Curse of the Dead Gods Review - IGN

I will admit that when I initially saw a top-down action roguelite called Curse of the Dead Gods, complete with swords, bows, environmental hazards, and semi-random rewards based on what room you choose to enter next, my first thought was “Hey, this seems a bit like a Hades knockoff.” It turns out, I was completely wrong.

Despite featuring a smorgasbord of clear influences from other roguelites, Curse of the Dead Gods stands out in that increasingly crowded genre thanks to some cool new ideas of its own.

Guns, for example, can interrupt enemies if you use their off-hand combo finisher in the middle of their attack; spears will always trigger critical hits if you land with just the tip of the weapon; claws can use their charged attack to dash behind an enemy and get out of the way of their attack; and shields can be used to bash enemies into spikes or other forms of environmental hazards.

A good combat system isn’t worth much if the enemies don’t push you to engage with its depth, and fortunately Curse of the Dead Gods’ enemies are certainly up to the task.

Add that great variety of enemies together with an assortment of environmental hazards that can be turned around and used in your favor, a dynamic lighting mechanic that strongly encourages you to think about whether you’re fighting in darkness or in light, a multiplier that increases the gold you gain if you kill quick and don’t take damage, and a ton of small nuances for each weapon (from sweet spots, to off-hand combo finishers, to charge attacks) and it’s easy to see that there is a lot to Curse of the Dead Gods’ combat.

Appropriately, the biggest thing that sets Curse of the Dead Gods apart from so many other action roguelites are the actual curses of the actual dead gods.

When the corruption bar fills up, you’ll be burdened with a random curse that ranges from only slightly bothersome effects like exploding barrels having a larger blast zone, to extremely annoying ones like enemies have a chance to explode and send out a damaging shockwave.

This tempted me in my earliest runs to just carelessly buy items with blood offerings whenever I couldn’t afford the gold price and accept curses left and right, which turned out to be a terrible idea because the fifth and final curse isn’t random.

Even beyond just the corruption meter and the curses, there’s a lot to think about before you even enter a level in Curse of the Dead Gods.

Even without the curses themselves, Curse of the Dead Gods would be a standout roguelite with excellent combat, a smart structure that eases you into its difficulty, and a great variety of enemies, traps, and bosses across its three distinct temples?