These days I find it rare that I don’t know about a game, sure I might not be an expert at every game around, but I generally have heard of most games. It is a byproduct of doing what I do, so when the offer came in to go hands on with Morbid Metal, I was honestly stuck, because I had no recollection of the game. It was only announced a month and change back, but still not knowing anything was a surprise, which only meant that going into the game, I was completely unprepared for anything I would see and I count that as a win.

Morbid Metal is a rouge-lite game, where players take control of Ekku, at least at the start the game and your objective is simple, out run Death. If I had to condense things down into a 60 second pitch, I would say take the speed of Ghostrunner, blend together the vibes of Cyberpunk 2077 mixed with the world of Shadow Warrior 3, then combine with a dash of Hades. Now if all that sounds vastly confusing, you are right, which is why it is great to play the game, because it just works. Something the game was very keen to point out early was that you can dodge at any time, even if you are mid-attack. Now dodging in a game is nothing new but being able to stop your attack to get away from an enemy, that is less common. I went in to my first big fight thinking it was going to be hyperbole, but nope, at the press of a button you can get away from any attack. This turned out to be very useful later on when some much large enemies spawned in.

Speaking of those larger enemies, they proved to be a fun challenge because they often spawned in with giant shields, which can be destroyed, but it takes time. Dashing around behind them, or using a special ability are some of the options, if you don’t want to waste time. What was great about the game, was that it let me try things and it didn’t try to force me to play just one way. This was elevated when I was starting to earn upgrades, like giving me more attack power or extra attacks before a recharge was needed. The first run through, I opted for more of a combat focus, so more damage and such, but the second time I tried to balance things out and I got punished for it. To be fair, it was not the game that punishing me, but rather I failed to adapt my playstyle to match the more methodical approach I was selecting for myself.

While I played as Ekku the most, once I unlocked the other character, Flux, I gave them a go and it was a nice change, but I prefer Ekku. The games procedural generation meant that even after a few runs through, I was finding new paths to take and foe combinations to fight and I was enjoying it. Sadly though, after a good number of runs, I did grow bored of the same stuff, but that is ok, it was only a small slice of the larger game. Morbid Metal is a game that I went in knowing nothing about and came out wanting to know more. The action is fast paced and if the two unknown characters are as fun as Ekku or Flux, then it could be something special. Of course, I can’t wait to see how they fall into the combat as well, given you can swap between them at will. There is a while to wait for the full game release, but it will launch into early access soon and a demo is out now.