Morbid: The Seven Acolytes Review
Release Date: December 3rd, 2020
Developers: Still Running
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch (Reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Price: $24.99
Since Dark Souls took the world by storm, it's sparked an entire new genre where heavy combat mixed with extreme challenges in the form of gargantuan enemies and bosses that dealt immense damage and required players to truly focus and strategize, putting more emphasis on patience, skill, and determination rather than button-mashing away in quick, fail-proof fights where thousands of enemies would swarm a screen at once. While we've seen a lot imitate the From Software titles in a less than satisfactory fashion, the genre has few that really stand out and not only put a twist to it but try to innovate further through their art direction and gameplay. Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is undoubtedly a new entry within the genre that does a lot of things different while feeling both familiar to veterans of the genre and accessible to new players, and provides a genuine level of fun that doesn't aim to punish the player without perfectly good reason. It has flexibility and some charm to it, even though areas of it lack in polish, and overall is a solid adventure that, while monotone, makes for a somewhat addictive experience on Nintendo Switch.
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes clearly takes pride in its gothic and Lovecraftian art direction as you'll see plenty of dark tones, gothic and medieval architecture, as well as a slew of enemies that come in a variety of bones and amphibious body structures throughout your playthrough. After being tasked to slay the seven acolytes, you'll be going from dungeon to dungeon, domain to domain, and village to village hunting down monsters in a bloodbath of combat that involves a fair amount of dodging, swinging, and shooting. One of my biggest complaints when it comes to the Souls-like experience is that the slow speeds already make it hard for me to pick it up, but add that on top of the fact that stamina becomes such a huge factor, it can become a hindrance more so than a mechanic that makes you appreciate it's there, but thankfully Morbid: The Seven Acolytes - while I would run out of stamina often - never felt punishing in this regard and felt reasonable. In a lot of cases within the genre, the stamina bar becomes the worst enemy of all, and almost feels pointless as no amount of upgrades can keep you doing more than two heavy attacks and a dodge at any given moment before having to take a breather so you can attack again, but Morbid actually allows you to have fun in its combat switching seamlessly between melee and ranged weapons with the click of a button, allowing for quick responses and a stamina bar that works with you rather than against you. The stamina bar here actually has a purpose and never feels like it's stopping me from doing anything outside of walking, and instead serves as a reminder to "take it easy" if you're shining too much, especially since stamina consumption can vary from action to action. One of the most important to me was running, as Souls games already feel like as if you're dragging an 18-wheeler and any sprint action lasts three seconds at most, so I was delighted to be able to run a fair amount and not feel punished for doing so. Stamina consumption for the most part feels fair in Morbid: The Seven Acolytes, and it was because of this that finally, for once, I was able to enjoy the combat and what was happening on screen without having to constantly look at my stamina, worrying more about that than my health.
Speaking of health, damage distribution between you and enemies also feels well-balanced for the most part. Certain visual and audio cues as well as enemy design let you know when you're going to get hit hard and you're better off running away and/or dodging rather than trying to spam light attacks to take as much health away as possible from them even if you have potion to rely on. Obviously with RPG elements, while there aren't any direct level gains in the traditional sense, your equipment will become stronger over time as you find more through chests and equip your accoutrements with various runes, which provide passives and buffs. These runes can be inserted into empty slots on various weapons and are immensely useful in upgrading while also providing elemental advantages that may prove to be worthwhile against certain foes. Elements like electricity and fire can be added as a damage bonus to both your firearms and melee weapons, as well as various stat boosts. Some are permanent while others are temporary, though they're always great to use regardless, even if you're mindlessly attaching them to your weapons, it's still better than having none equipped at all. As these sit in your inventory, they'll be accompanied by just about anything you pick up throughout your playthrough all in a one-screen menu, and while one would think it would become cluttered, it really doesn't if you're willing to move around items as you please and sort them as needed, though one of the bigger annoyances comes to the multiple sizes each item will have. The inventory management and window reminded me much of some Resident Evil titles where you'd have a block system, with larger items obviously taking up more slots, though unlike Resident Evil, unfortunately things are set as is and all you can do is move them around to make it fit with absolutely no way to rotate items in your inventory. This makes it so larger weapons that take up two or more slots have to be set up vertically when I'd prefer them to be horizontal to make room below, so instead the inventory can sometimes take a bit of Tetris work and unfortunate sacrifices to items you rather not give up just so you're able to properly place others. It's a system I'd gladly take over any sort of weight limits, however, and it never became much of a nuisance for me, as you can also attach some of the items to a quick access bar attached to your D-Pad. This is immensely useful for things like health potions and damage buffs as your immediate access to them can literally be a choice between life or death in a lot of situations. It's not as simple as opening up the menu and doing it there as the world doesn't pause and instead just overlays the screen, with no chance to move either, so always make sure you're in a safe spot when doing something in the inventory.
During my plethora of hours with the game by the end, it was no question that Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is a fantastic retro approach to the Souls-like experience that is best enjoyed in short bursts rather than long gameplay sessions as the heaviness and slowness innate with the genre can feel exhausting, but it's because of this that it makes it almost addicting as you do a little bit here and a little bit there. As someone who's not the biggest fan of the genre, it's refreshing to be able to still have a challenge without feeling like the game is designed to be punishing for the sake of doing so instead of relying on any actual enhancement of skills and resources. Dying can still feel like an inconvenience but isn't unnecessarily grueling and becomes a learning experience as you thankfully keep your experience, though levels are reset and monsters respawn in their usual locations. Morbid: The Seven Acolytes isn't just one of the better experiences I've had within the genre, but one of the most enjoyable as well. The gameplay is tune, balanced, and solid, and the aesthetic is wonderful even if it does tend to bore after quite some time, but a nice experience like this with a solid performance and no hiccups on the Switch makes it a must-play for the Souls enthusiast. For those looking to get into the genre or find one that's on the more accessible side of things, Morbid: The Seven Acolytes also serves as a great entry point, and for a game with no difficulty setting, it was surprisingly well balanced to accommodate for many playstyles and experiences.
PROS:
The art direction is fantastic
Controls are mostly intuitive and feels good to play
A wide variety of enemies keep location to location feeling mostly distinct despite the lack of colors
CONS:
While mostly at the fault of the gothic architecture, the game can be super dark.
Hitboxes are kind of all over the place
A huge appreciation to Merge Games for providing us with a copy of Morbid: The Seven Acolytes for the purposes of this review!