The Indie Informer

When the demo for Cursemark went live, I had no time to play it. Or, I had no right to find time to play it as it coincided with the late-May avalanche of amazing indie game releases. That didn’t stop me from sinking a few hours into this game I am so enamored of. Now, as the game’s Early Access release drops — true to form right smack dab in the middle of the busy summer showcase season — I’ve lost eight hours to its darkly compelling world and expect to put so much more time into it.

The secret to its successful time theft is multifaceted. It has nailed the “one more run” at the heart of most roguelikes, with every step forward granting new chances to unlock fresh spells, weapons, ultimate moves, and NPCs. Each run also feels so unique from the last because of runes, which you pick up defeating enemies, creating unforeseen synergies.

Any rune can slot into any part of your loadout. One rune enables your move to shoot out fire trails. If I attach this to my weapon, every swing now comes with blazing tendrils. However, if I slot it into my ranged spell, the fire erupts along the projectiles path. Really, the combinations are endless and incredibly satisfying.

If that wasn’t enough, there is a puzzle element that keeps me engaged with every environment. Glowing stones scattered throughout the levels communicate a riddle concerning something in the world. One may hint about using a certain move in a “deathly location” one might instruct players to circle around a cryptically described environmental feature. Solving these are not only gratifying, but they also reward the player with everything from useful items to new paths forward.

No matter how powerful I become in a run, death is always waiting for me. Clearing a level increases the next room’s difficulty until the enemy waves finally wash over me. My only object before this happens, is to find shortcuts to streamline my path or gain rare items that help my progression from bosses.

What I really like about Cursemark’s twist on this well-known genre is how the last run makes you strong in the next one without fail. In many roguelikes, you lose everything on falling during a fight. However, here, the number of runes I gained, and their rarity level, transforms at the end of a run into the game’s currency, which I can take into my next playthrough.

This means I can afford more mid-game power-ups or boons. The result is I get farther and gain more rare items by the end, which again translates to greater riches. It really pays to die in Cursemark. And since it’s out in Early Access today, I hope you will.