It's a roguelite, a Metroidvania, and a base-builder! This adorable indie game does it all

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SHOULD I PLAY NEVER GRAVE: THE WITCH AND THE CURSE?

This is a demo you should definitely check out. Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse is a 2D action game that combines the best elements of some of my favorite genres. It’s an exploration-heavy Metroidvania with awesome traversal mechanics, but it’s also a roguelite with tons of power-ups to collect. It even has light base-building mechanics, so I always had lots of projects to work on between runs. I had a blast with the demo, and I can’t wait to play the full game.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve sunk more than three hours into the Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse demo, and I still don’t feel like I’ve seen everything this demo has to offer. So far, I’ve explored multiple dungeons, collected a wide range of spells and power-ups, and made some permanent upgrades to my character. In between my runs, I’ve focused on repairing a ruined village. The village hasn’t made a full recovery yet, but I’m pretty happy with my progress.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT NEVER GRAVE: THE WITCH AND THE CURSE?

• Gorgeous 2D visuals. Never Grave’s hand-drawn visuals are breathtakingly beautiful. Every aspect of the game looks amazing, from its lush painted backgrounds to its animated characters. The witchy main character is absolutely adorable, but the enemies you fight look fantastic too, especially the bosses. • Awesome exploration. Sometimes the constant backtracking in Metroidvanias can be a hassle, but in Never Grave, getting around is a snap. The game’s portal system allowed me to instantly warp to different parts of the map. The effortlessness of returning to previously explored areas made it easy to decide where I should go next. I’m the kind of person that wants to explore every single inch of a map, and in Never Grave, doing that was a breeze.

• Fun, varied gameplay. One of the most appealing things about Never Grave was that I was never stuck doing the same thing for too long. I was constantly unlocking new power-ups, and that meant my playstyle was always shifting. Never Grave also lets you possess and take control of some enemy creatures. Being able to transform into a new entity definitely kept me on my toes.

The base-building mechanics aren’t very complex, but they provided a welcome break from all the exploration and monster fighting. I loved having projects to work on in between runs. It made dying near the end of a run feel a lot less painful.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT IN NEVER GRAVE: THE WITCH AND THE CURSE?

• Navigating menus can be a little clunky. Never Grave’s menus look fine, but they don’t feel as polished as the rest of the game. The awkward menus aren’t a major issue during the action segments of the game, but I occasionally got frustrated when I was trying to rebuild the town. Sometimes it took a while to find the item I wanted to build, and selecting the right item took a few too many clicks.

• Some of the text is bugged. Every so often, I’d spot a bug in Never Grave’s on-screen text. Instead of showing me the name of an item, the game would show me the code for the item. This isn’t a text-heavy game, so it wasn’t a big issue, but this is definitely something the developers should fix before the game comes out.

PLATFORM TESTED

PC via Steam.