Thethrill of any roguelikecomes from the mystery of not knowing what comes next . Even after hr of play and hundreds of cleared elbow room , some combinations still storm the dedicated player . Curse of the Dead Gods , a keep - crawling roguelite from Passtech Games and Focus Home Interactive , capture this experience even in its earliest runs . Danger blot out in every shadow corner , and fighting encourages measured blocking in place of overt aggression . It ’s a whole raw spin on a well - worn literary genre that contract right reward of its class in Early Access .

Players begin their attempted tomb raiding by stumbling into a plastered temple . The statues and walls all look to be some otherworldly adjustment of Aztec mythology , only thegods are seemingly very much aliveand crafting endless way to punish this new interloper . The intact game centers around sacrifice , with players having to carve a path forth at the cost of their sanity . Each new room is pitch black and only seeable via a blowtorch or destructible pyres . The light reveals a safe area of astonishingly colorful tabernacle surroundings that collapse players a chance against the harpies , soldiers , and temple guards that haunt the halls . Attacks that strike in the dark deal significantly more scathe , so there ’s always a reasonableness to nonplus to any lighted corner .

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A character holding a trunk in art from Eberron: Forge of the Artificer

Combat inCurse of the Dead Godshas a stack of diversity . Weapons include swords , throwing knives , war hammers , whips , and more . Each dissimilar blade and bludgeon feel unique , and there are form of each that leave distinct bonuses and upgraded damage . One specially virile puppet of devastation is a solidifying of knives that deals random primary damage with each jazz group , let players pare down health while staying out of the reach of enemy sword . Players get a duet of weapon at the head start of each run to start but eventually gain more choices as they come on . The combat relies on   stringing together jazz group between them and parry out of the way to stay live .

Even with apile of   upgraded weaponsand perks from collectible relics , the participant character never feels overpowered . Each successfully sack up room is a severely - earned triumph , but it never gets too frustrating either . Dead Godsstrikes a dandy balance in its challenge , animate the former " one more run " mentality with ease . The developers help that along by always providing reward for the player ’s time investing . Whether it be a new power - up or curse or just a few bits of boss currency to secure a new permanent upgrade back in the hub , role player are almost never run in station without something to play towards .

talk of curses , they furnish both the plot ’s form of address and its signature car-mechanic . Opening every door inside the templecorrupts the playercharacter just a lilliputian bit . Players   can also acquire more powerful artefact and world power by sacrifice their blood and hastening the corruption . At certain grade , depravation provide a scourge that makes   a run more thought-provoking . These can range from removing onslaught indicators to making the graphics black and white to simply lock up out item slots in the game ’s inventory . The original Early Access exit of the secret plan suffered due to these curses being wildly unbalanced , but the launching version has ensure that early curse keep the biz playable .

A Helldiver with a burning Super Earth reflected in their visor.

In fact , the entireCurse of the Dead Godsexperience at launch has a fantastic trouble Allium tricoccum only matched by the best in the genre . fighting is smooth and always challenging , but victory is never out of compass . room get more complicated as players move on , but they ’re welcome obstacles rather than brick walls that wipe out a run drained . Add in a stylish introduction and a unique musical theme and it ’s hard to happen much to sound off about with this last spill .   Passtech Games has carved out a new space in roguelikes that should appeal to fans ofThe Binding of IsaacandDarkest Dungeonalike .

Next : Little Nightmares II Review : Another Round of Terrifying Hide & attempt

jinx of the Dead Godsis now available on PC , Xbox One , and PlayStation 4 . Screen Rant was put up an Xbox copy for the purposes of this review , and the biz was   review on an Xbox Series X.

Dune Awakening placeholder for beta concerns piece

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Curse of the Dead Gods Enemy Artwork

Curse of the Dead Gods statue

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Curse of the Dead Gods Combat Gameplay

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