Morbid Metal, from developer SCREEN JUICE and publisher Ubisoft, is a fast-paced, action-packed roguelike game with a heavy focus on combat and stylistic hacking and slashing. Is this Early Access title shaping up to be something you should buy? Let’s find out, shall we!
First and foremost, here’s the trailer for the game:
Now if that didn’t hype you up, I honestly do not know what will!
Premise
Morbid Metal’s premise is quite straightforward. You start the game as a brand new mecha unit that’s been freshly created in some sort of cyberspace void. You’ll quickly be taught how to move and perform some basic attacks before encounter Eden, a mysterious giant figure comprised of thousands of flowing machines. She sends you out into the unknown with only one word of advice to give. Survive.
Core Gameplay Loop
And survive you shall! Each time you venture out into Morbid Metal’s gorgeous world, you’ll face off against enemy robots or machines that are out to get you. You’ll have to fight them off in small arenas and upon defeating them, you’ll be rewarded with upgrades. As you progress through the levels, enemies get progressively stronger and tougher to beat and soon enough you’ll be facing off against larger groups of multiple different types of foes.
The level of difficulty in Morbid Metal ramps up quite quickly and before you know it, you’ll end up dead and destroyed. However, this isn’t the end for you. You’ll simply respawn back in the cybervoid space and can venture forth again – With each iteration being recorded on the game’s loading screen.
Upgrades & Progression
As you defeat enemies, you’ll eventually start accumulating resources which can be used back in the cybervoid to upgrade your mech with more combat prowess or perks. As you do this, you’ll start to become stronger and will be able to defeat foes a lot easier. Progress far enough into the game and you’ll encounter Ekku, another mech that you will eventually be able to play as. Progress a lot deeper and you’ll eventually unlock Vekta, another character that you can play as.
Character Switching System
Now where things get interesting lies with the fact that you can swap between Flux, your main playable mech and Ekku and Vekta on the fly while in-game. You aren’t locked into playing as only one character and this is amazing because you can string together combo attacks using each character’s specific skills and abilities. Ekku for example is a hard hitting brutish mech while Flux is a speedy sword-slasher.
Combat
The combat in Morbid Metal is ridiculously fun with combos being able to be pulled off with ease. You can use skills and special abilities too and they are tied to cooldowns which reset quite often so you’re never having a dull moment in fights. The gameplay is extremely reminiscent of other old-school third-person hack and slasher games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta and if you enjoy those types of games, you’ll definitely enjoy Morbid Metal.
Story & Narrative
The game currently has some minimalistic story driving you forward but since it’s in Early Access, I hope that the developers expand upon this a bit more. There’s a mysterious voice that guides you in each run and using this to drive the plot forward could make for some really interesting storytelling if they play their cards right.
Roguelike Systems
Upgrading your playable character is easy since you’ll be picking from random perks and upgrades and because each run is different, you’ll have a tonne of fun every single time you load up the game. The roguelike elements currently include a hefty upgrade tree and hopefully this gets expanded on even more as the game continues to be developed.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Morbid Metal is excellent with well known electronic music artist Blue Stahli composing tracks for the game. The music fits perfectly with the combat and honestly, listening to the banger OST while destroying robots and racking up high scores is extremely satisfying. This game would be perfect to play on the go on a Steam Deck or a Nintendo Switch 2 to be quite honest since each run is fast-paced and brutal, you’ll most likely end up dying within 15 minutes or less before going out again into another one.
Graphics & Presentation
Graphically the game is flat out gorgeous. Combat animations are beautiful to witness and the flashy effects and environments are a visual feast for the eyes. Both playable character and enemy designs are visually appealing and look great! The game is begging for a photo mode to be added to it and I really hope the developers add this soon.
Final Thoughts
The Morbid Metal development team have a hit on their hands here. The game might be in Early Access but it’s already so polished and so much fun, it’s well worth picking up right now and diving right in. I can only hope that they keep up this momentum and continue to update it with more content and more story/lore to keep things going. Give Morbid Metal a try, you won’t regret it.
Read more awesome previews >>here<<.
The game was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.
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