“Learning how each one operates is vital”
Learning to love traps in CURSE OF THE DEAD GODS
These days, it takes a lot for a roguelike to stand out, so it was a pleasant surprise for me this month to be so wowed by Curse of the Dead Gods (see our review on p72). The punchy combat, grim atmosphere, and meaningful decision-making sucked me in immediately. But one of the things that impresses me most about it is the traps.
I struggle to think of any game where I’ve found traps fun. Usually they’re anti-fun—the thing that slows you down, or punishes you for inattention. But here they’re a thrill.
As you explore the dark temples, you encounter all manner of deadly devices left behind by the architects— from electric landmines to living statues. Learning how each one operates is vital to survival.
Avoiding them is simple, in theory—each has a short animation before it goes off, giving you just enough time to dodge. But all of the game’s other systems factor in to how you approach them. You only have limited stamina for dodging, for example—if you run into a trap when you’re out of breath, you can’t escape. Light is important, too—being in darkness causes you to take more damage from foes, but it also obscures traps, driving you to always seek out sources of illumination.
GET OVER HERE
But they can be turned to your advantage, too. Enemies don’t set them off, but they do take damage from them—and one of the items in the game allows you to recover health every time a monster is killed by one. It’s an exciting test of your evasion and timing skills.
Traps even interact with other traps. A fire launcher might set webbed ground alight, which then reaches an explosive pot and sets it off. Often these interactions are woven together into cascading gauntlets, triggered by your approach. Rather than being a nasty surprise, they’re an inviting challenge. Can you figure out what’s going to happen when you step over the threshold? How much treasure do you think you can gather as you sprint to safety?
That’s the key to it—traps aren’t an added annoyance, they’re another layer of decisions in a game already full of them. I think for the first time ever, I don’t feel hard done by when I die to spikes underfoot.