CURSED WORDS
- Hubert Spala
- Apr 20
- 5 min read
I like when the game subverts my expectations. Call me a simple sucker, but I all for plot twists and seemingly random revelations that jump out of the blue! I love twist villains in movies, too. But, of course, it all needs to be done in a decent way. A well-crafted reveal, a juicy build up, a proper ‘Gotcha!’ moment that makes it feel earned. Now though, how do you elicit such a feeling in a word scramble game? CURSED WORDS answer that question well and is a delightful example of how to take a tried and tested formula and twist it into a wild pretzel.
See, the basic premise looks like any of the myriad word scramble games out there. You get a grid with various, random tiles with letters. Those letters have score attached to them, SCRABBLE-style. And you need to build a point goal in a limited number of rounds. Basic as it gets. Of course, since it is a roguelike, you also get the usual bag of items to help you score big. Items to collect that formulate your strategy. Hardly anything groundbreaking, so far.
But CURSED WORDS makes sure you very quickly realize that you do not need to have a vast lexicon to win. In fact, at some point, you might forget you’re even playing a supposed “words” game, because reality is an illusion, and the game substitute it’s very own realm of possibility to play with. As you unlock more characters, tiles and items to play with, you get more wacky tiles. Numbers invade your board. Then fractions. Card suits. God damn chess pieces. Then you buy a Stamp that makes letters wobbly, and these wobbly letters can behave as completely different letters, because why not. Or maybe their score becomes an actual number you can use in a sequence.
Why not make any J’s act as H, I and J? Spawn entire grid of wildcard tiles. Soon, the words become a memory of the past and you’re scoring thousands by sending something that looks like Y!3(Rook)(Queen)?1/7Z?(Joker) and the leading character proudly proclaims that OBVIOUSLY these spells “cadaverous” and job’s a good’un.
This might be a little upsetting to an honest player who was looking for a game to test your internalized dictionary. You see a word game; you expect a word game! Sure, the game does its best to warn you that its goal is to render actual words irrelevant as fast as possible, but, damn, maybe I want to challenge myself and try to figure out biggest words from the scramble of letters on each grid? Worry not, dear reader, this is still very much an option! The game doesn’t forget about the thesaurus addicts – there are plenty of stamps and stickers that rewards those, who are skilled wordsmiths. Some of them are appropriately powerful to respect the difficulty that comes with this kind of playstyle.
Sure, some characters are hard-boiled in the sauce of their gimmick – embracing it is the path to victory with them. But there are characters in the roster that are more honest workers, giving you that outlet for wordplay you were hoping for! To each their own, and with the hefty roster, you will always find a couple of goobers to enjoy, for their mechanics to click with you and jive with your style. Add to that challenging quests, ramping difficulty and a sea of unlockable and you get yourself a game thick with content to enjoy.
The game has that thing, that hard to define shiny core that makes it feels smooth, exciting and energetic. That easy pull on internal triggers for the decision to play just one more run to occur without thinking. It might be the revelation of uncovering new ways to brake the game on a knee, smashing big score thresholds with a single monstrous play, round after round – that glorious moment when your engine is online, and instead of barely puttering out with acrid smoke, it is a buzzing, rumbling, twelve cylinders roaring beast that breezes through the rest of the run. That feels great.
And the game has a vastness of options to enable that; with a lovely little support system I am quite a fan of. You see, when you play on a default, baseline difficulty, our shady aide clad in felt of blue gives you solid advice. You can always ask the fella what he thinks would be your best next purchase to empower your strategy. And he does a pretty decent job of identifying what pieces you already have and what kind of synergies you should be looking for. It’s a very fresh take on an extended tutorial, unobtrusive and engaging. Helping players find their feet in the game core loop, it’s interactions. Arming player with knowledge of how to actually make sensible builds. Very neat little thing.
And the audiovisuals! Excellent stuff, which is a praise I wasn’t expecting to make for a god damn game about letter tiles. There is a bit of a ghostly, eerie quality to it. I guess the whole premise of cursed setting is there, and it’s all about the atmosphere. Music get slushy, fuzzy, distorted whenever you are hitting score way above the goal. The slow funky jazzy tune reacts to your plays in gentle, subtle ways that adds to the whole vibe in a delicious fashion. Everything feels tactile, clicky… In a way it fritzes some synapses in my brain in a very happy fashion. Even watching the score going through the stickers, getting it all applied in order is satisfying. Your character attacking the word, bosses reacting to being ‘hit’ by your submitted abomination of random letters, symbols and icons… It feels good. Very good, even.
CURSED WORDS is a great twist on the formula. A refreshing take that promises what it advertises – a game in which words will cease to matter quickly, and all your brain power can be employed in figuring out a suitable set of synergies to reach higher and higher numbers to tickle your brain. It’s cleverly done, superbly smooth and hits you like a glorious espresso in the morning. If you’re an enjoyer of more abstract games and weaving combos out of various bits and bobs in a roguelike structure is what gets you going, I assure you – you’ll enjoy this one.
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