Children of Morta Review in Progress (PC)
Children of Morta
Release Date: September 3, 2019Platforms: PC
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Children of Morta, developed by Dead Mage, is a game that I have been keeping tabs on for a long time and was pleasantly surprised to see the release date was finally set. I’m not quite ready to give a full verdict, but my initial impressions are very good.
Children of Morta is a narrative driven rogue-lite experience, playing as members of The Bergson family to combat The Corruption that has suddenly plagued their lands. Each member of The Bergson family has a different playstyle to provide a unique and vast procedurally generated dungeon-crawling experience. Where Children of Morta really shines is the storytelling, as I felt each run I made advanced the story, separating this game from other rogue-lite experiences that are just pure gameplay. There aren’t individual voices, but there is a voiced narrator who is the life and soul of the game, along with the beautiful pixel graphics that bring the story to life.
The rogue-lite experience itself of dying and having to play a dungeon again may be annoying depending on the player (not me), but there are upgrades that can be bought with the Morv currency that affects all family members, lending your mind to feeling like you don’t have to stick to one family member all the time. The feeling of wanting to always stick to one family member was something I was afraid of going in, but the game mechanics alleviated that concern. Each family member is unique with their own skill tree, not too complex, but just enough choices to feel customizable. There are also family traits within the skill tree of each character that affect the rest of the family, which also drives you to keep changing family members each run. Although each family member isn’t accessible to play with from the start, the storytelling of introducing each family member into the mix is done really well.
One thing I do recommend is playing with a controller, as my hands felt very cramped playing with some of the family members with keyboard. The game is challenging, you will die, but Children of Morta doesn’t make it feel like a grind when the story seems to always be advancing.
This is my Children of Morta review in progress and I will have my complete verdict very soon discussing much more.
