RoguedexPart 1 (Sep 2023) · #10 of 18 in that tierWatch the moment (0:33:46)
Curse of the Dead Gods
- Developed by
- Passtech Games
- Published by
- Focus Entertainment
$19.99
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.
Consensus
B72.5/100
Steam players83.4% positiveVery Positive9,242 reviews
Metacritic ↗78/100Users: 6.9/10
OpenCritic ↗81/100
VG Insights estimate ↗≈277K copies · ≈$3.2M gross
What creators say
Ranked Jun 2023 · #8 of 18 in that tierWatch the moment (0:47:25)
Ranked Apr 2023 · #16 of 30 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
Ranked Apr 2025 · #5 of 8 in that tierWatch the moment (1:12:09)
What players say
An isometric, Hades-adjacent action roguelite from Passtech Games where a treasure hunter delves procedurally generated Mesoamerican-themed temples, using parry-and-dodge combat, torch light management and a corruption/curse system.
Generally well received: Steam sits at Very Positive (about 83% of roughly 9,200 reviews), critics land in the high 70s to low 80s, and the combat is the near-universal highlight. The dissent is about structure rather than feel: a repetitive, grindy loop, limited enemy/room/weapon variety, slow meta-progression, and a punishing, RNG-heavy final temple. It spent about a year in Early Access (from March 2020) and launched fully on 23 Feb 2021 on PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox One; post-launch support included a Dead Cells crossover in April 2021. Players often describe it as Hades on hard mode, but with much less story and personality, and it tends to be recommended to people who already like skill-based action more than to genre newcomers.
Players love
- Crunchy, responsive combat built on parry, perfect dodge and weapon combos; many reviewers (critic and player) rate it above Hades for feel and fairness
- Skill-first design: limited randomness in weapons and synergies means learning enemies and patterns, not build luck, decides runs
- Light and darkness system: braziers and the torch reveal traps and reduce danger, and fire can turn enemies into light sources, adding a tactical layer
- Curse/corruption mechanic creates risk-reward decisions (taking curses or trading blood for loot) and runs with real tension
- Bosses with thematic, readable patterns, each tied to a god's domain (power, knowledge, etc.)
- Strong atmosphere and art direction for the Aztec/Maya-inspired temples, with good sound design (for example the death-whistle perfect-dodge cue)
- Large weapon roster (claws, swords, hammers, etc.) with different movesets, plus pleasant pick-up-and-put-down run length
- Polished after a long Early Access period; performs well and is playable on controller and Switch
Common complaints
- Repetition: the same limited set of rooms, traps, enemies and bosses are learned by heart within roughly 15 hours, and the structure forces replaying earlier temples to reach later ones
- Story and characters are thin to non-existent, so there is little narrative pull to keep running
- Late-game difficulty feels cheap to many: teleporting, briefly invulnerable enemies, area attacks and health-sponge elites in the last temples
- Final temple is long and grindy, with heavy gold requirements for final sacrifices and a DPS-check final boss that players call a wall
- Weapon balance is uneven; some players feel fast weapons like claws dominate and other weapons are technically viable but worse
- Curses often feel weak or randomly punishing: some reviewers say they rarely affect a run, while in the last temple the health-draining curse can leave you one hit from death
- Slow, low-value meta-progression: unlocks cost a lot of crystal skulls for marginal gains
- Achievements (including memoir-style completionist ones) are seen as grindy for 100% runs
- Heavy reliance on RNG (starting items, late-game luck) makes the back half feel slow and unfair, and several reviewers say the final boss is a chore rather than a challenge
Can feel tedious
- Re-clearing the first section of each temple to reach deeper boss tiers, then repeating the whole structure for the final temple and hard mode
- Grinding crystal skulls for weapons, blessings, rerolls and better starting gear, with some players saying normal difficulty feels gated by those hours
- Rooms packed with five or more enemies, many tanky or unparryable, which slow the pace and undermine the parry mechanic
- Teleporting/invulnerable enemies and screen-filling attacks in later temples that feel more like waiting than skill
- Elite health-sponge enemies and high gold costs in the final temple
What's unique
- Torch and brazier light management that changes both visibility and damage, rather than being just cosmetic lighting
- Corruption meter that builds from room transitions and blood trades, spawning rule-changing curses instead of only giving buffs
- Souls-like, turn-taking combat rhythm (strike then defend) in an isometric roguelite instead of Hades-style fast aggression
- Parry-centred weakening/stun mechanic tied to blessings, with the sense of a slower, more deliberate run
- Temple-by-temple structure with tiered boss sections and a distinctive Mesoamerican-inspired setting
- Crossover content such as the Dead Cells weapon pack (April 2021)
Players want
- More enemy, room, boss and weapon variety so later runs feel different
- Faster or more meaningful meta-progression, and fewer repeat traversals of earlier temples
- Better tuning of the final temple: less elite health-sponge padding, more viable dexterity/damage builds, and a fairer gold requirement
- More story, characters or lore payoff to give a reason to keep running
- More reliable tools for managing corruption, so the curse system feels like a choice and not a dice roll
- Clearer or more predictable handling of tanky/unparryable enemies in large mixed-enemy rooms
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Action RoguelikeIsometricDark FantasyRogue-liteDifficultActionRogue-likeSouls-likeFightingDungeon Crawler
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Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Curse of the Dead Gods is a third-person action dungeon crawler with an Indiana Jones-style hero, multiple weapons and abilities, and a core mechanic built around curses. Nearly every action (opening doors, buying, upgrading) can curse you, bringing big upsides and downsides that force you to adapt each run. He loves the crisp, meaningful combat and VFX, and finds it a very challenging but rewarding risk-reward game. He is surprised it did not get more recognition and places it in a solid A tier.
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