Cursed 2 is the sequel to Cursed, made I believe about 10 years after the original. The first Cursed game was made in a week, being a charming point and click puzzle game with light combat elements that suffered from heavy jank and a low amount of polish or meaningful content.
Cursed 2 inherits very little of this. Let me say this out of the gate. While Cursed 1 was a game I mostly recommended because it was so short and free that there's really no point in not recommending it, that is not why I am recommending Cursed 2. I am recommending Cursed 2 because I legitimately believe it is an incredibly good game. I would easily have paid $10 for this, even though that would be a very bad idea for the developer for at least one reason that will become clear later.
So, let's take this one aspect at a time.
To start, gameplay. Like Cursed, this is a Point and Click puzzle adventure game with real-time combat added onto it. The combat however has been completely overhauled. It now plays closer to Punch-Out, with the ability to directionally dodge and aim your attacks. It still has the slower pace of Cursed 1 combat at the start, but plays much more reactively in comparison. You'll be ducking under the claws of a horrific monster in between trying to cave in it's skull with a roofing hammer, and it rocks.
Unlike Cursed 1, there is a smattering of light RPG elements in it, as enemies (and story progression) now reward XP, which unlocks points that can be put into different stats, such as power, speed, reloading, and even a mind stat in order to use certain spells. (Tragically, a true "Mage" build is fairly unviable, as the basic attack spell sucks.) These points can also be freely rearranged at any time (including mid combat), giving you an additional strategic element and allowing you to game the system as much or as little as you want. There's also multiple weapons, from the humble roofing hammer to the powerful chainsaw. You can even use Cursed 1's sword and shield if you want! (You'll need it.)
As a result, combat has become more frequent than in Cursed 1, with a lot more mandatory encounters and making the ability to flee locked behind an item. But the combat rules, so that's not a problem.
With more items also comes a proper inventory system. And it's utterly insane. It's effectively Resident Evil 4's attache case, but rather than using a grid, it is pixel precise. As long as the sprites do NOT overlap, you may store as many items as you want in your inventory.
This becomes pretty important, as you will need to juggle a lot more items for the game's puzzles. Because unlike Cursed 1, this game takes place in an entire town. Which brings us to a mechanic that sums up the game as a whole: driving. Yes, this game has driving. Specifically, the town is split into multiple large locations, each having items which often times need to be used in a completely different location to progress.
A lesser developer would make the travel between key locations occur through a basic world map selection. Click on a place, and go. Paul is not one of those developers. Paul instead hands you a basic hand-drawn roadmap of the town, and then has you manually drive to that location along a set of paths. It's effectively moving forward on a maze and needing to know which direction to turn. And of course, your hand-drawn map does NOT provide a marker of where you currently are or what direction you are facing. You will need to actually NAVIGATE to these locations, using your map and compass. (Or just using the "reveal maze" spell, but that's a later game item and flashbangs you every time you use it...)
This is Cursed 2 in a nutshell. It is tedium, and modern design sensibilities would demand you move it, to avoid the unnecessary friction. After all, I praised Cursed 1 specifically for often avoiding needless backtracking. Which is still there. These sorts of things often extend to the puzzles; often times after knowing what you need to do to solve something, you often have to go through the actual process of doing it. Such as the classic sliding tile puzzle.
However, what Cursed 2 understands that so, so many other games lack is that a bit of tedium applied at the right time is necessary for creating downtime and tension. The navigation forces you to consider when you want to go somewhere, and how long you want to be there. The inventory often sees you going back to your truck (which carries all your items and acts as a storage box for unwanted ones), and creates actual meaningful decisions. Tedium rarely exists in this game without a purpose, whether mechanical, narrative, or just for the atmosphere.
After all, while driving you are not completely safe. You WILL be attacked while driving your car, meaning that your drives in silence build tension between locations rather than deflate them. It can be annoying if you miss something super crucial, but hey. That's just how it is sometimes. And with how fast you can move within a location, it's rarely *that* tedious.
That to me is the genius of Cursed 2. It is a very well refined game that knows exactly what it wants to be, and nearly everything that exists in the game has purpose. (Well, except shooting through doors. Whoops.) It is an incredibly refined experience that is filled with memorable moments, surprisingly enjoyable characters, and just plain fun gameplay.
It is one of the few games that feels like an honest to god adventure.
It's not perfect. The music while good, is all stolen from other games. I'm not going to wax about the morality of that, as I don't really care. I will say that the music he chose is by and large good. Mostly NES tracks that fit the general aesthetic of the game, but I do think the few times he uses music from a more modern title, it sticks out like a sore thumb and can shatter the otherwise very well established atmosphere.
The art is pretty good overall, but still has some issues with layering and implementation here and there. The zombie enemies look like they weren't properly cut out of their sprite sheet, items can look weird in the environment, and other minor issues like that.
Instant deaths are still pretty common, but with how easy it is to save it's not really much of an issue. I kind of wish there was a collectable menu tracking which ones you found, honestly.
But at this point I'm just fishing for small critiques. The game is good. Excellent, even. No ifs, ands, or buts. It's just good. It's the type of game that I personally would hope to make someday.
