Children of Morta – Review (PC)
Most families have a hard enough time keeping their sanity during a summer camping trip, let alone working together to battle an evil force of corruption and doom. Children of Morta, a new rouge-like dungeon crawler from indie developer Dead Mage, tries to show us how cool our family could be if our parents and siblings had magical powers and the patience to put up with each other long enough to save the world. Luckily for us, this is one household where you’ll want to overstay long after your welcome.
Children of Morta provides a unique approach to storytelling. Rather than centering around a single main character tasked with saving the world of Morta, the game focuses on an entire family. As you progress through dungeons, different members of the Bergson family will enter the story. Some will join the narrative after returning from a long journey, while others will enlist after learning to develop their strength and powers. At the conclusion of most dungeon runs you are treated to small cut scenes that help to move the story along and show the development of the family. This also assists in building anticipation that precedes unlocking a new playable character. As new playable characters aren’t just dropped into your pre-level screen, you gain an appreciation for the process of a new family member joining the rest of Bergson’s fight against corruption in Morta. These moments bookend any run – whether that run results in a successful slaying of a dungeon boss or an early death. The delivery of story elements in bite-sized segments is fantastic and effective in ensuring the game play stays at the forefront of the experience.
From a visual standpoint, Children of Morta is a bit of a mixed bag. The pixelated sprites that makeup the Bergson family are somewhat lacking in detail. Your characters look drab and, given there is no equipment customization in the game, you can’t change things up to your liking. It almost seems as though more effort was given to enemy design rather than that of the playable characters. Luckily, animations are smooth and fluid. This is a welcome trade off considering how many different attacks and special moves you’ll be seeing from the game’s six playable family members and dozens of unique enemy types.
There are several pleasing visual touches throughout including the digitized swoosh of energy that emanates from John’s sword with each swipe, or the pulse of dust and air that explodes from around Mark with each punch and kick. The level design and environments also help to prop up the game’s visuals in some areas. The immense amount of detail that is packed into the Bergson family home and surrounding area is superb. However, given that dungeons are procedurally generated with each new run, the levels themselves clearly do not have the same vibrancy and detail.
The audio of Children of Morta certainly overachieves, specifically with the game’s music. A sweeping orchestral and vocal soundtrack helps to set the mood in quieter family moments or consummate intense set piece battles.
Those familiar with popular dungeon crawlers like Diablo or The Binding of Isaac will be right at home with Children of Morta. This is a game that doesn’t do anything groundbreaking for the genre from a game play standpoint, but is still immensely satisfying to play. You’ll start out each run in the Bergson family home. By visiting Uncle Ben’s Workshop or Grandma Margaret’s Book of Rea, you can level up your character’s base stats using the game’s currency. A chapter select area in the basement of the home lets players choose their family member and unlock new skills using points gained with each experience level that is achieved.
Inside each dungeon, your character will use a basic main hand attack and a special ability that can be unlocked after gaining your first experience level. This may not sound like a lot, but given Children of Morta is continuously giving you new family members to play with, there is a lot of experimentation to be had. There’s no doubt you’ll find a family member that matches your preferred play style.
With overexposure to enemies, individual characters will occasionally begin to suffer from corruption sickness. This imparts a debuff on that character and decreases maximum health. The mechanic forces you to rest certain characters and try out new ones. While this may seem restrictive for player choice, it helps to promote experimentation.
In addition to your direct attacks, several temporary random abilities can be collected within dungeons, all of which are lost upon death. Runes, Obelisks, and Divine Relics are found in lootable chests or awarded for completing mini quests that can greatly increase offensive and defensive abilities. A personal favorite was the Shardslinger – a small companion droid that fires ranged attacks at enemies and remains with you until death. There are dozens of these special items and they help in making each dungeon run stand out from the last.
While you’ll need to repeat dungeons multiple times, areas are procedurally generated to create a fresh experience with each subsequent run. This randomized way of building levels is impressive as it isn’t simply limited to the layout of the play area, enemy placement, and random loot drops.
Entirely new NPCs, companions, and mini quests can be found in different runs within the same dungeon. In one playthrough of the Barahut desert, you may stumble across a marooned band of civilians who need to be saved from corrupted monsters. Another run may have you run into Grandma Margaret who has stumbled across a new cipher that can be later unlocked in the Book of Rea. What this random generation of interactions and events does is encourage exploration and discovery of any area you may have already played through half a dozen times. You won’t want to miss anything as there’s potentially something new around every corner.
Despite some repetition, uneven visuals, and derivative mechanics, Children of Morta is an absolute joy to play from start to finish. A smooth progression system, randomly generated elements, and a ton of different abilities to play with were more than enough for us to look past some of the game’s shortcomings. We highly recommend this one whether you’re a seasoned vet of the dungeon crawler genre, or just looking for a new and charming rouge-like experience.
Children of Morta launches on Steam on September 3rd, and Playstation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on October 15th.
Check out our Review Guide to see what we criteria we use to score games.
*Children of Morta was provided to the reviewer by the publishing company but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion*
