Curse of the Dead Gods

Mechanically one of the finest tuned games I have ever played. Best described as Unfairly Fair in how it tries to kill you. enemies will always be a threat, no matter how minor, they'll work together to exploit your weakness, but attack you one or two at a time. You can use traps and other enemies against your foes, and I've yet to find a dead movement spot on the floor that wasn't represented visually. Every weapon is viable, and you'll develop preferences. Where the game fails is the depth of some of these mechanics, in that you'll never have a perfect weapon more then one run, and never at more then a chance. Even if you can fine tune the odds by removing weapons you don't prefer from the table, you'll still be at the whim of the Dreadest God of all, RNGesus. The attack patterns for most enemies are simple, the stamina mechanic being your limiter from dodging too and fro madly. The traps, deadly beyond belief, easy to bypass as long as you can focus on avoiding them. The game will kill you. But you can and may persevere. There's obviously better options given among the choices, but to a player who chooses to customize my build to fit me, this game is everything Hades isn't. The curse mechanic, providing a resource of accepting often debilitating effects for a run in exchange for artifacts and weapons and blessings of power means you almost never will be in a situation where what you want remains out of reach by not having enough money to trade for it. You can always trade blood for power, and the Gods of Wonder are thirstier then a leech. Healing is often sparse. Curse removal sparser. But in the depths of a temple built on Humanity's ambition for power taken too far, you will always have one cause for success and failure you can't shed. Yourself. Your choices, your skill, your drive to carry through. The game is unfair, but it is unfair to all who walk the unhallowed halls, including your foes. If you want a game that tests you, you rogue-like champions and seekers of thrill, then the Temples of Wonders await. They've broken mightier, smarter, more skilled than you. (There is a wide swath of accessibility options, for those who need a helping hand, and there's no shame in using them. A game should be played for fun.)