Skip to main content

Cursemark

Cursemark Game Cover
92%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:gameplay, graphics
Most mentioned negative aspects:optimization, replayability
92% User Score Based on 358 reviews

Platforms

PCWindows
Buy Nowfrom $9.97
Buy NowGet on Steam $14.99Buy NowGet on itch.io Store
Cursemark Game Cover

About Cursemark

Cursemark is a single player open world hack and slash game with fantasy and dark fantasy themes. It was developed by FrivolousKnight and was released on June 8, 2026. It received very positive reviews from players.

Cursemark is an action-exploration roguelike where you forge unique equipment to pierce the depths of the Unknown Lands. Unlock hundreds of items and spells, then discover powerful rune synergies every run in this place beyond the edges of the world.

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
Cursemark screenshot
Cursemark screenshot
Cursemark screenshot
Cursemark screenshot
Cursemark screenshot
Cursemark screenshot
Cursemark screenshot
Cursemark screenshot
Cursemark screenshot
Cursemark screenshot
Cursemark screenshot
+11
Skip Games Like Cursemark

Games Like Cursemark

Looking for games like Cursemark? Here are top open world hack and slash recommendations with a fantasy and dark fantasy focus, selected from player-similarity data — start with Heretical, Shape of Dreams or Soulstone Survivors.

Heretical Image
86%567reviews

Heretical

2024Hack and Slash
PCWindows
Games like Heretical
Shape of Dreams Image
95%7.9kreviews

Shape of Dreams

2025Hack and Slash
PCWindows
Games like Shape of Dreams
Soulstone Survivors Image
92%12.6kreviews

Soulstone Survivors

2025Survival Hack and Slash
LinuxXbox Series X|SPC+5
Games like Soulstone Survivors
Magicraft Image
96%3.7kreviews

Magicraft

2024Role Playing Shooter
PCSteam DeckWindows
Games like Magicraft
Into the Necrovale Image
86%485reviews

Into the Necrovale

2024Hack and Slash
LinuxPCWindows
Games like Into the Necrovale
Cinderia Image
96%698reviews

Cinderia

2026Hack and Slash
PCSteam DeckWindows
Games like Cinderia
Windblown Image
93%5.5kreviews

Windblown

2024Arcade Hack and Slash
PCSteam DeckWindows
Games like Windblown
Death Must Die Image
93%23.3kreviews

Death Must Die

2023Casual Hack and Slash
Xbox Series X|SPCMac OS+3
Games like Death Must Die
Tiny Rogues Image
97%7.9kreviews

Tiny Rogues

2022Arcade Role Playing Shooter
PCSteam DeckWindows
Games like Tiny Rogues
The Slormancer Image
87%3.3kreviews

The Slormancer

2025Hack and Slash
PCWindows
Games like The Slormancer
More games like Cursemark
Skip User Reviews

Reviews

92%Audience ScoreBased on 358 reviews
gameplay31 positive mentions
replayability3 negative mentions
  • Deep and addictive gameplay with a unique blend of Souls-like challenge and roguelite progression, providing satisfying combat and build diversity.
  • Handcrafted world design with interesting secrets, puzzles, and a fixed map that enhances exploration and strategic route planning.
  • Active and responsive developer with frequent updates, bug fixes, and a strong community engagement fostering ongoing improvements.
  • Frequent bugs and crashes reported by some players that can severely affect gameplay and system stability, needing urgent fixes.
  • Combat can feel clunky or unbalanced due to long animation recovery, dodge limitations, and inconsistent enemy design causing frustration.
  • Early access state limits content variety, with some players finding the meta progression grindy or the endgame short, plus UI and controller support needing polishing.

  • gameplay

    73 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    42% positive mentions, 54% neutral mentions, 4% negative mentions

    The gameplay is praised for its solid, polished combat, engaging roguelike mechanics, and deep build variety featuring runes, talismans, and cursemark systems that encourage experimentation and tactical decision-making. While the hand-drawn pixel art, smooth pacing, and immersive world enhance the experience, some players note issues with unclear mechanics, occasional UI clunkiness, and repetitive content that can lead to a tedious gameplay loop. Overall, the game offers a rewarding, fast-paced roguelite experience with strong replayability and room for further refinement.

    • “Cursemark already has a fantastic gameplay loop that keeps me coming back for "just one more run." The variety of rune and talisman combinations makes build experimentation genuinely rewarding, while the cursemark system adds a tactical layer to route planning and progression decisions.”
    • “This game gives you the roguelike experience blended in a mix of Elden Ring world progression vibes format sprinkled with some Path of Exile gem building skills mechanics, and everything from music, art style, to combat feels polished.”
    • “The atmosphere is fantastic, the art direction is gorgeous, and the fast-paced gameplay is incredibly satisfying, somewhere between Hades and Hyper Light Drifter.”
    • “I can forgive the clunky UI and animations, but the core gameplay loop is too tedious and exhausting.”
    • “There isn't enough variety in the content to make it feel like a good roguelike and the unlocks aren't important enough to actually affect the gameplay, leaving probably half of the runs feeling like a slog.”
    • “Some mechanics need too much guessing—does this rune work on this skill?”

  • graphics

    30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    47% positive mentions, 43% neutral mentions, 10% negative mentions

    The game features beautiful hand-drawn pixel graphics with a dark fantasy aesthetic that evokes classics like Diablo and Dark Souls. The visuals are praised for their unique charm, detailed environments, and enemy variety, complemented by fitting music and immersive world design. While generally smooth and polished, some users report occasional performance issues such as FPS drops despite the retro style.

    • “Hand-drawn pixel graphics, fluid combat, understandable mechanics, great music, immersive world... a labor of love.”
    • “Every environment, enemy, and effect has a lot of personality, and the overall aesthetic gives the game a unique charm that kept me engaged from the very beginning.”
    • “The music, the aesthetics, the enemies, the weapons, abilities, runes, wards, ultimates, the bosses and the sheer amount of build variety... all of it is just perfect and I'm only a few hours in.”
    • “Tried different graphic drivers (AMD) and with some older version it feels a little less laggy but still not the same as it used to.”
    • “Even tried different methods of uninstalling the graphics drivers (Display Driver Uninstaller, AMD Cleanup Utility) with no improvement.”
    • “There is such a limited graphics option setting, there is nothing more to do on my end.”

  • music

    18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    61% positive mentions, 33% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions

    The music in the game is widely praised for being beautiful, evocative, and fitting, significantly enhancing the immersive experience and flow of gameplay. While occasionally noted as slightly repetitive or mismatched in intense moments, overall it is considered a standout and essential element of the game's polished aesthetic.

    • “Outstanding and highly evocative soundtrack.”
    • “The soundtrack really helps the game flow!”
    • “Also, the game music and ambience they capture with the graphic aesthetic was something I didn't know I was missing in gaming.”

  • optimization

    9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    33% positive mentions, 34% neutral mentions, 33% negative mentions

    Optimization in the game is generally solid, with smooth performance on most platforms and minimal issues reported. However, there are occasional FPS drops and some performance hiccups during complex effects, indicating room for improvement, especially as the game is still in early access. Overall, gameplay runs well but could benefit from further fine-tuning and balancing.

    • “I am really enjoying this game so far; I haven't experienced any performance issues, bugs, or other problems.”
    • “A good example of a perfect game: fair price, interesting gameplay loop, no performance issues, and strong replayability.”
    • “Really buttery performance on Steam Deck.”
    • “Very poor optimization.”
    • “Bit of FPS drop with some builds, so some optimization will be needed.”
    • “Performance drops when you have a lot of effects going on.”

  • atmosphere

    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    63% positive mentions, 37% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game features a grim, medieval European-inspired atmosphere with unique, well-designed bosses and a distinctive souls-like tone. Its art direction and overall ambiance are highly praised, effectively blending elements from Hades and Hyper Light Drifter to create an engaging and immersive experience.

    • “The atmosphere is fantastic, the art direction is gorgeous, and the fast-paced gameplay is incredibly satisfying, somewhere between Hades and Hyper Drifter.”
    • “It really nails tone and atmosphere, which for me would have been enough, but coupled with the combat system?”
    • “The Souls-like atmosphere is amazing.”

  • replayability

    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    29% positive mentions, 28% neutral mentions, 43% negative mentions

    The game offers strong replayability through randomized drops, challenging bosses, and hidden secrets, providing depth even in its early access state. Players appreciate the tight gameplay loop and frequent updates, which keep the experience fresh and engaging despite occasional technical issues. Overall, the replay value remains high, encouraging players to revisit the content repeatedly.

    • “The randomized drops, tough challenges, elusive secrets and unforgiving bosses create infinite replay value.”
    • “Don't let the early access of this game fool you; it's full of content, replayability, and the devs are very active releasing patches every day.”
    • “Ever since the last update, the game crashes more frequently now and not because of on-screen actions. Love the game though and its replayability.”
    • “Regardless, replayability where it's at now is still there, but I have yet to get bored even after "beating" the game in its current state.”
    • “Even with only a few zones available in early access, there's already a surprising amount of depth and replayability.”

  • story

    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    29% positive mentions, 28% neutral mentions, 43% negative mentions

    The story is simple and straightforward, with minimal world building and no cryptic elements. While fairly generic, it provides a solid fantasy backdrop that complements the game's progression and rogue-lite features. Overall, the story is adequate but not a major focus.

    • “I like that the progression is built into the map/story as well as featuring a few rogue-lite elements outside of each run.”
    • “It's got a story!”
    • “No verbosity in storyline or world building.”
    • “Not much of a story, but that's ok.”
    • “The story is generic but serves as a solid little fantasy background.”

  • grinding

    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    Grinding in the game is described as somewhat tedious and exhausting at first, but once players master the mechanics and find good rune synergies, the experience becomes engaging without requiring excessive farming or incremental grinding.

    • “I can forgive the clunky UI and animations, but the core gameplay loop is too tedious and exhausting.”
    • “Become a hacking, slashing, fireball throwing, lightning bolt launching avatar of destruction... and do it all without dedicating dozens of hours to farming drops and incremental percentage improvements.”
    • “A roguelite, it takes some grinding to get good enough to start opening doors, but once you get the mechanics and timing as well as a good synergy with runes, you'll be hooked.”

  • stability

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions

    Stability is mixed, with some users experiencing frequent freezes requiring restarts after about 30 minutes, while others report smooth performance even on lower-end laptops without overheating.

    • “Runs great on my lower-end laptop, does not make it run hot at all.”
    • “I would give this at least 4 stars because I like the game a lot, but it freezes my computer and I have to restart after playing for around 30 minutes.”

  • humor

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions

    The humor in the game falls flat, with users criticizing it as unfunny and feeling more like lazy design choices, such as FPS drops, rather than intentional comedic elements.

    • “FPS drops in a game with 2D Contra-like pixel graphics are not only laziness but an unfunny joke.”

  • emotional

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The emotional aspect is not prominently addressed by users, who focus more on gameplay mechanics like stacking damage buffs rather than feelings or emotional engagement.

  • monetization

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    Users find the game's ads to be excessively frequent or intrusive, contrasting with the challenge level of bosses, which are considered relatively easy.

Skip Game Offers

Buy Cursemark

Some of these are affiliate links — if you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Play Times

15h Median play time
34h Average play time
2-85h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 3 analyzed playthroughs
Skip Videos

Videos

Skip Game News

Game News

Pixelated soulslike game Cursemark launches in June

April 27 on nichegamer.com
Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Cursemark is a open world hack and slash game with fantasy and dark fantasy themes. Common tags for Cursemark include indie, roguelite, magic, exploration, pixel graphics and others.

Cursemark is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 34 hours playing Cursemark.

Cursemark was released on June 8, 2026.

Cursemark was developed by FrivolousKnight.

Cursemark has received very positive reviews from players. Most players liked Cursemark for its gameplay but disliked it for its optimization.

Cursemark is a single player game.

Similar games include Heretical, Shape of Dreams, Soulstone Survivors, Magicraft, Into the Necrovale and others.