Curse of the Dead Gods

 Switch
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78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 14 Ratings

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  • Summary: You seek untold riches, eternal life, divine powers -- it leads to this accursed temple, a seemingly-infinite labyrinth of bottomless pits, deadly traps, and monsters.

    Your greed will lead you to death, but that is not an escape. Rise to fight again. Delve deeper again. Defy the malignant    You seek untold riches, eternal life, divine powers -- it leads to this accursed temple, a seemingly-infinite labyrinth of bottomless pits, deadly traps, and monsters.

    Your greed will lead you to death, but that is not an escape. Rise to fight again. Delve deeper again. Defy the malignant deities that linger in this place. Battle through hordes of enemies in dark, cavernous passages filled with traps and secrets of all sorts -- fire-spewing statues, explosives, hidden spikes, and worse.

    Collect mystical Relics and an arsenal of weapons to make yourself unstoppable. Corruption builds in you with every step -- encourage or ignore it, but each powerful curse can be a double-edged sword.    … Expand

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Curse Of The Dead Gods - Official Gameplay Overview Trailer

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. GameSpace
    Mar 18, 2021
    90
    Curse Of The Dead Gods will bear plenty of comparisons to the excellent Hades game. But in its own right, Curse Of The Dead Gods has a lot of unique features to offer in the ARPG rogue-lite play space. The game is challenging without being frustrating. The artwork is pleasing and the game mechanics are engaging. Curse Of The Dead Gods has a lot to offer and is positioned to be the rogue-lite game of 2021!
  2. Gaming Nexus
    Mar 22, 2021
    90
    Curse of the Dead Gods is a finely polished roguelike that embodies the best elements of the genre. It has a battle scheme that is simple to grasp but requires skill to master. It balances the progression of each run with penalties to maintain a steady, yet shifting, challenge. It brings a few elements over that a roguelike purist might scoff at, but does so purely to the benefit of the game, and aids a progression system that feels meaningful while not demeaning the overall challenge. It nails that hallmark of the roguelike where you always feel like maybe dipping in for one more run.
  3. COGconnected
    Feb 23, 2021
    80
    Curse of the Dead Gods is a brutal, dark, and edgy roguelite --one that takes inspiration from others in the genre while offering plenty of unique mechanics and ideas that set it apart from its predecessors. The game is hard, but rewards are frequent and plentiful. Winning a run, or being able to purchase a few of the pricier upgrades offers extreme satisfaction, making you feel like a true adventurer. The game elegantly balances a deep and complex risk/reward mechanic, while confronting you with an intricate and brutally difficult combat system. All things considered, the risks are truly worth the rewards in Curse of the Dead Gods.
  4. Starbit
    Mar 29, 2021
    80
    Curse of the Dead Gods serves us the experience of a long, enveloping roguelite with a combat and exploration mechanic that puts the player at the centre of crucial decision-making that will affect the course of action in significant ways. With its emphasis on risk/reward and the need to pay close attention to what's happening, it's easy to forget that the surroundings could use a bit more visual variety. In the end, Curse of the Dead Gods joins the elite of roguelite games for the Nintendo Switch, and undoubtedly deserves a big deal of attention from the players.
  5. NintendoWorldReport
    Feb 24, 2021
    75
    Curse of the Dead Gods could have easily been an also-ran to solely capitalize on an upcoming release that has a lot of buzz (think Antz to A Bug’s Life). Instead, I’ve been greeted with a roguelike that, while definitely sharing DNA with other dungeon crawlers, has enough interesting backdrops with a few neat combat ideas to make it its own. Curse of the Dead Gods’ unique features don’t all hit dead-on, but what’s here is a game that while not as refined is still plenty of fun in its own right.
  6. Vandal
    Feb 28, 2021
    74
    This isn’t the most original roguelike, but it compensates for that with solid combat, fun progression and an enjoyable world.
  7. Digitally Downloaded
    Feb 23, 2021
    70
    Curse of the Dead God's biggest problem is simply that it exists in a ridiculously over-saturated space, and doesn't do anything meaningful to help it stand out. In a world post-Hades, it's hard to see where this one fits into the library of any but the most over-committed roguelike fan. That's not a fault of the game in itself. Once you understand how to play it and have learned its rhythms and studied its enemies, it's perfectly competent at what it's doing. It's just lacking a bit of verve and panache, so it will never have the same appeal as its already-storied peer.

See all 12 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Marcelaoo
    Mar 3, 2021
    10
    At this point in time, there is a massive heap of masterfully crafted roguelikes out there, and somehow, some developers manage to make evenAt this point in time, there is a massive heap of masterfully crafted roguelikes out there, and somehow, some developers manage to make even more near-immaculate games tied to this genre. Curse of the Dead Gods is one of those games, not only due to its beautiful art style reminiscent of Darkest Dungeon but also having some of the best combat systems the genre has seen, rivaling the likes of Dead Cells and Hades. Adding the clever corruption and curse systems on top of this deep combat loop make for an incredible, tense and exhilarating experience with risk/reward situations behind every corner. This game has already solidified itself and one of the best roguelikes ever made, and the team at Passtech Games should be very proud of their work. If you enjoy roguelikes or simply good games in general, your chances of not falling in love for Curse of the Dead Gods are about a million to none.… Expand
  2. gnadenlos
    Mar 1, 2021
    9
    This is not Hades! This game will get a lot of negative reviews from people that expected the casual experience and the mirror-upgrade + storyThis is not Hades! This game will get a lot of negative reviews from people that expected the casual experience and the mirror-upgrade + story loop of Hades.

    The core game play of Curse of the Dead Gods is much deeper, but it doesn't have story content or that many rougue-lite elements. You have to improve your skills instead of mirror upgrades in this game - it's much more skill based and if you know how to play and how to handle the controls and enemy attack patterns you could easily win without any permanent upgrades.

    If you're looking for a great rogue-lite dungeon crawler with game play focus instead of Hades 2.0, you can't go wrong.    … Expand
  4. JohnSmithreg
    Mar 1, 2021
    9
    I really liked this game. Atmospheric levels, sound, play of light and shadows. Action points that you see in real time. The only thing II really liked this game. Atmospheric levels, sound, play of light and shadows. Action points that you see in real time. The only thing I didn't like was that the text on the Nintendo Switch was too small. The text in the dialogs is very small. Even when I play on a big TV, I still have to sit a little closer than usual. This is a big disadvantage for me. But I hope the developers fix it soon.… Expand
  5. tonyozhelev
    Oct 18, 2022
    8
    IT'S HARD! The game is awesome and really good looking, but it definitely requires you to put a decent amount of time in it in order toIT'S HARD! The game is awesome and really good looking, but it definitely requires you to put a decent amount of time in it in order to progress. The developers also made it extremely hard to unlock all achievements for this game. You have to beat all bosses without taking damage 10 freaking times and the last boss 2 times in a ROW. There is an easy mode but if you turn it on it corrupts your save and you can no longer progress towards achievements which I found really annoying. There is also an issue with balance. There are weapons and relics that are waaaay to stronger than some of the other and some that are plain unusable. All in all I'd say it is worth it if you like these types of games. It is hard, but also rewarding once you put in the time to hone your skills. It took me 20 tries to defeat one of the bosses for the first time. Now I can defeat it 20 times without getting hit. It definitely is a game of patience and not much of action. The stamina system keeps you in check and it takes a while to realize you can't go in all guns blazing and kill everyone. You should always consider your stamina level if you want to be able to dodge the next enemy. Also it's a bit grindy towards the end if you want to collect all bestiary entries. It took me about 100 hours to Platinum the game, but it was a time well spent.… Expand
  6. Tiank
    Aug 8, 2021
    7
    For me the art style and overall dark atmosphere of the game are amazing! That and the fact you should be able to squeeze at least 20 hours ofFor me the art style and overall dark atmosphere of the game are amazing! That and the fact you should be able to squeeze at least 20 hours of gameplay out of it are the main reasons to buy this game, I'd say. Keep in mind it's quite hard, especially at the beginning and it takes some time to learn to parry properly, but once you do that, it's really satisfying.

    I unlocked three "levels" of temples - On all of those levels, you can choose from three temples. On the first level, there's one boss, runs take around 20 minutes, fairly easy. The second one has 2 bosses, runs take around 30-40 minutes and are a bit harder. The third one has 3 bosses and is really hard, mostly because you have to manage your Corruption and Curses (not to get too many) and enemies are getting harder after defeating each boss. Runs there take around 40-50 minutes.

    There's the final level to unlock, but I wasn't able to do it - I wasn't motivated enough to progress further, as the fighting and levels got quite boring and repetitive for me.

    I'd recommend it on sale. It's a good game, worth playing, but not something that would take your breath away and the replay value is low.

    Pros:
    - beautiful, dark art style
    - atmosphere of mystery and danger
    - huge satisfaction when successfully parring as it's not easy
    - plays smoothly on Switch
    - 20-50 minutes per run, can save at the beginning of each new room
    - very good gameplay balance - need to properly manage resources, health and corruption during long runs

    Neutral:
    - no story, but it's a rogue-lite so it's not that needed imo

    Cons:
    - fighting is slow and repetitive
    - gets boring after a while (around 20 hours)
    - quite difficult - can get frustrating at times
    - text hard to read while playing in handheld mode    … Expand
  7. FelixDraconis
    Sep 11, 2023
    6
    The look and feel of the game is initially quite good. Great animations, atmospheric, interesting premise, and so on.

    It falls apart    The look and feel of the game is initially quite good. Great animations, atmospheric, interesting premise, and so on.

    It falls apart quickly with a combat system that defeats all of the potential for differing gameplay and play styles by forcing you into a very limited dodge / block system and constantly having to manage the light sources around you. Somehow, nearly every action you do costs these limited stamina points and when you run out you just get hit by enemies. Not just dodging, but attacks, too! I constantly am trying to attack and then someone goes to swing at me and I find to my dismay I'm already out of stamina and get hit. Stupid.

    The game developers expect you to enjoy this tight timing-based combat system. If you don't want to play like that, for example like me, since I hate parry-based combat systems, you will have a terrible time. The game will escalate to being unbeatable and you will rage quit.

    Although the curse system is somewhat interesting, it essentially discourages you from doing anything, which feels like a bizarre choice to make, especially when most of your choices aren't very meaningful.

    Everything I dislike about this game is reversed in Hades. Where this feels punishing me for moving around and doing anything, that one gives me insane freedom of movement. Just go play that, even if you're on your 50th session, and skip this unless you really need to slum for a while in something a bit different. Or, well, you really love gaming timing-based combat systems. Which, admittedly, completely defeats this for me. It's not bad, exactly, but more of a frustratingly sad waste of potential.    … Expand
  8. cstoddart
    Mar 7, 2021
    5
    I like the way you can pick up randomized weapons at the start of the game. Overall, too difficult for me to enjoy.

See all 9 User Reviews

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Awards & Rankings

89
#89 Best Switch Game of 2021

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