Morbid: The Seven Acolytes Review

A dark and arduous blood-soaked adventure awaits anyone brave enough to step into the world of Morbid: The Seven Acolytes, developed by Still Running and published by Merge Games. The game bills itself as a “horrorpunk action RPG filled with Lovecraftian horrors and Cronenbergian gore”. And gory it is. The gameplay is heavily influenced by From Software’s critically acclaimed action RPGs. It could easily be described as Souls-like (which should be an official genre just like rogue-like, and rogue-lite) even though it takes slightly more inspiration from Bloodborne, and makes use of a top-down view with what looks like 16-bit pixel graphics. Many games have tried to imitate and innovate on From Software’s formula, with many failing the latter part. Still Running has taken on a tall task; obviously they have good taste in games, but how is their iteration, can it stand on its own? Or will it be thrown into the pile of unworthy clones?

The story in Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is as complex, and rewarding as the player would like. You play as the last surviving Striver of Debrom – this is the final chance to redeem the land of Mornia and free it from the God-like Gahars. You have trained since birth to accomplish your task of defeating the seven acolytes which are connected to the seven deities. The Gahars cannot survive without their hosts and you plan on exploiting this. Very few story elements are revealed during the actual gameplay; though some NPC’s give you small morsels of information, the bulk of the story comes from reading entries in the aptly named Morbid Menagerie, accessible from the shrines’ menu (Shrines function similarly to the bonfire in the Souls games, you can heal and level up, but also learn about the game world and its inhabitants).

Entries are unlocked for every new weapon, consumable, etc. you pick up as well as unlocking after you’ve slain a new enemy. Each entry includes a picture so you can marvel at the disgustingly beautiful character design. The developers wanted to base the locations in the game on real world locations. Some of the first areas, like the Coast of Solya and the Caverns of Solitude, are inspired by rocky, bleak Nordic shores, but the Lovecraftian influence is very much apparent. The Fishing Hamlet and its fishlike inhabitants (cursed sailors, fish shamen) are a direct inspiration/reference to the titular town in The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Grimwold’s Grove and the neighboring village of Aer’abun, seem as if they could be alternate pixelated versions of the locations in The Dunwich Horror. There’s a cult of cannibals in the maze-like Grove level as well as a huge beast that could easily contend with the monster from Lovecraft’s story. There’s many more references that any Lovecraft fan will enjoy discovering on their own.

There is a lot of text to read through in the Menagerie, it’s optional but rewarding. If you read the lore you’ll start spotting stuff in the levels that broadens the game’s overall enjoyment. One example of this is the flavor text for the creatures in the first area, as well as the first acolyte Lorn the Blind, the Lord of Loneliness. Lorn used to be a Striver, and as punishment for opposing her Dol’gahar goddess of sadness blinded him, then tricked him into becoming her acolyte. Lorn removes the eyes of anyone who crosses his path. When you read the Fish Shamen text you’ll learn that they made everyone and everything in the hamlet remove their eyes to show their devotion to Lorn. If you look you’ll notice that all the inhabitants of the first areas are missing their eyes. It’s also interesting to just read about the grossly fascinating flora and fauna of the world and how they became what they are. There are ground spores scattered throughout each level and you can learn that they are an invasive parasitic organism, which have the ability to reanimate corpses. By reading other flavor texts you can discover which enemies were created this way. You can also discover that the ravenous crows became flesh eating because the only food source was the ground spores, causing them to grow much larger and more violent than a regular crow. 

There’s roughly a dozen areas to explore. Some are sort of small and lead to an encounter with one of the seven Acolyte bosses. Others are huge, like Grimwald’s grove and the Gardens of Mornia. Grimwold’s grove feels like a maze and, like a maze, you are easily lost. At first this adds to the tension and exploration elements of the gameplay, but after you inevitably die at some point and want to navigate back to where you were it becomes somewhat frustrating. This is compounded by the fact that your character moves sort of slowly. You can run but it depletes your stamina bar, preventing you from running non-stop.

In a three-dimensional game you can usually see landmarks in the distance to help guide you, but this is obviously not possible when the game has a top-down view. A map would have been nice, or at least an overworld map giving a rough idea of where each area is connected. About halfway through the game I was having a hard time figuring out how to progress. The game does feature a fast travel system which is accessed at the Shrines, but the travel points are limited. The huge levels I described have two each on either side, and the second ones aren’t available until you exit the level on that side making them almost useless.

Pretty much all of the basic Soulsborne action RPG mechanics are present: there’s the health bar and the stamina bar (which depletes when running and melee attacking, and regenerates when not being used). You have a basic melee attack (X), a slower more powerful attack (B), running (hold A), dodge roll (tap A) which gives you more than a few generous frames of invincibility, a block (LB) which can become a parry if timed correctly allowing you to follow with an extra powerful attack. You also have a few mechanics that are somewhat different or new. You have a sanity meter that depletes when you are hit by certain attacks. If you let the meter get too low your HUD becomes partly obscured, and more interestingly after you kill certain enemies a black and purple ghost version rises from their carcass and you must defeat that as well. There are firearms that are shot by pressing the Right trigger and aimed with the right stick. These function as a regular attack and most enemies aren’t stunned by them, the large undead hog beast is the one exception I found. They were one of the tougher enemies because they charge at you, but the charge can be stopped with a well aimed shot.

Left trigger activates what might be the most useful and OP mechanic- Sneaking. When sneaking your attacks do more damage, and you can sneak right past enemies you don’t want to fight, you don’t need to be in tall grass or behind something, you can sneak past most enemies right in the open. It seems like different enemies have varying degrees of awareness. Most of the aforementioned eyeless enemies in the first areas are easy to get past. A helpful tip I learned from a dev stream is that when using the crossbow you can distract an enemy to the landing spot of the bolt letting you sneak past more perceptive enemies.

Up to three consumables can be mapped to the D-pad from your inventory screen (which is real time so be careful because you can still be attacked). Down on the D-pad is reserved for your stone of Dibrom which functions exactly like an Estus flask – healing part of your health – and can be recharged by meditating at a shrine. Extra stones can be found scattered throughout the world which add to the number of times you can use the stone before needing to recharge. The consumables range from the regular health or sanity regeneration like the descriptively named disgusting gruel or calming capsule respectively, to more risky ones that have both a positive and negative effect. Using a limb (yes a limb, represented by a leg) you gain attack speed but lose all sanity, which seems appropriate for eating a human limb. Another example is the rusty oxygen tank which increases your stamina regeneration speed but drains your health; by reading its flavor text you learn that this is because you are likely inhaling rust as well as other impurities.

There are also buff-shrooms which add elemental (lightning, fire, ice) and bonus damage properties (bleed, poison) to the weapons for forty-five seconds. There’s also health draining and sanity draining mushrooms that replenish either stat once an enemy is killed by the imbued weapon. My favorite consumable has to be the broccoli which negates all stamina consumption for a brief period and is a reference to Still Running’s earlier game The Walking Vegetables. One aspect that requires a bit of planning is the limited inventory system, which is tile based. You will acquire a lot of weapons and items that take up differing amounts of space (consumables all take one tile, weapons, anywhere from one to six). You have to decide what you want to keep and what you will leave behind.

The combat is relatively basic, but there can be some tense moments when you encounter a new enemy and must learn their moves, and the best way or direction to attack them. Some of the bigger enemies can be tough at first but they usually have attack patterns that are triggered depending on where you are, so take advantage of that. The bosses provide the most entertainment and challenge, but they too can be overcome with a little planning and experimentation. Overall the combat method I found myself using was pretty much sneak and attack, then attack roll attack roll. I would have liked to see a little more variety.

There are a wide range of melee weapons divided into five categories: swords, axes, spears, maces, and first-weapons. They come in various sizes and have differing attack speeds and animations. Some even have extra attacks, like the storm cleaver axe which creates an enemy damaging lightning bolt every time you use the strong attack. By hovering over the weapon in the item screen you can see its stats. Some have extra properties like those that can be added by the buff-shrooms, including the health and sanity drain. However a few of them will drain your sanity when used.

There are three types of firearms: pistols/rifles, shotguns, and crossbows. Most are pretty basic, but some are a little more interesting like the double crossbow which fires two bolts. I found the regular guns/rifles to be the most effective; the shots pierce so multiple enemies can be hit. The shotguns have a very short range, and the crossbows are ineffective at close range. Each weapon also has one or more rune slots similar to materia slots from Final Fantasy VII. You can earn runes by defeating enemies or can find them in chests or loot piles. They have the same properties as the buffshrooms, but come in varying strengths from 5,10,15, and 20%. Once you insert the rune into the weapon the weapon has that buff permanently. If you want to remove the runes you can use a rune remover but the runes will be destroyed. Adding powerful runes to your favorite weapons will make slaying the seven Acolytes much easier. The game could have done a better job pointing out which enemies are weak to which property, it’s pretty much up to you to experiment.

You gain experience by killing enemies, gaining a point each time you level up. This has no effect until you spend the points leveling up your blessings which can be equipped and leveled at the shrine. Each has a different bonus, from increasing your health bar, to increasing your sneak attack damage. The blessings are earned by breaking statues throughout the world, some of which are hidden. Each one can be leveled five times.

The game features fantastic pixel art that evokes both feelings of dread because of the gore, as well as wonder, making you want to explore further and further into the world of Mornia to see how the next environment will look. If you’re at all squeamish this might not be the game for you –  there’s blood and guts, carcasses and cadavers all over the place. What I initially thought were apple baskets actually turned out to be baskets of entrails, when you break them with your weapon pools of blood splatter across the ground. The artists make the most of each pixel and even though it’s pixel art you get a sense of the horrors that lurk throughout the game world from the details of the environment and the design of the enemies. I found myself browsing through the Morbid Menagerie admiring the art of the characters more than a few times.

The game features a dynamic soundtrack that sounds like a spectral orchestra that resides in a long forgotten, abandoned and decrepit church. It’s eerie yet enchanting. Each area has its own track as well as each boss. The soundtrack is dynamic in the fact that the music grows more dramatic if your health is low making the game feel more tense, and at the same time providing you with an audio indication that maybe you should heal. Fortunately however when you die there’s no penalty, you don’t lose anything except time. The sound effects are spot on, not ultra realistic but they fit well in the pixelated world. The clash created when you trigger a perfect parry is particularly satisfying.

Overall the game provided me a substantive challenge, taking roughly 12 hours to beat. I missed one of the blessing statues (that I do plan on going back to find) but I don’t think I will do another full playthrough. There are a lot of weapons I didn’t use and it could be interesting to try them out with different runes but there’s just so many other games to play. Some more skilled players will no doubt have an easier time playing, and some of those will certainly be able to challenge themselves with restrictions on their playthrough. I could see a no blessing run being attempted, or limiting yourself to one type of weapon, or a no runes on weapons playthrough. I’ve already watched a video of an expert player beating all the bosses without being hit, so there’s definitely some replayability here.

Conclusion

When you emulate some of the greatest games ever made it can be hard to stack up. Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is a decent game, its gruesome theme and vast lore that really bring the world to life. There’s a large variety of enemies but the combat is somewhat shallow. Exploring new environments is enjoyable, but trying to traverse them quickly can get tiresome due to the slow walking speed. If you enjoy the Soulsborne games, are a Lovecraft fan, or take pleasure in beating up on strange grotesque pixel art monsters, then Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is worth a look.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.