Children of Morta

I've always been intrigued by the character building, gear customization and fast-paced combat aspects of action RPGs like Diablo or Grim Dawn. However, as much as I do enjoy games like that, I've always wished for them to have a deeper focus on story. Enter: Children of Morta. I got this game for free during a promo GOG ran in 2020 and I'm glad that I did, because it is fantastic. I've always been a huge fan of story-driven games ever since my dad crafted a small pen-and-paper adventure game for me to play, long before I got into video games. Children of Morta combines the best of adventure games with easy-to-understand RPG skill systems and great dungeon crawling gameplay and the result is glorious. The story tells us a tale about the Bergson family who have been tasked with protecting the world. This family theme is great because most people can deeply relate to family-themed stories, regardless of what their family is/was like. This also helps the game feel more like an adventure, instead of a loot grind like most ARPGs and dungeon crawlers do. This also creates interesting gameplay mechanics, as the Bergson family home functions as a calm base where you can break from the chaos and experience the home life of the family. Another interesting element is how each family member has their own personality and each one represents a different take on the traditional RPG "class". Also, pixel art can be a bit divisive to some people but I've never met a person who didn't at least admire the art in this game. It's probably the prettiest pixel art game I've ever seen, due to the gorgeous color palette, the fantastic detail in the art itself and the great use of lighting and effects. As pixel art tends to do, it creates a very nostalgic feel but it also does a good job of making you feel immersed into the world and the story that is woven into it. If you've ever enjoyed ARPG gameplay but wish there was a greater focus on story, Children of Morta is absolutely your game.

First of all, this is a good game. It is a rougelite, but don't let that chase you away if you don't like the genre, it is really 'lite' in that aspect, you basically keep everything even if you die, only very minor setback (corruption fatigue for a few rounds). The gameplay is simple. Nothing special. There is a new game+ option (as usual) if the length of the base game seems short, and the higher difficulty can be challenging. The dungeon levels are randomized, but there aren't many motives. The biggest up is that all characters plays quite differently, especially on higher levels, it adds more variety than anything else in the game. The game is absolutely playable on controller, but easier with mouse+kb. The coop mode is unbalanced (too easy). The biggest pro in the game is the narration and setting. You control the members of the Bergson family and fight against the corruption. With levelups and bonuses, you feel more and more like it is a family, they help each other - quite literally. The story is not even that great, but it is dosed in small portions, so it doesn't get in the way of the actual gameplay, basically you get 0-3 short intermezzo between each run. These can be story moments or reflections on the events of the last run. You can help a lot of strangers, creating wholesome scenes. The biggest letdown for me was the graphics. I admit, I usually don't love 'retro' pixel graphics (maybe because I grew up in the pixel era), but it suits some games. This is not one of them. To be honest it really feels like the game was supposed to use hand-drawn graphics, but it wasn't good enough in the end of the development, and somebody in the dev team had an idea to pixelise it since 'people love that'. It adds nothing, but causes eye fatigue during the fast paced runs were you concentrate on enemies and loot. The game have some annoying bugs. E.g. 3 times I played with Mark and the targeting went wrong and I couldn't hit anything after that.

In this action RPG, you play as a Character of the Bergson family to fight against the corruption that spread around the environment of mount Morta. Every playable character has its own skill set and fighting style. Together with the randomly created Dungeon-Sets, it exudes a bit of Diablo II flair. One little flaw is, that the different areas at one level are looking too similar.

Storyline is pretty lame but the gameplay/mechanics are frickin sweet and the art/graphics are unique and beautiful.

The game controls are responsive and forgiving; must haves for any ARPG. The different family members have their own style of fighting and this gives the game some replay value. Which is a good thing, as it is a rather short adventure. I found the story, while simple, to be compelling. You do come to care for the family and the individual characters, eventually coming to understand their own personal motivations. Good gravy to pour atop an enjoyable stew of an adventure. Fans of pixel graphic ARPGs will get their money's worth here.