Whether you’ve already plowed your way through Hades 2 early access or, like me, are waiting for Supergiant’s full 1.0 release, there are plenty of action roguelikes to keep you busy. One that’s caught my eye this week is Cursebane, which combines that familiar control style with more open-ended environments, challenging enemy duels, beautifully animated pixel art designs, and a wealth of more RPG style decision making. Even better, you can try it right now thanks to a free Steam demo that’s being actively updated.
The basics of Cursebane will immediately feel familiar if you’ve played some of the best roguelike games in the Hades mold. Wielding a katana and magical spells, it affords you all the essentials – regular combo strings, dash attacks, charge moves, and a powerful ‘surge mode’ that spends meter to boost your abilities for a short while. Each of these can be further amplified by a wide range of variations and elementally infused boons you collect over the course of each run. Beyond those basics, however, things quickly start to diverge as you step out into the gorgeous pixel-art forests.
The environments of Cursebane are much broader and more winding than the arenas of Hades, making world exploration feel a little like playing a classic Diablo style ARPG, or even games like Remnant 2. Adding to that are the various events and NPCs you’ll encounter along your way, each presenting you with choices to make that can dramatically affect the course of your adventure. Sometimes, these are simple risk/reward decisions, but in other cases they can more dramatically alter your playthrough.
Perhaps you’ll encounter a grave of corrupted spirits. Release them and you can strike them down, but leave them at peace and they’ll bestow a powerful skill upon you, while potentially also revealing the location of a nearby camp where more goodies might be found. In another instance, you could choose whether to challenge a rival samurai, or accept the plaque he presents – take it to a nearby exile camp and you’ll be granted the chance to prove yourself in a combat trial.
It’s during these moments that Cursebane really shines. A lot of the overworld enemies are smaller fodder that mostly create threat by their sheer numbers, although even blitzing through those packs with flurries of lightning-imbued stabs can still leave you feeling like Devil May Cry’s Vergil. Some of the stronger creatures, however, boast a range of abilities that can catch you off-guard if you’re not careful.
Even more notable foes such as those found in the exile’s trial have a wide selection of skills at their disposal. I’m a huge fan of duel-style encounters, such as Bloodborne’s hunters or the rival agent fights in Zenless Zone Zero, and there’s certainly that sense at play in Cursebane’s more pivotal battles. Couple that with some fantastic animation work, such as mysterious kunoichi Kaida’s baseball pitcher-inspired bomb throws, and I’m certainly eager to see what else developer Flyway Games has in store.
The Cursebane demo is out now on Steam. Flyway says it will remain available through the upcoming Steam Next Fest, which concludes on Monday October 21, with additional content continuing to roll out over the event. You can download the demo via Steam or wishlist the game to stay up to date with development.
For even more games you can jump into right now, here are the best free Steam games to play in 2024. Or get hacking and slashing with the best action games on PC.
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