Cathedral: Crow's Curse Preview: Assassin’s Creed Meets Hollow Knight

Cathedral: Crow’s Curse is an upcoming metroidvania that reminded me of the first time I played Shovel Knight.

As a prequel to Cathedral following one of its most popular characters, my Crow's Curse demo had a strong mix of tight platforming segments and very satisfying 2D combat.

Visually I’m a big fan already. I’ve always loved the look and feel of more classic games and Crow’s Curse does a good job of making the game look the part but still feel modern.

Much of my time with the game was spent inside a dark forest, and the way shadows danced and the backdrop loomed gloomily did wonders for the atmosphere. You don’t need too much detail for games like this, simple architecture and colours can be more than enough to craft a world you want to explore.

Despite its pixel-art style, it didn’t hold the demo back from giving me some compelling combat encounters, as the player can sneak up behind enemies for a stealth-based kill or fight head-on with parries and swift strikes from a dagger. Several enemies could be easily avoided altogether yet I still went out of my way to fight them just because I liked the feeling of parrying them so much.

The only critique I have for this aspect of the game was the lack of enemy variety, but given the early build I’m assuming there’ll be a bit more in the full release.

The portion of the game I played was a very small part of the game, and a quick-look at the in-game map showed me how much was left to explore by the time I walked away. Despite this my progression felt fast and fluid, acquiring various tools and abilities that unlocked new paths like any good metroidvania should.

Cathedral: Crow’s Curse is shaping up to be a great little title, and one that can be equally enjoyed by those who have and haven’t played Cathedral beforehand. At the time of writing there is no release date.