Curse of the Dead Gods Review
Free to play for May (2022)
Curse of the Dead Gods, released in February of 2021 for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One, is a roguelike dungeon crawler with similar elements taken from Slay the Spire, which happens to be my second most recent game review. Those with a PlayStation Plus subscription can download this title for free as a part of this month’s promotional games downloads, along with FIFA 22 and Tribes of Midgard.
After having been through a fantasy dungeon crawler (and as someone who didn’t quite get into the Diablo series), I was naturally curious about this title, especially considering it was offered for free. Dead Gods follows the story of an unnamed protagonist exploring a seemingly never-ending temple in search of riches, divine powers, and even eternal life, or so the Steam description says.
Gameplay
As you explore procedurally-generated dungeons, you’ll encounter cursed hostile enemies, traps, and environmental hazards. Stand too long on a piece of the floor with holes in it, and you’ll be impaled by spears that shoot up from the ground. Sculptures attached to the walls will shoot flames at you, and statues may come to life and take a swing at you with their ancient weapons.
Your character comes equipped with a torch, machete, and revolver to start, but you can pick up weapons through the dungeon as you make progress. Equipping the torch helps illuminate the path forward, reveals traps and enemies, and reduces damage taken from those enemies so long as you’re in the light. Sconces line some areas in combat zones, and it’s always a good idea to light them before going all-in on combat.
Combat is more meaningful than your typical hack, slash, and shoot mechanics. You have to manage your character’s stamina points and time combo attacks just right or risk taking unnecessary avoidable damage. You can dodge and counter your enemies’ attacks by pressing the right and left triggers, respectively, and it’s easy to get careless with those moves if you’re not in the zone.
The “Curse” meter in the game reflects the amount of curse that has been afflicted upon your character. Entering a new room gains 20 curse points, and you gain additional curse points if you offer blood instead of coins for health, weapons, upgrades, or buffs, or take damage from enemies in the dark.
Every 100 curse points add a new level of difficulty to your run, be it making your attacks less effective, increasing the blast radius of environmental hazards, or increasing enemies’ speed, to name a few. Getting your curse level to level 5 in a run makes the game incredibly difficult and makes your run near impossible to finish, so it’s best to keep that in mind before offering blood or not lighting up a room before engaging in combat.
If you die in the game, you’re resurrected at the start of a dungeon with all the loot you’ve gathered minus the gold and weapons you’ve acquired. As you defeat more enemies and collect more loot, Crystal Skulls and Jade rings can be used to purchase permanent buffs that will continually affect your future runs.
Final thoughts
Curse of the Dead Gods isn’t a game I thought I’d pick up, but it’s turned out to be pretty fun for what it’s worth. Enemies are challenging and finally killing the end boss is rewarding enough to keep me coming back to test my abilities in increasingly more difficult dungeons.
The game is a fun little distraction for when you get tired of your tried and true repetitive grind fests like GTA Online, Call of Duty, or even Skyrim. Would I sink just as many hours into Dead Gods as I would the aforementioned titles? Probably not, but it was a neat little game I got for free, and it served its purpose well.
