Morbid Metal, the preview of a rogue-like action inspired by DMC, Nier and Metal Gear Rising
Morbid Metal
Devil May Cry, Nier Automata, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance and of course the entire rogue-like / lite landscape; these are the sources of inspiration for a new action game very interesting for lovers of hack 'n' slash fighting: Morbid Metal.They are names of a certain weight, we know, but the premises are there have intrigued and a recent presentation of the gameplay has highlighted that Felix Schade, the only developer, has clear ideas about what he wants to propose.
Let's go straight to the point and see the details in this preview of Morbid Metal.
Rogue-style
One of the characters of Morbid Metal Let's start from the basics. What exactly is Morbid Metal? An action game with a rogue-like structure. This means that with each game you start a new adventure within levels made up of prepackaged rooms, but arranged in random order.In the event of death, as is typical for the genre, you lose everything you it has been obtained, or almost. In fact, Morbid Metal opts for a modern solution that is more "lite" than "like", as far as the rogue genre is concerned. This means that it will be possible to unlock a series of additional content. Schade, during the presentation of the gameplay, however, explained that it is his will to make the unlocking of permanent upgrades an interesting activity: from his point of view, it is not enough to unlock some bonus to damage or to life, but you must be able to unlock new content that change the way you play. In other words, one of the player's main goals will be to unlock new characters.
In Mordid Metal, in fact, the focus is on the presence of several characters, which the player can take with him during each journey, composing a team of up to 4 warriors. You can only control one at a time, but with the simple press of a button it will be possible to change from one to the other, so as to take advantage of its unique capabilities. Furthermore, it will be important to change character in a reasoned way not only according to the enemy and according to the situation, but it will be important to learn to change characters during a combo, so as to merge very different moves in a single sequence of attacks and get the most out of it. from every fight.
As for the characters, for the moment we have had the opportunity to see three different classes in action. One uses a katana for quick attacks, the second uses some sort of ax for slower but powerful blows that are easily able to stun enemies, while the third prefers ranged attacks, but mostly focuses on repositioning enemies using a bomb. gravitational or pulling them towards the player. Switching from one class to another makes it possible, for example, to block enemies with a bomb, load a heavy blow with the ax and finish the combo of an enemy thrown into the air with quick blows of the katana.
As mentioned at the beginning, the source of inspiration is Devil May Cry and the long line of "stylish" action games that focus not only on winning, but also and above all on the execution of varied and spectacular combos. Certainly, on a visual level the premises are positive, with neon effects that emphasize the shots of our character and opponents. The creatures in the game are for now somewhat generic, robotic beings of plastic and metal. Even the environments for now have not shone for uniqueness. However, we believe it is still too much to give a true judgment, since the game does not yet have a release date and since we have only been able to see one area.
Characters and fights
A slow-mo moment of a Morbid Metal fight Going into more detail, Schade explained that each character will have two active abilities, which will allow them to fight in various ways. More important, however, is the special ability of each warrior, which allows them to do a lot of damage. This, to be activated, requires a segment of a dedicated bar, which must be charged by defeating enemies and performing long and varied combos.Morbid Metal therefore encourages the player to use their characters in the most effective way, combining them in the midst of combos, rewarding with special attacks that make it easier to achieve victory. This is an excellent design choice in our opinion.
Furthermore, in the gameplay video shown, Schade explains that making the most of all the characters will be really important and gives a specific example: there is an armored enemy, which has a large shield, which many playtesters were struggling to defeat. Felix realized that those who fail tended to focus only on one character and were therefore unable to take down that enemy's defense.
Melee weapons can also attack from a distance in Morbid Metal In a nutshell , the game is designed to "force" the player to learn how to fight the way you have to fight. At the same time, however, the developer wants to avoid alienating less skilled players and therefore intends to insert more difficulty levels, so as to make Morbid Metal more accessible.
The presentation of the gameplay has then concluded with a long and complex bossfight. Assuming that this demo is still a preliminary version of the game and that we have no idea of the active difficulty level, we feel that the battle seemed a bit too long. The battle lasted many minutes, while normal clashes are often a matter of moments: the difference between the two phases seemed remarkable to us, so we will be curious in the future to be able to try the game firsthand and understand if the boss fights will often be a hard wall to overcome or not.
At the same time, we can say that the enemy seemed very interesting to us in terms of design. It was a kind of mechanical gorilla (which can fire its punches and create shockwaves of energy) with many attacks and moves. The fight is also divided into phases, with sections during which the creature exits the arena and targets hits from a distance; we can do the same and then make him fall to the ground and have a window to perform various attacks. If what we have seen is the minimum quality of the game, Morbid Metal could hold very interesting fights.
Finally, Felix Schade also explains that Morbid Metal includes a lore of some kind. In his opinion it is important that the game has a context and that the player is motivated to find out more about what is happening. Bosses, for example, will be tied to lore. Unfortunately it is too early to know more, but even in this case we declare ourselves curious about what the author could offer.
Morbid Metal already looks like a fast action game, adrenaline and with some interesting ideas at the base, such as the management of multiple characters, easily interchangeable and able to merge their moves into a single combo. The rogue-lite structure can do a lot of good for the game, but of course it will depend on the quality of the individual components. For now we are far from the exit and we have only seen some hints. The first impressions are positive: we hope that the author, who we remember is working alone, is able to give life to all his ideas and to create a quality game.
