Family affair
You might remember Patrick covering Children of Morta just over a year ago. He previewed the “narrative-driven” hack-and-slash game about a family of guardians fending off the spread of monsters and corruption to their mountain, noting it had “all the ingredients to be the next great roguelike.”
Patrick put Children of Morta up there with the likes of “Spelunky, Binding of Isaac, Rogue Legacy, Crypt of the NecroDancer, and more recently, Enter the Gungeon.” After spending time with the game and its narrative designer Jakobsen Beck at PAX, I’m inclined to agree. It’s shaping up well.
I love the general idea of having a family of playable characters, as well as Dead Mage Studios’ specific execution. It’s tricky to get a real sense of the writing on a convention showfloor, but I saw nuggets here and there, and the expressive character designs and animation really sell the theme.
More importantly (and the bigger question mark for me, going in) was how it all handles. Children of Morta has a generous roll dodge. The hacking and slashing pack a nice wallop. Spells look badass. (Or at least they do when you know what you’re doing; Beck and I faced a boss together and I think I said, over its corpse, something to the effect of “No way in hell I would’ve cleared that alone!”) In other words, it feels pretty good. If the roguelike aspects and narrative come together, it’ll be a memorable adventure.
To make a short story even shorter: all those things Patrick said about Children of Morta last year? He’s right! Even now, the game is still a ways off with a targeted “early 2018” launch on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, but it has shot up my list. Also, co-op with online support? Thank you!
