Morbid: Lords of Ire Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Four years ago I reviewed Morbid: The Seven Acolytes, a really enjoyable and challenging top-down Souls-like that contained some fantastic eldritch creature designs and an interesting range of combat approaches. Fast forward to today and I’ve now finished playing the Lords of Ire, a somewhat surprising sequel that shifts the perspective to a more traditional third person one. Given my positive experience with the first game I expected this one to have plenty of ideas of its own to warrant looking past the uncanny similarities with FromSoft’s output but was this the case?

While changing the aesthetic so drastically could be a risky strategy the core designs are relatively faithful to the Lovecraftian nightmares of the original game. Given the smaller budget and resources of the developers the game holds up pretty well graphically too. The returning heroine, The Striver, makes for an imposing presence whilst NPCs are grotesque and memorable. A regular pattern of finding these in levels before they return to your hub makes for nice gradual progression with the first managing to make it back despite having had their legs and face chewed off by evil creatures. Sound design is solid too with attacks having a decent weight to them and atmospheric effects really setting the scene. Voice acting and music are good too.

The storyline and lore here is pitched somewhere between a continuation and a reboot of the original game. Once again you are a mysterious solitary warrior who must go forth and slay a series of monstrous acolytes to free the land from their tyranny. Rather than a fully continuous world the action takes place in a series of self contained zones that are accessed via the hub once unlocked. This feels very FromSoft and is a proven approach. Areas benefit from some well designed shortcuts and there are many threats and traps littered around the environment that will prove lethal to the unsuspecting adventurer. Each area has a very distinct design – in fact sometimes