Slow And Steady<\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gamecritics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/e33ab5c6-f113-4d52-94c4-428298806b72-4277628689.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nHIGH<\/strong> The buildup to the mountaintop fight.<\/p>\nLOW<\/strong> Stocking up on Great Arrows only to realize the Great Bow doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\nWTF<\/strong> The Dwarf that eats the player\u2019s junk and \u201ctransmutes\u201d it into gold.<\/p>\nVerho: Curse of Faces<\/em> stands as a distillation of its genre.\u00a0 At once both dense and protracted, I experienced an uncanny sense of timelessness as I played.\u00a0 This is due, in part, to its clear roots in 32-bit titles such as King\u2019s Field<\/em> and Shadow Tower<\/em>, but also in its blending of brevity with a grand sense of scale.\u00a0 Joining the recent renaissance of titles inspired by this very particular brand of first-person action RPG, Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em> is perhaps too<\/em> faithful in emulating its source material.<\/p>\n600 years have passed since the land was beset by a curse that brought death to any humans who met face to face.\u00a0 Though the curse\u2019s origins remained a mystery, after a couple of hundred years of isolation, folks finally wised up and started wearing masks to protect themselves and others from their now-deadly visages.\u00a0 While the world of Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em> has mostly adjusted to masked life, curious minds are not easily sated, and the fog-enshrouded city of Yariv reputedly holds the key to unlocking the ancient mystery \u2013 though none who enter the fog have ever returned.<\/p>\nPlayers set forth as one such adventurer, thrust maskless into the fog with hardly even a name to remember, much less their original motivation.\u00a0 Selecting a mask (class) from an assortment of variations on the warrior, rogue, mage archetypes sets the journey off in earnest, and players will soon find themselves in the Nameless Village \u2013 a kind of hub linking to the various pixelated burgs and dungeons surrounding Yariv.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gamecritics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ss_b7b14a2a23ddc6cdedd200884f162a11c787bba6.1920x1080-1024x572.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nWhile Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em>\u2019 central narrative is straightforward, there is a constant sense of barely-seen ephemera nibbling at the periphery \u2013 a fathomless pit harboring lost souls, a hazy shape stalking the mountain tops, a bestial cry echoing in the distance never fully heard.\u00a0 Lurid colors silhouette massive towers, polygonal edges just visible through the dithered draw-distance.\u00a0 Sound and image collide, hinting at worlds only whispered of in the text.\u00a0 There is tension between the dialogue-heavy NPC interactions, and this more evocative, environmental storytelling.\u00a0 The writing is not bad so much as it is voluminous, and as I clicked through what felt like endless walls of repetitive prose, I found myself longing for the glimmers of bewilderment and terror I found during exploration.<\/p>\nFurthermore, while the player will interact with numerous characters over the course of Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em>, all but two (that I encountered) are men.\u00a0 Of the two female characters that I met, neither feature heavily in the narrative, and one is in a hidden area I missed on my first pass.\u00a0 This would be a failure of representation in any title, but feels particularly myopic in one thematically concerned with human connection, and the destruction wrought by its absence.<\/p>\nNarrative concerns aside, players will spend the majority of their time plumbing the depths of demon filled dungeons, restless graveyards, and foreboding castles in the first-person perspective.\u00a0 Combat is a considered affair, relying more on slow rhythms and positioning than snap reflexes.\u00a0 Wild swings are tantamount to death, with players needing to first \u201cready\u201d their blows by holding down the attack button for several seconds until the stamina meter fills before striking.\u00a0 Greatswords and hammers do massive damage, but ready much more slowly than nimble rapiers and daggers.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gamecritics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ss_7117c78820376830adfab72083867b51dbdbc68d.1920x1080-1024x573.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nMomentum also plays a role, particularly in the lighter weapons, offering both a forward thrust that advances the player, and a backstep for quick dodging.\u00a0 Favoring a fleet-footed thief build, my encounters with the razor-toothed plants and ghostly suits of armor played out as slow-motion dances as I methodically readied my attacks, carefully managing my position between strikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These melees, while challenging, never felt unduly difficult, and defeat was often the result of poor decision making, rather than a failure of reflex.\u00a0 Observing a gaggle of ghosts lazily drifting towards me, spectral swords at the ready, I have time to take stock \u2013 do I have enough health and mana potions? How long since my last checkpoint?\u00a0 With pacing that allows for strategy and consideration, death is rarely a surprise, and frustration all but nonexistent.\u00a0 There is comfort to be found in these rhythms, and while Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em> doesn\u2019t necessarily break new ground, its execution is spot on.<\/p>\nExploration follows a similar tact, with large, open environments, and semi-non-linear progression in the world creating a controlled sense of discovery.\u00a0 There are often multiple avenues to explore and progress, but even as I came across a random treasure in an unmarked dungeon, I\u2019d later realized I\u2019d found an integral key to part of the main quest.\u00a0 In another example, I stumbled across the weapon that carried me through to the final boss leaning up against an unmarked grave in an unassuming corner of the map.\u00a0 This almost haphazard approach to looting only reinforced my curiosity as my organic exploration continued to bear fruit in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gamecritics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ss_1199f08c90e6ec4c45c1c6354d5bf0aa218b4b25.1920x1080-1024x574.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nVerho: Curse of Faces<\/em> has something of a goldilocks quality to it \u2013 neither too difficult, nor too easy. Satisfyingly deep, but short enough to finish in a weekend.\u00a0 In many ways, its measured pace and smooth edges offer relief to an addled brain \u2014 but on the other hand, it also lacks the prickliness to step fully out from the shadow of its forebears to carve an identity of its own.\u00a0 While the paths I traced through Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em>\u2019 cyclopean temples contained glimpses of wonder, I couldn\u2019t shake the feeling that I\u2019d walked them before.<\/p>\nRating:\u00a0 6.5 out of 10<\/p>\n
Buy Verho: Curse of Faces <\/em>\u2013 PC<\/a> \u2013 Switch<\/a> \u2013 PS<\/a> \u2013 XB<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nDisclosures:<\/strong> This game is developed by Kasur Games<\/strong> and published by CobraTekku Games<\/strong> It is currently available on PC<\/strong>, Switch<\/strong>, PS5<\/strong>, and XSX\/S<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong> This copy of the game was obtained via publisher<\/strong> and reviewed on the PS5<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong> Approximately\u00a017 hours of play<\/strong> were devoted\u00a0to the single-player mode, and the game was completed<\/strong>.\u00a0 There are no multiplayer modes.<\/p>\nParents:<\/strong> According to the ESRB<\/strong><\/a>, this game is rated T<\/strong> and contains Blood<\/strong> and Violence.<\/strong> The visuals in this game are presented in a low fidelity style that is not realistic.\u00a0 Combat consistent of the player fighting ghosts, knights, and other fantasy creatures with swords, magic, and bows and arrows.\u00a0 There are elements of horror in some of the enemy designs such as an iron maiden with a swinging door, showing the disfigured body of its still living occupant inside. While there is low detail blood sprays when an enemy is defeated, there is not gratuitous gore.<\/p>\nColorblind Modes:<\/strong> There are no<\/strong> colorblind modes<\/strong> available.<\/p>\nDeaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers:<\/strong> This game offers subtitles.\u00a0 The subtitles cannot be resized<\/strong>, but there is an option for a pixel style font or a smoother text font for subtitles and menus. While playing without sound, I did experience some additional difficulty, particularly in ambushes.\u00a0 In certain areas there are flying enemies that are often difficult to see or initially hidden from the player with only an audio cue to give away their presence.\u00a0 When playing without sound these enemies frequently attacked me before I could see them, in some cases leading my character dying.\u00a0 I found a number of enemies throughout the game that ambush the character, often relying on a sound cue to give away their presence if the player is not looking directly at them. Because of these issues, this game is not fully accessible<\/strong>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gamecritics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Verho-Subtitles-1024x576.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nRemappable Controls:<\/strong> No, this game\u2019s controls are not remappable<\/strong>. The only exception is the option to invert the y-axis.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gamecritics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Verho-Controls-1024x576.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n ![\"Ryan](\"https:\/\/gamecritics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gravatar\/gc-profile-pic.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n\nOne of Ryan\u2019s earliest memories is waking up to the sound of his family playing the Ms. Pac-Man and Asteroids arcade cabinets at his grandparent\u2019s house.Despite his cries for silence, the racket continued and, figuring he might as well join the fun, Ryan climbed out of bed and crawled his way into a life-long obsession.<\/p>\nFollowing this introduction, Ryan dove headlong into the 16 and 64-bit eras, culminating in the year 2000 with a fateful visit to the local game shop.On the recommendation of a saintly store clerk, Ryan picked up a copy of Deus Ex and, shortly thereafter, embarked on the vain quest to find a game that tops it.<\/p>\n
This journey has led Ryan to GameCritics where he attempts to articulate why he still finds this medium so compelling.When not playing or writing about games, Ryan can be found watching competition reality television with his wife, their dog, and three cats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\nHIGH<\/strong> The buildup to the mountaintop fight.<\/p>\n LOW<\/strong> Stocking up on Great Arrows only to realize the Great Bow doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n WTF<\/strong> The Dwarf that eats the player\u2019s junk and \u201ctransmutes\u201d it into gold.<\/p>\n Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em> stands as a distillation of its genre.\u00a0 At once both dense and protracted, I experienced an uncanny sense of timelessness as I played.\u00a0 This is due, in part, to its clear roots in 32-bit titles such as King\u2019s Field<\/em> and Shadow Tower<\/em>, but also in its blending of brevity with a grand sense of scale.\u00a0 Joining the recent renaissance of titles inspired by this very particular brand of first-person action RPG, Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em> is perhaps too<\/em> faithful in emulating its source material.<\/p>\n 600 years have passed since the land was beset by a curse that brought death to any humans who met face to face.\u00a0 Though the curse\u2019s origins remained a mystery, after a couple of hundred years of isolation, folks finally wised up and started wearing masks to protect themselves and others from their now-deadly visages.\u00a0 While the world of Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em> has mostly adjusted to masked life, curious minds are not easily sated, and the fog-enshrouded city of Yariv reputedly holds the key to unlocking the ancient mystery \u2013 though none who enter the fog have ever returned.<\/p>\n Players set forth as one such adventurer, thrust maskless into the fog with hardly even a name to remember, much less their original motivation.\u00a0 Selecting a mask (class) from an assortment of variations on the warrior, rogue, mage archetypes sets the journey off in earnest, and players will soon find themselves in the Nameless Village \u2013 a kind of hub linking to the various pixelated burgs and dungeons surrounding Yariv.<\/p>\n While Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em>\u2019 central narrative is straightforward, there is a constant sense of barely-seen ephemera nibbling at the periphery \u2013 a fathomless pit harboring lost souls, a hazy shape stalking the mountain tops, a bestial cry echoing in the distance never fully heard.\u00a0 Lurid colors silhouette massive towers, polygonal edges just visible through the dithered draw-distance.\u00a0 Sound and image collide, hinting at worlds only whispered of in the text.\u00a0 There is tension between the dialogue-heavy NPC interactions, and this more evocative, environmental storytelling.\u00a0 The writing is not bad so much as it is voluminous, and as I clicked through what felt like endless walls of repetitive prose, I found myself longing for the glimmers of bewilderment and terror I found during exploration.<\/p>\n Furthermore, while the player will interact with numerous characters over the course of Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em>, all but two (that I encountered) are men.\u00a0 Of the two female characters that I met, neither feature heavily in the narrative, and one is in a hidden area I missed on my first pass.\u00a0 This would be a failure of representation in any title, but feels particularly myopic in one thematically concerned with human connection, and the destruction wrought by its absence.<\/p>\n Narrative concerns aside, players will spend the majority of their time plumbing the depths of demon filled dungeons, restless graveyards, and foreboding castles in the first-person perspective.\u00a0 Combat is a considered affair, relying more on slow rhythms and positioning than snap reflexes.\u00a0 Wild swings are tantamount to death, with players needing to first \u201cready\u201d their blows by holding down the attack button for several seconds until the stamina meter fills before striking.\u00a0 Greatswords and hammers do massive damage, but ready much more slowly than nimble rapiers and daggers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Momentum also plays a role, particularly in the lighter weapons, offering both a forward thrust that advances the player, and a backstep for quick dodging.\u00a0 Favoring a fleet-footed thief build, my encounters with the razor-toothed plants and ghostly suits of armor played out as slow-motion dances as I methodically readied my attacks, carefully managing my position between strikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n These melees, while challenging, never felt unduly difficult, and defeat was often the result of poor decision making, rather than a failure of reflex.\u00a0 Observing a gaggle of ghosts lazily drifting towards me, spectral swords at the ready, I have time to take stock \u2013 do I have enough health and mana potions? How long since my last checkpoint?\u00a0 With pacing that allows for strategy and consideration, death is rarely a surprise, and frustration all but nonexistent.\u00a0 There is comfort to be found in these rhythms, and while Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em> doesn\u2019t necessarily break new ground, its execution is spot on.<\/p>\n Exploration follows a similar tact, with large, open environments, and semi-non-linear progression in the world creating a controlled sense of discovery.\u00a0 There are often multiple avenues to explore and progress, but even as I came across a random treasure in an unmarked dungeon, I\u2019d later realized I\u2019d found an integral key to part of the main quest.\u00a0 In another example, I stumbled across the weapon that carried me through to the final boss leaning up against an unmarked grave in an unassuming corner of the map.\u00a0 This almost haphazard approach to looting only reinforced my curiosity as my organic exploration continued to bear fruit in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em> has something of a goldilocks quality to it \u2013 neither too difficult, nor too easy. Satisfyingly deep, but short enough to finish in a weekend.\u00a0 In many ways, its measured pace and smooth edges offer relief to an addled brain \u2014 but on the other hand, it also lacks the prickliness to step fully out from the shadow of its forebears to carve an identity of its own.\u00a0 While the paths I traced through Verho: Curse of Faces<\/em>\u2019 cyclopean temples contained glimpses of wonder, I couldn\u2019t shake the feeling that I\u2019d walked them before.<\/p>\n Rating:\u00a0 6.5 out of 10<\/p>\n Buy Verho: Curse of Faces <\/em>\u2013 PC<\/a> \u2013 Switch<\/a> \u2013 PS<\/a> \u2013 XB<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Disclosures:<\/strong> This game is developed by Kasur Games<\/strong> and published by CobraTekku Games<\/strong> It is currently available on PC<\/strong>, Switch<\/strong>, PS5<\/strong>, and XSX\/S<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong> This copy of the game was obtained via publisher<\/strong> and reviewed on the PS5<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong> Approximately\u00a017 hours of play<\/strong> were devoted\u00a0to the single-player mode, and the game was completed<\/strong>.\u00a0 There are no multiplayer modes.<\/p>\n Parents:<\/strong> According to the ESRB<\/strong><\/a>, this game is rated T<\/strong> and contains Blood<\/strong> and Violence.<\/strong> The visuals in this game are presented in a low fidelity style that is not realistic.\u00a0 Combat consistent of the player fighting ghosts, knights, and other fantasy creatures with swords, magic, and bows and arrows.\u00a0 There are elements of horror in some of the enemy designs such as an iron maiden with a swinging door, showing the disfigured body of its still living occupant inside. While there is low detail blood sprays when an enemy is defeated, there is not gratuitous gore.<\/p>\n Colorblind Modes:<\/strong> There are no<\/strong> colorblind modes<\/strong> available.<\/p>\n Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers:<\/strong> This game offers subtitles.\u00a0 The subtitles cannot be resized<\/strong>, but there is an option for a pixel style font or a smoother text font for subtitles and menus. While playing without sound, I did experience some additional difficulty, particularly in ambushes.\u00a0 In certain areas there are flying enemies that are often difficult to see or initially hidden from the player with only an audio cue to give away their presence.\u00a0 When playing without sound these enemies frequently attacked me before I could see them, in some cases leading my character dying.\u00a0 I found a number of enemies throughout the game that ambush the character, often relying on a sound cue to give away their presence if the player is not looking directly at them. Because of these issues, this game is not fully accessible<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Remappable Controls:<\/strong> No, this game\u2019s controls are not remappable<\/strong>. The only exception is the option to invert the y-axis.<\/p>\n Following this introduction, Ryan dove headlong into the 16 and 64-bit eras, culminating in the year 2000 with a fateful visit to the local game shop.On the recommendation of a saintly store clerk, Ryan picked up a copy of Deus Ex and, shortly thereafter, embarked on the vain quest to find a game that tops it.<\/p>\n This journey has led Ryan to GameCritics where he attempts to articulate why he still finds this medium so compelling.When not playing or writing about games, Ryan can be found watching competition reality television with his wife, their dog, and three cats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/div>\n