Children of Morta | Xbox One Review

November 18, 2019 Scott Clark

I’ve become somewhat of the “roguelike guy” on our team. Games like Moonlighter, Rogue Legacy, and Dead Cells scratch a certain itch with me in a way other genres don’t offer. Children of Morta released on PC in September, and I was eagerly anticipating its console release. Now that it’s finally here, I’m happy to report that I’ve found my 2019 roguelike obsession. Not only is the gameplay incredibly addictive, but Dead Mage succeeded in adding something sorely needed in the genre: quality storytelling.

All in the Family

You play as multiple members of the Bergson’s, “an extraordinary family of heroes” determined to rid their land of corruption. The main story may not seem like an original idea, but the journey is what makes this title a delight to play. The characters are pixelated and have absolutely no voice acting, yet the animation and narration bring life to the family in beautiful fashion. Each member has a distinct personality the bleeds through the brief cut scenes, and even in their gameplay.

As much as I love roguelikes, their stories have been sparse at best. It’s difficult to construct a quality narrative when your gameplay mechanic is cyclical in nature. Children of Morta manages to do the seemingly impossible, however, by incorporating instances within its procedurally-generated dungeons. As your selected character explores, he or she might discover new members of the Bergson family, or small story beats. These moments peel back the layers of the world of Morta and break up the repetitive gameplay to keep it fresh and interesting. It’s a method of storytelling that I imagine developers of future rogues will mimic, and for good reason.

Crawl With Me

On the surface, Children of Morta‘s gameplay looks like your standard dungeon crawler., but the depth of mechanics is surprisingly deep. To begin, there are multiple characters from which to choose. Each Bergson has their own style that is distinctly unique, and plays completely different from the rest. Your starter character is sword/shield focused, while your second relies entirely on ranged attacks. You’ll even come across another family member that fights with his bare hands. But the attack methods aren’t the only differences. Each character moves at his or her own unique speed, has different stamina levels, and varied dash abilities. It’s impressive how fresh it feels to play with each family member on subsequent runs.

On top of the core mechanics, each character also has his or her own unique skill tree. Again, this isn’t a new concept, but it’s taken to another level here. As you level up one character, you’ll unlock family “traits” that affect all of the other characters as well. This incentivizes you to play with all members of the Bergson family equally to make each run more and more successful. I particularly appreciated this aspect of the game. My least favorite character soon became my favorite, because I was coerced into working outside of my comfort zone. This has become one of my favorite aspects of any video game, and it works incredibly well here.

Beauty Out of Simplicity

As mentioned above, the art style in heavily pixelated. This may be a turn-off for some players, but I found it completely charming. The low framerate animations give the characters life in a way rarely seen in games of this kind. The environments have a beautifully artistic flair that complement the tone of the game. It’s truly something that needs to be experienced.

The key to Children of Morta‘s beauty lies is the brilliant narration by Ed Kelly. Every time his voice starts to tell the Bergson’s story, I settle back in and drink every word. He has a craft that, much like the art style, fits perfectly with the tone the developers were going for.

Children of Morta Final Verdict

If you’ve ever been turned off by a roguelike because of the lack of a proper story, Children of Morta might be a good place for you to start with the genre. It’s beautiful, interesting, and the game I’m thinking about when I’m not in front of my console. It’s also one of the most difficult games for me to put down lately. The “one more run” mentality is strong with this one, and I can’t recommend it enough. I love this game so much, I’m kicking myself for not supporting it back when the developers were crowdfunding it. It’s that good, and it just keeps on giving.

This review is based on an Xbox One copy of Children of Morta provided by Evolve PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on PC, Switch, and PlayStation 4.