space Run and Masters Of Anima, and published by Focus Home Interactive.
Curse Of The Dead Gods is now available on PC via Steam which costs £ 18 / $ 20 / € 20 (although there is a 10% discount until 2 March). It is also available on Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbone.