What could be better than apes and samurai? A lot, really, but as a fan of the species and a mild connoisseur of Japanese swordplay shenanigans, Cursed Blood was a win-win for me. Even my kids said that this could be a match made in heaven for me. How wrong they were.
Cursed Blood, from David Marquardt Studios (who made the excellent Dust & Neon), is brutal on a multitude of levels. Selecting from four different warrior apes, you set about unleashing havoc against anthropomorphic beasts with a cockney twang and potty mouths. Of course, they deserve to die.
Killing these enemies is a very bloody affair as you hack and slash with upgradeable katanas and deadly kunai from a top-down, isometric stance. All this wanton destruction has a purpose, as you’re making sacrifices to the Shrine of Vermillion. For each life you take, you earn blood orbs to level up your gear, as well as a plethora of perks and curses.
Cursed Blood has an arcade vibe to it and is immediately accessible from the get-go. Coming off your podium, your samurai ape explores some nitty-gritty docks, hunting down all manner of enemies to pay respect to the Gods. Combat is predominantly melee with a quick-fire attack to unleash a flurry of combos and finishers, as well as being able to take down lesser enemies for an instant kill and potential health restoration.
Takedown health is an absolute curveball. At the start of each run, you can take down an unhealthy amount of enemies without being seen, making the game seem unnaturally easy. However, this is all part of the rogue-like ploy to entice you into the loop as the enemies get stronger and will get back off the ground after slashing their throat and hit back with devastating effect. Cursed Blood is a difficult game.
Deceptively accessible through the sometimes button-mashing element, it’s important to block and even deflect projectiles to do damage. It’s far from the complexity and timing of Sekiro, but challenging nonetheless, and I anticipate most gamers will struggle with the first chapter for a number of runs. Additional charges can do more damage, as well as a stun effect, where you charge an enemy to potentially pull off a takedown to replenish health on the fly.
Health really is important in Cursed Blood, as it’s not so common in the environment. The Steam Deck is fluid and has a bit of finesse to it in terms of movement and combat with a twin-stick effect. Another challenging aspect, however, is those perks and curses. There are minor checkpoints where you can get a manner of buffs that increase attack speed or damage, or gun damage, though this is balanced out with altars that make you select one minor benefit whilst accumulating a curse, such as reduced damage, or less health. These can be countered through other altars, but still tricky to manage.
Progression and persistence are obviously key, and through the accumulation of blood orbs, you can level up your weapons and unlock new ones. This is an incredibly arduous affair, and the only flipside is to increase the difficulty levels and penalty-based challenges to not necessarily fast-track progress, but speed it up a tad. Naturally, runs are quicker as you don’t get as many attempts, but sometimes there is a visible change in your gear, meaning that each chapter gets steadily more achievable.
Undoubtedly, Cursed Blood is a slick, challenging game with the highlights being how natural it feels to play and how badass you feel without having to learn complex moves. It’s the old cliche of being easy to pick up but hard to master, and further damning with the curses and hard-hitting elements. For me, the biggest challenge was the slog to level up gear, as earning orbs takes an unhealthy number of runs, though it’s clear how much better you get at the game, and that rogue-like loop is prevalent. The only other minor downside is the visibility of breakable objects and sometimes not seeing a defined path, though that’s most likely due to playing predominantly on the Steam Deck.
And, to finish on a positive note, Cursed Blood is a 4-player co-op. Online play typically doesn’t appeal to me, so I was in my element that this can be played as a local experience, meaning it’s time to huddle around the laptop and fight over the Bluetooth availability. Super slick, brutally difficult yet entertaining and healthily addictive, Cursed Blood is indeed an apeshit rogue-like, and I encourage you to also give the demo a test to see what you think.
