Review for Children of Morta. Game for Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 03/09/2019 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 15/10/2019 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 15/10/2019 The version for Xbox One came out on 15/10/2019
September was a month full of releases of famous titles but also of indie titles of a certain depth, as in the case of Children of Morta. Already available on PC and soon also on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the title developed by Dead Mage and published by 11 bit studios is configured as a Hack and Slash / Story Driven characterized by some original elements that go well with a pixelated graphics and a retro taste.
Monte Morta is a place with a millenary flavor, where a family has been in charge of its protection and custody since time immemorial: the Bergsons. However, the tranquility and daily life of the mountain is shaken and slowly destroyed by a rampant corruption that grips the land of Rea and its protective spirit.
Members of the Bergson family are called to fulfill their destiny by fighting and sacrificing themselves to restore peace on the place they have always defended, looking for a way to free Rea from the yoke that holds her in chains. Starting from the head of the family John, up to his youngest children, we will face an epic story in which heroic deeds are intertwined with family vicissitudes, challenges and sacrifices aimed at fulfilling the destiny of each member of the Bergson to save their homeland.
Hack and Slash, Roguelike or Action RPG? Children of Morta draws on each of these genres creating a successful mix in which storytelling, exploration and action come together to recreate always a different and satisfying gaming experience, but in what way? At the beginning of the game, the player will not be given the opportunity to choose a class or customize their alter ego but will be guided in learning the rudiments of the game using immediately John, a classic warrior equipped with a shield and sword, while discovering what is happening. on the mountain.
However as we begin to venture into the three zones that make up the game, each of them featuring three regions that will always end up taking us to a final boss, we will go to discover the past of the Bergsons and automatically unlock new playable characters, that is, the sons of John. Losing your life during a dungeon raid will not make us say goodbye to a character definitively, but it will simply be carried back to the Bergson Mansion where the progress of the story will not necessarily follow the success, or the failure, of our actions. As we progress with the story and unlock new children of Mount Morta, we will expand and embellish our range of choice (there will be all six characters) with typical hack and slash classes such as wizard, barbarian, archer and so on masked in a skilful way with the peculiarities and skills mastered by each member of the family.
Each area that we are going to explore will represent a different dungeon, within which we can discover secondary quests, find objects, free NPCs in difficulty and add pieces to the history of the Bergson family thanks to the diaries scattered in various locations. An important feature of Children of Morta concerns the growth tree of their characters who, upon level advancement, will be able to unlock or improve some peculiar skills but not only, it will in fact be possible to increase the strength of the entire family even thanks to the progress by only one of its members.
The learning curve is well balanced in Dead Mage's work and will allow you to easily master basic attacks and special abilities unlockable in each character or donated by equipped runes. These artifacts, which are not permanent and can be acquired for each exploration session, will be essential for the success of our raids. Here, however, chance and luck will dominate as, as for the maps, the drop of the various objects will be completely random. The only alternative to having the ability to manually obtain some artifacts will be to complete sub-quests capable of unlocking merchants who will position themselves in the safe zones located at the end of each dungeon, near the passage that leads to the next level or the boss on duty.
One thing is certain, death will be a constant in Children of Morta, as the difficulty level is undoubtedly medium-high and will punish each mistake and failure to calculate the risk by the player. For this reason it will be good to study an attack strategy when we go to face the various hordes of enemies in the various dungeons, among which particularly difficult antagonists will nestle, with a sort of rarity, which will reward the player with the release of greater quantities of money or runes.
The currency will be very important to advance the whole family thanks to the unlocking of purchasable modifiers between one dungeon and another. This possibility will be peculiar only when we find the Bergsons' residence. Guided by the narrator, in addition to discovering pieces of their history and seeing our characters progress, we will have the opportunity to consult the library and take a trip to the workshop of Uncle Ben, a skilled gunsmith, and in the laboratory of grandmother Margaret, alchemist of the highest level .
The frequent mortality, combined with a really effective and immediate gameplay, will guarantee many hours of fun and little monotony thanks to the random generation of the various dungeons. The cooperative mode up to two players will increase the already good longevity, currently exclusively locally (but apparently Dead Mage is working on the online component that will be released via a free update), certainly making certain sorties in the various game areas of Children of Morta more fun and less difficult.
A good soundtrack accompanies the aforementioned pixelated and retro graphics which, perfect for the genre and moved by a convincing fluidity, presents a right compromise between sprites and animations that well cover the atavistic choice of using a basic graphic style devoid of details .
Children of Morta convinced us thanks to an immediate gameplay, a pleasantly difficult but rewarding challenge and an interesting and original storytelling. Despite the small number of areas in which to venture, Dead Mage has been able to expertly mix genres by now well-tried by inserting elements of originality that will give the player many hours of fun also thanks to a high basic difficulty. The retro graphics go well with the title and the good animations soon make you forget the lack of detail typical of this visual style. In conclusion, we can only be satisfied with the title and confirm that the sons of Morta have managed to carve out a niche in the vast indie landscape and in the hack and slash genre.
► Children of Morta is an Adventure-indie-RPG game developed by Dead Mage and published by 11 bit studios for Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 03/09/2019 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 15/10/2019 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 15/10/2019 The version for Xbox One came out on 15/10/2019
